Automakers who can't compete with Tesla hone the art of blowing smoke at buyers

The BMW i8 has been called "jaw dropping," but if you're a woman, don't try getting in or out of the plug-in hybrid in a skirt. MSRP starts at $147,700.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Olympics in Rio continue and so do all of those idiotic car ads.

As BMW struggles to build a car that can match the speed or 200-mile-plus range of a Tesla Model S, the German automaker tries to deceive consumers into settling for second-best gas-electric hybrids.

The i8 with "scissor doors" is the most advanced BMW ever built, the company's TV ad boasts.

Of course, it's also one of the noisiest. 

A car that uses gasoline isn't advanced at all. You'll still be poisoning the environment with almost every mile you drive.

You also can buy gas-electric hybrid sedans and SUVs from BMW. Big deal.

You want fancy-schmancy doors? Tesla's Model X has them and zero emissions, too. BMW, Audi, Mercedes and Porsche can't say that.

Tesla lowers prices

Meanwhile, Tesla now offers the purely electric Model S with a range of 210 miles from a 60kWh battery, starting at $66,000, a lower price than before.

The Model X SUV, which has falcon rear doors, starts at $74,000 with the 60kWh battery, a range of 200 miles and all-wheel drive.

You can buy his and her Teslas for the price of a single BMW i8.

And if you buy a Tesla, charging your car on the road is free for life, something no other automaker offers.

2016 Volt and Leaf expose how far auto giants have to go to compete with Tesla

Plugging in my Tesla Model S at home every night has become routine. I've programmed charging to start at 3 a.m., even though my New Jersey utility doesn't have lower, off-peak rates for residential customers like me. Solar panels on my roof mean charging the Model S costs me nothing.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The all-electric 2016 Nissan Leaf will offer two batteries yielding ranges of 84 miles and 107 miles.

The 2016 Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid comes with an Achilles heel as standard equipment: 

It still uses gasoline, fouling the air and aggravating climate change.

Major domestic and foreign automakers, especially the Germans, struggle to catch up more than three years after California-based Tesla Motors unveiled the Model S, a luxurious all-electric four-door hatchback with a range of 200-plus miles.

The next, best hope is Chevrolet's pure-electric Bolt concept, which is promised with a range of over 200 miles.

News reports say the Bolt will go into production in October 2016 with a price of $37,500.

The media haven't bothered asking, and GM officials haven't said, how the new all-electric car will be sold for only a couple of thousands dollar more than the upcoming 2016 Volt.

What were Ford and General Motors thinking when they produced the Excursion, above, and a land barge called Buick, below?

This soon-to-be Tesla owner wouldn't be caught dead in a luxury car from Germany

An all-electric Tesla Model S on display at the Time Warner Center in Manhattan.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Does any American really need a 155-mph luxury car?

More than 15 years after the introduction of gas-electric hybrids to the U.S., German car makers offer only a handful of green cars.

Their luxury car lines still are filled with gas-guzzling sedans and SUVs that merely aggravate air pollution and hasten climate change. 

Some, like the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, score low on reliability surveys.

Mindless media 

The automotive media are responsible for portraying German cars with hundreds of horsepower from dirty internal combustion engines as viable alternatives to Tesla Motors' revolutionary Model S and other all-electric vehicles.

For example, Car and Driver's blog interviewed Diamler Chairman Dieter Zetsche, who sports a walrus mustache (Diamler A.G. is the parent company of Mercedes-Benz).

One of the loaded questions was posed this way:

"And electric vehicles? Buyers seem unconvinced."

No one said you had to have brains to get a job at a car magazine or a blog like Gas2, which ran the interview recently.

Of course, "buyers" of electric vehicles must have been convinced or why would they have spent $30,000 to $70,000 and more for an all-electric car? 

Tesla Motors is selling about 50,000 Model S luxury hatchbacks annually from a single factory in California.

No ad revenue

The media's hostility toward Tesla might have something to do with the company's no-advertising policy. 

No ads mean no advertising revenue for struggling print and electronic media.

Elon Musk, the genius behind Tesla, didn't even bother showing his new model this week at the New York International Auto Show in Manhattan.

Model S 70D

This week, Tesla announced a new base model, the 70D, which costs $75,000 and has all-wheel drive and slightly more range, 240 miles v. 208 miles for the discontinued Model S 60.

The Associated Press story I saw in my morning paper reported the electric car maker "is going after mainstream luxury car buyers" with the new model.

The story didn't explain why the $70,000 Model S 60 -- which has a 380-horsepower electric motor and can go from zero to 60 mph in 5.9 seconds -- didn't compete against "mainstream" luxury cars.

The new 70D trims only .7 seconds off that 0-60 time, even though it has a motor with 124 more horsepower.

My Model S

I am scheduled to pick up my new Model S 60 next week.

I am sure it will be the best car I have ever owned, and with free updates from Tesla will remain fresh and more advanced than just about anything else on the road.

The only cars we've had for more than a decade are Toyota Prius hybrids, and we have more than 60 solar panels on the roof of our home.

The Model S 60 will be a perfect fit, especially in view of the limited driving I do as a senior.

German cars

In the last few years, I've worked part time for fleet-management companies in New Jersey that supply new cars to the media and VIPs.

I've driven just about every Mercedes, BMW, Audi and Porsche, occasionally as a chauffeur during Fashion Week or other special event.

Some of them have switches and controls that are so hopelessly complicated I had to consult the owner's manual to figure them out.

I couldn't wait to jump back into my 2010 Prius.

Tesla Model S owners are taking a break at new juice bar on Route 17 in Paramus

The new Tesla Motors Showroom and Service Center, above and below, are at 530 Route 17 north in Paramus, the shopping capitol of the Northeast, near Paramus Park Mall. 

The Tesla gallery at New Jersey's biggest mall, Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, will remain open.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Got juice?

For owners of all-electric cars, the availability of juice or electricity is the key to their extended mobility.

Now, Tesla Motors has opened a new showroom and service center on Route 17 in Paramus, where eight Superchargers are available 24 hours a day to Model S and Roadster owners.

A 20-minute charge adds 170 miles to your range, and a full charge takes an hour. 

The cost? It's free. There's no charge to recharge. Get it?

But the opening of the 20,000-square-foot building this month is also big news for prospective Tesla owners, because new cars will be delivered there.

Until the Paramus service center opened, new owners had to travel to Springfield Township, southwest of Newark, to pick up their cars.

Superchargers at the new Paramus service center are available 24 hours a day, unlike the two Superchargers at Garden State Plaza.

Inside the Route 17 showroom.

The entrance to the gallery at Garden State Plaza.

Far from a 'stripper'

The most affordable Model S is the 60, a reference to the size of the battery in kilowatt-hours -- a measure of energy -- but it has the same 380-horsepower electric motor and is mechanically similar to the more expensive 85.

The Model S 60 has an EPA-certified range of 208 miles, longer than I can go without stopping to go to the bathroom or grab a cup of coffee to keep me awake.

The Model S 60 has a base price of $69,900, and is eligible for a $7,500 federal tax credit that you apply for when you file your next return.

I've seen blogs and other accounts that claim the tax credit "reduces" the price of the car by $7,500, but that is just media hype and has no basis in reality.

In addition, New Jersey residents who buy a Model S don't have to pay the 7% sales tax.

There is a two- to three-month wait, if you custom order a Model S, which is made in California.

Roadster gets new life

On Friday, the day I visited the new Tesla showroom, Tesla announced a prototype 3.0 Roadster package that company officials say will extend the two-seater's range to 400 miles.

That's a 40% to 50% range improvement over the original Tesla Roadster, which came out in 2008, according to the Tesla blog.

The package includes a battery cell with more energy, an aero kit to reduce drag; and new tires and improved wheel bearings to reduce rolling resistance.

No price tag was announced, but Tesla was quick to note the 3.0 package "applies what we've learned in Model S ... and no new Model S battery pack or major range upgrade is expected in the near term."

Tesla Motors Showroom-Service Center, 530 Route 17 north, Paramus; 201-225-2544. Showroom open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; closed Sundays.

If you think a Tesla is 'expensive,' check out bloated MSRPs of luxury competitors

The MSRP of the all-electric Tesla Model S ranges from $69,900 to $104,500. Some competing luxury models from major automakers cost far more.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Consumer Reports gave the Tesla Model S its highest rating -- 99 out of 100 -- and a survey showed a higher percentage of owners say they would buy the all-electric luxury car again.

But writers and blogger never fail to point out a Tesla Model S is "expensive."

The MSRP of a Model S ranges from $69,900 for the 60, which has a range of 208 miles on a full charge, to $104,500 for the P85D, an all-wheel-drive performance model that may be the fastest production car in the world.

Is 208 miles enough? How many of you can drive that far without stopping to go to the bathroom?

Lexus and Mercedes

Compare that to the $120,440 Lexus is asking for its LS 600h L, a gas-electric hybrid with a long wheelbase and roomier back seat.

The Mercedes-Benz S-Class luxury sedans range from $94,400 for a V-8 powered S550 to an astronomical $222,000 for the S65 AMG model.

The "handcrafted" twin-turbo V-12 gasoline engine in the S65 propels it from 0-60 in 4.2 seconds -- a full second slower than the Tesla Model S P85D.

With the purchase of a Tesla Model S, you also get a $7,500 federal green-car tax credit not available to buyers of conventional luxury models.

And the Tesla is a zero-emission vehicle, a good thing in view of climate change.

BMW executive wears pants to discuss ergonomically challenging i8 sports car

Trudy Hardy, BMW's marketing vice president, admits getting out of the low-slung i8 hybrid sports car "takes some grace and finesse." I describe it as an ergonomic nightmare that poses a challenge to the dignity of any woman who wears a skirt.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

BMW isn't the biggest automaker in the world, but this year, the company debuted its iBrand -- a plug-in hybrid sports car and a more practical sedan that is available in purely electric form.

It's hard to believe the two cars came from the same engineering department.

And the German automaker seems to have conceded the all-electric luxury market to the Tesla Model S, a big four-door hatchback with a range of 200 miles or more.

The BMW i8 wows you with its performance and super-car sounds, but it's so difficult to get out of you have to conclude it was designed by men exclusively for men.

Trudy Hardy on the iBrand

This afternoon, BMW sent a woman, Marketing Vice President Trudy Hardy, to discuss the company's iBrand at the monthly meeting of the International Motor Press Association.

Hardy wore pants.

She recalled the time on a cross-country trip when she had to change clothes in the back seat of a Mini, another BMW brand.

That experience has helped her deal with the challenging ergonomics of the i8, she said.

At the moment, she said, BMW has no plans to add more models to the iBrand, but is keeping its eye on Tesla as a competitor.

"I thank them every day because they bring awareness to electric vehicles," she said of Tesla.

Tesla's 3 Series fighter

The California-based company says that in 2017, it will introduce a smaller all-electric car, called the Model E, with a range of 200 miles and a starting price of $35,000.

One publication, Auto Express, calls the Model E a BMW 3 Series fighter.

BMW i3 and i8

The BMW i3 has seating for four, an MSRP of $41,350 and an EPA-estimated range of 81 miles.

A second version comes with a security blanket or what the automaker calls a "Range Extender" -- a 2-cylinder gasoline engine with a 2-gallon tank that recharges the battery -- increasing the car's range to 150 miles.

Both versions take 3.5 hours to charge fully. 

The all-wheel-drive BMW i8 has an MSRP of $137,500.

BMW is selling more than 1,000 of its more practical, all-electric i3 sedans each month, Marketing Vice President Trudy Hardy told a monthly gathering of automobile writers in Manhattan today. 

I got a chance to drive the i8 in September. To get into the low-slung car with scissor doors, you plant your tush in the driver's seat, then swing your legs over the high sill. In trying to get out, I couldn't find an assist handle to grab onto and had to ask another writer for a hand. The company has sold about 300 i8s, Hardy said.