Hi Everyone,
I was back and forwards with leather but couldn't get past how saggy most leather cars look already, does this align with others?
If you don't like leather in general (as I don't) then the textile seats are a good option. I went textile and don't regret it (although the one hidden downside is that the leather seats have a small storage pocket on the front of the seat but textile don't).
Second one is charger, as chademo is practically on us I think DC is the way forwards, is this correct also for European charging? I'm a bit unsure what charge speed I should expect from a single phase 32A (probably Rolec) home system, I think this should be 7kW which is obviously below the 11kW rating but does the fact it's single phase limit it down to 3.5kW like the online calculator seems to show as it only gives 16A option with single charger? If there's doubt I could up spec to twin charger but I have a feeling it is wasted money for how often I would likely use it and the money would be better off in a chademo adapter which will be available by the time I get the car in April.
You are quite right that for UK use the CHAdeMO adapter (when available) is better value than dual chargers - 99% of public en-route charging opportunities where you can get 22kW are at multi-headed charge points that also have CHAdeMO. Northern Ireland may be an exception - there seems to be a lot of 22kW points there, though I haven't tried them personally.
It might turn out that you often go somewhere that has 22kW charging (or a conveniently-located 32A 3-phase outlet that you could plug a portable EVSE into), but you need a) such a place pops up, b) your trip there actually needs charging, c) your typical trip has you spending long enough there that 22kW vs 11kW makes a difference _and_ you don't spend so long there that you will get a full charge even at 11kW. Could happen, but unless you've already scoped one out (I assume you've been thinking about all your regular trips and how you are going to handle them), probably such a rare chance it's not worth bothering about.
Adding Europe into the mix changes a couple of things - much more 3-phase rather than single phaseover there (but this is good - more chance of getting the best out of a single-charger car), and less easy to generalise about public charging infrastructure. Probably as a general statement there's less CHAdeMO (though it depends where you go); there's no huge swathes of 22kW charge points, but when scavenging around in one of the less well served areas you are perhaps more likely than in the UK to find 22kW AC without any CHAdeMO nearby.
But it's really a question of how you look at the car. I think I've seen three different approaches to road-tripping a Model S:
a) Only go where it's easy (Superchargers etc.), which really covers a high percentage of most people's trips. For more demanding trips, take the train/plane/rental car/spare ICE car you keep in the garage.
b) Carefully plan your routes in advance, buy extra adapters etc only if needed for a particular trip, maybe detour to ensure all-supercharger routing.
c) Load up the car with all kinds portable EVSE, cables, charging network membership cards etc. and drive off into the blue with the confidence that you will somehow or other scrape together a charging solution for wherever you end up going.
All are valid - it's a matter of personal style.
But do bear in mind the psychology of charging. 7kW (or 11kW) is fine for overnight charging, but glacially slow if you are sitting there watching it, particularly with family in tow - you plug in, explore the local shops/amusements, get back to the car to find you've barely added enough miles to cover the detour you took to get to the charge point. 22kW (dual chargers) is just about manageable as a way of extending your journey - at 60 miles added per hour of charging, a lunch stop can add enough to make the difference on typical UK trips where you are nearly within range without charging. But even 22kW isn't enough for sensibly adding a full recharge while you are sitting waiting because you want to continue your journey.
I don't think there's significant risk of Tesla taking away the ability for UK cars with single charger to charge from 32A single-phase charge points. Note that the single charger cars have always had the ability to charge from 32A single phase via the UMC (which uses non-standard wiring on the type2 connector). The problem arose when they realised that UK has a lot of standard type2 points at 32A single phase - notably those supplied under the OLEV scheme for home chargepoints, After messing around with jury-rigged Chargemaster points, they gave in and started fitting all UK cars with dual chargers and a software limitation if you hadn't paid for the second one. What we can reasonably expect them to do in the future is to add the additional contactor needed so that single charger cars can natively charge from 32A single phase, and then stop fitting the second charger by default. If so, cars ordered with single charger will behave exactly as they do now, it will just be the cheap upgrade path to dual chargers that's been taken away.
