UK Head of Tesla.... Impressive

[otolith]

It's a little bit bigger than a Mercedes E-class.

It comes in at

328bhp / 5.2 to 60 / £55k
417bhp / 4.2 to 60 / £63k
503bhp rear + 259bhp front / 3.1 to 60 / £80k

It's £91k if you want to upgrade the P85D to have "ludicrous mode" which drops the 0-60 to 2.8 seconds.

The quicker E-class models comes in at;

258bhp / 6.4 to 60 / £42k
557bhp / 4.2 to 60 / £75k
585bhp / 4.1 to 60 / £85k

The pricing looks right to me.

http://www2.mercedes-benz.co.uk/content/unitedking...

http://my.teslamotors.com/en_GB/models/design?sour...

[Ares]

yonex said:

kambites said:

So what you're saying is that you don't see the point in big luxury performance saloons? Nothing directly to do with the Tesla at all?

For what it's worth, I pretty much agree. I have no wish to own a model-S or an AMG E/S-class or an M5, or any other car in this sort of market. That doesn't mean I don't find such cars enormously impressive, though.

Edited by kambites on Thursday 15th October 09:54

I do, but I find it ironic when the chief motivator seems to be 'zero fuel costs' when, in comparison a £30K mile muncher affords one hell of a lot of fuel all things considered (depreciation, purchase price) and based upon 15K miles a year how long will it take to even break even?

It is an impressive piece of engineering I totally agree as is the Prius.

But you are comparing apples with pears. The Tesla, even in £50k guise, is a large premium and fast car. No £30k miles muncher really competes. Shove it up to the £80k variant and it is one of the quickest saloon cars available, and still competes on price with other upper large saloon cars before it's massive BIK/running cost/rfl/etc benefits are even factored in.

[Ares]

yonex said:

lostkiwi said:

But you aren't comparing apples with apples then are you?
If you were in the market for a new high performance luxury saloon then the Tesla stacks up well price wise against its competition. As a side benefit you get very good running costs (in fuel terms).
Yes we all know that if you buy a mile muncher from a lower segment or secondhand the savings will buy a lot of fuel but thats the same for petrol or diesel as well.
People buy diesels to save money on fuel costs (lets face it there is little there reason to buy them) and the Tesla is just an extension of that with the added benefit over a diesel of hypercar performance. Handling should be pretty good (not speaking from experience here) as well as all the batteries and motors are mounted very low down and fairly centrally between the wheels.

What can it be compared to like for like, it's in a niche. Very rapid, a bit bland in the flesh, £100K.

S Class, 7 series or smaller, i8?


An £80k large exec saloon. Find an A8/S-Class/7-series that has 600bhp+ and can hit 60 in c3 secs.

Oh......

What £30k mile muncher were you thinking of?

[J4CKO]

otolith said:

It's a little bit bigger than a Mercedes E-class.

It comes in at

328bhp / 5.2 to 60 / £55k
417bhp / 4.2 to 60 / £63k
503bhp rear + 259bhp front / 3.1 to 60 / £80k

It's £91k if you want to upgrade the P85D to have "ludicrous mode" which drops the 0-60 to 2.8 seconds.

The quicker E-class models comes in at;

258bhp / 6.4 to 60 / £42k
557bhp / 4.2 to 60 / £75k
585bhp / 4.1 to 60 / £85k

The pricing looks right to me.

http://www2.mercedes-benz.co.uk/content/unitedking...

http://my.teslamotors.com/en_GB/models/design?sour...

Good point, everyone is comparing against the top version when you can get one for 55 grand, still a fair old wedge but much more in the ballpark and still as fast as most would ever need with all of the same advantages and disadvantages intact apart from the ability to alarm passengers quite as much, suspect the performance is still pretty vivid from standstill.

How is it we always forget lesser models if there is something better, even if the lesser model is still pretty fantastic by any measure ?

[Guvernator]

Things may have changed now but the basic model when I looked wasn't just down on power or slower to 60, you had to pay extra for AWD (might be important for some), then range was lower (230 iirc) which you could pay to have upgraded and more importantly it didn't have the quick\twin charge function of the more powerful variants or the free install of the supercharge point at your house. By the time you added those options it was £65k or you'd be better off buying the next model up.

At any rate it's not really the purchase price which is the deal breaker as no one really buys cars for cash any more but the lease costs which on average are about £150-£200 more on a Tesla than an equivalent petrol car. I'm not sure if this is due to bad residuals on Tesla's or whether they just don't have the financial clout to offer decent APR on their lease deals.

[AnotherClarkey]

Guvernator said:

Things may have changed now but the basic model when I looked wasn't just down on power or slower to 60, you had to pay extra for AWD (might be important for some), then range was lower (230 iirc) which you could pay to have upgraded and more importantly it didn't have the quick\twin charge function of the more powerful variants or the free install of the supercharge point at your house. By the time you added those options it was £65k or you'd be better off buying the next model up.

At any rate it's not really the purchase price which is the deal breaker as no one really buys cars for cash any more but the lease costs which on average are about £150-£200 more on a Tesla than an equivalent petrol car. I'm not sure if this is due to bad residuals on Tesla's or whether they just don't have the financial clout to offer decent APR on their lease deals.

The £55k price is for an AWD with a 275 mile range and includes access to the Supercharger network. To the best of my knowledge the offer to install a Supercharger at your house has never been on the table (although there is a government scheme the heavily subsidises the cost of an AC charging point at your house it is nothing to do with Tesla). You can knock £4200 off this price if you only want RWD.

[J4CKO]

http://www.teslamotors.com/en_GB/models

I wonder how quick they can make one if they have managed 2.8 to sixty, does the electric AWD format offer advantages in standing start acceleration that still has potential to offer even faster options, the 2.8 to sixty doesn't seem to involve any wheelspin like with IC engined cars.

All a bit pointless but amazing fun.

[Guvernator]

AnotherClarkey said:

The £55k price is for an AWD with a 275 mile range and includes access to the Supercharger network. To the best of my knowledge the offer to install a Supercharger at your house has never been on the table (although there is a government scheme the heavily subsidises the cost of an AC charging point at your house it is nothing to do with Tesla). You can knock £4200 off this price if you only want RWD.

I did look about a year ago so looks like things have moved on, my point about lease pricing still seems relevant though. They aren't competitive but I guess people are offsetting that against money saved on fuel costs and tax.

[anonymous-user]

Ares said:

yonex said:

What can it be compared to like for like, it's in a niche. Very rapid, a bit bland in the flesh, £100K.

S Class, 7 series or smaller, i8?

An £80k large exec saloon. Find an A8/S-Class/7-series that has 600bhp+ and can hit 60 in c3 secs.

Oh......

What £30k mile muncher were you thinking of?

Which is why I asked the question?

As for what 30K odd car I would buy, probably an Alpina bi-turbo, but then I don't need or wish to spend £100K to 'save' money. As for 3 sec 0-60, the only relevance that has is down the pub.

[luckystrike]

yonex said:

Which is why I asked the question?

As for what 30K odd car I would buy, probably an Alpina bi-turbo, but then I don't need or wish to spend £100K to 'save' money. As for 3 sec 0-60, the only relevance that has is down the pub.

Why do you keep thinking people are spending 100K to save money? That's being deliberately obtuse.

People are spending £50-80k on a large executive/luxury saloon, with all of the comfort, toys and performance that brings. In the case of the Tesla, you also happen to have very low running costs, and the performance is class-leading.

To twist your argument, why are you spending 30k on an Alpina bi-turbo? You can get a jaguar XJR for £2,000. Crazy spending £30k to 'gain' performance. Although in fairness a 106 for £500 is cheaper for a quarter of the price, which is ideal as standardised performance statistics are irrelevant.

[otolith]

yonex said:

Ares said:

yonex said:

What can it be compared to like for like, it's in a niche. Very rapid, a bit bland in the flesh, £100K.

S Class, 7 series or smaller, i8?

An £80k large exec saloon. Find an A8/S-Class/7-series that has 600bhp+ and can hit 60 in c3 secs.

Oh......

What £30k mile muncher were you thinking of?

Which is why I asked the question?

As for what 30K odd car I would buy, probably an Alpina bi-turbo, but then I don't need or wish to spend £100K to 'save' money. As for 3 sec 0-60, the only relevance that has is down the pub.

If you don't care about the 3-sec 0-60, why are you talking about "£100k"? That's a little over the price of the fastest 2.7 second to 60 model. They start at £51k for a rear drive only car that does 60 in 5.5.

[Ares]

yonex said:

Ares said:

yonex said:

What can it be compared to like for like, it's in a niche. Very rapid, a bit bland in the flesh, £100K.

S Class, 7 series or smaller, i8?

An £80k large exec saloon. Find an A8/S-Class/7-series that has 600bhp+ and can hit 60 in c3 secs.

Oh......

What £30k mile muncher were you thinking of?

Which is why I asked the question?

As for what 30K odd car I would buy, probably an Alpina bi-turbo, but then I don't need or wish to spend £100K to 'save' money. As for 3 sec 0-60, the only relevance that has is down the pub.

Last time I checked, the Alpina Bi-Turbo started at well over £50k?

[Ares]

otolith said:

yonex said:

Ares said:

yonex said:

What can it be compared to like for like, it's in a niche. Very rapid, a bit bland in the flesh, £100K.

S Class, 7 series or smaller, i8?

An £80k large exec saloon. Find an A8/S-Class/7-series that has 600bhp+ and can hit 60 in c3 secs.

Oh......

What £30k mile muncher were you thinking of?

Which is why I asked the question?

As for what 30K odd car I would buy, probably an Alpina bi-turbo, but then I don't need or wish to spend £100K to 'save' money. As for 3 sec 0-60, the only relevance that has is down the pub.

If you don't care about the 3-sec 0-60, why are you talking about "£100k"? That's a little over the price of the fastest 2.7 second to 60 model. They start at £51k for a rear drive only car that does 60 in 5.5.

Because he's a pedantic arse that is trying to use whatever means possible to discredit a car that he just doesn't like? And failing.

[anonymous-user]

Ares said:

Because he's a pedantic arse that is trying to use whatever means possible to discredit a car that he just doesn't like? And failing.

I look forward to you reporting back when you, and all the other vocal fans in here receive your new Tesla's.

[otolith]

I won't be buying one any time soon, I don't need that kind of car. I can still see their value to others, though.

[kambites]

I'll probably be buying one for family transport as and when Model-3s start to come onto the market second-hand at the end of their three year business leases. So 2020-2021 if Tesla stick to their schedule. Hopefully the Octavia will last that long.

[lostkiwi]

Ares said:

Because he's a pedantic arse that is trying to use whatever means possible to discredit a car that he just doesn't like? And failing.

^^^Precisely this. ^^^

[bodhi]

Ares said:

Because he's a pedantic arse that is trying to use whatever means possible to discredit a car that he just doesn't like? And failing.

Or maybe, just maybe people are raising valid concerns with the car and being rebuffed by the fanboys who can't understand why everyone doesn't want one?

[London424]

bodhi said:

Ares said:

Because he's a pedantic arse that is trying to use whatever means possible to discredit a car that he just doesn't like? And failing.

Or maybe, just maybe people are raising valid concerns with the car and being rebuffed by the fanboys who can't understand why everyone doesn't want one?

Nobody is claiming everyone should want one!!

[anonymous-user]

bodhi said:

Or maybe, just maybe people are raising valid concerns with the car and being rebuffed by the fanboys who can't understand why everyone doesn't want one?

Yes. Apparently if you don't fancy the idea of one, question anything about it or try to put costs in perspective you;

1. Are a pedantic arse
2. Too poor to afford one
3. Just don't understand

This is all from people who are;

1. Pedantic arses
2. Don't own or have no desire to own one
3. Just don't understand why you don't agree

Still, I hear the UK head of Tesla is a very impressive chap