Wow. This thing is amazing. I think we may have seen a raced up version in a garage at the ring last week. We couldnt figure out what it was.
This is worth seeing if you haven't already with more on living with the car. I'd like the challenge of getting the most out of the energy recovery. [video=youtube;rXAkuXMZ2BU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXAkuXMZ2BU[/video] It sounds like it could be quite expensive to charge at home.
Out of a 13 amp socket you get 5 miles of range per hour! lol A supercharger sounds good (As in a large battery charger, Not a supercharger as we know it...)
That's why I have mk2 golfs ( except headroom is a real issue for me in my road golfs ) We have solar panels at home and I've just bought a computer gizmo called an immersun that diverts all spare power to your hot water tank and any other item ( electric car charger ) when you set it to do so
That performance sounds great on paper but in reality- Quoted from Autocar So you can drive it fast for a while, them wait 70 mins to recharge it, bit of a tortoise & snail scenario
So just been for a test drive in a slow Tesla It's a different kind of acceleration it's just there and constant Accelerating from 10-50 and 40-80 are the same you get kicked back in your seat Just getting our accountants to check the different options of buying or leasing to see which is the cheapest route as I'm not bothered about owning the car if it's cheaper to lease . Just got a price for a ultra black edition A6 avant and it's 2300 cheaper to buy on credit than cash as Audi give a 4500 contribution or something I do like the latest A6 it's nice But the performance and handling on the Tesla are great I'd be getting a 85D with panoramic roof and rear seats. My brother who's 6'5" has more head room in the back than me as he's more legs and I'm body and head lol 85D The room inside is great but no places to stash stuff it pretty in person I'm really tempted will take Mrs and kids to see it on Saturday
So just been to showroom again for Mrs to have a spin in it , she likes it a lot Thinking about getting one of these It's 4000 cheaper than an 85d but 50 miles less range and 1 sec slower 0-60 at 5.2 secs compared to 4.2 on the 85d The thing is it's possible in the future that batteries will be a lot cheaper and more efficient ,they're developing graphite batteries for the future much lighter than lipo batts . It's a 20 job to fit a new battery but not possible to retrofit a front motor . The trouble as with all cars you want the extras which cost a fortune Thoughts folks
For me my work horse has to be able to do everything else including: Towing/Lots of boot space for moving things & be reliable. Personally id be worried about using a full electric car for anything in Europe. Its definitely a great bit of kit but I still feel we are 5 years+ away from a good full electric car. Id happily buy a hybrid though - when you look at all the current development - New BMW Z4, New Supra, BMW I8, Mclaren P1, La Ferrari etc this seems to be the current direction by the large manufacturers. I wonder if it could be a bit like a laptop at the moment where after a short amount of time it would be out of date - you say already lots of new upgrades are in the pipe line.
All software upgrades are free the battery and transmission have a unlimited mileage 8 year warranty extendable to 12 years after the 8 years are up Hybrids are pointless as you're carting around batteries and engine , it's just a way to get around the currant set of emissions laws . The tesla is the first car to give good range enough to make me feel comfortable . As a family we might go to London , Cornwall and Scotland once each a year the rest it 150 miles round trip max
I just can't see the attraction. The performance is impressive but is really only going to be exploited on the open roads where, when exploiting that performance, you have a limited range before a 7 hour recarge. A city car with that range makes far more sense, you could go a week or more before recharging. Tesla are the best of a bad bunch but there's still a long way to go before electric is a viable alternative to fossil fuel. That's before considering if the national grid could cope with a massive increase in overnight demand for electricity when 1000s of people want to charge their cars, it will certainly put an end to cheap off peak tariffs. Equally IF internal combustion engines die out what will the ecomorons start on next? Probably power stations, the don't like nuclear, they don't like coal, they hate fraking, wind & solar don't really work, hydroelectric means dams & dams drown poor little furry animals. We must all ride pushbikes.
I live in Manchester and with just the super charger network I could drive to any point in the mainland with a 30 minute stop at a supercharger and be fine to drive to a destination not bother charging and then get back to a supercharger . As I've also said there're more charging points in the UK than petrol pumps not all are high speed DC chargers but they're free and plenty of them to put my concerns at ease For me even buying on finance which I don't like but makes sense tax wise and I don't have the cash or a tesla makes it just about affordable for me . I'd always wanted a bmw M5 but costs are just so much now I'm looking at a mid spec tesla about 70000 M5 without any extras but obviously good spec 73000 Tesla BIK 70 a month out of my pay packet M5 BIK with fuel 550 a month out of my pay packet plus monster road tax , fuel , servicing and insurance costs Tesla 0-60 5.2 with cheaper battery 4.2 with 4000 more battery M5 0-62 4.3 secs 232 g /km Co2
If it makes economic sense then go for it, but time is also a factor. What would be the total turnaround time of using a supercharge point including getting there and back? And also a standard charge point. For me I don't think it would work in the holiday situation as I'd likely be using the car daily and the 5 mile per hour 2.4kW charge rate might not be able to keep up with usage. [strikethrough]If the Tesla isn't made out of 100% recycled aluminium it's already produced a lot of carbon. Worst case from bauxite is 342MJ (95,000 watt-hours) per kg[/strikethrough] But given that the M5 uses 10x as much steel it's probably moot.
