Are Teslas any good?

[tintin]

Originally Posted by ainarssems

It's the limitation of planning aps we use in UK. I tried to plan route to Latvia and they say it's impossible and it does not show any charging stations in Latvia. Last is in Warsaw, you can allegedly get to Kaunas from there if you drive below 70km/h(45mph) and there is Tesla supercharger coming in Kaunas Q3 2021. It does not take in to account any local stations.

For example it does not show any in Latvia but while there are no high power superchargers in Latvia the biggest charging network had 112 50kW stations in November 2020 with 139 planned to be installed in 2021 of which 70 were completed by end of July 2021. And there are hundreds more low power chargers. So yes you can get around without fear of running out of juice it's just chargers are slower so it will take longer recharging, still you can get 50kWh charge in 1 hour good for about 150 miles, you just need to search for charging stations on local apps or on google and pay for charging.

Charging networks are much more mature now and, whilst the Tesla network is still streets ahead of the rest, the others are getting much better, so I very doubt you'd be stuck anywhere in Europe that's reasonably developed these days.

[sarg]

Originally Posted by tintin

Charging networks are much more mature now and, whilst the Tesla network is still streets ahead of the rest, the others are getting much better, so I very doubt you'd be stuck anywhere in Europe that's reasonably developed these days.

I have to disagree, how many of these chargers that have been installed actually work?

There are hundreds of stories of drivers being stranded because the charger they went to was out of order

[tintin]

Originally Posted by sarg

I have to disagree, how many of these chargers that have been installed actually work?

There are hundreds of stories of drivers being stranded because the charger they went to was out of order

I didn't say the network was perfect, simply that it's getting much better. The "stories" you refer to are - by definition - historic. The fact is that networks like Ionity and Gridserve are now streets ahead of Ecotricity (which quite rightly got a bad rap....) and it's a similar story for the other networks too.

Unlike refilling a petrol car, EVs also have a range of route planning apps that are pretty good at giving real time outages of any chargers (you only get that for ICE cars on motorway gantry signs if a service station is, for example, out of diesel), so being "stranded" is highly unlikely, if you use the information available properly.

I've never once been stranded - or even been anywhere close to it - in nearly 6 years and 120k miles of travelling in my Tesla.

[sarg]

We'll just have to agree to differ on this, whilst pointing out that I am quite certain that the Tesla experience is far better than any other EV predominately because of the wider available, and reliable, charging network.

We considered electric recently, and probably for 95+% of our journies it'd be fine, as we could have a charger installed at home and most journies would not require dependence on a 3rd party charger.

But that other 5% or so, we did not want that anxiety of not being able to find a reliable charger, at a reasonabel price (they seem to be getting quite expensive), which meant we'd need another car for the longer journies (or to rent one, but have you ever tried renting a car in the UK that you want to take abroad?? )

And the additional cost and inconvenience or running another car outweighed any EV benefits, in my opinion.

I'd still like to make the jump eventually, but not until the infrastructure has been improved many times over.

[ainarssems]

It took Tesla a week to respond and they said they cannot tell me anything as I am not current owner because of GDPR. The way I undersatnd GDPR is about protecting personal information. I never asked about owners name, address or phone number, only details about car. I do not see how is this affected by GDPR. They are either playing it too safe or can't be bothered. Anyway that car is gone now. First price went from £36k to £38.5k on autotrader while it was still £36k on sellers website, then disappeared next day. It was a nice car but I do not regret loosing out as I did not want to rush into it and there was couple of things I did not like. Light seats are not really for me and I would prefer 19" instead of 21" wheels and it seemed from video like it had a lot of stone chips at front and couple of scratches on the sides.

I have watched videos on youtube showing the seats folding on 7 seater which made me realise you don't get spare with 7 seater, further search revealed there is no spare at all on Model S which is a big deal for me. I understand on rwd models front boot is just big enough to store full size spare. So while I initially discounted RWD versions the possibility to have spare wheel at front and keep the rear boot space is a compelling reason to consider RWD, especially since they are cheaper. I also see that weight distribution places most of weight on rear axle so it's more like a mid engined car and not like BMW or Merc with no weight on rear wheels. I did have MR2 for a while and it was great car with lot of grip so perhaps I should give another consideration to 2wd even if I have not had 2wd car for over 10 years now.

Either way it seems like my next car will be electric, Tesla or another make and I have booked EV experience with Volkswagen ID.4 for 8 days/7 nights starting 09/10/21 for £120 from Milton Keynes EV experience centre https://evexperiencecentre.co.uk/ That's the kind of money you would pay for rental car for 1 day and I am having it 8 days. They include free charging on BP Pulse network and include 50 miles per day /400 miles total, and any excess is 25p per mile. I consider it very well priced and would encourage anyone considering EV to try it.

[tintin]

Originally Posted by ainarssems

It took Tesla a week to respond and they said they cannot tell me anything as I am not current owner because of GDPR. The way I undersatnd GDPR is about protecting personal information. I never asked about owners name, address or phone number, only details about car. I do not see how is this affected by GDPR. They are either playing it too safe or can't be bothered. Anyway that car is gone now. First price went from £36k to £38.5k on autotrader while it was still £36k on sellers website, then disappeared next day. It was a nice car but I do not regret loosing out as I did not want to rush into it and there was couple of things I did not like. Light seats are not really for me and I would prefer 19" instead of 21" wheels and it seemed from video like it had a lot of stone chips at front and couple of scratches on the sides.

I have watched videos on youtube showing the seats folding on 7 seater which made me realise you don't get spare with 7 seater, further search revealed there is no spare at all on Model S which is a big deal for me. I understand on rwd models front boot is just big enough to store full size spare. So while I initially discounted RWD versions the possibility to have spare wheel at front and keep the rear boot space is a compelling reason to consider RWD, especially since they are cheaper. I also see that weight distribution places most of weight on rear axle so it's more like a mid engined car and not like BMW or Merc with no weight on rear wheels. I did have MR2 for a while and it was great car with lot of grip so perhaps I should give another consideration to 2wd even if I have not had 2wd car for over 10 years now.

Either way it seems like my next car will be electric, Tesla or another make and I have booked EV experience with Volkswagen ID.4 for 8 days/7 nights starting 09/10/21 for £120 from Milton Keynes EV experience centre https://evexperiencecentre.co.uk/ That's the kind of money you would pay for rental car for 1 day and I am having it 8 days. They include free charging on BP Pulse network and include 50 miles per day /400 miles total, and any excess is 25p per mile. I consider it very well priced and would encourage anyone considering EV to try it.

That's a pity about that black one - I thought it was well specced and in good nick, though I agree about the interior colour. As far as the spare is concerned, I just carry a full sized one in the (massive!) trunk when I'm on long distance trips, so it's not been an issue. I also have 19 rims as winters, but definitely prefer the looks of the 21s, by a long, long way...

I've heard good things about the MK EV centre and it's good to see them doing deals like that - please report back on what you thought of the ID4.

[ainarssems]

Joined the club, 2016 90D.