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[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

You forget one minor detail... any suitability specced Model S can be fast charged for free, for life at any Tesla dealership/service centre/supercharger point

The batteries also have an eight year, unlimited mileage warranty. Which is nice 8)

By the time they are half that age they'll probably struggle to get you to the local corner shop.

I'll wager they cost a pretty penny to replace.

[Field Marshal Dr. Opti]

Do you happen to have a Tesla Dealership/service centre/supercharger point handy, sir? 

Even if these become as frequently-spaced as a Vauxhall Dealership - that's around 5-600 in the UK - that's still not enough of an infrastructure to account for the 'silly sod' factor of modern life. If people don't buy wind up clocks/watches any more because they forget to wind them, and have to take a spare USB lead into work, because they forget to charge their phones, and so on and so on, so too will their electric cars be running out of juice frequently. Hence an infrastructure no less extensive and massive than streetlamps or telephone lines will have to be implemented. And more extensive than petrol stations, given that, as said, you can't just pop in and give your car 500 miles range in 5 mins, as with an Internal Combustion vehicle. An hour for 300 miles is the best option presently. Or 22 miles for an hour's charge at normal rate.

I'm not rubbishing the technology, the two options, Hydrogen Fuel cell and all-Electric are the future, no getting round that - Hybrid will cease soon enough. I'm simply observing that, just like when the telephone was invented, that it's no good there being one (well, two  ). For it to be practicable there had to been a network of them, spread nationwide. TV in the 30s was expensive and stupid, two different formats, incompatible with one another, and only a hour or so of TV per day. It takes time for a new technology to find its feet, and find its place, and again, the infrastructure to support it. Ironically, the Electric Car was invented almost a century before TV, but that's another matter 


I'm one of only two PFL Omegas left in my town, I look forward to the day where I'm running the last Petrol-powered car in the town 

Hydrogen fuel cell......yes. .This is the way forward.

Battery.......nah. .......19th and 20th century technology at best.

Petrol powered hybrids shouldn't be necessary if battery technology was the future.

[Gaffers]

I am biding my time for the Model 3 to come out in 2017 which is, coincidentally, when the baloon deal on the Leaf runs out.

Can't wait.  I like the Leaf, a lot.  And I have gotten used to the range anxiety, in fact I am able to drive somewhere and return on 'fumes' (aka turtle mode) purely on feeling by feathering the throttle and braking well in advance without getting afraid of running out anymore (unlike SWMBO).  Admittedly we are coming up to the end of our second year so I have plenty of practice.

I do snigger on  the approx 3 times a year I visit a petrol station to fill up a car that when I get asked "Do you have a loyalty card?" 

[Viral_Jim]

You forget one minor detail... any suitability specced Model S can be fast charged for free, for life at any Tesla dealership/service centre/supercharger point

The batteries also have an eight year, unlimited mileage warranty. Which is nice 8)

By the time they are half that age they'll probably struggle to get you to the local corner shop.

Are you sure about that?

There is a taxi firm in Amsterdam that has been using them for a while. My understanding is that Tesla offered them a *very* good deal on the cars in exchange for telematics, range & charging data. A way of getting accelerated miles on the cars if you will, while also testing the durability of other components such as door handles, interior trim etc. The battery data collected is very interesting.

I think the full study is linked in the docs on the website but looking at the trend lines on this webpage would indicate that after 90,000 miles, around 94% of the vehicles range remains. Or that the original 265 mile range (with most users achieving 240-250 in temperate climates) would be around 247 (or 227-235 in the real world) miles. Hardly a catastrophic loss.

If I am in the market for a new car, I will seriously be looking at the model 3 when its comes out in 2018. Assuming it meets its target price of around £35-40k and has the same warranty. An 8 year usage of 160k would save around £18,000 in fuel over a 45mpg diesel. And would probably have sub 6 second 0-60 time to boot. More importantly, it allows for a very quiet ride and never needing to queue up at a petrol station behind a queue of people each putting £4.87p worth of diesel into their cars!

[Gaffers]

You forget one minor detail... any suitability specced Model S can be fast charged for free, for life at any Tesla dealership/service centre/supercharger point

The batteries also have an eight year, unlimited mileage warranty. Which is nice 8)

By the time they are half that age they'll probably struggle to get you to the local corner shop.

I'll wager they cost a pretty penny to replace.

Thy wouldn't offer the warrantee if they weren't confident, surely.

The annual check up of the Leaf batteries recently showed they were in excellent condition despite getting hammered with rapid charges and lots of cold weather usage.  I dont care because there is a 5 year no-quibble warrantee on them but 19 months in and I still have all 12 bars available 

[tunnie]

You forget one minor detail... any suitability specced Model S can be fast charged for free, for life at any Tesla dealership/service centre/supercharger point

The batteries also have an eight year, unlimited mileage warranty. Which is nice 8)

By the time they are half that age they'll probably struggle to get you to the local corner shop.

I'll wager they cost a pretty penny to replace.

Thy wouldn't offer the warrantee if they weren't confident, surely.

The annual check up of the Leaf batteries recently showed they were in excellent condition despite getting hammered with rapid charges and lots of cold weather usage.  I dont care because there is a 5 year no-quibble warrantee on them but 19 months in and I still have all 12 bars available 

One question, cabin heat. How does it generate it? Normally it's air over nice hot coolant.

So on a frosty morning, I start the car, then come back in and get ready. When leaving it's all toasty and warm and defrosted. With leccy, does it heat up quick? Assume so, like a normal electric fan heater it's instant heat 

[Gaffers]

You forget one minor detail... any suitability specced Model S can be fast charged for free, for life at any Tesla dealership/service centre/supercharger point

The batteries also have an eight year, unlimited mileage warranty. Which is nice 8)

By the time they are half that age they'll probably struggle to get you to the local corner shop.

I'll wager they cost a pretty penny to replace.

Thy wouldn't offer the warrantee if they weren't confident, surely.

The annual check up of the Leaf batteries recently showed they were in excellent condition despite getting hammered with rapid charges and lots of cold weather usage.  I dont care because there is a 5 year no-quibble warrantee on them but 19 months in and I still have all 12 bars available 

One question, cabin heat. How does it generate it? Normally it's air over nice hot coolant.

So on a frosty morning, I start the car, then come back in and get ready. When leaving it's all toasty and warm and defrosted. With leccy, does it heat up quick? Assume so, like a normal electric fan heater it's instant heat 

The chap at Nissan we dealt with talked a lot about that, apparently the early Leaf models had an issue with the heater not working quickly or effectively enough.  In the current version it heats almost immediately but not constantly as it 'intelligently' manages the flow of warm air.  This is an element I dont like because when not heating, it will blow cooler air which in defrost mode you wont notice, but if like me you like your feet to be kept warm when you drive (so your shoes dry out) the air alternates hot and cold, thus an ensuing on/off of the feet mode.

One thing I do like, A LOT, is that I can heat/cold the car from a distance via the App.  This triggers a 30 minute session of heating/cooling to the preset temperature and if the car is plugged in to the charger if will use the wall leccy rather than the batteries to do this.  That way in winter I get in to a car which is nice and toasty, with defrosted windows and a warm steering wheel and in the summer it isn't swealtering inside when you step in.

I am pretty sure that the Tesla has this functionality as well.

[BazaJT]

My main problem if I were ever to buy an electric car would be charging it at home as the nearest I can get any car to the house is across the street and I'm not sure folk would take kindly to electric cables draped across the pavement/road while it got charged up.

[chrisgixer]

My main problem if I were ever to buy an electric car would be charging it at home as the nearest I can get any car to the house is across the street and I'm not sure folk would take kindly to electric cables draped across the pavement/road while it got charged up.

I'm guessing people who can afford one of these can afford to buy heir own street Baza.
I don't expect to see a "ludicrous mode" in any of my cars.

[Gaffers]

My main problem if I were ever to buy an electric car would be charging it at home as the nearest I can get any car to the house is across the street and I'm not sure folk would take kindly to electric cables draped across the pavement/road while it got charged up.

This was one of the reasons we got a (small) house rather than a (smaller) apartment with underground parking.  That and the fact that the estate agents were definitely on the take so would have had to bribe them to get the apartment I wanted