The credits are "credited" by government (creating them from nothing, just as the fed and all banks do with fiat credit) to companies who supposedly generate less CO2. They are rigged to favor electric car companies by not recognizing the other sources of CO2 use that go into producing electric vehicles and ignoring the cost of batteries. (They also are ignoring that the electric car owners are not paying their share of fuel tax that is supposedly used to maintain roads.)
It's a typical statist, neo-liberal government scam to screw the people and enrich the elitists' friends.
As to why government doesn't sell them? My guess is that government doesn't qualify to "earn" any of them.

I'm sorry, I don't think I understand the whole thing.
The regular car manufacturers (which make gas-using cars) need credits (from whom? the government?) to be allowed to sell their cars? So they buy the credits from Tesla (the electric car company) ? Why would they buy the credits from Tesla? If it's protection from government prosecution they want, why wouldn't (or couldn't) they buy these credits directly from the government? I can't drive anyway, having epilepsy, but this does seem to be a sort of political issue, which affects bus and cab fares, and I guess I would be better off if I understood it. But at present, I don't.

It's also pollution shifting, at least if you drive the Tesla in Los Angeles and keep the power plants out in the rural counties.

What a neat idea. Sell something that doesn't have to be manufactured, has not cost of goods on the accounting side and doesn't exist to someone who is willing to buy it instead of telling the government NO! Get subsidies from the government who will install your 'filling stations' for you and everyone can feel good about themselves while they rob their neighbors at the point of a gun. I want to sell something like this!

Does anybody in the Gulch but me see the similarity to the Steel Unification Plan in AS? The automakers who produce Real Useful cars will be penalized and forced to give their money to a maker of cars whose only purpose is to allow their owners to show that They Care.

"he never struck me as a serious man"

How could he not be and accomplish all he has?
I love watching his promo videos. It always raises my spirits, even if I'm judging his content as foolish or manipulative - thanks to his transparency.

Edit - I think you may be confusing his informal but thoughtful style while sometimes making smart ass remarks. He always comes across to me as meaning what he says. His ideas on AI (a misnomer that should be Augmented Intelligence - as there's no artificial intelligence)... are bizarre, especially his call for a government regulatory body for it. That's a sure way to stifle innovation and get all the benefits of a government monopoly.

On the Tesla innovation front = not to be missed !!!

See the YouTube video from the Autonomous Day announcements by Tesla about a month ago. It's about three years of development of an application-specific super chip and neural network system with tons of machine learning data from the fleet of about 1/2 million vehicles out there.

The chip is named TSD, for Totally Self-Driving -- whatever "totally" means here - an aspiration?

As someone who has been in the systems business for over 50 years, I found it super exciting. He has hired and supported innovation by some of the best young technical talent on Earth.

Fair comment.

I agree that Gore never produced anything.

Reason I mentioned them in the same breath is that Gore was with Kleiner Perkins in SF, the VC firm that was one of the investors in Tesla.

Gore made millions. Being associated with Tesla was good politics for him: no-emission cars! Right in line with his "global warming" agenda.

Musk is quirky, as you said, but he never struck me as a serious man. This is my opinion. I am not an investor in Tesla and have no intention to be one.

Comparing Gore to Musk is terribly unfair. Gore is a politician who has designed, built and delivered nothing but influence and legislation.

Musk is a physicist, software engineer, entrepreneur, leader of innovation and manufacturing teams.

He never came across as imbecilic to me. His style is unique and quirky and quite transparent in his communication - including admitting his sometimes delusional timelines. That can be more smart than anything to drive to objective goals.

Comparing Gore to Musk is terribly unfair. Gore is a politician who has designed, built and delivered nothing but influence and legislation.

Musk is a physicist, software engineer, entrepreneur, leader of innovation and manufacturing teams.

He never came across as imbecilic to me. His style is unique and quirky and quite transparent in his communication - including admitting his sometimes delusional timelines. That can be more smart than anything – to drive to objective goals.

I'm certainly not going to argue that cars are better than dealing with horse manure. ;)

I am interested in how they deal with the battery issues, however. Batteries of that size aren't cheap - even if they are replaceable. And they have a proscribed lifetime - currently only 3-5 years with degrading performance just like your cell phone. There have been huge strides - I completely agree. There may still be improvements to come but I'm evaluating based on what is in play right now.

The power train isn't all that different between an electric vehicle and a combustion engine - just minor differences in the transmission. You still have a drive shaft and gear box you have to deal with which move and wear. And regenerative braking doesn't replace disc brakes on your wheels. It's essentially an engine brake similar to those on big rigs or like a flywheel on smaller cars. The major sources of wear being replaced by batteries are primarily in the engine itself. You're still going to have to replace tires, brakes, etc. at a similar pace - unless someone can point me to something I'm not thinking of.

Regarding electronics, yeah, they can be great at managing fuel efficiency. Or they can be like my co-worker's Leaf where the car doesn't run without all 20 main circuit boards - each of which costs $1000 to replace! Nothing like a basic carburetor-based hunk of steel you can fix with some bubble gum and bailing wire in a pinch...

Yes, the mandated pollution control systems are an efficiency drain on a combustion engine which aren't needed on an electric vehicle. But how many times have you had to change out a muffler or catalytic converter? I never have even after putting more than 200,000 miles on three vehicles...

Question: does anyone know the comparative weight of an engine vs the battery system replacement? I'm curious...

Re some of the current disadvantages....
- Good point about the Heat and A/C battery needs.
- In any major technology innovation the supporting infrastructure takes time to roll out. Guess what it was like transitioning from the horse to the ICE vehicles. Trading horseshit for ... ;-)
- I can envision a service of swappable batteries much as we do with gas grill small tanks. But that's another step of innovation and infrastructure buildout. Or a variant on that could be what we do with portable chargers for mobile devices. Swappable boost batteries to support the primary, built-in battery.
- The flammability of Lithium batteries has been a area of well funded research and I've seen some Musk videos discussing how they mitigate that with their battery designs.
- Re batteries needing replacement, the latest prediction by Musk is a 50% to 100% increase in lifespan for next-gen. Note tht for Musk, Nex-gen means being worked on now and for some prior years.

Just do a thought experiment or talk to a mechanic. The powertrain is what needs constant attention including the mandated pollution control systems.
Body, suspension, breaks... the breaks are used much less in an EV with regenerative braking. Moving parts are sources of wear - the more there are the more vulnerable the product is. Thus all the benefits of solid state electronics and memory over its predecessors.

Not sure how he was supported. And that's a valid point. In this cronyism system he's operating in a different context. While there's no excuse for the subsidies forced upon us, the government launch contracts are often appropriate, or at least more appropriate - starting with national defense.

Was Edison supported by billions in taxpayer funding against our will? Musk is a looter. His fortune was extracted at gunpoint from our production.

And they rarely include the highway taxes that are included in gasoline costs, but not in electricity.

The rest of the world is finding out now just how worthless solar and wind is for generating electricity...I think England makes up the difference burning wood to make electricity.

I'd love to see an actual study on maintenance costs of comparable cars in order to justify this assertion. Really all you're doing is trading out your engine (and arguably transmission) - the rest is still the same: brakes, suspension, etc. The one thing a lot of people like to cite is the cost of electricity vs cost of gasoline - which is a fair comparison - but they forget to add in the cost of replacing the batteries - which is a doozy of around $10,000 according to figures I've seen.

Disadvantages: 1) Batteries can only provide 50% of their stated charge when cold (I assume that means like in the east and midwest during winder)
2) What if you want to drive from vegas to los angeles- about 300 miles through the desert. Run out of charge and you are stuck if you cant find a charging station and then wait for awhile for a charge to be delivered.
3) Use of A/C and heat will much more rapidly deplete charge from stated levels.
5) Chevy Volt has a small engine to give you remote charging if you need it. Straight electric cars are ONLY electric.
6) When the batteries GO, its like $8k to replace them.
9) Not that Gasoline is not flammable, but Lithium batteries can spontaneously explode if damaged or overheated.

Still want a current production electric car?

Disadvantages of Electric Cars include:

Range. On a full charge, most electric cars go about 1/2 the distance as a comparable gas-powered engine on the same vehicle. (This is particularly applicable to the trucking industry where range is business viability.)

Recharge speed. Most electric cars can take up to six hours to fully recharge. A gas-powered engine can be refueled in five minutes.

Recharging stations. These are few and hard to find. Gasoline pumps are ubiquitous.

Battery replacement. These run about $10,000 and must take place about every four to five years. (The equivalent is about 100,000 miles on the same vehicle averaging $3 per gallon for gas and 30 mpg).

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Advantages of Electric Cars include:

Noise. Electric cars are comparatively silent. Most electric cars actually have to add noise so drivers feel comfortable in them.

Acceleration. Electric cars accelerate faster than comparable gasoline engines.

Ok. Please be specific about the disadvantages.

The biggest losers will be the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicle manufacturers' loss of the billions invested in manufacturing facilities for ICE power trains all over the world.

Yes to all the economic, environmental, and ethical/political comments.

However, the other side of the coin aside from his fear mongering on CO2, fossil fuel and AI, is is brilliant product inspirationa, invention, and manufacturing innovation. That's what's driving the public interest and mine. He's the Thomas Edison of our age. He's delivering fully functional systems incrementally, driven by relentless innovation and experimentation. He's delivering. That's the bottom line emotionally and functionally for the culture.

The electric car is a great idea from a physics perspective. The only risk is not having access to electricity. The positives include a much simpler and therefore more maintainable machine with amazing acceleration. Just consider his assertion of a million mile warranty on a vehicle. What's the value of getting even partially to that goal?. What's that worth to bettering your life as a car owner or renter?

I thought that the demand for electric cars was overblown. Electric cars have a lot of disadvantages compared with gas powered cars. The government is just trying to force us into electric for some ulterior motive