We opted to lease a Tesla. They have been making EV’s for +ten years. The technology, range and design is superior to the other brands we looked at. With the rebates for switching to electric and turning in our old diesel (9 500 euros) it brought the price way down (comparable to Kia). And it is SO much fun to drive! After the lease is up, if the technology has changed significantly and we want to go with something newer, we can.
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Hi @Karen_Parker - overall has the Tesla, been a good car to own?
Have you noticed a big decrease in running costs?
Is charging becoming easier?
Thanks
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It’s been great. We plug it in at home (regular plug on dedicated circuit). If you have cheaper electricity in the middle of the night, you can program it to charge during cheaper times. Infrastructure of high speed chargers on motorways is good. Running cost much cheaper than diesel. We will never go back.
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They are also run by Elon Musk - 'nuff said.
Being serious for a moment and putting my dislike of Musk to one side I’m pleased it has been a good experience for you.
They did, as I said, offer the first properly practical, desireable even, EV’s and you can’t take that away from them.
Nor, actually, can you dis the charging network.
But honestly, I’m just not comfortable buying a car from a company who’s CEO says “yeah, don’t buy a car when we’re ramping up - we’ll ship any old carp out of the door at thet point, count yourself lucky if it has four wheels”.
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Another newbie EV question……
We have a 7kWh wallbox and charged Little Evie for the first time tonight, just up to 70%. However the app said the charge being drawn was only 4.5kWh. Why?
Google says that charging will slow over 80% to avoid overheating battery cells, which I can understand, but nothing about charging below that.
I don’t know what charger you have but some can be set to variable maximums, which is useful if you anticipate heavy heures creuses usage on a particular night. Mine can be set to 16, 20, 25 or 32A. Check the software, if that is a thing for you.
Others may have internal switches to achieve the same thing. Again, check the manual.
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Either a) because that’s what the car wanted or b) possibly because the charger determined that was the maximum safe rate.
EV “chargers” are not chargers in any real sense - that is done entirely by the car - their function is mainly safety, letting the car know how much power it can draw and monitoring that side of things (some of the plug in ones have temperature sensors in wall plugs etc).
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I agree Musk is a piece of work! But we found out our car was coming from the new factory in China where quality control is apparently much better than factories in the states. And safety ratings for Tesla are highest so that also helped with our decision.
Wasn’t there a story about Tesla misquoting safety ratings and claiming more than the NCAP maximum?
NCAP, bit of old crap anyway, 30mph crash, unlikely. X2 is oncoming and most roads so why not test at the real rate?
Yes Elon did his usual over egg, you have to understand his warped sense of humour, like the whoopee cushion sound
Not a thing for me at all! I am a numpty. But I can follow clues.,and yes charger is set to 20A so just need to work out how to change it. Thanks.
Both my Volvos (5 cyl, 1 manual and 1 autom.) have now exceeded this figure.
I refuse to invest in an EV and all the paraphernalia full stop. Now some will hype on about the Climate and all that gubbins, but the infrastructure isnt there to support all those EV’s no matter what is said and the fact that the worlds largest deposits of lithium are now in the hands of the Taliban, the future doesnt look good for EV’s and their owners. According to a former work collegue, the carbon footprint for the production of a golf ev is 4 times that of the same ICE version, the amortization of the carbon payback debt is around 14 years. Nah I am and will remain a suck, squeeze, bang and blow chap.
BTW, not so long ago a tesla blew up on the A8 here in France. Quite a fireball and the Pompiers stood back and let it burn, which I dont blame them.
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They havent even got past the planning stage and musk is thinking about ditching the site and going elsewhere due to the German authorities messing him about. Well the motor lobby in Germany is rather substantial and they dont want the competition in their back yard now do they.
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Especially now that the major producers are coming online with directly competing products.
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Text book story, and how many ICE vehicles catch fire, bloody loads but they dont make headlines.
the fact that the worlds largest deposits of lithium are now in the hands of the Taliban, the future doesnt look good for EV’s and their owners.
Hahahaha
I am sure that I heard that there are lithium deposits in Cornwall too.
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Maybe your grandchildren……? Not sure they will hold you up as a grandparent to be respected if you don’t give a €$*(& about the world you are bequeathing to them.
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There are, and they have been known about since the 19th century.
However production estimates were in the “few thousand tonnes per annum” bracket.
That puts us somewhere between Zimbabwe and Argentina as potential producers. No article that I found put a figure on total deposits.
Mind you total world reserves are only estimated at 14 million tonnes - about 165x the amount used in 2018 when EVs were less than 10% of the market. If EV production is ramped up tenfold (as it needs to) we could run out of Lithium within 15-20 years which is a sobering thought.
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Moon, Mars or maybe an asteroid or 2?