Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) New toy

The other slight issue is ...you get there and someone else is using the chargers which take at least 30 mins ? Imagine waiting more than a few mins for a petrol pump to be available .....

Last time I called at the VW Dealer, the single charge point was blocked by a diesel car.

I had been planning on swapping in my Mercedes A 200 4matic for a Tesla 3 in 2020, but had come around to the idea of a new petrol plug-in hybrid A 250e. Why ? The main attractions of the Tesla for me were decent range for an EV, 4WD and zero company car tax. The A class has a claimed range on electric power alone of 44 miles; more than enough for my regular day-to day running around, sufficient to get in and out of Paris, and then for longer journeys the 1.3 litre turbo engine would provide adequate performance with no range anxiety. The company car tax isn't zero; it's a massive €30 a year; with my use I reckon I could count on about 250 mpg from one.

TBH, on the Tesla, I wasn't sold on the massive touch screen for controlling everything, and IMHO the quality of the fixtures and fittings, interior materials and textures, are not up to those of a well specced Benz.

As to the 4WD, it's no longer such a big deal for me. I wanted it because we had a ski flat in the alps, but we sold that during the course of 2020, so will not be going skiing as often; FWD and snow tyres/chains are more than adequate for infrequent trips to the mountains.

Anyhooo, 2020 and the Covid crisis put paid to new cars being anywhere near the top of the agenda. Indeed, I've got rid of the A class, replacing it with an electrically assisted bicycle. We are now a one-car family, with the SLC as our only car.

I've found on some commercial premises a staff car is used to block it, this is willingly moved if you need access and apparently stops some numpty blocking it that they can't contact

At some point there will be a glut of light up signs to be installed in these spaces "oi numpty that's not an electric car so shift it" which will light up and sound a loud klaxon to shame those doing it. There's money to be made here.

To answer a few questions raised by different posts.

Tesla state that servicing is not required. The only issue is consumables, tyres, washer fluid, perhaps wiper blades. I have never had to get brake pads yet!. It is worth getting the 4 wheel alignment checked from time to time (especially if you hit a pot hole) as bad alignment can mess up range.

Superchargers are for long journeys. Unless you live in an apartment building or have no off street parking, then you have the ability to start each day with a full tank! How often to you use more than 200 miles in a day . I don't think there are many of us that live more than 150-170 miles from a Tesla supercharger in Uk or Western europe (I haven't driven the Tesla in Spain or Portugal so might be an issue there).

Ask yourselves this: If my car has a full tank of petrol, how often will I need to fill it up today? Unless you are leadfooting it in my Vanquish, then probably very rarely would you need to put petrol in. The only reason would be so you can have an almost full tank when you got home, ready for the next day. My fuel supply is at home and at current retail electricity prices I get the equivalent of about 200 MPG (I actually get substantially more because the majority of my fill ups are solar generated, but if I relied just on E7 night-time rates that would be my equivalent cost).

As mentioned previously, long trips will require stopping and charging. I would say that people who do not stop at least once in a 300 mile plus drive to be bordering on negligent. from the moment you pull up to a pump to the moment you drive out can take up to 10 minutes if you pay inside. But how long if you stop for a cup of tea, water the plants and have a stretch? 15-20 minutes? In that same time, I will have added close to 100 miles more range. Does anyone have lunch these days when travelling? I do. What is nice about the EU Tesla chargers is they tend to have a lot adjacent to some nice restaurants etc. In the UK, more are services but some are at nice hotels and of course there are slower destination chargers at quite a few nice eateries around the country. As I said before, its a different mindset but I can do most 500 mile plus journeys in a broadly similar time in a Tesla to a regular vehicle. Where I wouldn't would be down foolishly driving on in my 500mpg range diesel with no stopping.

In 6 years of ownership I have had to wait about 5-6 times to charge. When I got the first one, it would take 1hr40 minutes to get a full charge on the road. Software updates to the car and hardware updates to the charging network have reduced that to circa 45-50 minutes and my battery is 15-20% bigger on my current car.

Forgot to say, No real issue with depreciation compared to any other similar car. In reality, I have had zero depreciation as the cost savings made on fuel and servicing are greater than the residual sale price of the car. Having said that, cars that do not have the free supercharging will find that that cost benefit is much narrower. At the price Tesla charge for electricity the average mpg comparison would be circa 50-75mpg (75mpg because some people to get close to 300 miles range, I always do my calculations on 200mile range).

Thank you Shooter. It's great to get unfiltered feedback from the real world.

The car tells you how busy the superchargers are... the one at Amesbury (16 miles from me) has 16 bays and is 250kW (the newest V3 Tesla chargers) - super quick and never (ever) busy. Low to full in 20 minutes or so. My nearest supercharger is 10 miles away and that has 2 stalls, not that busy and 150kW - again, super quick.

Outside of the Tesla network, charge rates are 7kW or 50kW, appreciably slower and, of course, they all have different operators requiring apps with payment cards registered. It's the wild west if you're not in a Tesla.

The range on my car is 350 miles and costs around £6 to fill up overnight. I rarely do a 350 mile trip - but if I did, there are dozens of Tesla superchargers dotted over the country.

The latest Tesla batteries are, allegedly, capable of 15,000 cycles (charges), that's around 500,000 miles. I would be very happy to get 200,000 miles out of them. My Range Rover (which I bought new) has 150,000 miles on the clock and is worth the price of two pencils. Residuals are not an issue when compared to other daily drivers - it's not a classic car.

I don't intend running out of volts whilst on the road - in the same way I wouldn't run out of petrol. They need to go on a flat bed and be taken to a charger if that happens... but the car will tell you to get to a charger and where one is. So it's very unlikely to happen unless I'm being an idiot.

I am getting on with it fine - it's quick, very easy and comfortable. You could argue it's rather underwhelming in some respects - similar to being on a first class airline seat, comfortable and easy and a little uninvolving. But for munching miles on motorways and dual carriageways, it's perfect.

Biggest qu has to be range deletion at motorway speeds - 25%? 50%?. I’ve seen a few Tesla cruising at 60-65 with all other car traffic doing 70-80. Of course some have been mixing it fine...