[gangzoom]

2 years ago I chopped in my much loved 335i for a Nissan Leaf as part of an experiment to try out electric cars!!



Alot of people thought I had lost it, but 2 years on and the Leaf has gone back to Nissan after doing its job of convincing me EVs are the future and the 335is proper replacement is now here...

Our Tesla Model X arrived at the weekend after a 8 months wait, and despite our car been the slowest and cheapest Model X you can buy it's totally redefined what I think a car can/should do!!

A 2.5 ton 6 seater 5 meter long SUV shouldn't feels at home been trashed around the B/unclassified roads but it does. It's a car that on paper has no right to feel so nice to drive quickly, but it like all good cars when hurried it seems to shrink in size and puts a smile on my face. 0-30 mph is painful as your thrown into the seat, after that the acceleration tails off to the same as my old 350Z, so where near as quick at my old 335i beyond 40mph but more than enough for family ferrying duties which is now a vital job given the arrival of our daughter some 12 months ago . But again I have to keep on reminding my self this is a for all intents and purpose a small van not a 2 seater GT coupe, which is how it feels like to drive!!

Oh and than once you stop driving it there are the gull wing doors that really should't work but do, powered front doors that open/close for you, an endless windscreen, built-in Spotify/web access via 4G to keep you occupied.....It's crazy any car company have managed to build this thing, let alone one thats only been around for a decade!!

The Leaf may have shown me the potential of EVs for the future, the Model X is the future, except its not, its parked in my driveway right now .

The Tesla dealership resembled a RangeRover car park when I picked up our X, so the word is getting out. As a family wagon nothing else on the market comes close to offering the ability/occasion of the X, I cannot think of any other car I would rather be driving right now. The old guard really need to step up their game, time/progress waits for no one.

[imy]

I run a leaf alongside my 335i. Although like you the leaf is going back and now the 335i is turning into a daily. It surprised me in many ways I didn't mind it as much as I thought i would although i am not converted to ev.

[BMW Steve]

For some very strange reason I Like that, not sure if I would go down that route though but a test drive might sway me, who knows...... I still love my 335i to much even though its giving me grief at the moment....

[BMW Steve]

And that looks lush,,,,

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2016-Tesla-M...305?rmvSB=true

[The0pportunist]

Can you tell us about the realistic range, charging times ?

[tadaska]

How do you open those doors in a busy supermarket carpark?

I toothink EVs is the future.

A little vid for those who don't know why:

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by The0pportunist

Can you tell us about the realistic range, charging times ?

Refueling EVs need a different mental apporach from combustion cars, which is one of the reasons why I got the Leaf. The reason most of the time you fill your petrol car to the brim at the pumps is because its the most convenient way to do it, as most of us don't live next to a petrol station..

If you got into your petrol car and it showed you had a fuel range of 150-200 miles would that cause you to panic and want to rush off to the petrol station straight away??

On a full 100%-0% discharges I guesstimate my version of the X will give you 180 miles of range if driven in a 'normal' fashion in the current weather conditions, so single digit temp/bit of rain/wind etc. Come summer I suspect that figure will be 200miles easy in the very worst winter it might be down to 150.

BUT the reason I say its a 'guesstimate' is because so far despite now having covered 300 miles over the last 4-5 days, I've yet to cover more than 80 miles of driving in a day. And because I plug it in to charge every night (I use cheap evening rates) every morning I wake up with 180miles of range in the 'tank'.

For my use anyways range and charging speed has no impact on how am using my car as the car charges overnight when am asleep. Will be doing a 150 mile trip to Cardiff next weekend, but Tesla have numerous Rapid chargers locations enroute these things will add 50-100 miles of extra range in a 10-15 minutes. The car should manage the trip non stop but with a 12 months old travelling too we are planning to stop at least once anyways so might as well make use of the free fuel Tesla supply .

[mjn77]

Originally Posted by tadaska

How do you open those doors in a busy supermarket carpark?

They're not Gullwing Doors, they're Falcon Wing doors. In other words, they're double hinged.

[Billyray911]

Fascinating and really interesting to hear your views on ev.I saw my first quick glimpse of a model X last week and was surprised at how big they seemed to be.
Is that a glass roof and have you any photos of the interior with the doors open?-I'm very curious!

[gangzoom]

^

The front windscreen extends over your head. The interior space is huge as you would expect, we went with the 6 seater options, which essentially means most of the time the car is a very big 4 seater coupe!!

[AWSAWS]

No doubt electric is a great step forward although I find it souless without the sound of a combustion engine. IC engines just aren't efficient at all but electric is not without it's limitations.

Refueling needs to be compatible universal battery packs which you swap at a refueling station or at home. They'd probably have to be state funded\subsidised. That way a refill can be sliding out the old pack and sliding in the full one.

The energy grid in this country would require a massive step up to meet demand. We can't handle everyone going electric and obviously a massive amount of grid energy still comes from fossil fuels. Buying power from overseas is costly.

Not sure what the environmental impacts of these cars are long term. As in the pollution from their creation and recycling. Mining for exotic elements etc.

Batteries need to improve. Both storage capacity and longevity. If the cells are only good for 7 years then what happens after that? £15,000 for a new battery? Run a car at a reduced storage capability and range? Every charge discharge cycle reduces the efficiency of a battery.

I do wonder as well what effect massive magnetic and electric fields have on health but at least we are making progress.

Perhaps it'd be better to have maglev style roads with a magnetic wave pulsing under the road and powered by a national system. Then just join the carriageway and use something like a small electric motor for journeys off powered routes?

Who knows what will happen. Innovations are so unpredictable.

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by AWSAWS

No doubt electric is a great step forward although I find it souless without the sound of a combustion engine. IC engines just aren't efficient at all but electric is not without it's limitations.

Refueling needs to be compatible universal battery packs which you swap at a refueling station or at home. They'd probably have to be state funded\subsidised. That way a refill can be sliding out the old pack and sliding in the full one.

The energy grid in this country would require a massive step up to meet demand. We can't handle everyone going electric and obviously a massive amount of grid energy still comes from fossil fuels. Buying power from overseas is costly.

Not sure what the environmental impacts of these cars are long term. As in the pollution from their creation and recycling. Mining for exotic elements etc.

Batteries need to improve. Both storage capacity and longevity. If the cells are only good for 7 years then what happens after that? £15,000 for a new battery? Run a car at a reduced storage capability and range? Every charge discharge cycle reduces the efficiency of a battery.

I do wonder as well what effect massive magnetic and electric fields have on health but at least we are making progress.

Perhaps it'd be better to have maglev style roads with a magnetic wave pulsing under the road and powered by a national system. Then just join the carriageway and use something like a small electric motor for journeys off powered routes?

Who knows what will happen. Innovations are so unpredictable.

Tesla opened two battery swap stations in the US, no one used them, so they closed them.

Germany get over 20% of their electricity from wind, UK has much better wind resources than Germany so why doesn't the government invest in off shore wind instead of wasting money on nuclear?

The battery pack in our Model X is projectes to last 500,000 miles, given I drive 10,000 a year the battery pack will last longer than me!!

We live in a massive magnetic field already, the earth has its own.

Virtually all the 'concerns' people worry about with EVs is already delt with, the limiting factor is cost. Which like all tech things will come down. I paid £200 for a 40mg hard drive back in the day... Call me an idiot paying early adopter tax, but life is too short .

[abeardo83]

For me, the two big negatives of electric cars are
1/ the sound
2/ the inconvenience of charging. In 15mins, you'll get what, 60miles? I can fill the car twice in that time.

The whole 'green' thing in this country is false. We charge off the national grid, which is in the vast majority, powered by fossil fuels. I can also imagine the carbon footprint for creating a Tesla / electric car is much higher than a simillarly priced petrol car.

What's the second hand market like for these types of cars? Are they at the same price as say a 2015 530d? If they are more expensive, how long would it take to recoup the extra outlay by not paying for fuel?

[gangzoom]

Originally Posted by abeardo83

For me, the two big negatives of electric cars are
1/ the sound
2/ the inconvenience of charging. In 15mins, you'll get what, 60miles? I can fill the car twice in that time.

The whole 'green' thing in this country is false. We charge off the national grid, which is in the vast majority, powered by fossil fuels. I can also imagine the carbon footprint for creating a Tesla / electric car is much higher than a simillarly priced petrol car.

What's the second hand market like for these types of cars? Are they at the same price as say a 2015 530d? If they are more expensive, how long would it take to recoup the extra outlay by not paying for fuel?

1: If your doing 300 miles a day every day and/or have no home charging than yes charging is am inconvenience. But for my purpose I do about 10K a year and rarely over 100 miles a day, I plug the car in once I get home and it charges over night. The total amount of time I've spent charging my car over the last 10K miles....about may be 5 minutes if you count the 10-15 second it takes me to plug in the car once I get home.

Where as every 500 miles or so for our other car I have to waste time driving to a petrol station, filling up, paying, than drive home.

So my personal experience is the opposite of what people perceive, owing an EV is far more convenient for refuelling compared to a petrol/diesel car .


2: For energy generation the UK lags behind Germany but even so renewable energy generation in the UK last year produced the same amount of power as nuclear.

More amazingly last week during a brief bit of sun, the demands from the grid during day time was LOWER than a night, because all so many homes/business now have solar PV systems.

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...ch-electricity

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...carbon-sources

3: Depreciation on the Nissan Leaf is horrific partly because Nissan discounts new cars so much - I got roughly the equivalent £8K off the list price!!

Tesla on the other hand don't do any discount, not a single penny for anyone. At the moment a used 2.5 year old Model S still costs £50-60K, compared to £65-70K for a new one!!

http://www.carbuyer.co.uk/reviews/re...g-cars-on-sale

[surrey 335i]

These new Telsa X are very impressive, my mate got his about 10 days ago and have been out in it a couple of time.

The acceleration in ludicrous mode is unbelievable from zero it snaps your head back in the seat like nothing else Ive been in (makes my 400 bhp Evo9 seem slow!).

Very individual car, they have done everything their own way and its unique/interesting way of doing it. Way out my price range sadly but a very impressive machine.

[half Colin]

Originally Posted by surrey 335i

............. Way out my price range sadly but a very impressive machine.

Check out the upcoming Model 3 (BMW 3 series size) - the basic model starts with 215m range, 0-60 less than 6s, 5 seats and auto pilot at $35k. I've got my reservation.

I drove a Tesla S P100D the other day and it's mighty impressive but way out of being acceptable to She Who Must Be Obeyed!