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Tesla cars

I have just spent a few days in china and Hk and seen so many tesla cars, in fact amazed how many.

Actually I am sitting in the back of one on the way to the airport and I have to say I totally understand it now.

I really really want one now. Check out the size of the screen.

Such a nice experience and the fact they would smoke every car on the road to 100k/62mph is amazing.

Comments

  • Nice cars, but a starting price of £50K?
  • edited June 2017
    I don't understand how Uber drivers in HK are driving Tesla's? Journeys cost about £1 where ever you go
  • Prices here start at around $150k totally insane but their are quite a few around.
  • How far can they go ?
  • MrOneLung said:

    How far can they go ?

    650km on a charge but obviously depending on weather, that may change the mileage a little.

    My hotel had one, chose it over the S class to see what it was like.
  • MrOneLung said:

    How far can they go ?

    650km on a charge but obviously depending on weather, that may change the mileage a little.

    My hotel had one, chose it over the S class to see what it was like.
    They won't do anything like that. Tesla UK says maybe 300 miles with the heating or air con on and that's at a constant modest speed. Add in running the large screen, cameras, sensors, blowers, wipers and headlights, etc in foul UK weather and the vagaries of the M25 and "range anxiety" and careful route planning are major issues still. I looked at a P100D Model X but that is advertised with a 250 mile range and was over £140k - well out of my price bracket! (The cheapest Model S is about £65k.)
    Don't get me wrong, they are great cars but they are very expensive to buy and either need batteries with greater range, or more superfast charging points than there currently are. Or a combination of both.
  • edited June 2017
    cafcfan said:

    MrOneLung said:

    How far can they go ?

    650km on a charge but obviously depending on weather, that may change the mileage a little.

    My hotel had one, chose it over the S class to see what it was like.
    They won't do anything like that. Tesla UK says maybe 300 miles with the heating or air con on and that's at a constant modest speed. Add in running the large screen, cameras, sensors, blowers, wipers and headlights, etc in foul UK weather and the vagaries of the M25 and "range anxiety" and careful route planning are major issues still. I looked at a P100D Model X but that is advertised with a 250 mile range and was over £140k - well out of my price bracket! (The cheapest Model S is about £65k.)
    Don't get me wrong, they are great cars but they are very expensive to buy and either need batteries with greater range, or more superfast charging points than there currently are. Or a combination of both.
    Totally agree. Great cars and I almost ordered one - but then had a re-think and decided I couldn't live with the range limitation. The technology will advance quickly enabling rangers of 700-800 miles and a recharge in an hour (with more and more charging points in place).

    Until then a plug-in hybrid is what I'll drive (although I never plug it in!!).
  • Saw a presentation this week by their European sales chief. The next phase / model is scheduled to be their move in to mass market. The scale of their "Gigafactory" development in Nevada is quite scary. It will be an interesting few years - US free trade Tesla versus tariff barriered Audis and BMWs?
  • Saw one in Evesham the other day, parked up just round the corner from me. Not seen one before.
  • Go to any motorway services. There's dozens of them as they have nowhere else to charge up for free.

    Wonderful vehicles but hardly the Ferrari of the Prius world.
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  • Headquartered in Fremont, California - just down the road from where I live. Plenty on the road over here. The Ludicrous model is just that. Took it for a test drive last year. Phenomenal performance - 0 to 60, 2.5 secs. Also drove and parked itself. Priced here at about $140k. Elon Musk the Tesla owner is a visionary.


  • Rich peoples play things.

    When they are the same price as Ford Fiesta and can do 500 miles on one charge then they have succeeded.
  • I reckon I must know at least 20 people who've told me what a fantastic car it is after a test drive.

    None of them have bought one yet.
  • I have a man crush on Elon Musk , there I said it.
  • Gatwick are starting to get these on the taxi fleet
  • Saw a presentation this week by their European sales chief. The next phase / model is scheduled to be their move in to mass market. The scale of their "Gigafactory" development in Nevada is quite scary. It will be an interesting few years - US free trade Tesla versus tariff barriered Audis and BMWs?

    Yeah, it's called the Model 3. Range is much lower, maybe 150 miles in the real world. (Which might be fine for a regular commute but rubbish for a holiday or anything.) It is also a great shame that it's a really bland looking car. It looks straight out of the 1990s - a sort of Ford Puma but without the style.
  • cafcfan said:

    Saw a presentation this week by their European sales chief. The next phase / model is scheduled to be their move in to mass market. The scale of their "Gigafactory" development in Nevada is quite scary. It will be an interesting few years - US free trade Tesla versus tariff barriered Audis and BMWs?

    Yeah, it's called the Model 3. Range is much lower, maybe 150 miles in the real world. (Which might be fine for a regular commute but rubbish for a holiday or anything.) It is also a great shame that it's a really bland looking car. It looks straight out of the 1990s - a sort of Ford Puma but without the style.
    When I first read about the Three, I started to think it might be for me, as it appears that it might be priced in the same bracket as my current hybrid (Citroen DS5). However, when i looked at the map of charging stations I realised that exactly as you say, our regular holidays with car - not to mention weekends in the mountains in winter - are totally out of the question.

    Oh, they say, but this will rapidly change. Well, the thing is that when I looked at the one supercharging station on the Czech D1 motorway, I read that it take half an hour. It's not like stopping at a petrol station.

    I realise electric cars are the future, and as you say, around town, they are already the present. But in Europe a Tesla remains as @MrOneLung said, a rich man's plaything. One of them lives in the swanky private estate opposite us (a gated estate, in Prague, FFS). It is a brilliant orange ragroll effect colour. I often see it around my area and one day I'm going to try and ask the owners what long distance journeys they do.

    Right now I am expecting to stick with my hybrid, and probably the next version of the DS5, which I love. The claims Citroen made for range in electric modeonly are criminal misrepresentation. Nevertheless, the real selling story is clear enough: On the same fuel consumption as my wife's Yaris, I shimmer around city and motorway in the same type of car that transports the President of France.

  • No they were Tesla's. In Beijing it's hard to get a license for a normal car. Apparently easier to get a electric car license.

    In HK I believe the import duty was a lot lower until this year on electric cars, although it doubled this year, you could make a very healthy profit selling a 2nd hand one.
  • cafcfan said:

    Saw a presentation this week by their European sales chief. The next phase / model is scheduled to be their move in to mass market. The scale of their "Gigafactory" development in Nevada is quite scary. It will be an interesting few years - US free trade Tesla versus tariff barriered Audis and BMWs?

    Yeah, it's called the Model 3. Range is much lower, maybe 150 miles in the real world. (Which might be fine for a regular commute but rubbish for a holiday or anything.) It is also a great shame that it's a really bland looking car. It looks straight out of the 1990s - a sort of Ford Puma but without the style.


    Oh, they say, but this will rapidly change. Well, the thing is that when I looked at the one supercharging station on the Czech D1 motorway, I read that it take half an hour. It's not like stopping at a petrol station.


    Indeed. You might be able to wile away 5 minutes quite happily while you wait for the motorist in front of you at the petrol pumps. But imagine if you'd just been beaten to the only super-charger and it would be half an hour before you could even get started! And what if you were third in the queue and the bloke who had his car plugged in was having a leisurely lunch? Has there yet been a punch-up at a charging station I wonder?
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  • edited June 2017
    cafcfan said:

    cafcfan said:

    Saw a presentation this week by their European sales chief. The next phase / model is scheduled to be their move in to mass market. The scale of their "Gigafactory" development in Nevada is quite scary. It will be an interesting few years - US free trade Tesla versus tariff barriered Audis and BMWs?

    Yeah, it's called the Model 3. Range is much lower, maybe 150 miles in the real world. (Which might be fine for a regular commute but rubbish for a holiday or anything.) It is also a great shame that it's a really bland looking car. It looks straight out of the 1990s - a sort of Ford Puma but without the style.


    Oh, they say, but this will rapidly change. Well, the thing is that when I looked at the one supercharging station on the Czech D1 motorway, I read that it take half an hour. It's not like stopping at a petrol station.


    Indeed. You might be able to wile away 5 minutes quite happily while you wait for the motorist in front of you at the petrol pumps. But imagine if you'd just been beaten to the only super-charger and it would be half an hour before you could even get started! And what if you were third in the queue and the bloke who had his car plugged in was having a leisurely lunch? Has there yet been a punch-up at a charging station I wonder?
    The range increases are the key - if a Tesla had a range of 800 miles or more then I would have got one without question. More than enough range for 99.99% of motorists in the UK to be comfortable with charging at home every couple of weeks.

    The technology is advancing almost daily and that sort of range will be possible in just a few years.
  • bobmunro said:

    cafcfan said:

    cafcfan said:

    Saw a presentation this week by their European sales chief. The next phase / model is scheduled to be their move in to mass market. The scale of their "Gigafactory" development in Nevada is quite scary. It will be an interesting few years - US free trade Tesla versus tariff barriered Audis and BMWs?

    Yeah, it's called the Model 3. Range is much lower, maybe 150 miles in the real world. (Which might be fine for a regular commute but rubbish for a holiday or anything.) It is also a great shame that it's a really bland looking car. It looks straight out of the 1990s - a sort of Ford Puma but without the style.


    Oh, they say, but this will rapidly change. Well, the thing is that when I looked at the one supercharging station on the Czech D1 motorway, I read that it take half an hour. It's not like stopping at a petrol station.


    Indeed. You might be able to wile away 5 minutes quite happily while you wait for the motorist in front of you at the petrol pumps. But imagine if you'd just been beaten to the only super-charger and it would be half an hour before you could even get started! And what if you were third in the queue and the bloke who had his car plugged in was having a leisurely lunch? Has there yet been a punch-up at a charging station I wonder?
    The range increases are the key - if a Tesla had a range of 800 miles or more then I would have got one without question. More than enough range for 99.99% of motorists in the UK to be comfortable with charging at home every couple of weeks.

    The technology is advancing almost daily and that sort of range will be possible in just a few years.
    I think even 400-500 would do it for me. When we go on holiday we always break up a trip to Croatia with an overnight stop. But even then you need to know that

    1. manufacturers are not bullshitting on range - like they all do on fuel consumption.

    2. You can plug it in overnight. I'm still unsure about when I get to my Croatian destination. In practice, in Croatia the deal is private apartments. I'm trying to imagine how close I would have been able to park the car so that the cable can reach. You often don't know until you get there, and it will of course vary from day to day.

    Then when you consider @cafcfan 's excellent portrayal of the charging station.....Nah!
  • Since semi retiring a few years ago I have taken quite an interest in EV's and even done some conversion projects ( a 3 ton dumper being the most interesting) and battery technology is the key.

    The amount of time it takes to get energy back into the battery packs once discharged and cost of cells at the moment make most vehicles cost and range prohibitive but with the new Tesla factory coming into operation and the focus on its none automotive Tesla panels, there is now genuine hope that these limitations can be overcome.

    My current project is an off road EV buggy for use where petrol buggies are too noisy and it's performance so far is equal to petrol - just have to make it run a bit longer before recharges now!
  • bobmunro said:

    cafcfan said:

    MrOneLung said:

    How far can they go ?

    650km on a charge but obviously depending on weather, that may change the mileage a little.

    My hotel had one, chose it over the S class to see what it was like.
    They won't do anything like that. Tesla UK says maybe 300 miles with the heating or air con on and that's at a constant modest speed. Add in running the large screen, cameras, sensors, blowers, wipers and headlights, etc in foul UK weather and the vagaries of the M25 and "range anxiety" and careful route planning are major issues still. I looked at a P100D Model X but that is advertised with a 250 mile range and was over £140k - well out of my price bracket! (The cheapest Model S is about £65k.)
    Don't get me wrong, they are great cars but they are very expensive to buy and either need batteries with greater range, or more superfast charging points than there currently are. Or a combination of both.
    Totally agree. Great cars and I almost ordered one - but then had a re-think and decided I couldn't live with the range limitation. The technology will advance quickly enabling rangers of 700-800 miles and a recharge in an hour (with more and more charging points in place).

    Until then a plug-in hybrid is what I'll drive (although I never plug it in!!).
    Is that realistic in the near future? We haven't had many breakthroughs with batteries for many years, and every time I read about one, it turns out to be more wishful thinking than a bona fide breakthrough. By no means an expert so hope I'm wrong.

    Gatwick are starting to get these on the taxi fleet

    Given what they charge for journeys, Gatwick Taxis could probably afford to gold plate their cars.
  • Many taxis in Shenzhen are electric built by a company called BYD.

    They are relatively cheap and good. Not sure of the mileage limit

  • Tesla's are superb, i've driven both a Model X and a Model S. Both really are great cars, but expensive for what they are.

    Until they can get the price down and the range up they'll never be a huge seller. I've just done 450 miles today, couldn't have done that in a Tesla without adding a lot of time to my journey to recharge.

    The Tesla S P100d is ridiculously fast, 0.62 in under 2.5 seconds, thats super car territory. Think Porsche 918 @ £750k+
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