EV Discussion thread

1961Nick

Grumpy_chap said:

JKenH said:

So is that around £35k for a brand new car? If so, well done. 

Strange how the laws of supply and demand work at Tesla - only one car available in white but the assistant can offer it at a bigger discount than the other cars in stock. Still, who would complain about that!

Not that cheap as it is a LR.  I am still pleased with what we have.

Very interesting, how the "only one" appeared at exactly the right time for us.  It was just after I'd mentioned that we were disappointed to have missed out on the scrappage incentive by selling our old car privately for £1k.  Of course, the official narrative is that if we had not sold the old car, we could have had the scrappage on top of what we agreed.

I'm impressed by Tesla - I only e-mailed them my clarifications late this afternoon (Sunday) and, within 20 minutes they confirmed the wall charger is qualified for. 

I hope they'll confirm the SC miles also - they just advised it apparently takes "up to" two weeks to make a stock "Ready for Delivery" car ready from order.  That would explain the 2nd July - exactly 2 weeks from today.  If they can pull it in 2 days earlier (Friday instead of Sunday), then we are within June.  It is quite possible that the back-office teams that do all this only work Monday-Friday plus, of course, the whole idea of the incentives is to ensure that the TESLA quarter-end figures are as favourable as possible would be missed if they end up delivering the cars that have been ordered over the next two weeks out into the middle of July.

However the price was pulled out of the hat, I am certainly not complaining   The resultant £5.5k delta to a red one was also great as it killed off any deliberations.

Congratulations.

I'll be amazed if you don't get delivery before the June quarter end.

Grumpy_chap

1961Nick said:

Congratulations.

I'll be amazed if you don't get delivery before the June quarter end.

Thanks Nick.

I certainly hope so.  I was really rather disappointed when I was in the showroom placing the order and the Assistant said we would miss the month-end by 2-days.  Nothing I said at the time would get a guarantee of doing any better.

Then I thought about it, and Tesla sent an e-mail on Monday this week about the free charger and then called and e-mailed to notify the SC offer only on Tuesday this week, subject to order and delivery being achieved in June.  The SC miles did not get on the website until later in the week.  Given these incentives are all about quarter-end, and we've got in the first weekend following the offer launch so that's not exactly tardy on our part.

It wouldn't work for Tesla financial periods if all these incentive-driven orders failed to deliver the incentives to the customers and I am certain there would be a lot of bad press coverage if that were the case.

Here's hoping

I have to thank all the members of this forum who were so helpful in guiding my journey to an EV, especially in steering me away from some of the mistakes I could have made.

JSHarris

Tesla are certainly different! 

I bought a black Model 3 LR in November 2019.  Absolutely the very worst car I've ever owned in 50 years of holding a licence.  Worse even than the 1989 Jaguar XJ-S (and that REALLY takes some doing!).  The build quality was simply appalling.  Severe paint damage at collection was the least of the problems.  The front suspension ball joints were both broken - made a loud knocking noise as I tried to drive out of the collection point.  Tesla staff told me I'd accepted the car and it was now my problem, not theirs.  The boot leaked water so that the underfloor area filled up every time it rained.  The rear lights filled with water and had to be replaced (twice).  The charge port stopped working because rain leaked in through a crap weld.  The paint kept falling off the door cills - resprayed by Tesla but kept happening.  The door seals leaked water when it rained.  The door glass never sealed properly so there was a lot of wind noise above 50mph.  The roof glass leaked as it had been fitted skew whiff at the factory.  The underbody cover fell off because half the fixings had been left off.

After 14 months I gave up.  About a third of my mileage till then had been trips to the service centre to get the car fixed.  I sold the heap of crap and got a proper car.  Nothing would induce me to buy anything made by Tesla, or even accept one if it came free with a packet of Smarties.  Absolutely the very worst company I've ever had the misfortune to give well over £50k to.  The only saving grace was that, like Apple products, there are a lot of completely crazy Tesla fanbois that worship their god Musk.  This worked in my favour as one of these deluded nutters paid an OTT price for my steaming pile of poo, so I only lost about £3k.  The power of social media and complete and utter BS surrounding Tesla and Musk never ceases to amaze me though.  It's like a religious cult.

JKenH

This is what Auto Express had to say about the Model 3 in their customer satisfaction survey out this week. (75 cars listed).

THE Model 3 is awarded great scores by owners for its drivetrain, running costs and safety features, but its slippery shape is placed in a dismal 74th position for style, and reliability is rated at the lower end of the table, too.

Being second overall for acceleration and fourth for drivetrain smoothness is laudable, but while the ride and handling scores include ninth for driving pleasure, satisfaction with ride quality is a poor 68th. First place for servicing costs is a Model 3 win, while safety features net fifth place. But the quality inside and out is rated as a dreadful 73rd and 75th, which must contribute to a weak 57th for value.

Suggestion about Auto Express Issue 1784 page 48
https://go.readly.com/magazines/5b1e52e303c6b73109000054/64881422716c62576c4109f5/48

In case anyone is wondering it was the Polestar 2 that took the top spot for acceleration. 

JSHarris

JKenH said:

This is what Auto Express had to say about the Model 3 in their customer satisfaction survey out this week. (75 cars listed).

THE Model 3 is awarded great scores by owners for its drivetrain, running costs and safety features, but its slippery shape is placed in a dismal 74th position for style, and reliability is rated at the lower end of the table, too.

Being second overall for acceleration and fourth for drivetrain smoothness is laudable, but while the ride and handling scores include ninth for driving pleasure, satisfaction with ride quality is a poor 68th. First place for servicing costs is a Model 3 win, while safety features net fifth place. But the quality inside and out is rated as a dreadful 73rd and 75th, which must contribute to a weak 57th for value.

Suggestion about Auto Express Issue 1784 page 48
https://go.readly.com/magazines/5b1e52e303c6b73109000054/64881422716c62576c4109f5/48

In case anyone is wondering it was the Polestar 2 that took the top spot for acceleration. 

That exactly matches my experience.  I don't know how many ~120 mile, whole day,  round trips I did to the service centre, getting defects fixed.  I also had a couple of visits at home.  No real complaints about the service centre staff, but the car should never have needed to go back there once, let alone several times.

Perhaps I was just lulled into thinking that new cars shouldn't go wrong, having owned several Toyota's over the previous 20 years. 

JKenH

JSHarris said:

JKenH said:

This is what Auto Express had to say about the Model 3 in their customer satisfaction survey out this week. (75 cars listed).

THE Model 3 is awarded great scores by owners for its drivetrain, running costs and safety features, but its slippery shape is placed in a dismal 74th position for style, and reliability is rated at the lower end of the table, too.

Being second overall for acceleration and fourth for drivetrain smoothness is laudable, but while the ride and handling scores include ninth for driving pleasure, satisfaction with ride quality is a poor 68th. First place for servicing costs is a Model 3 win, while safety features net fifth place. But the quality inside and out is rated as a dreadful 73rd and 75th, which must contribute to a weak 57th for value.

Suggestion about Auto Express Issue 1784 page 48
https://go.readly.com/magazines/5b1e52e303c6b73109000054/64881422716c62576c4109f5/48

In case anyone is wondering it was the Polestar 2 that took the top spot for acceleration. 

That exactly matches my experience.  I don't know how many ~120 mile, whole day,  round trips I did to the service centre, getting defects fixed.  I also had a couple of visits at home.  No real complaints about the service centre staff, but the car should never have needed to go back there once, let alone several times.

Perhaps I was just lulled into thinking that new cars shouldn't go wrong, having owned several Toyota's over the previous 20 years. 

I think with Tesla you get some good and some bad cars, which can happen with many brands but the fact that Tesla finished so badly in this owners satisfaction survey on build quality suggest the problem is endemic. Toyota, of course, have had a couple of issues, I recall, with the wheels (in)famously “falling off” their BZ4X and a few years back with sudden unintended acceleration, the latter also affecting Tesla car and of course sun roofs were flying off some Teslas as they were driven home from collection. 

Like you, though, I owned a Toyota for a long time without a single issue (MR2 for 9 years). The fact that Toyota though will offer a warranty for 10 years (if you have the car serviced annually with them) is testament to their own confidence in their build quality.

JSHarris

Our experience with Toyotas was that we've owned 4, none ever had a single issue.  A Prius in 2005, another Prius and a a Yaris Hybrid in 2010.  A Prius plug-in from 2013 to 2018. 

Certainly my 2019 Model 3 was one of the early cars, built in California, and those cars were far worse than the later production cars from China in some ways.  The issue I have is  that once you've owned a lemon of a car it adversely colours the brand name for years.  I vowed never to buy another Jaguar when I sold my XJ-S in the early 1990s.  I still had deep misgivings when I bought the I-Pace in early 2021, the only thing that persuaded me to forgive Jaguar (after nearly 30 years) was that the I-Pace isn't made by JLR, but by Magna Steyr in Austria.  As it happens the I-Pace has been as faultless as the Toyotas. 

Grumpy_chap

Here's something I never thought of.

Got an Electrician round today to quote the installation for the EV charger.  He mentioned that before he can connect the EV charger load, both the incoming fuse and the meter will require uprating by the electricity supplier and the DNO.  I doubt they'll be particularly quick, though the costs might not be too bad as set by the OFGEM (probably).  I hope that can all be done without requiring the main incomer cable being changed.

Martyn1981

Grumpy_chap said:

Here's something I never thought of.

Got an Electrician round today to quote the installation for the EV charger.  He mentioned that before he can connect the EV charger load, both the incoming fuse and the meter will require uprating by the electricity supplier and the DNO.  I doubt they'll be particularly quick, though the costs might not be too bad as set by the OFGEM (probably).  I hope that can all be done without requiring the main incomer cable being changed.

We had the same, the DNO changed their 'fuse box' to a 100A unit, and upgraded the main fuse from 60A to 80A. It was quick and easy, and whilst the chap was there he installed a ..... what was it called ... dual pole breaker switch, or something like that, too.

silvercar

Grumpy_chap said:

Here's something I never thought of.

Got an Electrician round today to quote the installation for the EV charger.  He mentioned that before he can connect the EV charger load, both the incoming fuse and the meter will require uprating by the electricity supplier and the DNO.  I doubt they'll be particularly quick, though the costs might not be too bad as set by the OFGEM (probably).  I hope that can all be done without requiring the main incomer cable being changed.

Are you having a Tesla charger? If so, you will also need a PEN conductor installed. Don't ask me what that is, but the facebook Tesla groups all discuss that the Tesla charger doesn't have a built in PEN so any competent electrician should insist that you also have it.