Thinking of changing your car ?

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
3 years for a model in the £25k bracket... interesting. Pair that with free fuel "for life" if you live near one of the charging stations, I could be sold....

I commuted for 2 years (summer only) on an electric bike to my work, 7p a charge for roughly 20 miles. I could charge it at my work so it was basically free. In 2 years I saved more than the cost of the bike in petrol money, then I got made redundant so I still have the bike but no more savings at the moment.

I do fancy an electric car mind you, only when they are like a 'real' car though and this is getting dangerously close. 3 years and I believe they could do it.
 

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
Tesla do certainly seem close to cracking the issue of getting the average person into an electric car. I was honestly expecting hybrids to become the norm but perhaps we will skip that almost completely

Oh and they tested it in Canning Town, not far from me :D
 

tom_gr7

Life Serving
I've had a ride in an electric car. Was a Vauxhall something, can't recall the specific model. It was very comfortable, very snappy, smooth and could accelerate and pull off quite quickly. The owner said it costs about 2.5p a mile and I think the tax was next to nothing also.

Personally, I love my Subaru with its flat four 2 litre VVT engine. It's easily the best car I've ever driven, therefore I can't see myself ever wanting an electric car or a car that isn't a Subaru. :)
 

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
Yeh lots of govt subsidies for an electric car makes it worthwhile for the middle-upper class I guess. No congestion charge in London as well
 

tom_gr7

Life Serving
Yeah I think you can get electric car charging points fitted to your house for next to nothing. Obviously, only of use if you can afford a 15-25k electric car.
 

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
Well they are still a lot more than even 25k. 50k is the base tesla.

I think the biggest problem is the lack of charging points. I've got 5 within a couple of miles radius of me and none have charging stations. Only ones I've seen are on motorway service stations.

25k is affordable for a large percentage of the population of my borough though the roads seem to be 60% mums with 4x4 BMWs or Range Rovers getting 10mpg.
 

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
Electric cars will be nice to drive because of the torque. Doesn't matter what you are doing, as soon as you put your foot down it goes.

2.5p a mile isn't bad at all, but the batteries will need replacing at some point and that is a killer at the moment. Renault rent you the batteries I think, once they are worn out they replace em for you but not everyone does that. The market is still very immature, it wont be long before the charging infrastructure is better developed and battery tech will catch up.

As far as hybrids, I never saw them as an option. Yes they have some benefits but an engine and batteries seems a bit pointless to me, unless it was just a small generator to charge the battery. Much like Geoff the hybrid car Top Gear made, which was quite frankly epic.
 

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
These batteries would be fine, they are huge batteries and likely the latest technology (although our battery technology is about 100 years old now) and anyone could afford one of these would be on some kind of finance and they tend to allow an exchange after 3 years.

And hybrids certainly aren't pointless. A small electric engine can not supply the power to accelerate, on a motorway for example. But, it provides superior energy efficiency and will use a fraction of the power at idle or in slow moving traffic. So are perfect for a city driver who occasionally goes on the motorway. Of course the Tesla's have a decent amount of power so hybrid technology would be pretty pointless.

A solar panel roof I think would be the best addition possible for this car now (excluding price). It's possible to have a coat of paint over solar panels so that they aren't even visible and this would extend possible distance

EDIT: Seems like the centre console runs a heavily modified version of Ubuntu. That could certainly mean some interesting stuff if some people were to get their hands on the technology. If the centre console has access to a lot of the engine which I believe it does by default then I bet some people could improve the battery life and performance of the car. Just like some android custom ROMs perhaps?
 
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Corfate

Author Level
Tbh, they would be useless for me.

I regularly drive 200 round trips for work, and if i'm right, don't most have ranges of like 90 miles?
 

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
Tbh, they would be useless for me.

I regularly drive 200 round trips for work, and if i'm right, don't most have ranges of like 90 miles?

The lowest model is rated for 240 miles, but probably wouldn't be suitable if you drive very long distances.
 

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
I really do want to have a test drive of the model s, it looks great and is apparently quite a machine to drive, all torque :)

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla_model_s

I'm not going to lie, the oatmeal's review kinda sold me too.

But 50k for the most basic of versions and closer to 100k for the top of the range (with a few toys)... that's mercedes AMG black kind of cash.
 

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
I really do want to have a test drive of the model s, it looks great and is apparently quite a machine to drive, all torque :)

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla_model_s

I'm not going to lie, the oatmeal's review kinda sold me too.

But 50k for the most basic of versions and closer to 100k for the top of the range (with a few toys)... that's mercedes AMG black kind of cash.

There is a new version being released in the US that is their cheapest version yet, think it said $30k which would probably be £20k after taxes and stuff, thats high end fiesta and low end focus territory.
 
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