The Tesla Thread

Associate
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I'm watching this very closely as I've wanted a Model S for a long time however I just couldn't justify the outlay for it and I would have to consolidate to one car and get rid of the 350Z. The Model 3 looks like a real possible daily for me although comes down to the range, I regularly (like twice a week) do a ~110 mile roundtrip so things like the Leaf are out for me as I need a fully electric car that can do that range comfortably. The Model 3 would be the first car that with the rumored range of 200 would manage it comfortably :)
 
Soldato
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I think these make a lot of sense. Less weight, less power needed, less drag, smaller batteries, faster charging. It would make a great personal mode of transport.

BMW already make one....it's just very expensive at £13K. The petrol version of the same bike is about £8500 I think.
 
Caporegime
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The bottleneck there is your houses electrical infrastructure though, not the car technology itself.

It's a bottleneck that exists for most people though. The majority of homes will not be able to have a fast charger fitted. Tesla are keen to shout about how fast you can charge with a Super Charger, but are deliberately vauge with the speed of home charging. A full charge on a normal wall socket for a Model S is something like 36 hours.

Home charging is a non starter as household electricity connections will always be the bottleneck. Electric cars need an infrastructure of places that you can go to and fill up with energy quickly and locally and then they will take off and dominate all. Batteries will never ever do that.
 
Soldato
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I think what they need to do is get the superchargers into supermarkets or somewhere else people can spend 30 minutes without feeling they are wasting time.

If you are taking a long journey, most people I'd have thought take breaks every few hours anyway.

The real problem with this idea is that they won't have enough to go round at critical times if the cars take off. Building lots of spare capacity which isn't being used 90% of the time is also too expensive.
 
Soldato
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It's a bottleneck that exists for most people though. The majority of homes will not be able to have a fast charger fitted. Tesla are keen to shout about how fast you can charge with a Super Charger, but are deliberately vauge with the speed of home charging. A full charge on a normal wall socket for a Model S is something like 36 hours.

Home charging is a non starter as household electricity connections will always be the bottleneck. Electric cars need an infrastructure of places that you can go to and fill up with energy quickly and locally and then they will take off and dominate all. Batteries will never ever do that.

In the states with 110v maybe 36hrs.... Unless they have a dryer outlet in the garage with that mystical 240 volts.

Home charging is how 95% of EV drivers do most of their charging.

Last two sentences; no idea what your trying to say.
 
Soldato
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It's a bottleneck that exists for most people though. The majority of homes will not be able to have a fast charger fitted. Tesla are keen to shout about how fast you can charge with a Super Charger, but are deliberately vauge with the speed of home charging. A full charge on a normal wall socket for a Model S is something like 36 hours.

Home charging is a non starter as household electricity connections will always be the bottleneck. Electric cars need an infrastructure of places that you can go to and fill up with energy quickly and locally and then they will take off and dominate all. Batteries will never ever do that.

I agree

And by the end of 2016 you will be able to drive from John O'Groats to the southern tip of Italy via the supercharger network (or Istanbul, or Iberia, or Stockholm etc etc)

Tesla are pushing very hard to get the infrastructure in place already.

The same goes with Hydrogen fuel cell cars, it's the infrastructure that lets them down.

People perceptions are built around the abundant convenience of Petrol stations in the modern world. Things will soon change for the newer technologies :)
 
Soldato
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Isn't the point, that you plug it in at home and charge overnight on Economy 7? The superchargers make driving cross country/continent possible.
 
Soldato
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Tesla Email said:
We’re excited to share more details about our Model 3 unveil plans. We’ll be live streaming the event on Tesla.com beginning at 8.30pm PDT on March 31. Tune in to join in the experience. We can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on.

Reservations for Model 3 begin on March 31st worldwide. There are two ways to make a reservation. The first, which will allow you to get a better spot in the queue, is to visit your local Tesla store when it opens on March 31st. Second is to make a reservation online at Tesla.com when the live unveil starts at 8:30pm PDT.

In order to be as fair as possible, there will be a different queue for reservations in each region. And as a thank you to our current owners, existing customers will get priority in each region (one priority reservation for each Tesla they own). For those who aren’t Tesla owners yet, this means the fastest way to buy a Model 3 is to buy a Model S or Model X.

Model 3 production is scheduled to begin in late 2017. When production begins, we will begin deliveries in North America starting on the West Coast, moving east. As we continue to ramp production, we will begin deliveries in Europe, APAC and right-hand drive markets.

Thank you for your continued support!

The Tesla Team
 
Caporegime
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Isn't the point, that you plug it in at home and charge overnight on Economy 7? The superchargers make driving cross country/continent possible.

Most people won't be able to have home chargers, and those that do will be limited by the quality of their electricity supply. Being able to drive 200 miles a day and fully charge over night is a myth.
 
Soldato
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Most people won't be able to have home chargers, and those that do will be limited by the quality of their electricity supply. Being able to drive 200 miles a day and fully charge over night is a myth.

Most people = those in flats and terraced houses? Those with driveways have the option of having a outside plug installed. And if having it installed, might as well get more then a 13amp supply.
 
Man of Honour
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The majority
and even those without such a drive way there are options, there are companies doing on street charging and if you have a set space on a new build away from your house even easier.

You seem to like throwing non issues up. These people are unlikely to be first adopters, but there's no reason they can't swap to eve eventually once infrastructure matures.

Also when the average commute for men is 10.2 and for women 6.7miles. The majority wont need to top up anything like 200 miles in a night. And can just top up at work car park, as there's incentives for companies to install them.

When's the bolt being delivered to customers. As model 3 isn't till end of 2017 and that's north America, so EU won't get it till 2018. If the bolt starts shipping soon, that's a large lead.
 
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Caporegime
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"The majority"

Got anything to back that up? The stats I've found suggest over 45% of UK homes are flats or terraced houses.

People dont always drive the average every day, that's why it's called an average. Sometimes people do long journeys, sometimes they do short ones.

The entire electric car argument is full of lots of clauses and conditions that have to be met, with the supporters just blindly assuming you will be able to meet them. My boss at work thinks they are the best thing since sliced bread, yet doesn't have one because he can't, even though he lives in London so is the ideal candidate. He lives on a terraced Street with no allocated parking, the office in London doesn't have a car park, and the head office outside of London is a 100 mile round trip with no charger at it.

If even the people who think they're great don't have them, why would those of us who think they aren't even consider them?
 
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