I don't disagree that a long range has advantages, I just don't see why it is needed for normal daily driving for the majority of people in North America or Europe.

> If a 15 year old internal combustion engine design can do an 800 mile range, I don't think its unreasonable for electric cars to get there, especially with as fast as Tesla is coming up with improvements to electric cars.

The range of a vehicle boils down to the volume you can use to store energy, the energy density of the storage medium, and the efficiency of the engine or motor in turning that energy into motion. For this reason I'm skeptical that any amount of engineering would allow for an 800 mile EV within the next several decades, especially since electric motors are already extremely efficient.

According to Wikipedia[0] the efficiency of diesel engines can be up to 50%. Using that number and similar reasoning to this[1] other comment a current Model S P85 stores energy equivalent to 14.7 L (or 3.9 US gallons) of diesel. Your 2000 VW TDI has a fuel capacity of 54.9 liters or 14.5 gallons. This means to go an equivalent distance the capacity of the Tesla Model S battery pack would have to increase by 3.75 times (to 273 kWh), either by increasing the energy density or by making the pack bigger. Even though I am a big proponent of EVs I just don't see that happening.

> Even within the urban core, where a 100 mile range is enough for a few days of commuting along with an emergency reserve, an 800 mile range is going to mean far less-frequent charges, just as it means far less frequent fill-ups for a combustion-powered car. That's less strain on the owner's wallet, and less strain on the electrical grid.

How does it matter how often you fill up? Wouldn't trying to fill a 800 mile battery all at once rather than trickle charging while the car is parked (which will likely be 20+ hours per day) be a much bigger strain on the grid? Won't you be storing the same amount of energy (and therefore paying the same total amount of money for that energy) whether you do it daily or biweekly?

Additionally, in your initial comment you wanted both an 800 mile range and a full recharge from empty in under 5 minutes. Using the above estimate for required battery capacity that means you would have to charge it at a rate of 3.3 MW (yes, megawatts) or nearly 8800 amps at the 375 volt level the Model S battery pack operates at. Short of superconductors I don't think it's even physically possible to transmit electricity at that amperage through wires without causing them to melt almost instantly.

> Not everyone can or wants to live in a densely-packed urban area, and for those who don't, a vehicle with a long range is very practical.

> An extended driving range also makes longer road trips less expensive and more practical. A full day's drive with fuel/charge to spare? Yes, please. And even if you think that such is a silly thing which no person should rightly desire from their personal transport when air travel (and airprort security theater) is available, consider another application: Trucks. [...]

Yes, for long trips, people who live in rural areas (where long-distance travel is more frequent) and for long-haul commercial transportation EVs as they are (and likely as they will be) won't cut it. There will always be gas and diesel vehicles for those applications. However, for the average American who lives in an urban or suburban area and drives less than 100 miles a day EVs (with ranges well short of 800 miles) will probably largely replace ICE vehicles. For them, an 800 mile range is not a requirement.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_efficiency#Diesel_engin...
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9486785