[Closed] saw this car today...

What is it?

Tesla ??

Tesla.

We have a couple in Dunblne. They look ace in red.

Tesla abbey road edition?

Is it a mondeo? Looks a bit like one. Will I have to take the front wheel off to get my bike in the boot?

EDIT; Ah, ok. NOT a mondeo then.

It was Tesla Model 3 awesome car

Red. Ace.

[img] [/img]

Edit:Blue though...,

[img] [/img]

I saw one last week on a farm lane while out riding. The driver was following his dog along the lane on it's evening walk. I just assumed it was an extra phat mobility scooter?

Dunblane has gone rather up market since I last took a tip through there! 😉

Tesla.. ah yes.. I saw one the other day. Not from the back though 🙂

It looks like a randy Mondeo shagged a Maserati, hence the startled appearance

I was alongside a blue BMW i8 on the M621 an hour or so ago; got to say it looked bloody brilliant 🙂

EDIT: Loike this

[img] [/img]

That is quite a good description....
Masadeo or Monrati?

Hugely underwhelming to look at. See also the Mondeo comments above.

However....I think that may be a good thing. For too long, "eco"* cars have looked silly. Silly as in, "Ooooh, look at me, everyone, I'm saving the little fluffy polar bears! I must be a [i]great[/i] person. Did I mention I was saving the planet with my lovely, cuddly car? I mean, just look at it! No one would drive something this silly looking if it wasn't saving ickle baby seals".

Tesla, at least with this one, seem to have taken a positive step to make it look like a car. Just a very ordinary car. Less about showing off, more about just being a car.

* Eco credentials can be questioned for most. Especially as most are promoted for urban use. Exactly where a car shouldn't be used.

Seen an i8 and a couple of i3s on the M4.

Someone in Cardiff on my route to town has an Ampera.. there's also a Leaf somewhere nearby too, I keep seeing it.

The i8 is a bloody abomination.

It looks bland and unadventurous, to be honest. I'm sure it's very clever though. And worth every penny of its price tag.

Bear - bloke across the road from us has one. Looks like something from the future, sounds like a beast when he thrashes it then silently glides along when he returns from the fag shop.
Itd be a crap bike car though, barely enough room for his shopping

I'd be feeling a lot more positive about Tesla if they weren't so expensive. They're making out that they've done something revolutionary in making an electric car with a decent range, but they've only done it by putting tons of batteries in which cost a fortune. The only reason other manufacturers haven't done it is cos no-one would pay £60k for a small Nissan.

The i8 is a bloody abomination.

Ah, if you'd seen one serenely approach, pass, then float in front of you to give you a full view, you'd not think that.

It's lovely in a way I can't describe!

EDIT:

Looks like something from the future,

Definitely something in that. What's not to love about progress? 🙂

Friends in Marin have a Leaf. The salesman cautioned them as they left about the dangers of new customers rolling their cars.

"Don't go turning over a new Leaf" Oh how they laughed.

The i8 is [s]a[/s] bloody [s]abomination[/s] lovely.

Fixed it for you

I have seen several i8s (I live in Harrogate after all) including have one give way to me this morning. Really, I don't like them, too many fancy bits, too many silly panels. Feels like it's trying to be an 80s Lamborghini Countach.

i8; VERY pretty, but pretty useless, really. But no more so than its petrol guzzling equivents, so we'll done BMW, I think...

However....I think that may be a good thing. For too long, "eco"* cars have looked silly. Silly as in, "Ooooh, look at me, everyone, I'm saving the little fluffy polar bears! I must be a great person. Did I mention I was saving the planet with my lovely, cuddly car? I mean, just look at it! No one would drive something this silly looking if it wasn't saving ickle baby seals".

Which Clarkson book did you pull from your bookshelf for that one? (I imagine you have them all.)

Ok. Our views differ, JD 🙂

(I imagine you have them all.)

So glad you imagine things about me, but you imagine wrong. I have none.

What sunglasses for an electric car?

So glad you imagine things about me, but you imagine wrong. I have none.

I imagine you're deliberately misunderstanding my use of the word "imagine". But fair enough, it's just that you've always seemed such a fan of his, and I imagine* you share many of his views.

*if you need the usage explained, let me know.

It seems we're all slaves to American Advertising (hence the contents about the appearance). The die has been cast.

Nonetheless, shit's about to get real.

Check out the Urban Foresight EV Casebook.

TL;DR : get used to them.

(And I'll have one in Red, in Insane mode please)

Did anyone watch that Storage Hunters prog a few weeks ago where the container had a box in it but none of the bidders knew which container had the 'big surprise' in it? One couple went for it and drove off in a red Tesla.

They had one of those Tesla's on display in our shopping centre last weekend - sat in it and had a poke about.

I thought it was very nice, the interior felt well put together and (despite the huge touch screen) quite simple:

[img] ?20150604[/img]

It also felt HUGE on the inside - bags of room in the back, and the boot is pretty large too. Surprised me that the room under the bonnet is also storage too.... where is all the engine gubbins?

Conversely - I also went in a Prius last weekend too. We have come a long way 😉

[img] [/img]
That's it. Welcome to the future.

^wow!

That's pretty amazing.

Just over 100 people where I work (Accrington - manufacturing), 2 people have Nissan Leafs, £160 per month lease, no road fund, £4 IIRC to 'tank it' 100 odd mile range. Accrington centre has charge points. I think the future is very nearly here.

There are several Tesla taxis here in Munich.

Also loads of i8 and i3 motors about. One workshop I use is opposite BMW hq.

Often ride past the Tesla showroom when in town.

Mate of mine borrowed one of those Tesla Roadsters for an e-motor rally through the alps a few years back. Said the thing was scary fast. No gear changes, just acceleration. He did manage to drain the battery after 200km,half its claimed range.

The Tesla's are amazing bits of kit!

There's a white Ampera on my estate (might be the one molgrips sees) plus two Leaf's, don't like those as they silently glide round the road round the play area. It's bad enough with kids running out in front of normal, noisy cars let alone these silent invisible ones (they're shorter than all the Audi's and T5's that park along the access roads so disappear from view).

I just worry that these electric cars have their own problems, mainly what would happen if one caught fire after a smash. All those lithium batteries can't be a good thing 😯 Plus are they just shifting the pollution issue from the exhaust gasses when in use to the End-Of-Life recycling part? Same as when diesel was meant to be the saviour over petrol with it's high mpg figures but now it's seen as bad to have diesel fumes clogging up cities and all the issues with DPF's etc.

I'll wait for Hydrogen thanks!

Hoping the "I'll wait for hydrogen" is ironic. Mate has i8 its pretty cool. OHs parent have a Toyota hybrid. Too scary in stealth mode. Was saying recently that his black i8 should sound like a tie fighter from star wars.

Love the look of the tesla and the idea of a high class alternatively powered vehicle.
I don't believe electrickery to be the future though, just a stop gap til someone does true white paper thinking and comes up with something properly better.

I think the i8 looks amazing!

Not keen on the Tesla in the OP. It's alright, but nowt special. Interior looks cool though I'll admit.

Picking up the leaf tomorrow, I can't wait to say "Ooooh, look at me, everyone, I'm saving the little fluffy polar bears! I must be a great person. Did I mention I was saving the planet with my lovely, cuddly car? I mean, just look at it! No one would drive something this silly looking if it wasn't saving ickle baby seals"

It's nothing to do with the fact that the lease and fuel costs are less than the fuel and maintenance costs of my old car.. It's all about the polar bears, honest..

CaptainFlashheart - Member

Hugely underwhelming to look at. See also the Mondeo comments above.

Hmmn.
Looks nice in the pics, but then they always do.

Looks a bit Aston/Mondeo-ish from the rear.
The front looks like a Maserati with Citroen lights and the middle bit's from a Mazda.

I quite like the blue one.

fuel costs are less than the fuel and maintenance costs of my old car

Interested - what are the maintenance costs of the leaf? Presumably that electric motor doesn't need anything. What are the battery requirements? Is it a lease like some of the others?

mainly what would happen if one caught fire after a smash. All those lithium batteries can't be a good thing

Well they manage a tank full of explosive petrol liquid and vaopur reasonably well, so I'm sure they can protect solid batteries somehow or other.

Plus are they just shifting the pollution issue from the exhaust gasses when in use to the End-Of-Life recycling part?

Lithium is easily recycled I think - mining new stuff though isn't so nice - depending on where it comes from I think.

Lithium is easily recycled I think - mining new stuff though isn't so nice - depending on where it comes from I think.

2 points:

1 - we're going to be adding battery storage to the grid fairly soon [internationally] to help with fluctuations in supply from renewables:

"Nissan expects that the “glide path” for a normal LEAF’s battery degradation will be down to 70%-80% capacity after five years, with up to 70% of their capacity remaining after 10 years of service as a car battery. This would make these batteries ideally suited for grid energy storage. [EV Casebook P27]"

2 - Other battery tech is coming:
"Here we present a rechargeable aluminium battery with high-rate capability that uses an aluminium metal anode and a three-dimensional graphitic-foam cathode. <snip> The cathode was found to enable fast anion diffusion and intercalation, affording charging times of around one minute with a current density of ~4,000 mA g–1 (equivalent to ~3,000 W kg–1), [b]and to withstand more than 7,500 cycles without capacity decay.[/b]" [Development of An ultrafast rechargeable aluminium-ion battery//Nature 520, 324–328 (16 April 2015)]

It's nothing to do with the fact that the lease and fuel costs are less than the fuel and maintenance costs of my old car.. It's all about the polar bears, honest..

"“The single most important factor in achieving a compelling and
affordable mass-market BEV is its relative cost [4]”
"[Realizing the electric-vehicle revolution. Nature Clim. Change 2, 328333 (2012).]

"By the end of 2014, more than 700,000 total plug-in vehicles had been sold worldwide (plug-in hybrids and pure battery electrics), up from about 400,000 at the end of 2013. As of 2015, dozens of models of electric cars and vans are available for purchase, mostly in Europe, the United States, Japan, and China. "

“In a major 2013 analysis, “Global EV Outlook: Understanding the Electric Vehicle Landscape to 2020,” the International Energy Agency estimated that electric vehicles would achieve cost parity with internal combustion engine vehicles when battery costs hit $300 per kWh of storage capacity. The analysis projected that would happen by 2020. ”

“Yet a study last month in Nature Climate Change, “Rapidly falling costs of battery packs for electric vehicles” determined that “industry-wide cost estimates declined by approximately 14% annually between 2007 and 2014, from above US$1,000 per kWh to around US$410 per kWh.” The study, by Björn Nykvist and Måns Nilsson, also looked at battery electric vehicle (BEV) leaders, like Nissan’s LEAF and Tesla’s model S. They found, “the cost of battery packs used by market-leading BEV manufacturers are even lower, at US$300 per kWh.”

“So the best manufacturers have already reached the battery price needed for cost parity with conventional cars.
[b]Last year, UBS, a leading Investment bank, found “the 3-year total cost of ownership (TCO) of a Tesla S model is similar to that of a comparable petrol combustion engine car such as an Audi A7,” in places like Germany.[/b]
“It may well be that $150 per kWh can be hit around 2020 without a major battery breakthrough but simply with continuing improvements in manufacturing, economies of scale, and general learning by industry.” [ http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/13/3646004/electric-car-batteries-price/ ]