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Originally Posted by rob13572468
(e.g. If everyone builds their own solar electric charging stations and the sun shines 365 days a year and new cheap natural gas is found then you will actually make money every mile you drive your tesla  )
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With the Tesla roadster, the cost of the car is out of whack (2.5 times more cdostly than an Elise), but the cost of the fuel is not. Anyone who can afford a Tesla roadster can afford enough solar array to fuel it. What's more, using solar to power a Tesla for twenty years is cheaper right now than paying $4.00 a gallon to fuel a 25 MPG Elise. I used 20 years because that is the waranty period for solar panels. Their actual usable life is far longer.
Using solar to replace cheap grid power is not cost effective, but it has other social benefits like cleaner air and fewer mountains destroyed by coal mining.
Using solar to replace gasoline for mobility purposes is a win today, even without any tax breaks, on a fuel to fuel comparison. You don't need unrealistic assumptions about solar to make this work; the usual 4-5 hours effective peak sun per day numbers are real-world.
You don't have to charge the Tesla using the exact electrons that come off the solar array. Sell the solar power to the grid (at the time of day when power costs the most) and buy it back in the evening after you get home from work (when it is cheaper).