Although not yet a Tesla owner, I am a classic forum stalker so follow certain threads with great interest.
One of the on-going debates revolves around the 'cost of ownership' and 'persistent reliability issues' - once the warranty is over.
Tesla have moved to address the growing concerns about the drivetrain reliability and offered an 8 year unlimited warranty to match the battery pack (as I understand it). Tesla are also fantastically pro-active in dealing with issues on cars to the extent that very few have actually been inconvenienced or incurred costs. There is also the debate about the warranty and battery degradation - as opposed to failure.
So I was wondering what will happen in the future when lots of Teslas (and the sort I might buy second hand) run out of warranty and start being sold on.
I would like to think that the initial problems will have been solved by then but it would be interesting to guess how much on-going 'repairs' would cost - door handles; charging stuff; soft and hardware; and so on.
The battery may have been replaced by then so will start afresh but could be down to 70% capacity. How comfortable would it be to buy a car with a battery getting 'old'? Is it likely to suddenly die? And what would that cost? How do you value a car with a 'dodgy' battery - especially if the replacement cost is still high (as high as the value of the car?!)
Maybe older cars will be sold with reduced range and buyers will accept the limitation - even 60% capacity would still be way more than new Leafs and i3s etc. I could live with a 'cheap' Tesla with only 150mile range as long as the battery would still last for years with on-going degradation.
Of course, things may start to change so quickly over the next few years that the scenario may be completely different - new packs for a MS S85 for less than $5k.......
Thoughts?
One of the on-going debates revolves around the 'cost of ownership' and 'persistent reliability issues' - once the warranty is over.
Tesla have moved to address the growing concerns about the drivetrain reliability and offered an 8 year unlimited warranty to match the battery pack (as I understand it). Tesla are also fantastically pro-active in dealing with issues on cars to the extent that very few have actually been inconvenienced or incurred costs. There is also the debate about the warranty and battery degradation - as opposed to failure.
So I was wondering what will happen in the future when lots of Teslas (and the sort I might buy second hand) run out of warranty and start being sold on.
I would like to think that the initial problems will have been solved by then but it would be interesting to guess how much on-going 'repairs' would cost - door handles; charging stuff; soft and hardware; and so on.
The battery may have been replaced by then so will start afresh but could be down to 70% capacity. How comfortable would it be to buy a car with a battery getting 'old'? Is it likely to suddenly die? And what would that cost? How do you value a car with a 'dodgy' battery - especially if the replacement cost is still high (as high as the value of the car?!)
Maybe older cars will be sold with reduced range and buyers will accept the limitation - even 60% capacity would still be way more than new Leafs and i3s etc. I could live with a 'cheap' Tesla with only 150mile range as long as the battery would still last for years with on-going degradation.
Of course, things may start to change so quickly over the next few years that the scenario may be completely different - new packs for a MS S85 for less than $5k.......
Thoughts?