Just had someone come to our house in a ......

Tesla Model X electric car.
If I say "Wow" I mean "WOW"!
I'm the first to admit that it's the first electric car I've ever seen but when you see the features on this baby then even I've got to admit that the future's here, now.
It can do 0 to 60 in 2.9 seconds ffs, the owner told me that wheel spin is a problem, I imagine it could be. Acceleration is instant and knocks you back in your seat, he tells me.
It has individual motors to each wheel, pigeon elevating rear doors, automatic opening front doors, remote control drive... he controlled it from his phone as he moved it on the drive.
I'm cynical about available mileage per charge, about 300 miles, and how and where you can charge it. He says he plugs it in overnight for a full charge. The obvious downside is when you are out and have to plug it in at a charging point, waiting for an hour or whatever, always assuming you can find somewhere. I said it must be disheartening to see other drivers putting in a gallon of petrol and driving off !
He then drove it. I could hear NOTHING, zip all, nada. Pity the poor person that steps out in front of it, I said.
It's a proper looking vehicle, about the size of a Porsche Cayenne, or not far off, not a pokey little thing that I'd expect to run off AAA batteries.

 

Can you imagine a Ferrari that made no noise...you wouldn't be able to sell them

 

I test drove one once, it was like **** off a shovel. What's really noticeable is the fact that there's no delay between you pressing the accelerator and it shifting, it's pretty much instant.

 

Lovely cars, price tag is mega though. But without innovators like Musk, we would still be miles of where we need to be. There is a guy on YT in the UK who films the Tesla driving itself on his way to work. Amazing how it does it.

 

I thought they were making them with noise to aid pedestrians?

 

The big problem going forward Mr B is that the batteries for electric cars are currently very expensive.
The other problem depends on the electricity generated to charge it. If it is from a true sustainable
source, even though the car is non polluting, you are still adding to the carbon footprint due to the charging
process involved. There are at this present time , insufficient charging points in the U.K., to support any sudden increase in the sale of electric vehicle sales.

 

Nearly got run over by a Nissan electric car other day on Doncaster Road, usually can hear a car when its coming, i didnt hear that f****r, good job i looked at last second.

 

I wonder why battery exchange isn’t considered. Everything working off a standard that you can drive up to a garage and simply swap for a fully charged one?

 

What an utter nob. I got as far as the doors and the screen "issues" and gave up. Like many so called critics these days it's not possible to get an actual balanced and fair appraisal because all they are interested in is their own glib, factitious rhetoric which makes them sound clever (which this half wit is clearly not)

 

It's a joke. Watch again.

 

Whhooooossshhh....

 

I think it was tongue in cheek or reverse criticism tbh .
He was actually proving himself wrong on purpose ,

 

I do 200 + miles nearly every day until you can guarantee 300 to 400 miles range at motorway speed in any weather day or night and a charge up time of no more than 30 minutes to fully charged then I'll stick to my petrol / diesel car. I know we have to change our ways but unfortunately the bank wont let me stop paying my mortgage cause my car will only let me do 60 miles a day and my boss sacks me.
So until the oil runs out or the world's government's all of them get scared shitless by some climate change related disaster and order change petrol/ diesel it is.

 

I'm no expert on electric cars so may possibly be wrong. But I thought the entire floor in many electric cars were coved in batteries. If so, swapping the batteries out will be a proper pain in the arse.

The new Top Gear did a show about these cars on Sunday gone. They highlighted how much range the batteries lose over time, and a Leaf's batteries with around 80k miles on the clock were all but shot.

 

A Nissan Leaf battery is around £5 k. A new battery for a Tesla would set you back around £27.5k.
You then have installation costs on top of that.

 

My Model X gets delivered in 2 weeks!! Going from 15 MPG to electric will be interesting...

 

I believe this is the plan for Tesla eventually. will all be automated, you drive into a 'bay' then the car takes control of itself to line it up perfectly, then the system will slide the bottom of the car out, then replace it with fully charged batteries

 

Tesla supercharger will charge 50% in 20 minutes. 150 miles or there abouts. and superchargers are EVERYWHERE. Free, too, with some models.