anybody here actually own a Tesla?

[rscott]

SWoll said:

rscott said:

MarshPhantom said:

Some people may not do much mileage but I don't know why people would buy a car that wouldn't get them London to Brum and back in a day, for example.

London to Brum & back is what, 250 miles? So about the range of a Tesla.. You might need a quick topup, but you'd probably also need to fill up with fuel at some point along the way too.

Don't be daft. The vast majority of modern petrol/diesel cars would happily do that trip twice on a tank of fuel at cruising speeds.

ICE would be perfect for my wife as she runs around town and rarely covers more than 100 miles in a day so will be looking at the ptions closely when her current car goes back. I cover 25K+ a year and regularly do 3-400 mile round trips so at the moment I'd have concerns from a practicality standpoint as wouldn't want to have to plan my day around re-charging.

Tesla would start the trip fully charged (as pretty much anyone owning one would have the ability to charge at home) . Petrol/diesel car might have a full tank, if you filled up the day before, but more likely part full, so a stop would probably be needed.

By the way, the last 4 cars I've owned (all petrol) had a range of no more than 400 miles and often nearer 300. None had anything like the performance of a Tesla either..

[rxe]

I really don't get the "going to a petrol station is a PITA" line. In 2015 I was doing hefty mileage in an Alfa V6, so got pretty familiar with petrol stations. There were three on my route (ignoring the ones on the motorway section, which are a bit more of a faff), If the petrol station had no queues and I had about 1/4 of a tank left, I stopped, filled up, pay at pump, carried on. Took 5 minutes tops. Clearly if I was late for work, or late for something at home, I didn't bother.

Never had to queue, never had a problem. Compared with the remotest possibility of having to stop the car for 30 - 60 minutes at a time not of my convenience, it is trivial.

[rscott]

rxe said:

I really don't get the "going to a petrol station is a PITA" line. In 2015 I was doing hefty mileage in an Alfa V6, so got pretty familiar with petrol stations. There were three on my route (ignoring the ones on the motorway section, which are a bit more of a faff), If the petrol station had no queues and I had about 1/4 of a tank left, I stopped, filled up, pay at pump, carried on. Took 5 minutes tops. Clearly if I was late for work, or late for something at home, I didn't bother.

Never had to queue, never had a problem. Compared with the remotest possibility of having to stop the car for 30 - 60 minutes at a time not of my convenience, it is trivial.

Tesla superchargers can half charge the battery in 20 minutes. Stopping to top up the power, 'comfort break' and quick coffee isn't unreasonable.

As others have said though, the current range of electric vehicles aren't aimed at those doing 250 miles every day. They're aimed at the more typical mileage of <100 miles per day, with occasional long trips.

[Truckosaurus]

rxe said:

I really don't get the "going to a petrol station is a PITA" line. ....

When I've run cars with small fuel range, I just got in the habit of filling up at the start of every journey where there wasn't enough fuel to get there.

With cars with a large range it does become more of a faff as you do it more infrequently.

I'd imagine that if/when I got a hybrid/electric car that needed charging you just get in the routine of stopping to charge it and sitting down to drink your coffee/pop/water at the services rather than trying to take the lid off whilst merging back onto the motorway.

[rxe]

rscott said:

Tesla superchargers can half charge the battery in 20 minutes. Stopping to top up the power, 'comfort break' and quick coffee isn't unreasonable.

As others have said though, the current range of electric vehicles aren't aimed at those doing 250 miles every day. They're aimed at the more typical mileage of <100 miles per day, with occasional long trips.

I know a supercharger can give a good chunk of power in 20 minutes, but there aren't very many of them. Unless you are really lucky and happen to pass one, it is a case of "drive 10 miles to get a fast charge, then drive 10 miles back (much more than 20 minutes) or plug into some slow thing and wait for an hour.

When there is a supercharger at the equivalent density of petrol stations, it will be easier - not as good as only spending 5 minutes filling up, but easier.

[jamoor]

rxe said:

I know a supercharger can give a good chunk of power in 20 minutes, but there aren't very many of them. Unless you are really lucky and happen to pass one, it is a case of "drive 10 miles to get a fast charge, then drive 10 miles back (much more than 20 minutes) or plug into some slow thing and wait for an hour.

When there is a supercharger at the equivalent density of petrol stations, it will be easier - not as good as only spending 5 minutes filling up, but easier.

Well there doesn't need to be a supercharger on every street corner, as alot of people can fill up their cars at home...

[DoubleD]

jamoor said:

rxe said:

I know a supercharger can give a good chunk of power in 20 minutes, but there aren't very many of them. Unless you are really lucky and happen to pass one, it is a case of "drive 10 miles to get a fast charge, then drive 10 miles back (much more than 20 minutes) or plug into some slow thing and wait for an hour.

When there is a supercharger at the equivalent density of petrol stations, it will be easier - not as good as only spending 5 minutes filling up, but easier.

Well there doesn't need to be a supercharger on every street corner, as alot of people can fill up their cars at home...

I think hes talking about when you need more fuel part way through a long journey.

[jamoor]

DoubleD said:

I think hes talking about when you need more fuel part way through a long journey.

Well even that, the chances are you will be doing a long journey on a trunk road, therefore they only need to be placed strategically rather than every corner.

If you look at a map of superchargers, that happens to be the case.

[fatboy b]

rscott said:

rxe said:

I really don't get the "going to a petrol station is a PITA" line. In 2015 I was doing hefty mileage in an Alfa V6, so got pretty familiar with petrol stations. There were three on my route (ignoring the ones on the motorway section, which are a bit more of a faff), If the petrol station had no queues and I had about 1/4 of a tank left, I stopped, filled up, pay at pump, carried on. Took 5 minutes tops. Clearly if I was late for work, or late for something at home, I didn't bother.

Never had to queue, never had a problem. Compared with the remotest possibility of having to stop the car for 30 - 60 minutes at a time not of my convenience, it is trivial.

Tesla superchargers can half charge the battery in 20 minutes. Stopping to top up the power, 'comfort break' and quick coffee isn't unreasonable.

As others have said though, the current range of electric vehicles aren't aimed at those doing 250 miles every day. They're aimed at the more typical mileage of <100 miles per day, with occasional long trips.

I filled my V8 4 times last week. Unusual week where I was onsite at a customer all week. I'd really rather do that, and have a V8 soundtrack, than pi55 around withan EV.

[gangzoom]

fatboy b said:

I filled my V8 4 times last week. Unusual week where I was onsite at a customer all week. I'd really rather do that, and have a V8 soundtrack, than pi55 around withan EV.

Good for you, someone has to keep the tax revenue going and allow the government to continue to fund the EV grant .

[Yipper]

I get driven to and from airports in a Tesla taxi. The self-employed dude who owns it says recharging is a pain, and range anxiety remains real, but it does 100mpg+ to the gallon and net-net it has added about 5% to his bottom line (profit).

[rxe]

jamoor said:

Well even that, the chances are you will be doing a long journey on a trunk road, therefore they only need to be placed strategically rather than every corner.

If you look at a map of superchargers, that happens to be the case.

Well, lets say I'm in Maidenhead and I need a charge up.

Do I drive to Reading and get on the Supercharger (25 m each way in traffic), or put it on something slower?

I get the "you can plan your journey so that you pass a super charger in good time" - but bugger it, I'm a grown up, I haven't needed to plan my journeys so far in life, and I'm damned if I'm going to start to doing so to accommodate my car.

If this is to be truly convenient, there needs to be a network of compatible chargers for all EVs and there needs to be a sufficient density of them to make access issues irrelevant. The current situation would be like BP only selling petrol to BMW drivers, but they can't fill up at Shell.

[Blaster72]

Yipper said:

I get driven to and from airports in a Tesla taxi........................but it does 100mpg+ to the gallon .

Come again

[MarshPhantom]

rscott said:

SWoll said:

rscott said:

MarshPhantom said:

Some people may not do much mileage but I don't know why people would buy a car that wouldn't get them London to Brum and back in a day, for example.

London to Brum & back is what, 250 miles? So about the range of a Tesla.. You might need a quick topup, but you'd probably also need to fill up with fuel at some point along the way too.

Don't be daft. The vast majority of modern petrol/diesel cars would happily do that trip twice on a tank of fuel at cruising speeds.

ICE would be perfect for my wife as she runs around town and rarely covers more than 100 miles in a day so will be looking at the ptions closely when her current car goes back. I cover 25K+ a year and regularly do 3-400 mile round trips so at the moment I'd have concerns from a practicality standpoint as wouldn't want to have to plan my day around re-charging.

Tesla would start the trip fully charged (as pretty much anyone owning one would have the ability to charge at home) . Petrol/diesel car might have a full tank, if you filled up the day before, but more likely part full, so a stop would probably be needed.

By the way, the last 4 cars I've owned (all petrol) had a range of no more than 400 miles and often nearer 300. None had anything like the performance of a Tesla either..

But there's a huge difference between having to stop for fuel and having to recharge your car. How close would you let the Tesla get to empty before you bottled it? What do you do with an EV that's out of juice. Not the same as having to walk to a petrol station. I'm hugely unimpressed with my new Vito as that has a range of 330 miles, thanks a lot Bluetec.

[Yipper]

Blaster72 said:

Yipper said:

I get driven to and from airports in a Tesla taxi........................but it does 100mpg+ to the gallon .

Come again

Equivalent of, cost-wise.

[Blaster72]

Mmm, I don't see how you can have an MPG equivalent for an EV. Hybrid maybe but EV? I understand the point though.

[DoubleD]

gangzoom said:

fatboy b said:

I filled my V8 4 times last week. Unusual week where I was onsite at a customer all week. I'd really rather do that, and have a V8 soundtrack, than pi55 around withan EV.

Good for you, someone has to keep the tax revenue going and allow the govyernment to continue to fund the EV grant .

I know which car i would rather be in. Not sure i would want to pay for 4 tanks of fuel. Im sure the tesla is a great car, but my god it looks dull.

[jamoor]

rxe said:

Well, lets say I'm in Maidenhead and I need a charge up.

Do I drive to Reading and get on the Supercharger (25 m each way in traffic), or put it on something slower?

I get the "you can plan your journey so that you pass a super charger in good time" - but bugger it, I'm a grown up, I haven't needed to plan my journeys so far in life, and I'm damned if I'm going to start to doing so to accommodate my car.

If this is to be truly convenient, there needs to be a network of compatible chargers for all EVs and there needs to be a sufficient density of them to make access issues irrelevant. The current situation would be like BP only selling petrol to BMW drivers, but they can't fill up at Shell.

Well how did you end up in Maidenhead with 25 mi of charge? Where are you coming from and going to?

[EazyDuz]

How lazy do you have to be to consider a petrol station a chore you could do without?
I'd much rather spend 5 minutes at a petrol station every week than a combined 10+ minutes of plugging/unplugging an electric car every day, having cabling on your drive (if no garage) which you have to pull out and put away again.
Sorry, it just doesnt work as an advantage

[rxe]

jamoor said:

Well how did you end up in Maidenhead with 25 mi of charge? Where are you coming from and going to?

That's easy.

I was heading for a meeting at Maidenhead, down the M40. I could have stopped at the Oxford supercharger, but the traffic was pants around Birmingham and I was already late, so wasn't going to stop for 20 minutes. I'm now in Maidenhead with 50 miles on the clock. I want to go and stay the night with some friends 10 miles South of Oxford. Next day I am going to Cheltenham.

Looks like I can got onto a 7 kW charger in Maidenhead, which will take 8 hours to fill me up. I could drive to Slough where there are 22 kW chargers, that's only 4 hours. Or I could drive to Reading and get a 30 minute charge.

It's just not that appealing compared to filling the car with diesel in 5 minutes and then not having to worry about it for 600 miles. When there is a 20 minute charger pretty much everywhere, it might become appealing, but not right now.