Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

JKenH

Yes, if I was aTesla owner I would be a bit miffed. It was their USP. 

michaels

JKenH said:

Yes, if I was aTesla owner I would be a bit miffed. It was their USP. 

Do they get preferential treatment.  I am told that part of the reason people value business class flights is that others see them heading to the lounge, getting priority boarding and turning left, if Tesla owners get lower prices and perhaps priority queues then it might still actually be a win for Tesla?

JKenH

michaels said:

JKenH said:

Yes, if I was aTesla owner I would be a bit miffed. It was their USP. 

Do they get preferential treatment.  I am told that part of the reason people value business class flights is that others see them heading to the lounge, getting priority boarding and turning left, if Tesla owners get lower prices and perhaps priority queues then it might still actually be a win for Tesla?

From the videos I have seen from Bjorn Nyland Tesla’s don’t get priority. I have seen all his videos but recently he was charging a non Tesla and had set up some sort of account to get lower prices. I will try and find out a bit more.

Edit: you can get a Tesla charging account.

https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/support/non-tesla-supercharging

Martyn1981

michaels said:

JKenH said:

Yes, if I was aTesla owner I would be a bit miffed. It was their USP. 

Do they get preferential treatment.  I am told that part of the reason people value business class flights is that others see them heading to the lounge, getting priority boarding and turning left, if Tesla owners get lower prices and perhaps priority queues then it might still actually be a win for Tesla?

Non tesla users pay a higher rate, or pay a subscfription to reduce the price. So not a bad income stream.

Grumpy_chap

Possible regulation of charging points?
Not sure what to make of it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60394567

EricMears

Grumpy_chap said:

Possible regulation of charging points?
Not sure what to make of it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60394567

Sounds like asking for trouble !

The proposed 'regulator' would have to set up an office, employ staff and probably manage to make a huge dent in the funds (nearly) promised from the exchequer !  If indeed they managed to regulate prices that would almost certainly be a disincentive to new chargers being installed.

Left alone, companies seeing a gap in the market are likely to install new chargers and fix a price that they think the market will bear.  If they set their price too high,  nobody would (should) buy from them and they'd have to drop them.  The only 'regulation' needed is to see that suppliers don't band together to push prices artificially high - but existing monopolies legislation probably protects against that.

Martyn1981

Grumpy_chap said:

Possible regulation of charging points?
Not sure what to make of it.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60394567

I can't really understand why the car industry doesn't work together and roll out a massive charging infrastructure themselves, that way they could self regulate the prices, or operate them as a not-for-profit.

Tesla has a massive and pretty comprehensive network already, and expanding at about 50%pa, plus increasing V3 charge rates (again), so can't be too hard for a consortium of manufacturers to do the same, which would in turn enourage the roll out of BEV's, if that's what they want.

Grumpy_chap

Martyn1981 said:

I can't really understand why the car industry doesn't work together and roll out a massive charging infrastructure themselves, that way they could self regulate the prices, or operate them as a not-for-profit.

Would that be deemed as a cartel, or otherwise anti-competitive?

It is a logical idea, but I guess it would need to be some kind of separate "EV charge point Ltd" in which the various car manufacturers took shares.  The trouble is, this type of co-operation does not go along with the protectionism of different manufacturers saying they offer something special.  Car X offers a "special deal" with Ionity and Car Y offers a "special deal" with Chargemaster and so on.  It is not that long ago that EV's did not even all share compatible plug sockets - I am not sure that they even all do now.

It is absurd that the current infrastructure roll-out has this type of segregation and it detracts from the ease and growth of EV vehicle conversion from ICE. Just adding another part of complexity and "yeah, but..." for objectors.  The equivalent would be if Ford could only fill at Shell and Vauxhall at BP and Dacia and Tesco etc.

The difference in behaviour between Tesla and the legacy manufacturers really shows how the legacy manufacturers are stuck in the past and poor innovators as they cannot move beyond the case of being automotive manufacturers just building and selling cars, whereas the opportunity is (was) there for the legacy manufacturers to adapt and evolve into full life-style brands but they seem happy to let that pass. 

It does create a distorted market. 
If I was to buy an EV today, I would only buy Tesla and it is the charging network that makes that the outright case.  Tesla is expensive, but the best electric car solution. 
I think there are other cars that are electric that are better cars, but not better electric cars.  I don't think the Tesla is as good a car as the Audi or Mercedes EV's
Because every EV apart from Tesla is impacted by the same negative factor, the MG5 is as good as anything else as an electric car.  That, though, is very much a budget car and not the quality level I would aspire to.
We still have "odd" cars being put out to market by the legacy manufacturers to fill the "must have an EV in the line-up" tick in the box and these, frankly quirky, models do not advance the EV cause.

2nd_time_buyer

I am sure this has been covered elsewhere but how far do you think we are away from a budget BEV around the £10k mark? Will we ever get there? Or has the price of the cheapest car effectively doubled permanently.

I am thinking a little city runaround with a range around 50 miles. 

Grumpy_chap

2nd_time_buyer said:

I am sure this has been covered elsewhere but how far do you think we are away from a budget BEV around the £10k mark? Will we ever get there? Or has the price of the cheapest car effectively doubled permanently.

I am thinking a little city runaround with a range around 50 miles. 

What do you mean by "budget EV at £10k?"

If you mean brand new list price, then those days are gone.  Even the Dacia Sandero starts at >£11k.

If you include used, then that day is already here with a wide choice, with change to spare.  One example today:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/202201291902605