Tesla cars

[Jojo]

A few weeks ago, when I parked the Disco at the airport to pick up my homecoming youngsters, an interesting stunning looking vehicle pulled up behind me. It turned out to be a Tesla Model S... I soon felt a bit out of place with my old fashioned, oil leaking truck . Should have spoken to the driver, but, as usual at airports, I was in a rush. Whilst I do like my Landies, I could not quite forget about the Tesla and finally decided to get some information about them. From what is written on the 'net, things look decidedly positive. Whilst I am in general not very interested in brand new vehicles, the Tesla definitely has a few good points to its merits, not only environmentally or technologically. I have so far always dismissed electric vehicles as toys or curiosity stuff without much practical value.
In our neck of the woods, so called zero-emission vehicles are highly subsidised, with reduced road tax and other benefits. You will even get a one off bonus (from the tax office!!!) when buying such a car. In addition to all this, you won't have to worry about road toll and congestion charges, as zero-emission vehicles are exempt from those fees.
As I am going to install solar panel on my property that will generate an annual excess in electricity produced, I will have access to cheap power. In addition to this, Tesla is setting up strategically placed charging stations that may be accessed free of charge. This means, I could run the car quite cheaply, at least when it comes to energy consumption.

I still am not completely convinced, but my previous rejection of these vehicles is starting to wither. One of my main concerns is the question of battery life expectancy and what will happen when the battery will need replacement. Does anyone of you have some decent information on this issue?
Tesla is going to release another model soon, called the Model X, which will, among other things, feature four wheel drive. This looks even more interesting to me, given the location of our residential home.

I am now interested in hearing your opinion, experiences, knowledge and are happy to take advice from anyone who has been traveling on this road already. Of course these cars are not cheap in any way, but the tax benefits and the virtually no-fuel-cost option make up for a fair bit of it, I reckon. Furthermore, I could probably buy it as a company car, giving me even more tax benefits.
Your opinion, gentlemen!!!
Cheers

[Homestar]

Very interesting. With our high electricity price, it wouldn't offer too many benefits to us if I had to pay to charge it every night. Just looking at their charging info page - Tesla Charging | Tesla Motors
Based on the KM that SWMBO drives to work and back, and inputting the price we pay for Electricity, it shows me it will cost $7 a day to charge it. Current fuel usage is $11 a day, so with a $4 a day saving - not as large as I thought it would be.

It shows there that the national average price for electricity in the US is $0.12 per KWh - I'd love to see those prices here - it's basically a third cheaper over there to charge it.

That's not the only reason I'd look at one though, I love how far the technology has come, but I'm still unsure how long the batteries would last and what they would cost to replace.

I think they are getting very close, but I don't think they will become mainstream until the next leap in battery technology.

[rovercare]

Based on the KM that SWMBO drives to work and back, and inputting the price we pay for Electricity, it shows me it will cost $7 a day to charge it. Current fuel usage is $11 a day, so with a $4 a day saving - not as large as I thought it would be.

It shows there that the national average price for electricity in the US is $0.12 per KWh - I'd love to see those prices here - it's basically a third cheaper over there to charge it.

.

The yanks I work with also tell me they pay like $3 Gallon, so the price of fuel is a lot cheaper, so the savings are similar to here as far as a percentage

[Homestar]

Yeah, but I bet they pay a lot less for the vehicle to begin with too.

[DBT]

I subscribed to an online university physics lecture series from UC Berkeley a couple years ago. They studied the Tesla in quite some detail.

Their findings were that financial and environmental costs of electric vehicles were no less, when looking at whole of life economics. After 4-5 years, you are up for battery pack replacement. Think of the cost of all the fossil fuel you would have used in a regular car in that time and you will not be far off the budget for a new battery pack. Think waste disposal / reprocessing of the old pack, to help see the full picture.

The point of the study was energy cost / conservation / management. The cost of fuelling an electric car is not in the charging (which (like wind resistance in most physics thought experiments) can be considered a negligible component), the cost is in the energy storage infrastructure. This is where both the financial and environmental cost lies.

It's all very obvious in retrospect, but the point was hammered in, due to Tesla's big marketing push around "zero running cost" of their electric cars at the time.

It all comes down to battery technology. We still have a ways to go before zero emission really is just that.

Regardless, they are very cool cars. If I had rooftop solar and a company car option (with hand-back after 4 years), I would seriously consider one as well.

[rovercare]

Yeah, but I bet they pay a lot less for the vehicle to begin with too.

They pay a lot less for everything, I never realized the cost of living was so bad in aus compared to a lot of western countries till I worked with people from around the globe

[Redback]

The minimum wage is a lot less also.

Baz.

[Rextheute]

I'm intrigued by them - and a more affordable version will be released early next year .
have a look here for 'up to the minute discussion ' !

For “tesla” - Search - Whirlpool Forums


Yes , I am a nerd !
But the technology is awesome - On the 'battery won't last 5 years ' aspect , I see an awful lot of hybrid camry and prius being used as cabs with many many kilometres on them . More than I will do in ten years !
Although my vehicles would have close to a million kms on them as a collective number .
No ,not a 4wd , can't tow with it . But as a vehicle perfect to do the other jobs required .
Or you could buy a camry ....no soul , no passion or character tho - does the job without fuss.

[superquag]

Food for thought.... the previous models had 6,831 individual '18650' lithium cells... 11 modules of 9 groups (69 paralleled) in series... Around 7,700 for latest models.

ONE total failure can take out a battery pack, so I read some years ago when Tesla were having fun with cars being allowed to run to a too-low battery state. - Standby charge current was.... significant..

For the mathematically interested.... http://www.teslamotors.com/it_IT/for...ery-discussion

and here... http://insideevs.com/2-billion-lithi...loyment-graph/

And another Forum here... about 1/3rd down is some 'interesting' comments regarding Apple and their laptops-battery life... how they test and get the life they claim.

http://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/...18650_battery/

[Jojo]

I managed to escape from my job a bit earlier today and went straight to the Tesla showroom, which is basically just down the road as I discovered. So far, it is the only one in our country, so the early escape was worthwhile.
It was interesting to see the vehicles in the flesh, being able to check them out completely. As already mentioned, Tesla is developing another model in a lower price bracket as well.
With regard to the batteries, the assistant explained that there is an 8-years warranty on the battery pack, meaning you won't have to worry for several years to come. By then, the prices for the batteries should have come down a fair bit, for a variety of reasons. So far, there are no long-term experiences as these cars are on the road only for two years or so, but some of them have covered already about 150k kms, with only a marginal reduction in battery capacity. I was assured the electrics are not made by Lucas
What I didn't know, the vehicle is mostly made of aluminum, qualifying the Tesla to make a good companion to the Land Rovers in the garage at home

A drawback I found was the lack of a proper spare wheel, but this seems to be ubiquitous on modern cars. Anyway...
I will have my accountant to make some calculations if purchasing such a vehicle will be sensible from an economical point of view.