Advice for potential Roadster owner

Hi Fraccy,

I've had a Roadster (in the UK) since April. I love it because I wanted a commuting 'sports' car that was different (used to drive a Maserati), and the spec and range matches my normal requirements.

1. Nobody is entirely sure what will happen with regards to the replacement battery. I suspect that Tesla will manufacture a compatible replacement which is effectively an upgrade (as the older, lower capacity, cells may no longer be available). However ten years is a long time in the EV world.... The questions really are how much can they 'upgrade' the pack without having to replace the PEM (which I assume they won't re-design), and where will Tesla be in ten years (i.e. what about Roadster support if they are 'absorbed' by Toyota)?

2. I have no experience of public charge points. Currently I don't even own a UMC! I commute a short distance to my office every day and charge at home. Quite often I drive 120 miles (at high-speed) and again charge on my return. I am considering buying a UMC as charging after such long journeys takes a considerable time, and have already had a 32A socket fitted outside. I just don't understand public charge points (at the current time): they would only ever be useful if you can leave the car there for several hours (whilst you are at work), or they offer a very fast charge....and who wants to carry around a boot full of cables and adapters! So, my thoughts are simply that you should only purchase an EV if it matches your lifestyle and you really only need to charge at home (or work), as currently anything else is hassle - unless you want to be a pioneer. For me, the Tesla matches perfectly (and the company car tax incentives came in handy too!). Its a fantastic machine. I am addicted to the acceleration. If, however, I was doing round trips of >140 miles on a regular basis I wouldn't recommend it (personally) because I like driving fast without range anxiety!

3. The range is exactly as anticipated. I generally only use Standard mode. After a charge I have approx 190 ideal miles (which means >210 if you count the reserve). If I zip down a motorway on a 110 mile round trip I will return home with approx 30 ideal (50 max) miles left. Obviously you can vastly improve this if you drive more sedately and are careful with the acceleration (less fun though).

Ray.

Doug_G said:

It was bang-on going westbound and slightly conservative going eastbound; I suspect the small difference was due to the prevailing winds!

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Or the rotation of the Earth?

fraccy said:

Does the wait get any easier? :crying:

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No, but congratulations!

While you're waiting, there's plenty of reading :wink::

Ordered-my-(our)-Roadster!
Legend-of-Lightning-Green
I-do.
Just-placed-my-order!
Things-to-do-with-a-Roadster
Things-not-to-do-with-a-Roadster.

fraccy said:

...
Does the wait get any easier? :crying:

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Try waiting 2 years!

Formatting bug has hit this post - sorry!

Just a note to say hi to both Scene and Fraccy from a fellow UK owner. Whereabouts do you each live? I'm in Edinburgh, and have taken my Roadster as far south as Goodwood and as far north as Aviemore and Aberdeen. Pretty much all the questions are answered, but I'd like to comment on charging away from home:- There are publicly accessible Tesla High Power Wall Connectors (HPCs) that connect directly to the car and recharge it (from empty) in about 4 hours at:Taunton (Castle Hotel); London Heathrow (Heathrow Windsor Marriott); Nottingham (Q Hotels Nottingham Belfry); Durham (Raddison Blu Durham); Cumbria (Tebay Westmorland Services on M6 Northbound, accessible from Southbound); Edinburgh (Dalmahoy Marriott); Aviemore (Macdonald Aviemore Highland Resort.) I've charged at all these bar Taunton and Tebay. Kevin Sharpe and David Peilow have charged at them all bar Tebay. Tebay has been tested by an owner. The network these form means you can drive between them without range issues, and hence can reach most of the UK with one or two recharge stops of 2-4 hours each. You don't need to carry a special cable at all. If you do buy and carry a UMC then you can add all the places that have a standard blue 32A "commando" (aka IEC 60309) connector, including: Arden Hotel at Birmingham NEC; Scarlet Hotel and Sennen Inn in Cornwall; Malmaison Hotel and Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh; Montpelier Chapter Hotel in Cheltenham; Others in the Zerocarbonworld network 32A allows a full charge overnight. What is currently difficult is to link to the growing number of 32A Mennekes type 2 sockets, for example the ones ecotricity is installing at Welcome Break locations on the motorway network. For this Tesla really need to produce a Mennekes to Tesla cable, which is so far missing. However, with current HPC network and a UMC the UK is pretty much fully open for Roadsters. Hope you find the spirit of adventure and set off!

fraccy said:

Thank you very much this was very helpful.

Deposit down!

.... ok its now been 2 hours 47 minutes since I ordered........ eek! 2 hours 48 minutes........

Does the wait get any easier? :crying:

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I'm pretty sure the CDC has recognized "roadster sickness" as a real disease by now. Once you drive one you can't eat, you can't sleep. You're all but useless at work. As far as I know there's only one cure. Best medicine I've ever had!

Some of us are chronically afflicted and cannot afford the cure.

fraccy said:

- Do you find the range in practice as good, worse, or better, than you anticipated before purchase?

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For me, it varies with the season. In the summer (in Seattle where it doesn't seem to get very hot anymore) the range is right on, or even a little conservative at least for mixed city/highway driving. Up into the mountains at 70MPH will, of course, cost you range. In the winter, the range is worse than advertised. I think that most of the winter difference is running the heat (which sucks down quite a bit of power), but I'm not convinced that that's all of it.

Hi Fraccy, great to hear that you did get that list of UK HPCs already (from Gian I presume). Even better news that the Mennekes adapter cable is being pursued by Tesla.

I totally concur that 99% plus of the time you will be charging at home, but it's great to know that at a time of need or desire the open road is accessible.

Finally - do consider a UMC as there are lots of 32A stations already open to us (some of which I listed before).

TEG said:

Some of us are chronically afflicted and cannot afford the cure.

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With the new USA health care system and with Elon and Obama being sort-of buddies, this terrible chronic affliction must surely be covered!

raymond said:

With the new USA health care system and with Elon and Obama being sort-of buddies, this terrible chronic affliction must surely be covered!

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That's right! A custom Tesla Roadster is less expensive than many cancer treatments, and certainly cheaper than brain surgery, so I don't see why they couldn't afford it. Just continue the trend where half of Americans pay negative income tax and 1% of the top earners carry 28% of the federal tax collections, as that latter number continues to grow. If that fails, continue to print more money (doubling the circulation of U.S. Dollars only causes prices of goods to inflate to double their previous value, so it's a small price to pay). :cursing:

fraccy said:

How cold does it get in Seattle? We had a chilly winter here in the UK last year but it was fairly exceptional, and its rare for it to stay below freezing during the day. Just how cold is cold?

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It sounds pretty comparable to the UK. We always get some days below freezing, but usually it gets above in the daytime. Sometimes it snows, usually it melts the same day but not always. There are lots of 40F (~4C) drizzly days.

While fast/mountain driving affects all cars the same way (well, mountain maybe a little less for EV because of regen), heat in an EV is WAY different than in an ICE. The downside of having a really efficient powertrain is that there isn't much heat generated; the energy is mostly going to motion. While this is usually a good thing, the "waste' heat from an ICE is what powers the cabin heater. In an EV, you have to draw energy from the battery pack to heat the cabin, and that can be quite expensive (several kW when it's cranked all the way up).

bolosky said:

The downside of having a really efficient powertrain is that there isn't much heat generated; the energy is mostly going to motion. While this is usually a good thing, the "waste' heat from an ICE is what powers the cabin heater. In an EV, you have to draw energy from the battery pack to heat the cabin, and that can be quite expensive (several kW when it's cranked all the way up).

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Good point. How much energy is stored in 10 gallons of gasoline? How much energy is stored in the 6,831 cells of the Tesla ESS? My rough guess is that the typical compact car stores about 4 times as much energy as the Roadster, but it wastes most of it while driving 300 miles. That waste means you get heat for free, even when you don't want it. The Roadster needs every bit of its energy to drive 245 miles, so any heat that you want will reduce that range.

Roadster gets rated at something like 120MPGe. So, for ~240mile range, it works out to energy equivalent of about 2 gallons of gasoline. (I have seen similar equivalences calculated different ways).
A typical ICE car probably has a 10+ gallon tank, so it is more like 5x+ more energy in the gasoline vehicle.

From:
Energy Efficiency of Tesla Electric Vehicles | Tesla Motors

...Converting the chemical energy to free electrons (electrical energy) can be greater than 90% efficient – some energy is lost to heat in cells and other battery pack components such as current conductors and fuses. The remaining components of the Tesla powertrain – the drive inverter and motor – are also extremely efficient. Overall, drive efficiency of the Tesla Roadster is 88% - almost three times more efficient than an internal combustion powered vehicle.
...
Chemical energy is stored as gasoline in a conventional car. Combustion is used to convert the chemical energy into thermal energy. Pistons convert the thermal energy to the mechanical work that turns the wheels. The conversion process is, at best, 35% efficient. The majority of the energy stored in the gasoline is lost as heat...

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