Are Teslas any good?

[moltuae]

Found this video quite interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nreXNspBHgQ

They make some good points about why the Osborne Effect is making the transition to EVs very difficult, if not impossible, for the big ICE car manufacturers.

[tintin]

Originally Posted by moltuae

Found this video quite interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nreXNspBHgQ

They make some good points about why the Osborne Effect is making the transition to EVs very difficult, if not impossible, for the big ICE car manufacturers.

Yup, these guys are right (when they finally get to the point ), and I've been saying the same thing for years. It's now just the same for "Big Auto" as it has been with other sectors before/currently (hitech, retail, etc, etc). In all these cases old, established players have got fat, lazy, and arrogant, and have then been blindsided by an upstart whom they should have seen coming, who turns the sector on its head, and makes it much more focussed on what the customer wants and values.

Sadly, this often ends in massive restructuring (or complete erasure ), and the size and scale of that is always in direct proportion to the degree of fatness, laziness and arrogance of the existing players. I've seen this all too often in lots of "world class" organisations in the past (e.g. Kodak, Polaroid, Motorola, Ericcson, etc, etc), many of who were my clients at the time.

What's really sad is that often this failure to see this coming isn't for logical/economic reasons, but for human/emotional reasons (e.g. ego and arrogance - ). JLR's CEO is a classic example of this, in his initial "arrogant denial" mode (see here: https://europe.autonews.com/article/...uggles-for-evs ) - a view he espoused after Tesla had been successfully selling the Model S for several years) and consequently resulted in them wasting billions in new diesel engine investment. At about the same time, VAG were proclaiming even bigger investments in similar existing technology - also now effectively a write-off, with the concomitant impact on the livelihood of thousands of VAG employees.

The trouble is that often it's the size of these established organisations that is both the cause of this blindness to the need for change, and also of their inability to react quickly ("like turning a supertanker" to quote a rather cliched phrase). At least the new Audi CEO sort of gets this ("Tesla is 2 years ahead of the industry in critical areas, Audi CEO says": https://electrek.co/2020/07/27/tesla...reas-audi-ceo/ ), and recognises that he can't wait for the supertanker, so has to build a something new - a leaner, more agile organisation in order to try to catch up.

Until all of the major existing players in Big Auto both (a) recognise they need to do this and (b) succeed in making this happen, they'll continue to fail, sadly. But I hope they do manage it & it's fascinating to watch them try!

[A8 Doc]

Originally Posted by IT

Nice..... Another Model S joins the A8 fold....

Another Tesla has joined the forum recently too - but its not my news to share ;-)

I'm still actively looking to sell on my Q7 and pick up either another model 3 or a model S. The company car incentives are so far off the scale, its verging on insanity not to......

No tax disc now - they are exempt from luxury road tax and I now have my smart charger set to only charge it when my octopus agile tariff is less than 4p / kwh.

For some basic maths, that makes the Tesla cost about 1.5p per mile to run.... and that's enthusiastic B road driving.... :-)

Another A8 and Tesla owner.....!

Tesla X Performance 2020 here with FSD. Great car.

Ordered an S Plaid as well.

[tintin]

Originally Posted by A8 Doc

Another A8 and Tesla owner.....!

Tesla X Performance 2020 here with FSD. Great car.

Ordered an S Plaid as well.

Welcome to the fold

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by A8 Doc

Another A8 and Tesla owner.....!

Tesla X Performance 2020 here with FSD. Great car.

Ordered an S Plaid as well.

Just out of interest, did you manage to get free supercharging with your Model X?

It seems they've stopped offering it with new vehicle purchases again now. I was lucky enough to get free supercharging with my Model S (which I purchased back in May). I was going to delay purchasing it for a few months too. Glad I didn't now!

[tintin]

Originally Posted by moltuae

Just out of interest, did you manage to get free supercharging with your Model X?

It seems they've stopped offering it with new vehicle purchases again now. I was lucky enough to get free supercharging with my Model S (which I purchased back in May). I was going to delay purchasing it for a few months too. Glad I didn't now!

It's funny, isn't it? The actual "cash" benefit of this is pretty small as a % of the cost of the car, but there's something wonderfully liberating about driving around (silently...) for free, instead of burning £1 every 4 miles or so

[moltuae]

Originally Posted by tintin

It's funny, isn't it? The actual "cash" benefit of this is pretty small as a % of the cost of the car, but there's something wonderfully liberating about driving around (silently...) for free, instead of burning £1 every 4 miles or so

I suppose it is quite a small saving, compared with burning through petrol in a big V8, especially relative to the cost of the Tesla. And if you compare only the electricity costs, that you would otherwise have to pay, it's an even smaller saving.

But, yeah, you're right, it's not just about the cost savings. It is liberating to know that you can travel anywhere for free, and it's also kinda neat. It's a nice privilege/perk to be able to pull up at an exclusive parking spot in a service station, plug in and watch the battery quickly recharge, knowing that the vehicle's manufacturer is picking up the tab.

It's a bit like having all-you-can-eat broadband instead of a pay-per-gigabit connection. You might not take advantage of the unlimited data allowance all the time but it's good to know you can when you want to, without having to care about costs or monthly limits.

It is quite a substantial saving on a long trip however (compared with driving the S8). A typical trip to Southampton and back, including some driving around down there, used to cost me around £300 in petrol. That's typically about the same as the weekend's accommodation costs. Now that I can travel the country for free, it makes me want to get away and travel more or spend more on accommodation.

[A8 Doc]

Originally Posted by moltuae

Just out of interest, did you manage to get free supercharging with your Model X?

It seems they've stopped offering it with new vehicle purchases again now. I was lucky enough to get free supercharging with my Model S (which I purchased back in May). I was going to delay purchasing it for a few months too. Glad I didn't now!

I did indeed. Purchased December 2019 though.

Horrific paint issues though with the car, kinda had to look past that really and admire the Jaguar & Porsche if I want to look at paint!

Free supercharging is worth it for me, often doing 1000 miles a week at present so its a bargain. Solar and batteries on house so works well.

Missus has the iPace which she loves but the charging network is disgraceful.

Tesla network is excellent.

[ainarssems]

Good time to charge up your Tesla tonight when your energy company pays you to use electricity. It's just a shame I cannot get past depreciation cost of Tesla.

[tintin]

Originally Posted by ainarssems

Good time to charge up your Tesla tonight when your energy company pays you to use electricity. It's just a shame I cannot get past depreciation cost of Tesla.

Definitely. And huh ? Based on what? Not according to most analysts/surveys - like this one, for example:

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a3...-electric-car/

(PS: I deliberately picked a "non-EV" site )