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Old 11-05-2016, 08:50 PM   #28 (permalink)
BigChief
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Boston, MA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by slime View Post
okay all ask....why?
I saved up enough to either buy a really nice RV, or buy a really nice car and put a camper on top of it. I live in the city with only street parking and drive out to campsites on the weekends, so this makes more sense logistically.

I've been driving an EV for years now (Smart Fortwo with some of my own ecomods like pizza-plate hubcaps) and once you have an EV you can't go back.

So I want to make the switch to the Tesla because of all the synergy with my camper idea. My Fortwo is super fun but is essentially a highway-legal go kart, I certainly can't tow anything with it. But a Tesla is heavy, powerful, very stable, auto-leveling suspension, battery 5 times more capacity/range than mine, and all current Teslas are being produced with autonomous driving cameras installed.

Picture this: my camper like I described is 20 feet long above the Tesla, which gives it enough space for around 2400 watts of solar cells (these only add about 20 pounds of weight if you encapsulate them in the same method like they make solar race cars). At 5 hours of sunlight in the day, that's 12kwh, after the inefficiencies of charging I might gain 10kwh per day back to the 90kwh battery. That means every day I'd get back 40 miles of range, or 20 miles of range and surplus energy to heat/cool the camper and run accessories. Now imagine in 5-10 years, the Teslas log enough miles for the government to feel comfortable legalizing autonomous driving. I could hop into the drivers seat, take a nap and take up in another city.

A self-driving road-trip without ever having to fuel or charge anywhere. I could park anywhere I want or drive to the middle of nowhere and make it home for a night or a week. Now that you've asked why, I'll ask "why not"?
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