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Re: Tesla / Electric Vehicles

Posted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 4:12 pm
by Chris_R
Has the car caught a virus?

Re: Tesla / Electric Vehicles

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2020 5:50 am
by AH1951
Chris_R wrote:Has the car caught a virus?
In a way, maybe it has?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ft.com ... 5839e06441" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Screenshot_20200319-124913_Samsung Internet.jpg
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Re: Tesla / Electric Vehicles

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2020 2:25 pm
by Richie
Are any car factories open anywhere at the moment?
If there are, they won't be for long

Re: Tesla / Electric Vehicles

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2020 2:35 pm
by RAP72
I suppose thats the problem of a JIT (Just In Time) supply chain. or as we had in the RAF a JTL ( Just Too Late )

Re: Tesla / Electric Vehicles

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2020 4:10 pm
by colin7673
Richie wrote:Are any car factories open anywhere at the moment?
If there are, they won't be for long
Watching 6ABC news last night and both unions of Ford and GM are asking that they should be closed as one of them is having an office block disinfected.

Re: Tesla / Electric Vehicles

Posted: Thu Mar 19, 2020 4:27 pm
by Steve Payne
A friend was supposed to be getting a new van soon, the order was placed a few weeks ago but the dealer has rung him to tell him that the delivery has been changed to unknown from 8 weeks :shock: They have offered something else that is in stock or available but he had ticked a lot of options and nothing is close in stock.

It looks like he might have to wait a long time.

Taking this further if car factories are not producing and old cars are getting scrapped as is inevitable what will happen if this goes on for many months? I know for a fact that the Mini plant in Oxford produces about a 1000 cars a day alone.

Steve

Re: Tesla / Electric Vehicles

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 8:07 pm
by RogerBrotton
1000 a day ? ? Are you sure ? I'm always willing to learn, but I have to question that figure.
If true, it won't be for much longer, once the shut-down comes in.
No wonder modern cars are worthless so quickly !

Re: Tesla / Electric Vehicles

Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 8:15 pm
by Steve Payne
Yes Roger
https://www.businessinsider.com/inside- ... ?r=US&IR=T" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Shocking isn't it.

I have a friend who works there as a contractor, when he needs to shut the line down for critical maintenance he has to have insurance that covers him for £25 million worth of cover in case it takes longer than the time he reckons. The whole process is timed to the second, on the automatic parts of the line as soon a bolt has finished turning the car is moving.

Steve

Re: Tesla / Electric Vehicles

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 9:51 am
by Richie
Well, the car arrived on Saturday.
I've had to go to the office (48 miles away) both yesterday and Monday and I've done around 220 miles in it.

Early days of course but so far so very good. "Range Anxiety" is often a key consideration but - so far - no issue at all.

On Monday, the car used 116 miles of range to complete the 96 mile round trip, nearly all of which is motorway. I did have a bit of fun with the acceleration and the drive to work was straight into properly strong headwinds. I was hoping to benefit from these winds on the way home but by 5 o'clock, they'd died right down...

Although I am of course more than familiar with my route to and from work, entering these as destinations on the (google maps) sat nav will lead to the car calculating both how much battery will be there at arrival and at the end of the round trip, and I used this feature on Tuesday.

With the battery charged to 90%, I left home with a theoretical 212 mile range. The computer calculated that I would arrive at work with 65% available and complete the round trip with 35% remaining. I arrived at work 48 miles later with a 158 mile range remaining, so the car had used 54 miles to drive 48. With remarkable consistency, the car used the same 54 miles to complete the drive home where I arrived with 104 miles remaining in the 'tank'' which equated to 44%, as opposed to the predicted 35%.

Even knocking the range back to say 160 to 180 miles will rarely give me a range issue. I very seldom would do such mileage in a day and on the very rare occasions that I do, such a route will nearly always take me past rapid chargers - some are more rapid than others and these can easily be found on line and planned into a journey. The viability of an electric car is therefore not, in my view or situation, likely to be determined by range, but by the ability to replenish that range at home - doing so is more convenient than filling up for petrol once a week.

So far, so good...

And the car itself? Its perhaps in a honeymoon period and I'm still getting to know it but so far so very good. Its properly good to drive - it can be great fun - especially the acceleration but also nicely composed and refined on the motorway which is where I'll be spending a lot of time. The adaptive cruise control works really well but has a weird quirk to it, which I'm not particularly keen on. The car uses Google maps to know where it is and, it usually knows the speed limit of the road it's on. For cruise control, it will use the higher of either the speed limit or the speed at which the cruise control is set. So if the cruise control is, ahem, accidentally activated on a motorway at say 75, it would stay at 75 - as this is higher than the speed limit. But,if you're happy at say 60mph on the same motorway and set the cruise control, the car will accelerate to 70 unless the driver reduces the cruising speed using the steering wheel scroll button. This seems bizarre to me.

One impressive feature of the system however revealed itself when I left the motorway and had to stop at the traffic lights before joining the dual carriageway. With no intervention from me, the car slowed itself on the exit slip road, coming to a gentle stop behind the car in front of me. The lights turned to green and, again with no intervention from me, the car accelerated on to the dual carriageway.

Anyway, so far, I'm very pleased indeed to say the least. As a company car, due to the income tax savings, it would be impossible for me to justify anything other than electric - and the car is a great car. If it were my own money (I wish!) there would be some far more complicated sums to do. But if you have the ££ available, based on this very early limited knowledge, I would certainly recommend at least trying an electric car. The issue would be is a £40K Tesla for example better than say a £30k Golf? Or a £60k Jag I Pace better than a £40k BMW etc etc? I don't think there's a right or wrong here because for some they will be, for others they won't.

Right now, I'm trying to find an excuse for a decent drive which, as I'm working from home for the rest of the week and with lockdown still very much in place in Wales, is tricky!

Re: Tesla / Electric Vehicles

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 11:13 am
by VFK44
There is an incredibly cute three-wheeler Estonian electric car called the Nobe, which will hopefully be in production soon. One clever idea, that others could follow:
Nobe says the car will also have a second, removable battery to run the lights, heat, and radio, and that drivers can remove this battery to charge outside the car—say, in a coffee shop—to get a few more miles of range. The second battery looks like a 1950s leather suitcase that sits in the footwell between the front passengers.
A removable battery that takes the place of the emergency petrol can would be great - you could get a lift to somewhere to charge it, from any 240v plug, and then use that charge to drive to a proper charging station.

Re: Tesla / Electric Vehicles

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 1:58 pm
by Martin R
Keep us posted Richie - it'll be interesting to hear your views in 6-12 months.

Re: Tesla / Electric Vehicles

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 2:37 pm
by Heeley
5AE49A60-9E1A-4DE5-A8F5-27E0879AFDBE.png
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I’ve just taken a look at the Nobe online.

That rear screen reminds me of a certain other vehicle (its even the same colour as mine)!

Re: Tesla / Electric Vehicles

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2020 2:40 pm
by Heeley
...come to think of it , maybe someone has taken an angle grinder to their Jensen..

Re: Tesla / Electric Vehicles

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2020 11:25 am
by Clive Bishop
Got a seized engine in a restoration project...hmmmm

Problem is the disproportionate costs of the electrics compared to a petrol engine replacement and with such low mileage for the "classic" the figures don't justify it?

Re: Tesla / Electric Vehicles

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2020 1:08 pm
by Richie
Clive Bishop wrote:Got a seized engine in a restoration project...hmmmm

Problem is the disproportionate costs of the electrics compared to a petrol engine replacement and with such low mileage for the "classic" the figures don't justify it?
My opting for an electric was entirely justified by the figures - as a company car it attracts zero benefit in kind tax this year, 1% next and 2% the following. I'll be paying less tax over three years than I would in one month for a petrol or diesel car! Add in cheaper fuel and the savings are massive. The tax breaks wont last of course, but I'd be daft not to take advantage in the meantime. And opting for the Tesla is hardly slumming it is it?!?

If I had the money to buy one, the sums would be much more complicated. But the heart could still be swayed to go for one.

But, though early days for me, so far I'm feeling like instead of being second prize (first choice was an Alfa Giulia) I may have ended up with the better driving - and for by far the vast majority of the time - more convenient car.

Time will tell...