Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) Electric Cars

With a total UK energy consumption of 142 Mtoe ....and the rest of the world vieing for the same battery raw material ....I think a bit more than 5x current capacity might be needed.

As someone who lives off-grid I worry at how much effort is going into batteries for high-end 'luxury' items ....a huge focus on miniaturisation to feed the 'mobile phone and Tesla' demographic ....in terms of locally (and ideally household) generation and consumption size is not the biggest issue ....as a self-generator I want a battery made from non-toxic, non-exotic materials...that can get discharged and sit discharged for weeks without damage, then take full charge again without drama and lasts decades ...I don't care if a 100ah battery is the size of an oil drum .....for domestic use size is largely irrelevant ..... obsession with luxury goods driven miniaturisation is robbing this area of research .

K

PS. I forgot to mention that the man absolutely refused to talk about the experience of having a home charger for his Tesla fitted on his house. He said it was just too hard to talk about!

Do you think this chap's experience with Tesla is typical for owners? I don't really know any other owners apart from Shooter and he's done loads of miles with no problems.

All the EV owners I know have BMW, Renault and Nissan. They are all massively keen, one might almost say evangelical about the advantages of EV ownership. I suppose it's possible they could be concealing a heap of problems because being early adopters, they don't want to admit to any downsides but knowing the people involved I find that difficult to believe.

It would be a shame if it turned out that for all the hype, Teslas were as bad as Range Rovers when it comes to reliability...

It can't be all bad news Tim. Mind you this chap was evangelical about it originally. (That's a great word for it :)).
Don't forget this is a used one. Then again Tesla come very low indeed on the reliability tables published to date.
What it made me think of is the modern way computerised tech comes out not thoroughly tested. So early adopters are guinea pigs for the factory........mmmmmm.....sounds familiar somehow
Nick

I would hope that EVs will prove more reliable than ICE cars .... when you consider how many of the ICE related issues are around the add-ons designed to make them cleaner....EVs have a head start, what with them avoiding all the egr and variable this and that by their nature .....of course scarcity of critical materials may cause them to be built to a compromise when they need to be produced by the millions..... my cynical nature says that current cars are built to a break point of reputation vs production cost..... and once the gloss is off EVs will be manufactured to the same ethos and will be much the same in terms of reliability .... tho legislation regarding longevity and repairability to counteract the damage of the 'throw away society's might help, and is long overdue.

K

I know four Tesla owners. None have complained about the experience generally.

The Tesla supercharger has come out top for all of them. The wall box and battery array has always had very positive responses however I would say they all have modern homes in urban areas so power availability should not be a challenge. The TV/dashboard has had a little stick for needing to go through a few menus from time to time but is generally easily adapted to. Only complaints have been limited colour choice, bland styling and the interior materials feeling a bit below par for the "luxury" market where the pricing sits. All intend to replace them with another Tesla unless something new and really improved comes along. One has admitted to placing an order for the Tesla TonkaTrunk.

Tarka was built, according to the build book, on 3rd July 2013.
So this July the car will be 7.
Nothing of note has gone wrong that cost more than a few hundred pounds to fix. Consumable and wear items have been less than expected.
The highest costs have been associated with "improvements and upgrades"...
10 year old cars are common, 20 year old cars are not exceptional.

Our last Mercedes was 7 when we got rid of it, only because I felt that a 2011 car with a 3.5L turbo diesel wasn't something to keep. But the car never went wrong and cost us little. It is probably still running...

What will a 7 year old Tesla, or any other EV, be like?

We all know that electrics are the achillies heel of modern cars so .......

Exactly. Electricity storage aka batteries is expensive... 14K for a pair of Tesla Powerwall units? https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/powerwall
Also consider the cost of changing everyones' CH systems... a H2 boiler conversion should work out cheaper...

By the time hydrogen is being widely piped around the country, the technology for storing a decent amount in a car should have improved. And then we might see the resurrection of the ICE!