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New Tesla Model S in Ottawa

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Although I promised I would wait one more year to get a Tesla, I decided to do so now. Believe it or not, the main reason I decided to do so now, is that I had to upgrade to a 7-seater :rolleyes:. Or maybe I was just trying to find an excuse :tongue:.

So I placed an order for an inventory new grey S60. It got the tech package, panoramic roof, duel chargers, winter package, parking sensors, Lacewood, Yacht floor, tan leather seats, subzero package, and rear facing seats (supercharger enabled: to be purchased once the superchargers are available in Canada). I went for the 60kWh because I really don't drive much, and for the price of course. I really prefer a loaded 60 over a stripped down 85.

I was promised by Yorkdale's sales for a Saturday pickup, but according to the delivery team it's not possible. I'm waiting for the delivery team to confirm on when the vehicle is going to be delivered to Ottawa, instead, next week.


I'm really excited and can't wait... :biggrin:

I would like to thank the owner of the white model S that was in the Ottawa Auto Show a few weeks ago. It was my first time being less than 100m close to a model S. He was nice enough to let me sit in it and showed me the car closely.

I've never test drove a model S... I bought it because I believed in it, and I'm also a humble investor in TSLA.

I will post pictures once I receive it next week... Wish me luck!

Khalid
 
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Great news! Be sure to drop by our office for a charge and say "hi".

Thanks a lot! I've seen it in a few pics here but I'm not sure where it is. I think I will be using some public chargers for awhile until my condo approves my parking outlet upgrade and get it done.

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Yes, welcome to the rapidly growing Canadian fleet! Sounds like you made very practical choices all around. Enjoy!

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Oh, and welcome to the forum as well!

Thanks, Vger! I hope I did :) .
 
I would like to thank the owner of the white model S that was in the Ottawa Auto Show a few weeks ago. It was my first time being less than 100m close to a model S. He was nice enough to let me sit in it and showed me the car closely.

That was me! It was great to meet you, and you're welcome!

Thanks a lot! I've seen it in a few pics here but I'm not sure where it is. I think I will be using some public chargers for awhile until my condo approves my parking outlet upgrade and get it done.

Plugshare is your friend (there's an app/website for that). You'll also find stations listed on EV Trip Planner - Sun Country Highway which are great for road trips. I hope to meet with you again and talk about your experience. The Ottawa Tesla family is growing...
 
Welcome and congrats, Khalid! You will love the car, and you'll just keep loving it more the more you drive it. I've had mine for about 2 months (not counting 2 months when I was away), and I'm still eager to go for a drive whenever I can. Plugshare and Sun Country Highway are great for trips right now, but you are buying at a good time, since Superchargers are coming to Ontario soon - this year if we can believe the latest estimates from Tesla.
 
That was me! It was great to meet you, and you're welcome!



Plugshare is your friend (there's an app/website for that). You'll also find stations listed on EV Trip Planner - Sun Country Highway which are great for road trips. I hope to meet with you again and talk about your experience. The Ottawa Tesla family is growing...

Hello Stéphane! Good to see you here!

It looks like Plugshare is going to be my friend forever. I just had two electricians at my condo. I live in a terrace home and I have the outdoor curbside outlet (110v) connected to my panel. It seems like a big job to install a NEMA 14-50 there and I'm waiting for their quotes (looking at around $3K). It's going to be interesting...
After some research, I think I might be able to survive with a 15amp 110v receptacle since I barely drive 50KM per day and 10 hours at night should be enough to top it up. We will see.

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Welcome and congrats, Khalid! You will love the car, and you'll just keep loving it more the more you drive it. I've had mine for about 2 months (not counting 2 months when I was away), and I'm still eager to go for a drive whenever I can. Plugshare and Sun Country Highway are great for trips right now, but you are buying at a good time, since Superchargers are coming to Ontario soon - this year if we can believe the latest estimates from Tesla.

Thanks a lot, Peter! I really can't wait for the superchargers...

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Congrats on the purchase. Great choice on the options. I just took mine out of storage this week after the longest winter in a while! Hope to see you around town.
Thanks, Asif! How could you resist storing it for the whole season! My delivery just got confirmed for the 11th of April (a week from now) and I can't even wait :) .
 
After some research, I think I might be able to survive with a 15amp 110v receptacle since I barely drive 50KM per day and 10 hours at night should be enough to top it up. We will see.

WARNING: It won't work in the winter. In cold weather you get much less charging because all the power is going into the pack heater. In my garage I can get 1 km an hour charging on cold nights. In extreme cold outdoors you will get no net charge. The batteries can't be charged if they are below freezing.

Get the 240V now, so you're not scrambling to do it next fall.
 
WARNING: It won't work in the winter. In cold weather you get much less charging because all the power is going into the pack heater. In my garage I can get 1 km an hour charging on cold nights. In extreme cold outdoors you will get no net charge. The batteries can't be charged if they are below freezing.

Get the 240V now, so you're not scrambling to do it next fall.

Opss! Then I will just wait for the quotes and go with the lowest...
 
Opss! Then I will just wait for the quotes and go with the lowest...

Get a bunch of quotes. When I got my Roadster HPC installed, I got four quotes. The highest was more than triple the lowest.

Just FYI, if you tell them the NEMA 14-50 is for electric car charging, you end up with more BS. They'll put in a cutout switch, and label the plug "Car Charger Only". No, I am not kidding, the local safety authority is nuts. There's no reason to put a cutout means on an outlet, which is itself a cutout means. And there's absolutely no reason why the plug wouldn't be safe for a welder.

Here's my installation:

IMG_2696.JPG
 
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WARNING: It won't work in the winter. In cold weather you get much less charging because all the power is going into the pack heater. In my garage I can get 1 km an hour charging on cold nights. In extreme cold outdoors you will get no net charge. The batteries can't be charged if they are below freezing.

Get the 240V now, so you're not scrambling to do it next fall.

I suppose it depends on how warm your condo parking is. I spent the winter parking outside and my 14-50 is the MINIMUM I would say you'd need if you were outside. I'd run the cabin heat for about an hour in the morning, after cold soaking overnight outside.

I'd agree with Doug on this one, spring now for the 50A. You'll regret trying to run your driving life tethered to 3km/h charge.

Great to hear another MS has arrived in Ottawa!!
 
Thanks everyone! I really can't wait until the delivery this Friday!

Thanks, Doug_G for your recommendation. My situation is a bit weird and I "might" consider charging at public stations only (2 days a week in winters and 110v to keep what's left already in the battery). The quotes I will be getting are $3K plus. The funny part is that 2 electricians I called are not willing to even provide me with a quote or do the job because they are positive that the condo will refuse it. Basically my car will be parked outside, and I have my own 110v outlet in front of my spot on the curb. The plan is to run a 50amp wire from the panel (luckily it is able to handle an extra 50amp of load easily) through the ceiling to the outside of my lower unit condo. Then, they have to dig in to run the wire underground and then under the concrete to add a new NEMA 14-50 outlet.

The following is a real pic of my parking spot. The red line will be the underground 50amp wire that will become the 14-50 NEMA outlet beside the current 110v outlet:
50amp_plan.jpg


Running the 50amp inside the ceiling of the lower floor of my condo isn't an issue. The issue is to run it underground and having to dig and drill the concrete.

For now and to prepare for the worst, i've ordered the charging cards for every known charging station in Ottawa and Gatineau (and other parts of Quebec since I go to Mont-Tremblant and Montreal a lot). e.g. Chargepoint, AddEnergie/VERnetwork, and Electric Circuit.

Although I work from home most of the days, there is a few charging stations around my office in Gatineau, like the casino and Galerie Hull. The one at the Casino looks promising... they have two Electric Circuit ports.

If you know good/honest electricians in Ottawa/Orleans, please share their contacts.

Thanks!
 
I'll PM you an electrician recommendation. I talked to a whole bunch of electricians for my electrical work - 7 I think. The guy who did it was quite a bit cheaper than the others. As Doug says, get at least 3 quotes - they can vary widely.

And I don't have experience with condos, but they might not be happy with you installing your receptacle on their post. Another option might be to put a receptacle on the wall by your window and use an extension cord like this one: Camco 55194 50 AMP 15 RV Power Grip Extension Cord: Amazon.ca: Automotive. Running a cord over the sidewalk might be a problem, especially in the winter. Maybe they'd let you use a cord ramp like this on the sidewalk: 2-Channel Hose, Wire and Cable Protector Ramp, or something similar home-made. Can you swap parking spots to avoid the stairs and get closer to your window?

Good luck!
 
I just wanted to update the thread after the delivery. The car is amazing :biggrin:. The truck arrived yesterday at 4:30PM and everything has been great so far! I got it with only 36KM, which is good. I was afraid of a few things but they actually exceeded my expectation:

1- I thought the standard 19" is boring and cheap. In real life, it looks fantastic! Actually I loved them!

2- The grey colour looks flawless and really good with the taillights greyish shade.

3- I was originally going with the grey interior, but now I think the 3D generated image for the tan interior is not giving the actual colour justice.

4- The Lacewood has a texture and looks real!
5- I was afraid that the build quality isn't going to be close to highend VWs and Audis. Again, I was wrong. :) The car felt (so far) rigid and that's the most important thing to me. Maybe not as luxurious as an S-Class but I would pick the Tesla any time :) .

6- The standard suspensions were more comfortable that my 2012 VW Tiguan with the sport package. With the standard steering wheel setting, it felt like a Lexus. I wasn't sure why many people here saying that the standard suspensions are too sporty and too sensitive to everything on the road.

7- The road noise was noticeable. I'm not sure if the tires aren't the best. I honestly didn't even look at the brand name of the tire because I was busy enjoying the ride :) .

8- The voice command function needs some work. For example, if I try to call someone, I get their contact details on the screen. Even with contacts with 1 phone number! I might have missed something but this is not what voice commands are for! Also, you need to keep pressing it to record, and i felt there was a noticeable lag. There should be also a voice feedback or confirmation instead of having to continuously looking at the screen.

9- I really miss adaptive headlights on turns. I think it should be standard on 40K+ cars with xenon headlights. I didn't notice the LED corner lights while turning. Not sure if there was a setting for that.

10- The parking sensors are amazing, but they should "hush" the radio. Do you know if there is a setting for that? I read the manual before I received the car and can remember that this was mentioned anywhere.

11- I thought I would need days to adjust myself to the regenerative braking, but luckily it took me an hour or two to be able to skip the brakes. I'm still in debate whether to turn the creep on or off.

12- The standard stereo is clear but the sound isn't high. The bass is almost missing. It sounded like the premium but with missing bass and lower volume :)... it's better than a LOT of cars with branded stereos though. (to be fair, I didn't test it with a USB source. I only used slacker)

13- Yeah, it's catchy and turns many heads! Many people took pictures from their cell phones or slowed down just to have a look at it :). I'm not used to this but I'm happy to promote EVs :).


About charging at home, I'm going to keep the current setup and convert my 120v/15A to 240v/20A (very simple process). It's 2.6 times faster than 120v (around 16-17km/h) and I know it's not ideal. For me, I think this is good enough for now as an overnight charging option. I came to this conclusion after a few silly quotes and to avoid going through the condo's approval.

I hope to see you guys around :)
 
I just wanted to update the thread after the delivery. The car is amazing :biggrin:.


We know. :)



1- I thought the standard 19" is boring and cheap. In real life, it looks fantastic! Actually I loved them!

I am a fan of the 19" wheels as well.


7- The road noise was noticeable. I'm not sure if the tires aren't the best. I honestly didn't even look at the brand name of the tire because I was busy enjoying the ride :) .

The road noise is noticeable because there pretty much isn't any other noise (if the stereo is off!). At low speeds you can hear the scraping of the brakes as well. These things happen in "regular" cars, you just can't normally hear it.


9- I really miss adaptive headlights on turns. I think it should be standard on 40K+ cars with xenon headlights. I didn't notice the LED corner lights while turning. Not sure if there was a setting for that.

The cornering lights turn on based on steering wheel position. There's no setting required.


13- Yeah, it's catchy and turns many heads! Many people took pictures from their cell phones or slowed down just to have a look at it :). I'm not used to this but I'm happy to promote EVs :).

You'll get used to it. I've probably spent a couple of hours in total talking to complete strangers about the car.


About charging at home, I'm going to keep the current setup and convert my 120v/15A to 240v/20A (very simple process). It's 2.6 times faster than 120v (around 16-17km/h) and I know it's not ideal. For me, I think this is good enough for now as an overnight charging option. I came to this conclusion after a few silly quotes and to avoid going through the condo's approval.

That sounds like an excellent idea. Hopefully that plus the occasional public charging will fill the bill.


Congrats iKhalid!

(Model S owner in Victoria, but I grew up in Ottawa and am thinking of going back to visit.... need.... superchargers....)
 
Congratulations !

5- I was afraid that the build quality isn't going to be close to highend VWs and Audis. Again, I was wrong. :) The car felt (so far) rigid and that's the most important thing to me. Maybe not as luxurious as an S-Class but I would pick the Tesla any time :) .
I had a few squeaks and creaks when my car was delivered. But a few shims fixed most of them. Also, the car felt very "floaty" at delivery. It wasn't until I drove a loaner during my annual service that I realized my car was "off". The alignment was fixed at the service centre and the car is a lot nicer to drive.

7- The road noise was noticeable. I'm not sure if the tires aren't the best. I honestly didn't even look at the brand name of the tire because I was busy enjoying the ride :) .
OE tires on the 19" should be Michelin Primacy MXM4 (on the 85kWh model) and Goodyear Eagle RS-A2 for the 60kWh car. You might want to double check your tire pressures now before you put a lot of mileage on it .

8- The voice command function needs some work. For example, if I try to call someone, I get their contact details on the screen. Even with contacts with 1 phone number! I might have missed something but this is not what voice commands are for! Also, you need to keep pressing it to record, and i felt there was a noticeable lag. There should be also a voice feedback or confirmation instead of having to continuously looking at the screen.
The voice command actually records your voice and sends the recording to Google for processing. You'll notice that voice command is not available when you have no 3G/WiFi coverage. Also, the microphone is in the ceiling, between the 2 reading lights. You could try to direct your voice in that direction, if it doesn't pick it up just right. Voice feedback is not provided, but you'll see small popoups in the instrument cluster. when it's recording/processing or if it didn't understand you.

9- I really miss adaptive headlights on turns. I think it should be standard on 40K+ cars with xenon headlights. I didn't notice the LED corner lights while turning. Not sure if there was a setting for that.
I find that I only notice the cornering lights when it's really dark outside, or if there are snowbanks hugging the corner. Or if the lights actually shine on an obstacle.
12- The standard stereo is clear but the sound isn't high. The bass is almost missing. It sounded like the premium but with missing bass and lower volume :)... it's better than a LOT of cars with branded stereos though. (to be fair, I didn't test it with a USB source. I only used slacker)
I have the sound studio package, and I like to have my bass EQ at +3, and mids at -0.5. Treb at 0. There's another thread on this, with varying opinions. Your taste may vary ! (i also disable dolby for a punchier sound) Try putting some FLAC files on a USB stick, and enabling the best audio quality setting, in the slacker section of the 17" screen.
About charging at home, I'm going to keep the current setup and convert my 120v/15A to 240v/20A (very simple process). It's 2.6 times faster than 120v (around 16-17km/h) and I know it's not ideal. For me, I think this is good enough for now as an overnight charging option. I came to this conclusion after a few silly quotes and to avoid going through the condo's approval.

I hope to see you guys around :)
If you're comfortable at 16km/h of charging overnight, then you should be fine. Drive safely !