Tesla Model S Thoughts...

There is nothing wrong with Tesla, but like with most things we all have our own idea of what a sedan should be. I remember when mine was a manual 5 series (loved those E39's), but now it is very different I want luxury (and with 45K worth of options my S class has everything even a fridge in the back reclining seats), and the Tesla to me at least, is not a luxury car. I like having a car that does not make valets into Nascar drivers (to 18 year old an S class is so boring), and massages you while you drive, or wants to pretend to be a 5000lb sports car. I am just an old petrol head, still like the smell of gas in the morning.

 

Wow as of yesterday I have been here 14 years, I wonder how many cars I've gone through in that time!

 

Strongly agree with you on this. An engine that makes quietly musical tones as it gets about its ordinary business, balancing the negative tyre and road noise is a nice place to be.

Sadly, hardly any enthusiasts seem to agree. They only care about the overall decibel level.

In the UK nearly all everyday cars are diesel after 15 years of incentive. To my ears non of them, regardless of whether they are V6, V8, straight six or V10 make an overwhelmingly pleasant sound. The odd one sounds like there is some sophisticated engineering in there, but never musical. However, the cabins are quiet (double firewalls, active engine mounts etc). Just don't put the window down in traffic; sounds like a bag of nails.

And thus a 400 mile journey is monotonous.

 

This is a thread full of old dinosaurs that don' like change. For ever justifying old technology because it' what they are comfortable with.

Wake up and get with it.

 

Love technology.

Just remember electric cars failed commercially at the turn of the last century after a period of success.

No new battery technology is here yet. Clean cities and some aspects of the driving experience are interesting.

The electric car might turn out to be as interesting as the Quartz watch. i.e. not very.

Its certainly not the clean energy scientific and technical dream of the last 30 years.

It is a solution for now. Depending.

 

They need to tax them on mileage as they don't pay any gas tax to maintain roads and they weigh substantially more than regular cars wearing them down faster. The Model X is 1,000lbs heavier than a BMW 7 series!

 

You mean like replacing the wonderful door shut on an old 911 or Rolls Royce with a cheap electric motor like on every new car?

 

Really? Thats pretty weak.

 

Turn of the century..compaired to now? You don' think battery technology has changed with in that time? Dinosaur much?

 

For now, yes you are right. However that will change. License fees will increase however once more and more of these types of cars hot the road to offset the gas tax.

 

There has been no leap in battery technology. There have been small incremental advances because of the success of portable electronics. Tesla and Panasonic have refined the engineering for their particular purpose, and have improved the manufacturing process. The Tesla car would not exist without the pre existing electronics industry.

The early electric cars were considered high quality products. Early 1900’s.

Perhaps you are a dinosaur because you want to believe in car tech from the early 1900’s updated, being sold politically as the big leap, when we have not actually achieved a clean energy technology for vehicles.

My point about soft close doors and trunks is that they are a load of bollocks being sold as hi tech. About the only legitimate case for advance is that small children and people with disabilities can close the doors tightly with little effort. That could be achieved through engineering. On a early Rolls Royce one of the design goals was that a woman (yes - sexist times) could operate all the controls wearing gloves. Next you will be telling me that the upward opening doors on the Tesla are hi tech.

 

You are far and away out to lunch. The tar pits await..

 

At least back in 1900 you could drive your 20 mile range city car in and have your batteries swapped for fully charged ones in a few minutes.

A Tesla can travel 265 miles (keep the AC off). Oh but there are now 7000 cells in the car and it would take quite a long time to swap the batteries out.

I see what you mean about battery technology.

 

Battery pack on a tesla I think has an 8byear warranty..however I may be wrong with that..

 

I see you live in The Cold North.

If you do buy a Tesla don’t turn the heater on.

 

I'm not worried about that. As a commuter car, it' not even on the radar..

 

That’s good because the range is halved in the cold.

 

Actually the tax is used to build and maintain roadways (in addition to public transportion) and Tesla owners are not contributing to that. There are more shortfalls in the fund requiring transfer of money from the general fund.

I never said every single road in the US is built that way if that's what you were implying.

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/what-highway-trust-fund-and-how-it-financed

Cyclists also don't wear down roads like a Tesla does.

 

We don't know that yet, Porsche is notorious for underestimating their performance while Tesla quotes times on perfect surface, optimum weather and batteries warmed up to maximum capacity.
Their times are not achievable in normal conditions as already proven by a number of publications (Autocar for example).
I like the concept and tested the P90 over a long weekend (achieved about 170 miles on full charge because of my heavy foot I guess).
Did not buy the car as it did not fill my needs for a daily driver but will give it another try with Mission or Tesla when they improve their battery tech and the interior.
Tesla also needs to differentiate their models more, I can't tell the S100 from a 75 as it is now.

 

The vast majority of the damage to roads is done by trucks not by cars, electric or otherwise. In addition, Escalades, Armadas and the like weigh alot more than the Model X.

The range anxiety thing is so overblown at this point. There are superchargers everywhere, the 100D gets 250miles of real range in the cold.

Sure a Ferrari V12 sounds awesome, but most engines these days sound like crap (or just have fake engine noise pumped in).

Yes there are downsides to an electric car, but there are also a ton more upsides. Always having a full 'tank' when you leave the house, and never having to go to a gas station is awesome. Throw some solar panels on your house and you're running completely off the sun. Not only no more CO2, but you're also no longer supporting all those awful countries whose dictators get all of the wealth from oil.

 

Oh come on. Just like the electric motor and batteries ICE's have moved on. The electric motor idea came about in the early 1820's (a bit of rotating copper wire) and eventually Tesla in the late 1880's? First batteries are of a similar era.
So I'd say that tech is older than the internal combustion engine. Both have moved on significantly but ultimately the main source of energy is old dinosaurs

 

I didn't say electric cars contribute the most, but rather they do contribute and pay nothing into it. Semi-trucks pay taxes based on fuel used and mileage driven/jurisdictions they use (IFTA and weigh stations are for that purpose). Large SUVs also pay more than lighter cars as they end up using more fuel.

 

Not against electric cars at all, but a lot of bad marketing out there. In most countries, a Tesla produces as much CO2/mile driven as a California T - just look up real mileage per KWh on a Tesla, then check how much CO2 per KWh is produced by a typical electric grid and compare that to a normal car (in Europe CO2 g/km are always published)

It’s shocking to most people...


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