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Critique My Strategy: Blindly Buying the Base Model

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On the contrary, other than the A/C a Tesla uses virtually no power while sitting in traffic, unlike an ICE sitting there burning dino juice just so that it doesn't stall. If you accelerate gently (and/or leave the acceleration to TACC in such traffic, which is really the right answer) then you're range may often be better in such traffic than on the highway.

Can you explain this a little more as I have a 60 on order and should be getting within the week?

I have 95% of my commute is stop and go traffic to and from work. Its about 13 miles one way.

Are you saying once I get into a lane on the highway, put Autopilot/TACC on and just let it do its thing for best results for stop and go driving?

Thanks for this info.
 
Exactly. I've only had my 90D for about four months now, but in that time I think the time I most appreciated TACC was traversing
Lakeshore Drive in Chicago on a busy afternoon. I've done this a fair number of times over the years, and it is always a nerve-wracking
pain, but this time I turned on TACC and set the speed to a bit above what the best-case speed was and just let it do its thing. My
tension levels plummeted. I don't recall if I was also using auto-steer; if so, it would be icing on the cake in that situation rather than
cake itself. It is really the speed control and not needing to brake that make it.
 
Also, @Eric S I don't know about the rest of your car history, but a Model S will blow the doors off the two cars you mentioned, in a straight line. My previous car was a WRX (last two actually), and those had similar 0-60 times to the S. But this thing gets off the line in such an efficient and irrepressible fashion, I get a grin every time. Now, in NYC, the 0-15 time is probably more important, and the S will definitely be awesome to beat a cab off the line!
as someone who has had performance ICE cars in the past, would you say that even the base model is definitely faster then even the nicer sedans and cars out there such as say the lexus gs350 2013 or even some high end stuff like m3 or whatever since even though 0-60 times are similar but this thing is instant, is it better to get base or performance?
 
by the way I suppose this language of amperage so on will eventually become second nature to me, however for now I have a model S coming 2013 with dual chargers which I understand they now call high capacity charger, its suppose to charge the car at home in like 4 hours? Does that mean at a super charging station it will do a 100% in like 15 mins?

A few people mentioned how the newer cars come with high amp vs older whats all this exactly mean for charging? is it important to pay attention to the charging stats?
 
by the way I suppose this language of amperage so on will eventually become second nature to me, however for now I have a model S coming 2013 with dual chargers which I understand they now call high capacity charger, its suppose to charge the car at home in like 4 hours? Does that mean at a super charging station it will do a 100% in like 15 mins?

A few people mentioned how the newer cars come with high amp vs older whats all this exactly mean for charging? is it important to pay attention to the charging stats?

Here's a link to Tesla's website which has the supercharging information I think you are looking for. In your case with a dual charger you will have 80Amps of charging (the second blue bar, so around 28 miles in half hour based on the chart). Supercharging is different from AC charging and much faster. Hope that helps.

Supercharger | Tesla

As for the second part of your question. The newer models have as a base 48Amps vs. 40Amps as a base on the older models. However the dual charger drops, and is 72A vs. 80A in the past (what you will be getting).
 
as someone who has had performance ICE cars in the past, would you say that even the base model is definitely faster then even the nicer sedans and cars out there such as say the lexus gs350 2013 or even some high end stuff like m3 or whatever since even though 0-60 times are similar but this thing is instant, is it better to get base or performance?
So I did own performance cars, but have never had a luxury car. So it is hard for me to answer that question. I can only tell you that my base, "slower" Model S is a riot, especially in RWD-only form like I have. It is not as planted under hard acceleration, which is actually really enjoyable. You can feel the thing working under you, and just know that if you were to turn off the traction control, it could be a handful.
 
As a point of interest... you can no longer order the 90kWh version in RWD only. But it's a difference of 5.2 vs 5.5 seconds if looking at the 60/75 between the dual motor vs RWD configs. The 90D offers acceleration of 0-60 as 4.2. I've never owned a vehicle with less than 6 seconds, so all of them offer more performance than anything I've ever owned :)
 
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I don't believe dual chargers makes any difference for Super Chargers. The chargers used for other-than-Super charging are AC systems that convert incoming AC power to DC for use in charging the batteries. The Super Chargers have that AC-DC conversion built into them and provide (massive amounts of) DC straight to the car, bypassing the on-board units. The Super Chargers are mind-blowing -- they put out about 100kW peak, which is just insane.
 
I don't believe dual chargers makes any difference for Super Chargers. The chargers used for other-than-Super charging are AC systems that convert incoming AC power to DC for use in charging the batteries. The Super Chargers have that AC-DC conversion built into them and provide (massive amounts of) DC straight to the car, bypassing the on-board units. The Super Chargers are mind-blowing -- they put out about 100kW peak, which is just insane.

Superchargers bypass the chargers as those are AC-DC chargers... and you're right the SC is direct DC charging and was recently upgraded to 145kW, though I think most vehicles are limited to 120kW currently.
 
I decided against the base model, though I was torn for a long time. In short, the extra 15kWh battery makes a difference for me. I drive 300 miles each week for work + around town. The extra battery size means I can drive pretty much anywhere I'll ever need without relying on mid-journey recharging.

That aside, my only splurge was the paint (red) and autopilot hardware - again, because of the distance I travel on motorways.

Pano roof; no point, this is Britain and it rains most days. Every car I've owned with a sunroof has leaked after a few years.
Air suspension; again, I drive on good roads most of the time so no point.
Winter pack; a cold winter here is -5 overnight. More wet than cold. Hardly necessary.