gangzoom

Humm just be careful where that line of thinking leads.....the result will also sort out any 'borden' issues you have with life in general, you can also kiss goodbye to any concept of sleep!!

Most interesting bit about the Royal Wedding....

Having said EVs aren't just all about Tesla.....

https://youtu.be/gPFLtAoI0sQ

Do what ever you like, we are grown ups here :).

Your be surprised how little space is in most SUVs, our inlaws tried to bring just the mattress in their E class....Not a chance, and don't forget about leaving enough space for a 2 year+baby seat. Its not about Tesla but packaging an EV lets you do once you dont need to worry about transmission tunnels, exhausts, etc. I still dont get the obsession with Tesla, if you don't own one why do you care about the company?? If you dont like Tesla as a brand thats fine, no one is making you buy one?? Am now on the look out for the second EV to replace my wifes Lexus. Have half an eye on the up and coming EV XJ, but realistically thats going to be too pricey compared to a Model 3, still we'll see soon i guess.

People have been predicting the end of Tesla since 2012, the 'headlines' are always the same. Tesla is apparently one of the most shorted stocks on the market, there is probably more people who will make money from Tesla going bankrupt than Tesla currently employ!! Am not stock market analyst or even a business person, I just like cars. Having had our X for 14 months and done some 19k, I can say its simply the most capable car I have ever owned. We were at the in-laws last weekend, coming back we managed to fit full sized single bed + mattress, weekend luggage for 2 adults + 2 year old, a mini scooter, travel cot, kids bath, potty into the car and still enough passenger space fot 4 adults!!! In total we covered some 400 miles in 24hrs last Saturday/Sunday, as far as am concerned there is no other car I want to own right now regardless of price/powertrain, as a one family car to do everything nothing else comes close interms of ability/speed/space/safety :).

Not sure what the fascination with share prices and cash flow is, I just care about the cars. The P85D S I had for 24hrs is still the most brutal road car I've ever driven or sat it, and by Tesla 'P' car standards its pedestrian. I'm sorely temped to see if I can make the maths work to try and swap our 'base' X for a the 'P' versions but it just isn't going to happen, even if I could afford it, the concept of having a 3ton SUV that capable of getting to 60 as quick as the P85D S I drove it just nuts, and borders on reckless. However the same drivetrain in a smaller body, and coming in at not much more than Z weight is so much more compelling. We'll probably see the 'P' version of the 3 come out in the summer, pricing I recon will be around M3/RS4 money, which will make it a very very difficult car to resist. It'll be quick for sure, the question is how quick, and if Tesla would be bold enough to let the engineers push is close to the P100D L Model S. https://electrek.co/2018/04/05/tesla-model-3-dual-motor-air-suspension-spotted-race-track-performance-version/

Mean whiles..... Space X managed their 7th successful launch this year, with two more planned before the end of the month. https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/2/17187972/spacex-falcon-9-nasa-crs-14-launch-watch-live More importantly it appears Space X is now actually starting to work on a project that many people think will be impossible, get humans onto Mars!! Why go there am not sure, but for the same reason people climb Everest, row across the Pacific. Would make a damn good reality viewing that's for sure https://www.space.com/40243-spacex-mars-spaceship-elon-musk-photo.html

The 'P'cars by far the highest margins with hardly any increased production complexity, the only real difference between the P cars and the current RWD ones will be another motor up front. Model 3 production is actually just hit 2000/week, and current looking like 5000/week will be hit by the end of the year. Interms of actually complexity the Model 3 is simple compared to our X, but the battery pack design is much more complex than some other manufactures mainly in liquid cooling for all the cells. But it appears by the recent jump in Model 3 VINs Tesla/Panasonic are getting on top of the battery production. https://electrek.co/2018/04/05/tesla-model-3-record-vins-registered-production/ https://insideevs.com/gm-versus-tesla-bolt-ev-tesla-model-3-battery-packs-compared/

First signs the 'P' version of the Model 3 is nearly ready. Cannot wait to see what the performance figures are like. Hopefully sub 3.5 seconds to 60. https://electrek.co/2018/04/05/tesla-model-3-dual-motor-air-suspension-spotted-race-track-performance-version/

Again if you want facts (which I know many people dont), all the actual data is there :). www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk

Space X is really making good use of their recovered booster stages. 4 more launches scheduled for April. That would be 11 launches in 2018 in 4 months. If they keep this up soon they'll run out of satellites to send up!!! Cannot be long before viable human commerical launches start, watched Gravity again last night space looks really scary and horrific, but seeing the planet from lower orbit would be the ultimate bucket list tick box. https://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/launches-and-events/events-calendar?categories=Rocket Launches

The national grid has a whole website with multiple well written documents on future energy demands/prediction over next 20 years including EV usage. They also document the modelling methods they used. Am not going to post any graphs/content as last time I posted a graph it caused more confusion than a bull in a China shop http://fes.nationalgrid.com/fes-document/ We as a household is also taking part in a national project looking at the use of smart home chargers that regulate output pending demand on the grid. The intial 'baseline' report is out already. https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.westernpower.co.uk/docs/Innovation/Current-projects/CarConnect/Electric-Nation-Customer-Research-and-Trial-Update.aspx&ved=2ahUKEwj_tLCKg_XZAhVKI8AKHa5_CfMQFjABegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw2ATcdAJcvllny71IOl8qHR The same group have already done a smaller trial funded in part by Nissan a few years ago. The 'summary' report is bit vague and too subjective for me, the real good stuff is in the data files which you can request to down load via the webpage. http://myelectricavenue.info/trial-results There are loads of people looking into future EV charging plans, so am personally not worried. 350KW chargers are already been installed in Europe, those things can in theory fully recharge the battery in old Leaf in 5 mintues!!! The power needed to run such a charger is roughly the same as 350 Dyson hoovers all on all the same time!!! Powering a charger like that will be a challenge, Tesla have recently got planning permission for a massive 8bay+ site both north and south bound at Leicester Forest East. Once built thats atleast 16 chargers capable of running at 150KW each, that translate to a peak demand of 2.4MW if all 16 bays are running at full speed.....no idea how they are supplying that setup, am 100% sure its not all via a direct grid link. The grid around that area already goes down quite often which why the Glenfield hospital has major issues with ensuring they have enough powerback generators to keep all the MRI/Radiology hybrid theaters running when the grid goes down - which seems to be at least once a few months. We'll see just how quickly Tesla can get Leicster Forest East on line and how quickly the chargers can actually run. I suspect 60KW (half speed) will be max most of the time.

Am a greedy git aint sharing with anyone With a young family like it or not rear passenger space is really important to us. I've just seen Nissan is promising to bring a much more exciting looking EV to market than the Leaf, designed by the same guy in charge of the 350Z! To be honest the Hyundai Kona EV could be £10k and I woudlnt be interested - the Hyundai brand just doesnt do it for me, but I love Nissans so this thing will get my money without a second thought. Hopefully they will sell a Nismo version, if Nissan put a big enough battery in there it should out run a GTR to 60, and have a range of 300 miles :). https://insideevs.com/nissan-leaf-suv-will-be-game-changer-for-electric-segment/

She paid for 1/3 the cost of my car and 100% of own car!!

As I've mentioned the Hyundai Kona EV is going on sale this summer. 64kWh, 300 miles range, and sub £30k so half the price of any Tesla or iPace. I personally will be very happy to own one, but when I mentioned swapping either car for a Hyundai to my wife I got the look am sure anyone whos married knows well :).

The efficency of an electric motor hardly varies between 1rpm or 10krpm. Hence there is no real advantage limting power output at the motor. A 200KW motor also weighs hardly any more than a 80KW motor. The other main factor behind motor power is the voltage supplied to the motor by the battery pack. The larger the pack the higher the potential performance. Clearly you can limit power by artificially capping voltage drae but some ones right foot will do as good job at that as any throttle mapping. 500 mile range EV are still at least 5 years away, your looking at 200kWh+ packs for that kind of range. At somepoint you also have to balance the need for a large packs the reduced efficency due to weight. If 95% of your trips are sub 50 miles than your carrying around and paying for an extra 150kWh of battery storage for no reason expect for the occasional trip.

I apologies if you think am trying to show off, as the last thing I care about is what people think of me or the cars I choose. I've always spent far too much money on cars as any sensible person should, which am sure most people on this forum has also done. What irritates to me is comments like 'all EV/hybrids = rubbish' without any thinking or realisation the benefits of the EV drivetrain. Ultimately if you only care about noise and not speed than EVs will not make sense, just like how people ride horses now am sure people will still have combustion cars for fun. But for actual personal transportation I simply cannot see how the combustion engine has a future. Clearly feeling run high on this topic, but EVs are not going to go away.

A Ferrari/Lamb/Masserati seems to be the most popular 'second' car on the Tesla owerns FaceBook group. Most people who can afford an iPace or Tesla can afford the running costs of any car. Which comes back to the whole point of why I went down the EV route....EVs are simply better cars to drive/own. Your struggle to find any EV owners who wishes to go back to a combustion car. Its now over 3 years since I switched to EVs, the thought of wasting my hard earned cash on a combustion car is just maddness. I cannot wait for the new XJ to be unviled as am 99% sure itll be my next car once the need for nursry runs stop in a few years time, though pending what car my wife ends up with the Mission E might tempt me - If can convince my wife to take the Tesla that might work :). But the only EVs that arent compromised by range at the moment are still too expensive for most, a decent spec iPace is £75k and you get £0 discount. But things are changing, the Kona will be on sales for sub £30k, and will have a real world range the same as a Tesla/iPace. Does that mean no one will buy a Tesla/iPace? Ofcourse not, the petrol version of the Kona is much cheaper than even a Quasqhai but Nissan still sells plenty of those things. Its all about choice the more EVs that appear people can actually buy the quicker combustion cars will die. We seen how quickly diesel sales have fallen off a cliff, hopefully the same thing will happen to all combustion cars once enough EVs hit the market. https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/27/17058362/hyundai-kona-ev-suv-range-specs-photos

Personally I think the iPace is great, but I honestly dont understand the comparison to the X. We switched our order from a Model S to a X becuase of the extra space/seating in the back. Its like comparing the SQ5 to a SQ7, or an Velar to the Discovery/RR. Jaguar have sold their entire production run for 12 months already, and the X sales are still going up with hardly any used inventory because owners just arent selling up. Any EV SUV makes infinitely more sense than the current bhp war forming around the combustion powered versions. A 550bhp 2ton+ Velar, am sure its quick but I suspect from £100 worth of V power it woudlnt get much further down the road than an iPace or Model X on £5 worth of electricty:). https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/542bhp-range-rover-velar-svr-be-quickest-range-rover-yet

Tesla interiors are fine for £70K+ bracket, main issues is people who paid £140K+ for a P100D X have a car that looks/feels exactly the same as our base spec £66K before options 60D X - the only difference is the crazy 0-60 time which most of the time you cannot use. Jaguar reliability is also not the greatest, apparently one of the pre-production cars broke down near a Supercharger site this weekend, an AA van apparently turned up shortly and the car was stuffed full of monitoring gear. It does worry me a bit Jaguar has announced the iPace is 'production' ready but the test mules are breaking down and still gathering data. Still the iPace will sell fine, however Jag is wasting their time targeting Tesla owners (lots of people on the Tesla Facebook group have had emails from Jag), but I've not seen/heard of a single Tesla owner switching to Jag because of the iPace. What they should focus on is the people who can afford a £70K 5 seater SUV and currently buying things like the SQ5/Macan Turbo/X5M. The iPace has the performance, brand image to go head to head with those cars with no issues.

^ I belive Jag has already sold 12 months production. I believe if you havent got a deposit in your looking at 2019 as earliest delivery. It may be expensive but compared to a Macan Turbo/RR Sport its the same price ball park, and Porsche/Land Rover have no problems shifting those.

iPace looks very good, but still Tesla pricing, so £75k+ after the £4K EV grant if you want half decent spec. Not cheap enough to be considered as a second car to complement our X sadly, and been only a 5 seater cannot really replace the X. Actually just had our X detailed/paint protected, for a people movers it scrubs up pretty well.

Followed one yesterday, boy do they shift!! Only car I've across in the last 12 months I couldnt keep up with in the Tesla over the twisty stuff. Had my daughter in the back so wasn't going to start drifting into the oncoming lane like the R was but still, moves like a little rocket!!! Hard to see why you would spend more money on anything else if the Golf is big enough for your needs.