It's common sense, really. Compared to driving the car, the power required to heat or cool it is negligible. I know a prius can run the a/c remotely for a short period of time, which you activate via the remote from close range, but do any ICE cars have the ability to turn on the a/c or heating via an app on the phone?
Lol @ “ I want my Mommy” mode, hilarious. I do about 40k km per year commuting to and from work. That basically means 3 oil services per year, which is annoying because I have to find the time to get that organised. No servicing with a Tesla is very attractive but I can’t get my head around spending $200k + for a daily driver. In my mindset, that sort of money = buying a toy/OHOS/2nd hand exotic etc. if they were around the $100k mark, that would be a game changer for me.
Actually lots of passionate people still ride (and drive) horses for enjoyment, ICE cars will become hobby cars ( which is probably not so far from where we are now - the average buzz box is just a tool).
Hey Scott I remember the story of the installation set/up from the time and just wondered had there been any downsides?
"I want my Mommy" mode is indicative of Elon Musk's Geeky and Nerdy nature. He is different, the company is different, and the resulting car is very, very different. FWIW the cars are liberally sprinkled with Elon Musk's personal touches. From labelling performance modes "Insane", "Ludicrous" & "I want my Mommy" to hidden "Easter Eggs" in the screen (think computer games which Elon loves) that release whacky functionality on normal functions. For example one EE turns your car on the navigation screen to the Mars Rover on it the surface of Mars (a reference to his other company Space X), another turns the image of your car on the big iPad like control screen to the Lotus Submarine (which Elon owns) from the James Bond 007 film. The whackiest EE of all makes the Model X perform a synchronized musical lights and dance show using all the cars lights, doors and sound system: As I said Elon thinks and does things very differently and there is no rule book. The $100k Tesla is already in existance in America. It's called the Model 3 and is about the size of a 3 series BMW. It has all the technology functions of the S and X models; but less luxury, a smaller battery and less performance. RHD production starts next year, Australia gets them mid to late next year.
Tesla has a "Track Mode" too: https://www.tesla.com/blog/how-track-mode-works?redirect=no?utm_campaign=trackmode&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social
If you want to see an objective Petrol Heads review on driving a Model S P100D this one from Chris Harris is very good:
Not really Karen. I'm in my 5th year with the systems so I suppose the only difficulty was being on the leading edge of what you could do at the time with my requirements. Nobody was running EV's on top of the energy required by a big house. There was no data to design a solar/battery storage system around. Tesla themselves were not very helpful, possibly because they had no idea or they were not willing to share given they hadn't yet announced their own "powerwall" storage venture at that time. As a result there was a lot of initial experimentation and consultation with the SMA factory in Germany which continues even today. The first iteneration of a the home system was 10kw of panels and 24kw of battery storage. That was ok to run the house; but charging the Tesla on top was tricky. Essentially each Tesla uses the same daily energy as your average house. So your trying to run a big house AND another average house combined with high loads when charging the car and/or cooling the house. "Tricky" doesn't really do the difficulty justice. It was clear that a serious upgrade would be required when we got a 2nd Tesla and went completely EV for daily drivers. Our energy usage can get as high as 190kw a day on a hot day where we charge both cars and cool the house. Our usual average is more like 70kw a day. First step was to make the house as energy efficient as possible. Being 7yrs old at the time it was 5 star rated as it was. I changed hundreds of lights to LED's, got rid of inefficient appliances and had all the house windows tinted. That made a big difference to base energy requirements. Then I moved on to version of 2 of the solar which ended up being double the initial size. 20kw of panels and 48kw of storage. We are now about 75-80% "off grid" annually running the house and 2 Tesla's. The combined savings on electricity and petrol are about $10k a year FWIW. An additional benefit of the system is no power outages - ever. Version 3 of the system is in the planning now. I run a 65kw solar/48kw battery storage system at work. I'm going to buy 1, perhaps 2 salvage Tesla cars and repurpose the batteries for solar energy storage. I need 200kw of storage which is $$$$ buying new. The existing 48kw at work will be transferred to home which should take it 100% off grid. So lots of fun and games on this front; but not what you would really call drawbacks or downsides.
The Jaguar iPace is already here. It is the best competitor effort so far; but still no Tesla. I believe it runs to something like $150k OTR with a few options. Smaller battery and less range too. Looks great thanks though I must admit.
That hasn't been my experience actually, but I think it uses an electric element, in my car at least. There is a heat pump option which would be more efficient, like a reverse cycle air conditioner.
I know it’s hard for you, you peanut, but the question was Did you buy a Tesla? Not, do you drive an electric car. Everyone has seen your i3. Image Unavailable, Please Login
HAHAHA, nice! i think it is my mate's driving style, i average around 208whkm, and i drive it pretty hard already. I love my Tesla, but i think I will love the 911 too, haven't driven an ICE car for a while.
My car uses 130whkm. More people will take notice of that sort of thing as time moves on. No one cares at the moment.
Heating definitely uses more energy than A/C in the Tesla, I've experimented with it and it is measurable with the energy data screen. A bit weird and not what I would have expected; but it is what it is.
I've been on the "bleeding edge" of technology a couple of times in the past and it usually doesn't end well I must admit. This has been an interesting series of projects that have worked out well and I've met some pretty smart contacts that have helped on other jobs since then. So all good really.
I think 208 wh/km is about right for a Model S P90D It's been a while since I've driven the wife's P100D; but from memory it is about 225 wh/km. She drives slowly everywhere; but the car does run the big 21" wheels/tyre option which apparently uses about 10% more energy than the smallest wheel option. The rolling diameter must be different and the 21's are as heavy as buggery. Not as heavy as the massive 22" on my Model X though, changing those wheels is back breaking!
The Tesla sure uses a lot more energy, I guess luxury and performance costs whether its an EV or an ICE car. As electricity costs rise and EV's become more mainstream people will definitely start taking notice of the EV efficiency. It would cost about $32 to charge our 100kw batteries from empty on grid power. I guess that's about 1/3rd the cost of petrol in my last ICE car, a Range Rover S/C Autobiography. Both had about the same range on a "tank". Your BMW is under half that cost again, so not insignificant.
