I'm sure the new factory LR are building in Warwick (?) is a battery factory, I know they're after 5000 extra staff for it, 1000 of which are supposed to be qualified engineers of various types. Opens in two years I believe ???

There was an article on PH that included Tesla and it's future. I'm a fan and have several friends with P85/90's but the statistics make interesting reading.



https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1703793 Regards
Mark

2009 D4; 1993 Classic 3.9 VSE

Car needed it's first reboot last night - had stopped getting data (it needs a live connection to run a lot of its systems such as infotainment and sat nav)

markdotreed wrote:

There was an article on PH that included Tesla and it's future. I'm a fan and have several friends with P85/90's but the statistics make interesting reading.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1703793

So, two months on - how's it going?

There’s a recent article here that describes living with the model X: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/01/tesla...mpetition/

The above article also touches on the Tesla build quality (see at the very end), which is why I am awaiting the I-Pace, on which the following comment was made regarding the launch date:

Quote:

Why the wait? If working prototypes have been shown for half a year, why do we have to wait into 2018 for the car?

“O.K., so you finally have that new car with all the bits it is supposed to be produced with. You also have something else: Some 3,000 minor quibbles, all in themselves no show stoppers, but in total, it’s not the quality a customer demands. For a truly refined car, you must work through these 3,000 nitpickings. And finally, you also need to be able to replicate it on a production line, which runs at one car every two minutes.”

I'm now a fan. My wife LOVES it. It gets lots of attention and people ask her about it constantly. Everyone who goes in it is impressed.

it took a while for them to sort the car's delivery faults. But they took it away and gave me an identical loaner, so no real pain.

It is fast, comfortable and quiet. The tech is very impressive (bit not as impressive as the Teslarati would have you believe). The Autopilot is only really suitable for motorways (not A roads) and the Adaptive Cruise is more prone to sudden braking than the Rangie (though it is better in a queue of traffic). The car has only just got rain sensing wipers (via an over-the-air software update). The heated seats in the rear and the heated steering wheel controls are buried in a menu in the central ipad thing.

We have done 2,000 miles in our car and it now is our first choice vehicle. I choose it over the Rangie unless I'm taking the dogs, or going shooting, or going over 200 miles. That is praise indeed.

The only trouble it gives is that it doesn't like OTA software updates. It hangs and stops charging. It then needs a reboot the next morning but isn't fully charged. Thankfully the range is sufficient such that this has never been a problem. We've never taken it below about 50 miles of range.

You just need to start using the many tesla charging points dotted all over the country then you'll go more than 200 miles.

Don't they charge to around 90% in half an hour or so on a hypercharger?

Thanks @emperor mong. I’m still very tempted by the 3, your experience only serves to make me more interested. Feel a conversation with Swmbo coming on!

@Paul thornton
Yes. I have free supercharging for life, so it makes sense. But there are none near me. In fact, I have never used one. It is always charged at home. I'm sort of itching to try a longer road trip. We haven't needed to go very far in it.

Some friends have invited us to the Dordogne in the summer and seriously considering doing it in the Tesla. The charging would add 2 hours to the drive.

There is a great website for you to plan out routes and establish where you need to stop and how long you'd need to charge:
https://www.evtripplanner.com/planner/2-8/

Apparently, when nearly empty, 30 mins on a supercharge can give you 150 miles of range. I don't know about you but a 45 minute break every 200 miles is probably sensible/necessary.

However, the current stat is that (in the UK) 60% of all charging happens at home and 30% at work. Most of the rest happens at the destination. A tiny proportion happens en route.

Thanks for the update - interesting.

Yes, I've seen similar stats quoted for where the charging takes place.

A vehicle with a (real world) range that exceeds 200 miles can often complete most journeys on a single charge, so home or work charging looks after those situations. Charging on route can be expensive in comparison (but not in the case of Tesla with the free charging for life option), although the infrequency of having to rely on it very often means that it isn't a big issue. Moreover, if you sign up to Ecotricity as your electricity supplier, you can charge up at many motorway service stations for a similar cost to doing so at home.

This presentation has some interesting stats/views.

https://www.slideshare.net/PodPoint/5-barr...e-adoption

Perhaps even more telling is that, were Land Rover to produce a fully electric Range Rover (with 250 mile range), I'd definitely buy one (assuming it was affordable).