Moved to electric: My Tesla Adventure

[tfboy]

This is a bit of a copy / paste of what I've written on a couple of other forums, but as we're a tech site here, I thought I might as well post here too

Following a good friend's petrolhead footsteps (I'll call him Richard), albeing skipping the intermediate Leafs and Zoes and horrible Outlanders, I've jumped ship. Gone from a high performance tuned diesel to a hyper performance Tesla.

My journey so far has been a real eye opener. I had been following Teslas but only very briefly, remembering the Roadster and hearing some controversy how Top Gear rigged and scripted the whole thing giving it a much worse review than it deserved.

However, Richard's venture into Tesladom re-energised my desire to research the whole electric car thing.

I started researching the Model S and the more I read and learnt about it, the more I realised this car actually ticked far more boxes than I hoped and became a worryingly (!!) attractive option. I started looking them up, realised they were quite expensive but gave so much back in return with massively reduced running costs and the unbelievable flexibility of a insanely quick 0-60 car and also being able to carry 5 adults in utmost comfort.

The Skoda Fabia, whilst fun, and having spent a great deal on it turning it into a project car, felt like it was time time for me to change to something different. I have become increasingly aware of the environment and starting thinking how I could go about financing a very logical folly.

Then I was thinking maybe I should get it as a company car. Since I started my own business, I've not "treated" myself to anything, and when you start looking at the financial advantages of getting an electric car, it becomes all the more compelling.

So around the turn of 2015, I booked myself a test drive in a Model S at West Drayton. It was the first time I had been in an electric car and had an idea of what to expect. However...

I was greeting with great friendliness and professionalism, but interestingly, for the first time walking into a car sales shop, felt bizzarely relaxed. There was no pressure by the sales guys. They started the drive. As we pulled out, although I knew there wouldn't be any engine noise, it's still unnerving the first time. You know to expect it, but it still feels strange!

We pull over into a quiet industrial estate. The car was a P90D and he says "I'll show you the acceleration you get with the P90D model. This doesn't have the 'Ludicrous' option, but gives you an idea". He then floors it. I'm pushed back into my seat. Jaw slowly but surely fally into my lap. This is amazing!

We then swap seats. I sit in the driver's seat. The demonstrator shows me how to create a profile. I adjust the seat, steering wheel, mirrors, etc, and save it. I then stick it into Drive and pull away. I go round the first few roundabouts and the plantedness of the car is striking. The low down battery pack floor gives a very low centre of gravity and there's zero body roll. The next thing that strikes me is just the instantanousness of the pedal response. No lag. None at all. Of course, it's a bit of a change coming from a big turbo conversion where there is inevitably some delay, particularly if you're not in the sweet spot of the rev range. Here, there is no sweet spot. Or rather, any speed is a sweet spot. It's just amazing.

We get onto a slip road onto the M4. I floor it and an unmeasurable grin appears on my face. I start to realise that this is, in my opinion, the car of the future. The demonstrator then shows me the Autopilot features. At first, I'm very reluctant to let it drive itself. But it does so with consummate ease, keeping a safe distance from the car in front, tracking the lane marking and negotiating curves with no drama at all.

We then make it back to West Drayton, and I start taking a few photos and play around with the car's settings on the huge 17" touchscreen. I start to wonder what options I would choose should I go ahead, I have a USB stick with some high quality FLAC files and compare the standard sound system to the "Ultra High Fidelity" sound system. Damn, it sounds quite a bit better. But £1800 better?

I get back into my Fabia. All of a sudden, everything feels to 19" century. It's noisy, there's a hint of diesel smell, it rattles. Why am I feeling like this? I love this car! But it suddenly feels ancient and so passé!

I drive home and continue to think about what model and options I would tick. A few days and weeks pass, but I can't help but think about driving around in a Tesla. I consider myself a pretty well balanced person, and that partly annoys me how I've just been "converted" to the whole Tesla and electric car movement. It's not like me. Xav, what are you thinking? Have you gone mad?!?

A few weeks pass and that feeling doesn't go away. At that point, I decide "Yes, it's going to be my next car". The next big question: to get the 90D which is the high capacity 90kWh battery but not the "performance" version. Remember, Tesla do not make slow cars. The slowest version is still a rather nippy 5s 0-60 in its 4WD setup! The penalty switching to the "P" version is quite severe. Another £20k+ And then there's the "Ludicrous" option. Another £8k or so. Having also ticked various other options, well, pretty much every other option, I'm now north of £100k. Crikey!

"OK" I say to myself. I really need to see whether it's worth spending this extra money on the Performance and potentially Ludicrous options. I remember Richard commenting very sensibly that it's a hell of a lot of money (you can buy probably two cars for the price of the upgrade!). Also, you lose a tiny bit in range as the P version is more thirsty on the electron department...

Hmm. OK, I need to see what all the talk is regarding this Ludicrous thing. By now a month has passed, and I phone West Drayton up and enquire about having a second test drive with a car equipped with the Ludicrous option. They say they don't have one available but will get back to me. A day passes, I get a call from WD. They've arranged to have a Ludicrous car brought over from Gatwick (I think) and have it available for a test drive. I take them up on the offer.

The ludicrous test drive arrives and this time, it's Maggie, another demonstrator who takes me out with a few friends I had brought along for the experience. She pulls up by a slip road. Switches to "Ludicrous" and then plants it. OMFG! It's visceral. Your internal organs are seriously displaced. It's like a roller coaster ride. Do this a few times, I can see people throwing up, it's that brutal! She then throws it round a roundabout doing a U-turn and floors it back up the dual carriageway. This is off the chart in terms of real performance. It might not beat the supercars above 60mph, but before that and with the limits of traffic and speed limits on our roads, it's mightily impressive.

I eventually get back home after driving yet again, in an agricultural diesel engined car. Yup, I've decided, the Tesla is for me. Now to decide whether I want to spend that much more on the silly Ludicrous version. I realise that the usefulness is questionable. Yes, it's a nice party trick to show off to your mates, but how often would I really use it?

A week later, I place my order. And yes, I tick the Ludicrous option I now have a two-week "cooling off" period where I can change the spec, etc, or cancel and get a full refund of the £2,000 deposit. In that time, Richard sends me a PM on Facebook saying he's selling his Tesla. eek a second time. A great price too smile Respect to the man who probably has more cars and sells more cars than a few car dealers out there smile

In the end, I stick with my decision to buy a new built-to-order Tesla. Ont he 15th April, the order is locked in and I can no longer pull out (well, I can, but will lose the £2k deposit). Now the excrutiating wait commences. I'm commited, yet have to wait. Through the Speakev forum, I get in touch with a chap who has the ability to track the order. I get the container number and ship the car will sail on. Every day, sometime several times a day I check up on the position of the container ship crossing the Atlantic.

Finally, the car arrives and a pick up is scheduled on 30th June. It's a manic time. They have 40 cars sheduled for pick up - extra pressure to meet end of quarter targets. I turn up, excited like a 5-year-old. I do a quick once-over on the car, and am happy to expedite the whole induction process as I felt pretty familiar with the car's toys. The staff were quite grateful as they had just so many customers to get through that Thursday.

A week has now passed and I'm still in love with what the car has to offer. It's turned out to be quite a Jekyll and Hyde kind of car, able to cruise very comfortably and quietly along the motorways at 60-70mph. But get on the twisties, and put your foot down and instant gratification and smile-enducing driving. It manages to be so versatile, it's quite terrifying how a potent package a well-designed electric car can provide. In my opinion, it really is the future. When you look at what else is on offer, the environment issues, the fact you're burning fuel, creating emissions when at a standstill on the M25 when an electric car doesn't, and with autopilot, takes all the stress out of being stuck in a jam. I actually don't mind now being stuck in standstill traffic. I just let the car do the stuff whilst I relax and listen to music. No more tired left leg with a heavy duty clutch, noise when not moving, etc.

I cannot see myself every wanting to drive an ICE car unless it's a track toy. There's a kind of lack of drama with no engine noise, but 99% of the time, I don't miss it. I appreciate the quiteness and comfort far more for the majority of the time than having a really involved and connected feeling to the car and road. Maybe I'm showing my age LOL. The only downside I can think of is the sheer size of the car. It's WIDE, and in tight country lanes, can bring a scare or two when something wide comes the other way!

Here are a few from the unveiling when I picked it up

Complete with personnalised "welcome to the family" message










I'm unfortunate in that I can't charge where I live at the moment - the car is parked 50m from my front door and there aren't any charging points in the car park frown However, I was charging at work (until last week) and using public and the simply awesome Tesla Supercharging network to top my battery up.

I did 1,200 miles in just over a week of ownership, and not paid a penny. I did buy the CHAdeMO adapter and also a Type 2 cable so I'm pretty well covered. The car comes with its own UMC - Universal Mobile Connector. This comes with adapters on the supply side, allowing you to charge at 10 amps off a UK plug, up to 32 amps on a single phase blue commando socket or 16 amps three phase with the red commando plug (although I'd have to buy that adapter).

A point to note and understand is that the actual "charger" is in the car. The new default charger gives up to 11kW of power, allowing me to charge at up to 16a 3 phase. The onboard charger is what does the 230 (or 400V) AC conversion into DC that then goes to the car's batteries. If you use CHAdeMO or the Tesla Supercharging network, then it's DC directly, bypassing the car's chargers - the chargers are in the CHAdeMO / Supercharger cabinets. CHAdeMO gives up to just over 32kW power, Supercharging gives a whopping 120kW power. When you're nearing an empty battery, this allows you to charge up to 50% capacity in about 20 minutes / 80% capacity in 40 minutes. It's important to note that the charge rate decreases as the batteries fill up - as they're nearing full capacity, the current reduces a lot so the super fast charging solutions aren't any faster than charging at 16 amps off a commando. For that reason, when using the Supercharging network, Tesla recommend you only charge what you need to get to the next Supercharing station. You'll spend a lot less time charging from 10-50% than from 50-90%. These short charge sessions means long distance road trips become an absolute doddle and "range anxiety" that we hear about so much isn't an issue (providing of course your route goes near these charging stations). Planning these short stops on long trips doesn't really slow you down either - you'd normally stop every couple of hours for a leg stretch / drinks / break. So you use that time to refill / re-energise the car as the same time as you re-energise yourself smile

If I could charge at home, I'd obviously do that. When you do charge at home, you're effecitvely leaving every morning with a full tank. And you never have to stop at a fuel station again, mess around with mucky oily fuel pumps, etc. Oh and you're never in that situation when you need to do an emergency trip only to realise you need to stop en route to fill up with fuel. With the 230-250 mile range in my 90kWh Model S, it's more than enough for two return commuting trips to London. Every other day, I top off at work or Supercharger so it's an inconvenience, but something I'm living with for the moment. It's accelerated my desire to move house and get somewhere where I can charge at home.

In terms of cost, if you charge at home, you'd go onto an Economy 7 plan so you pay cheaper leccy at night and charge at night. If you assume you'd need to "fully charge" your car, let's assume that's 80kWh of energy. At around 6.5p/kWh, it's just over a fiver to fill your car. A massive saving. And that's if you exclusively charge at home and pay for it... I was paying 10 times that to fill my Fabia that did around 500miles, so in reality, it's about 5 times more cost effective than my diesel Fabia!

As of today (1st May 2017), I've done nearly 20,000 miles and it's probably cost me around £50 in various public chargers and Ecotricity since they moved to charging. The rest of the time has been from places where I've worked where they generously allowed me to plug in and Tesla Superchargers / Destination Chargers.

More to follow...

[tfboy]

And regarding Ludicrous amongst other things, a chap in Canada has written a web front-end which interrogates the car's API through Tesla's servers and obtains telemetric information, geolocalisation, etc. www.teslalog.com

Here's a log of acceleration. It's not that precise (only logs every 0.5 seconds), but gives an idea.



What's worth noting is the power which increases to 500kW, around 665hp is instant. The actual launch is around the -250ms mark - the point at which the speed starts increasing. The power you see before is pre-loading the motors using launch control.

In the next 1.5 seconds, power ramps up to the 665 odd HP and then is constant till I lift off around 4 seconds later by which time I'm at around 80mph

In that initial 1.5 seconds when power is ramping up - I'm presuming to maintain traction, speed goes from 0 to around 40mph. Another 1.5 seconds later, we're over 60mph.

Not only is it vicious, there's no pre-warning of it. It's not as if you're riding a wave of torque that gradually increases. It's not there then in a fraction of a second (with no real noise apart from the groan of the brakes strugglng to keep the car immobile!), you're litterally catapulted forwards with a level of G-force that is relentless until 70mph+

For a long time, I did debate whether it's worth spending a lot more money to get the performance version and then ludicrous on top. I don't regret it. I'm using it quite a lot. Not in full launch control, but the ability with little to no warning to just shoot off the lights and already be 100m up the road before anyone behind you has moved off the line is rather giggle-inducing.

Joining the "0 miles club" has become a rite of passage. Not something I'm in a hurry to repeat wink


A few more photos


Interior shots







The following covers my first long road trip through France last summer

After a month's ownership, I'm still in love smile By the end of the weekend, I will have gone over the 3,000 mile mark.

I'm starting to get used to the sheer size and width of it. Everything has now become second nature: the autopresent door handles / completely keyless operation, the "charge when the opportunity presents itself", etc, it's just so easy to live with.

I haven't had any real range anxiety at all. With the 250+ range, it's not an issue for my daily commute. As I drive 80 miles return every day to work, I essentially get two days' worth of charge with a lot of spare energy to have fun with when I'm in the mood, or when I'm provoked wink I could do three days' worth, but as I don't have the luxury of charging at home and the charging at work has recently become an "issue" due to an inconsiderate colleague (might be related to Clarkson actually!), I tend to only charge to 70-80% as that's what's most time-efficient. For those who don't know, the charging rate is ramp-based and slows down as the battery fills up. If you're at a Supercharger (which is the highest rate of charge possibly today), you'll go from 0-50% in about 20 minutes. 50-80% takes another 20 minutes and the 80-100% would probably take another 20-30 minutes on top of that. So as I'm having to wait, it's just not worth it. Arguably, it's also not best for the battery to fully charge it and not use that first few percent of capacity. Storing the car 100% fully charged isn't recommended, so I just stick to 70-80% which gives me the 2+ daily return commutes I'm doing.

On Tuesday, I'm off to South West France, near Spain. I've already planned my route through the Channel Tunnel. It's roughly 11 hours of driving and 3 hours or charging. Really looking forward to that. evtripplanner.com is great for working out energy consumption / times. I'll see how accurate it really is!



So a month in, I can update with the following summary:

Pros:

• It's the most comfortable, calm, serene car you could possibly ever be in. Wafting along the motorways on a quiet surface with virtually no noise (just a bit of road / wind noise as you approach NSL)
• It's incredibly luxurious yet minimalist. I accept, the styling is down to personal preference, but a month in, I still love it and am not bored at all with the simplicity of it.
• It'll leave ANYTHING for dead at the lights, coming out of roundabout, coming up a slip road. It's deceptively quick, it's addictively quick, and the greeny in me loves this is at zero noise and zero car emissions cost whatsoever.
• The infotainment keeps me busy at quiet times / traffic jams. Quick browse on the web, randomly pick pretty much any piece of music on Spotify.
• Autopilot is just awesome. Using it as it was intended wink it massively reduces tiring on long trips and stop/start traffic jams. Combining AP with stops every 2-3 hours to charge means I'm not worried at all about my long solo drive
• The logging information available through a few APIs (I'm using Teslalog.com) is a geek's paradise. Note to self: do NOT use this car for a heist!
• I've done just about 3k miles and it's not cost me a penny through the use of Superchargers, destination chargers (work / gym / shopping centres / IKEA) and a few Ecotricity pumps, although the latter will end as they complete their conversions. this has now changed of course

Cons:

• It's still frikkin wide and ain't getting any narrower! Tight roads can make for uncomfortable driving. Something big coming the other way not quite tight against their kurb somehow clenches my buttocks as we cross! I now systematically look for a "safe" parking slot when out and about, with still no absolute guarantees someone too interested won't cause a car ding.
• The CHAdeMO charging adapter had issues with Nissan-branded Ecotricity charging stations. The issues have now been resolved with a new version D CHAdeMO adaptor.
• A piece of trim by the steering wheel doesn't stay flush against the dash. Minor cosmetic thing hardly noticable, but I'll mention it when it goes in for its first service as I'm not expecting trim to fall off £100k+ car. This has now been fixed.
• Not being able to charge at home / work is a minor nuisance when I have to take time out somewhere to do it.

A month in, I can't see ever wanting to change to another car, particularly an ICE. There's just no going back for me, and apart from the desire for something a bit smaller for short trips (Model 3 is reserved!), it's done everything I've wanted. I even helped a friend move house and getting a new bedroom suite at Ikea, loading it into the car with no problems at all. And she loved the chauffered service! In fact, it's such a pleasure to drive that any excuse is good enough for a quick trip somewhere. Whether down at the shops (providing parking is pre-planned!), going to see friends, even the geeky-sad desire to explore where chargers are located in my area.

[directhex]

An interesting read - but I think it's telling how much I echo your feelings with my Volt - a car which was considered super expensive when it shipped at £35k.

Moving away from the lights before anyone else (even on my 8.9 0-60) is the best. Generally being able to deal with any busy road - crossing busy lanes, or getting onto a busy roundabout. The serenity of the noise (or lack thereof). How a "good" diesel feels (and smells) like a tractor with a body kit once you've experienced it all.

When I went for a Model S test drive, the most telling thing about the experience is how incremental it felt, over the Volt. Better in every way, but measurably so - whereas comparing the Volt to a Passat feels like comparing a car to a wooden horse with wobbly wheels.

[flearider]

ok how long does the battery last and how much is a new one ? 100k for a car is still very pricey 3-5 times what a petrol or diesel would cost for similar performance
yeah your saving on fuel as long as your in an area that supports it ..
car does look good tho .. but on northern roads would be a bit tight ..lol

thx for the story and hope you enjoy it for yrs to come ..

[tfboy]

An interesting read - but I think it's telling how much I echo your feelings with my Volt - a car which was considered super expensive when it shipped at £35k.

Moving away from the lights before anyone else (even on my 8.9 0-60) is the best. Generally being able to deal with any busy road - crossing busy lanes, or getting onto a busy roundabout. The serenity of the noise (or lack thereof). How a "good" diesel feels (and smells) like a tractor with a body kit once you've experienced it all.

When I went for a Model S test drive, the most telling thing about the experience is how incremental it felt, over the Volt. Better in every way, but measurably so - whereas comparing the Volt to a Passat feels like comparing a car to a wooden horse with wobbly wheels.

Oh yes, I completely agree. The impact it had when I returned to my old and trusty Skoda wouldn't have been that much lower with another EV (Volt, Leaf, Zoë, etc). I'd be very happy with one of those too, but as I only have one car, I really need something with the range and flexibility it provides.

ok how long does the battery last and how much is a new one ? 100k for a car is still very pricey 3-5 times what a petrol or diesel would cost for similar performance
yeah your saving on fuel as long as your in an area that supports it ..
car does look good tho .. but on northern roads would be a bit tight ..lol

thx for the story and hope you enjoy it for yrs to come ..

Tesla warranty the battery and electric drive train (motors, etc) for 8 years, unlimited mileage. Enough for me to demonstrate they believe in the technology. In 8 years time, with the rate of evolution, there will probably be something much better by then.

Out of interest, what do you mean in terms of similar performance? I really can't see any other car come anywhere near the performance of the Tesla and its versatility at beating ANYTHING off the lights yet still able to carry 5 people in comfort.

Just on fuel costs, an equivalent or close-performing sports car will return, say, 20 MPG. So having now done over 20,000 in 11 months, that would have been over 1,000 gallons or 4,500 litres. At £1.25/litre, that's nearing £6k on fuel savings per year.

[directhex]

3-5 times what a petrol or diesel would cost for similar performance

0-60 on a P90DL is 2.6 seconds.

If we say "same or similar", we'll include cars up to 3.0 seconds? That's cars up to 15% slower.

There aren't many of them. And they aren't really cheaper than the P90DL. $131k for a Mercedes-AMG S, for example. $144k for a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. If we're saying a $140k P100DL is 3-5x the price of equivalent performance, that gives us $28-$47k for a petrol or diesel. What can you find for that which is comparable? Hell, on that money, can you get under 4 seconds? I guess you can manage it if you stretch "same or similar" to something half as quick, like a Focus RS.

[kalniel]

Nice plate.

Aside from cost, the only thing that gets me about these is the size. I get the reasons why (global platform and all that), but I want a 4wd pocket rocket for B roads which are incredibly narrow around me - I wouldn't want to go any larger than the A3 to be honest! I did once see a model S and the driver looked terrified creeping down the lanes.

0-60 on a P90DL is 2.6 seconds.

If we say "same or similar", we'll include cars up to 3.0 seconds? That's cars up to 15% slower.

There aren't many of them. And they aren't really cheaper than the P90DL. $131k for a Mercedes-AMG S, for example. $144k for a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. If we're saying a $140k P100DL is 3-5x the price of equivalent performance, that gives us $28-$47k for a petrol or diesel. What can you find for that which is comparable? Hell, on that money, can you get under 4 seconds? I guess you can manage it if you stretch "same or similar" to something half as quick, like a Focus RS.

Caterham 420? 3.8s, £28K list price.

[directhex]

Caterham 420? 3.8s, £28K list price.

Ah. I looked at Caterham, but didn't think to move down the scale from the 620R, which was over-budget but *does* hit the sub-3.0s performance target

[directhex]

Aside from cost, the only thing that gets me about these is the size.

Size is my #1 turn-off on the Model S. It's really monstrous on UK roads. Not just the length (too long for most garages & parking spaces), but the obscene width. I have enough trouble getting comfortable with the dimensions of my (relatively) smaller car.

Even at the same price, I'd pick a tarted up Model 3 over the Model S, to get a smaller car.

[Ttaskmaster]

Moving away from the lights before anyone else (even on my 8.9 0-60) is the best.

I'll stick with my £900 motorcycle from 1978, I think... 0-60 in 2.8secs. Beating everyone off the lights with a vehicle older than most of the people around you is the best!!

The serenity of the noise (or lack thereof).

I do worry how long it will be, once they force me to give up my diesel and adopt these overclocked golf carts, before I run over and kill someone who couldn't hear my vehicle approaching... Everyone I know with a 'leccy car has come close and two of the guys at work have already hit such people. I had enough trouble riding a V-twin Cruiser with near-deafening straight-throughs!

If they can do something about that stupid noise law, we might at least get some noisemakers fitted.
Would also let me have one that made the same noise as an MTT 420-RR, especially on startup.... heh heh heh!!!!!

[peterb]

I guess one of the reasons for the size is to accommodate the larger battery - the model S has slightly less range - although still realistic, and would be my choice although the projected cost of £35,000 is still too much for me.

There are other concerns about the long term future of electric vehicles, and that is the infrastructure required to support them. Not specifically the charge points, but the installed generating capacity to provide power to this points. The introduction of large server farms in California caused a surge in power consumption, now consider thousands of cars all taking a relatively modest 7kw to charge at night, and the night time demand then goes up. And solar power is of little use at night!

And while the EV may be efficient at converting electricity into motion (and then to heat!) the thermal efficiency of a fossil fuel power station is still only around 33%. (as is any form of Carnot cycle internal combustion engine).

So the widespread adoption of EVs is going to require investment in more power generation facilities, which may be paid for by higher electricity prices, or more likely, taxation on EVs - particularly as VED from conventionally powered vehicles will reduce. Or perhaps electricity use at night will attract a premium, a sort of reverse economy seven. (Or maybe the EU will step in and ban the sale of any EV with a power of greater than 10kw - a la vacuum cleaner fiasco!)

[kalniel]

But at least we can generate something of the energy needed. With ICEs the generation was stopped some time ago (excluding bio fuels, which have their own issues)

[directhex]

I do worry how long it will be, once they force me to give up my diesel and adopt these overclocked golf carts, before I run over and kill someone who couldn't hear my vehicle approaching... Everyone I know with a 'leccy car has come close and two of the guys at work have already hit such people. I had enough trouble riding a V-twin Cruiser with near-deafening straight-throughs!

If they can do something about that stupid noise law, we might at least get some noisemakers fitted.
Would also let me have one that made the same noise as an MTT 420-RR, especially on startup.... heh heh heh!!!!!

There's a middle ground to be explored. It's astonishing just how much nicer cities are without the constant background noise of engines - but pedestrian safety is indeed an issue. If manufacturers would stop making pedestrian noisemakers a £700 optional extra, that'd help.

[DanceswithUnix]

Hell, on that money, can you get under 4 seconds? I guess you can manage it if you stretch "same or similar" to something half as quick, like a Focus RS.

Alfa Giulia V6 is supposed to be 3.6s for £60K, and you can get a remap to 600bhp though I have no idea what that does to the performance figures.

But at that point I don't see the performance really mattering compared to the rest of the feel of the car. The Alfa has reviewers calling it the best handling car available and it makes a lovely noise, but it won't feel like an electric car if that is what you are after. If you can afford 60K you can afford the petrol, but it isn't about that is it. Lane departure warning isn't autopilot, you won't get the software updates to play with, it is just a different experience overall.

But at the first corner, a Tesla driver has to drag an extra half a tonne of weight around. I would love a Tesla, but I can see it wouldn't be for everyone. It wasn't for me, £50K for a second hand car was too much. I went 13K for a second hand petrol car, having decided that £35K for a basic Giulia was also too much. But maybe next time I will be tempted by a model 3.

Edit: ... and yeah, if you really want fast then get a motorbike.

[DanceswithUnix]

There's a middle ground to be explored. It's astonishing just how much nicer cities are without the constant background noise of engines - but pedestrian safety is indeed an issue. If manufacturers would stop making pedestrian noisemakers a £700 optional extra, that'd help.

Yesterday I watched a young woman walk straight across a side road without any hint of looking around before she stepped off the pavement causing a police car who was driving perfectly well and indicating to turn to perform an emergency stop. She kept walking completely unaware of what she had done. I wonder how much is down to electric cars being quiet, and how much is people just being thick.

[Dashers]

Nice write-up, thanks for sharing.

I'm very envious of your purchase, I could never afford something so expensive, let alone justify it to myself.

I have a lowly Zoe, end of the last lot at a cracking £10,000. Range is under 100 miles. My commute though is only 30 miles, cross-country.

I can echo a lot of what you say about electric motoring. It's quiet and peaceful, it's very cheap, and the power delivery (all 85hp of it) is excellent. I have a charger in my garage, so we plug it in when it's getting low and it's charged in the morning. We try and charge it during the day to make the most of the solar panels.

I would say that an electric car makes a perfect first car, providing you have somewhere to charge it. If you're a motorway warrior then it isn't suitable, but most people aren't. If you go long distance a lot, then a second car that can do it makes sense, but every-day, electric wins out.

I haven't put a deposit down, but I'm hoping to make the change to a Tesla 3 when they're available - but that'll mean selling my RS.

It might just be the Zoe being a fairly rotten drive - but when I get back into my TT and hear the fuel pop from the exhausts as the 5-pot turns over, I can't help but smile. That off-beat thrum as the turbo roars at full chat is intoxicating. Silently pulling away just doesn't have the same sense of occasion.

I was very dubious about getting an electric car, but I don't think I'll be without one now. They are the future, and like combustion cars, they come in at different price-points, performance and luxury. They all have a forwards and backwards gear. No changing gears, or waiting for your laggy DSG to wake up or pick the wrong gear. Want to go faster? Push the pedal harder.

I've been trying to race people off the lights, but they don't seem to respond to my revving...