Thursday, April 09, 2009

Living off the companies teet.



Last week Mr S. came home and in a somewhat excited tone said "hey - I noticed my company has an electric charging station now, and they had one of those Tesla electric cars parked there today".

Which made me super excited, and I forced him to get me into the company parking structure so I could take photos of the super cool Tesla Roadster plugged into a wall. Yes. You know how those types of things amuse me.

Well, first let me back up. I've seen those Teslas before, and I think they are anything but super cool. I find them to actually look very cheaply made. I mean for a car that costs a 100 grand or so. To me, they are on the scale of "kit" car quality. You know, those cars that are suppose to mimic some other more expensive exotic car. The website pictures make them look very nice though.

Anyway. The day I went - the Tesla wasn't there. This super meh Vespa was. Though it doesn't matter. My questions are the same.

Me - The company is just paying for you to plug the car in?

Him - Yeah.

Me -
What if two people need to plug in?

Him -
I don't know.

Me -
What if one guy just decides to be an ass and unplugs the other guy?

Him - Well, that would suck. Especially if my battery was low and I couldn't get home.

Me -
So.... what if everyone in your company was rich enough to buy an electric car. How does that work? Is the company still footing the bill? Are they going to have a million cords running from the wall to all these cars? (You can see a small converter brick on the ground)

I'm pretty sure it was at this point he wished he'd never said anything to me.

Now, we all know electricity falls from the sky. Except in California where they won't allow you to make a solar grid because it might harm some desert turtles. But, if that becomes popular on a large scale - it would annoy me that companies are footing the bill for this. That eats into profits.

Sure, it is a great company perk. Now. But, imagine if a large company said "I'm going to pay for your gas the entire time you work here". That company would go bankrupt.

And, imagine how much extra electricity you use by just having the car plugged in all day. Even when you don't need it. People leave their electronic vampires plugged in all the time. People aren't going to check on the car all the time to make sure they aren't using too much electricity.

I think you are getting how ridiculous I find the electrical car movement. So maybe I'll just stop here before I drive you insane.

2 comments:

  1. I have no joke here. I just like saying "electronic vampire".

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  2. I have no joke either - but it makes me laugh when you say it too.

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