Tesla - And whats it really like owning an EV?

[bp1000]

Looking at the Telsa range at the moment, impressed, tech is incredible and the car is fantastic to drive, perhaps the nicest drive i've ever experienced. Distinct lack of noise and drama is one negative.

I wish to dispel more negatives

- Its american
- Its new so who knows about reliability
- What will it be worth in a few years
- Are EV vehicles the automative laser disc (will they fizzle out and be worthless within 5-10 years)
- Is charging ever a pain?

I genuinely think the car is incredible and i'm perhaps being overly critical with my points above but its a lot of money and its a new way of driving, trying to figure out what its like to live with.

In addition to the above points what is it really like driving and owning an EV car? I keep reading little details that take the shine off the experience, such as
- public charging stations have 2 bays but only support 1 charging vehicle at a time.
- Even the tesla superchargers half their charge speed if 2 cars are plugged in side by side.
- Sometimes public chargers are full or not working which means you could be stranded for ages (at a motorway services!)

Also trying to figure out a charge per fill. Assuming 250 miles range, to charge up i think the tesla will be about £12 on 12-13p kWh electricity rates. So 500 miles costs about £24. Something like a hybrid costs about £40 for 450-500 miles. Still incredible but somehow i thought it was going to be cheaper. I also don't grasp charge times. There is everything from 13amp plugs, dual chargers (don't understand phase 3), Nissan DC chargers and superchargers. Also home chargers of different amp's, higher is faster but i still don't know how to work out how long a charge will take and what miles it gives.

Would love to hear from EV owners, despite the incredible technology what is it really like owning one?

thanks

Edited by bp1000 on Sunday 15th February 12:40

[bp1000]

vescaegg said:

I was under the impression it was something like £4 to charge a model s from flat. So perhaps £8-10 for 500 miles?

I think it is roughly 0.034p per mile on standard rates (around 13p kWh) - so full charge 300 miles = £11.34

And on economy 7 around 0.02p per mile. - full charge 300 mies = £6.10

Probably unlikely anyone can be bothered so charge for free at a motorway services or supercharger unless it is very close to your house.

[bp1000]

MarshPhantom said:

I like the fact a lot of motorway services have chargers installed but you get fined a lot of money for staying more than 2hrs at most services these days. How's that going to work?

It should be done much quicker than that. From what i can gather, if you stop and need to charge it is usually because you are on a long journey 200 miles +. These journeys are a bit rarer and more than likely you need a toilet and stretch legs break.

Tesla seem to have provided supercharger stations on most of the major (long journey) routes south of manchester. 20mins and you should get at least 100 miles range, potentially up to 170 miles in 30 mins.

The DC chargers you find up and down the motorways claim up to 85 miles in 30 mins. I think this would be plenty to get you where you need to go and logically fits in with the breaks you need on the longer journeys.

My issue is i've read stories of people turning up needing to charge their cars and they simply can't leave until they are charged which is a big problem if the chargers aren't working, they are occupied (for how long who knows?) or what i've recently learnt is if 1 car is drawing full power another cannot use the DC charging which means they need to use AC charging which is pants! 11 miles in 30mins.

I could be wrong, but that is what i've read and i'm not sure how widespread an issue those few things are. It would really suck not being near a supercharger and having to wait for a space in a charge bay, or worse still have to do the slow charge or worse if the chargers are broke, then 2 hours would be an issue and i would sell the car!

[bp1000]

Yes thanks maff that has been very informative and useful to me. I'm trying to get my head around charging and this has got me 1 step closer to understanding it.

The tesla guys said I would get 300 mile range when I said 250 so judging by these posts 220-250 is perhaps to be expected. But if you do 9-90% I suppose it's 170-200 by the sounds of it.

[bp1000]

Maff said:

Yes, charging can be a bit hard to understand at first. In tesla terms the car comes as standard with one onboard AC charger. This will mean:

That's it really for charging. Any other type or speed is irrelevant, just the above. However the 3.6kw is very slow to charge due to size of battery.

This winter longest run I did on one charge has been 220 miles. I could have probably gone 235 if I really pushed it to zero! And that's sitting at 70 or so on the motorway.
In the summer I could get 250 driving the same style, maybe a fraction more if I slowed to 60mph!

Hope this all helps! :-)

Yes thank you! I'm glad it is capable of decent range. I would be happy with 200-250.

If i buy i just need to get the Nissan adapter thing then. I suppose a capable for charging from a normal plug for example when i'm at a holiday rental is not advised as things might get a bit hot and it seems you don't get a normal plug lead anyway.

[bp1000]

Anyone know what the Tesla high power charger is that says "coming mid 2015" - is it just a tesla branded home wall charger that does 30 / 32amp ?

I stopped by my local charge point today. Ecotricity, 1 side was DC i assume this was the 50kW point that i need the £350 adapter for. The other side was AC. I assume this is very slow to charge? Does the Tesla come with a cable to cover all options, e.g. supercharger, home box, and the AC side at ecotricity. I assume the 50kW just plugs into the adapter and then into the normal capable tesla supply.

ta

[bp1000]

pboyall said:

The £350 adapter will only actually give you 25kW on the Nissan branded units. Tesla has had to reduce the current draw as when Nissan built the units they intended them for little Leafs sipping electricity for 30 minutes, not Teslas guzzling for hours :-) Upgraded units are being rolled out which will give the full 50kW, but you will be better off finding a 120kW supercharger if you can, for obvious reasons!

The £350 adapter is what you plug the rapid charger into, then into the car. The same socket on the car takes Supercharger cables and "regular" Type-2 cables.

The AC side of a Nissan rapid is very very slow compared with a Supercharger, on a Tesla. If you have dual chargers you can get 22kW (it's three phase) but you will probably find you are only getting 11kW.

Tesla's home High Power Charger, if you are talking about the one I think you are, is an 80 Amp unit - specially fitted and requires new wiring. But does charge you up a lot faster than a 7kW 32 amp will.

Thanks! All this info has filled in a lot of gaps

I have been talking to the Mrs about it again tonight gauging her thoughts on the potential inconvenience of having an electric car. The possible scenarios that arose were

We take a trip down south once a year. Exactly 200 miles away with 2 superchargers on the way and 1 within 20 miles of where we stay. So no prob there and back. Perhaps slightly off route I guess. But we will need juice when we are there for 1-2 weeks and therefore will need to make use of primarily the Nissan chargers.

What's peoples experience of being limited to where you can park? Now I discovered that the Nissan chargers only do 25kW, is there etiquette on using the spaces? I mean if we park up and go off for a few hours is that a bad thing? On the flip side do you find you get somewhere needing to charge and the bays are full?

What do you do with the inconvenience of having to wait or being restricted on where you park or having to go out of your way to charge up? Does this bother anyone?

Admittedly this only happens when you are away from home and your home charger.

[bp1000]

I'm 90% there now on my tesla purchase, thanks to the information provided here which has filled in some gaps.

If I go ahead it will be the p85d with tech pack and air quite simply. I assume I just need the Nissan adapter as an extra.

Insurance is the only other concern, I can't get quotes yet for the p85d as it isn't out yet.

The one thing stopping me is the jaguar XFR sitting in my garage! I flippin love that car. I love the sound, I love the drama and I love it's road prescience.


Tesla on the other hand is a lot of money on an early adoption, regardless of specs, the one thing in its favour is it's tax incentives when bought through a company which I will be doing.

[bp1000]

I'm going to see it again but yes the interior did feel like a different feel to the XFR.

XFR is one of the nicest places to be in a car. Not the best but one of the nicest.

The Tesla was good but it did have a sense of high end ford. Which for 90k is a little bit of a let down.

I suppose its hard to make an empty cabin look interesting and important. Its because everything is controlled from the centre touchscreen which is really incredible. So i'm not sure how you can fill the dead space with any sort of interesting luxury console.

[bp1000]

ooo000ooo said:

Just under 1000 miles on our zoe, only charged it at home once (missus wanted to try the pre-heating one icey morning) total running costs so far approx £2
Did sums last week and it's currently working out at the equivalent of 150+ mpg if i was paying for the electric consumed, charging at night.

That is incredible!

For the right person this works great, i did hear from a local toyota garage that there has been a man come in 3 times now stuck and out of charge on his leaf. For people like him he obviously isn't factoring in journey length correctly. Perhaps he is still in a lease and underestimated his journeys lengths and just has to keep going.

[bp1000]

thanks guys

i have also just ordered a P85D - and too i have a delayed delivery of August!

What a wait this is going to be

I decided in the end that despite my relative lack of knowledge regarding charging, charging types, where to charge and exactly how much range i get i just couldn't shake the sheer brilliance that powers the Tesla cars. P.s. i still don't get the charging.

I love what they are trying to achieve. I think they have clever sales and customer approaches but it isn't false, it is in fact a genuine enthusiasm for a product that is truly great. Having driven a P85+ a few times the experience and the engineering are exciting and thrilling.

I seriously will miss the sound of a properly hooked up screaming V8, in fact i'm feeling like it is going to be akin to kicking a drug addiction (good call on keeping the TVR)... but i'm also very excited to be driving (hopefully soon) a car that is perhaps the start of something completely new and forward thinking in automotive engineering.

Bottom line the Tesla is arguably the best car i've ever driven. It excels in so many areas. I don't think i've had a car or seen a car that can bridge the gap between exterior design, interior space, sheer speed and commuter comfort before. My only two worries, complete lack of character and drama basing it through the country lanes on sunday morning and the heavy frumpy floor affecting agility bashing it through the country lanes. That you just can't see on the test drive. With respect to the americans, the 1,000+ youtube videos doing the tesla grin isn't really what gets me excited about driving. Perhaps its time to add a caterham into the garage too.

[bp1000]

RichB said:

Do they not allow you to take it down country roads on the test drives?

Unfortunately i wasn't near country roads as it was a city centre test drive.

I did push it as much as i could and i determined with air suspension it stays flat and weight distribution and transfer is very well handled. I know its heavy but it has a very low centre of gravity and a 50/50 weight distribution. Sure it felt heavy but so does the big heavy v8 i'm driving at the moment.

I can't have it all, i've drive caterhams and atoms extensively on the track and nothing beats that lightweight, complete and predictable control that comes with super light weight cars.

I may just have to convince the mrs that it is time for a proper lightweight track toy.