Just had test drive... wow

[DJP31]

Whilst frowned upon was thinking of using my local super charger a little more than just long trips and TBH they are installing 8 and I’ve honestly never seen a Tesla where I live so don’t think usage would be an issue, Home charging is something I’m working out now with an installer as conventional options are not open to me.

Locals using their nearby Supercharger isn’t frowned upon where it’s the only viable option. That’s fine and perfectly understandable. People that use it to save a penny here and there and potentially causing queues for others is different, although absolutely no rule against it.

There is some truth that always using high speed DC charging harms the battery long term, and to protect the battery the max charge rate will be throttled by the car after X number of charges. Nobody is quite sure how many and the impact is pretty negligible so nothing to lose sleep over.

Definitely use a referral code though!

 

[JonG]

My OH is getting seriously tempted by a P100 for commuting He loves his GTR for track days & won't get rid of it. I balance his CO2 & noise out with my Tesla

I think there's quite a few owners that use superchargers locally due to no charging at home. It does mean you miss out on one of the best bits of EV ownership, being full every morning without having to do anything special, but if it works for you & means you can get the car that you want ... it's a compromise. Personally I don't have an issue with it, even more important to use a referral code if you're going to need to do that. See what the sparkies say, they might have ideas.

Keep us posted, interested to hear what they come up with

It’s still relatively peanuts charging at home compared to a GTR - 5p a mile v probably 25p. Slashing your fuel bill 4/5 is great, wanting the last 1/5 with the inconvenience to yourself and potentially others is less so. If no one is queuing then why not, but I’d be frustrated if I was 300 miles from home on a road trip and a local was blocking a charger so they could save a couple of quid.

 

[WannabeOwner]

Whilst frowned upon

Well, not sure about that. Musk is providing Urban Chargers for areas where there is no off-street charging, so he recognises the problem.

But ... sit in your car waiting for charging for several hours a week? OK for a stop-gap, and maybe you can do EMails / similar during that time, so not wasted time.

using my local super charger a little more than just long trips

Beware that frequent user of Supercharger will trigger a slow down of the charge rate. This isn't a penalty-for-use, its to maintain battery life as, presumably, Supercharging stresses the battery. I have no idea "how often" and "how much", but Bjorn had a battery swap on his MX and did a video with a direct comparison of before/after charging times. I suspect he had done 100K at the time, and he spends a lot of time on road trips, so plenty of supercharging.

An alternative might be to use a non super-charger, e.g. at a shopping centre, whilst you are doing something else. Whilst that won't be free I doubt it will be significant (compared to home-electricity / Petrol )

He loves his GTR for track days & won't get rid of it

My TurboNutterBastard has not done a single mile since the MS arrived ... I'm definitely going to get it "sorted" and flog it this Spring ... although it has crossed my mind to electrify it instead. It has almost no boot, but a massive bonnet, so Frunk storage would be quite nice

 

[WannabeOwner]

There is some truth that ...

Sorry, didn't spot that there was another post on Page-2 already ... Doh!

 

[Mobius484]

Welcome! So many of us have had the same experience. 27000 miles on a 90D and it just doesn’t get old... enjoy your X

 

[Peteski]

We have a new MX 75D and range has been no problem at all. Driving short trips in cold weather eats up a lot of battery, but still easily get over 100 miles range with plenty of headroom. On longer trips, it tends to be more efficient and I would say it's good for 150 miles in cold winter conditions and nearer 200 miles in summer. Really couldn't justify the £17k or whatever for the 100D, which adds approx 50 miles extra range.

Incidentally the 75D is about 150 kg lighter than the 100D, which makes it that bit more agile and it is quite noticeable when pushing on. Performance is pretty much identical too since the 75D power increase last Autumn. I test drove all variants of the X, including the P100D and concluded that the 75D is plenty quick enough for a large SUV. The P100D is just ridiculously fast and you would just piss off all your passengers in no time. I couldn't tell the difference between the 75D and 100D in straight-line performance, only the handling as I already mentioned. I'm still getting grief from my wife accelerating too fast in the 75D! But chill out a little and it's all super smooth and effortless progress.

To put it in perspective, I came from a Porsche 911 C4S and I think the Tesla has the legs of it in the real world with the instant electric torque and amazing traction control. On paper the 911 is a bit quicker in a straight-line, but it takes some time for the gearbox to kick-down and then you have to thrash it all the way to the red-line in every gear to extract the full performance. The Tesla gives 95% of that performance with zero effort! Obviously it's no match in handling, but it's a totally different sort of car. I was sold on the EV powertrain in the first minute of test driving a Model X. It makes all the big diesel SUVs look like sluggish dinosaurs!

 

[WannabeOwner]

which adds approx 50 miles extra range.

Yes, but it ain't quite that simple I know you know this, but just in case @Fellsteruk was not aware:

Larger battery also adds more-range when supercharging as all cars charge 10% to 70-80% linear (i.e. before tapering off) at the same rate, so a 100 puts on more actual miles in the time than a 75.

So start out with 100% battery, run it down to 10%, supercharge to 80% and you go quite a bit further in a 100 than a 75 for the same stop-time to charge.

Also, for a journey involving a single charge for a 75 then the 100 might make it without a charge, or only a splash-and-dash where the 75 would be charging for more than 15 minutes.

Of course for someone who uses a Supercharger a couple of times a year its unlikely to be relevant, but for someone doing it several times a month it starts to look more attractive.

Charging on the way home I can do emails etc., which I would have had to do when i got home, so I'm time-neutral, but I'm still looking for the shortest stopping time when I charge.

But if I have to charge on the way TO a meeting then I have to leave earlier ...

 

[Peteski]

For me, none of the extra charging time makes it remotely worth the £17K difference in price. The reality is that I don't spend anywhere near enough time at superchargers to even consider it. I think it's one of those calculations that you should take some time to work out for yourself before spending the money and then make an informed decision.

 

[WannabeOwner]

Some of the changes to pricing, models, and feature-bundling have made some of these things far more expensive. The battery differential back then was 70 (I think), 85 and 90. The 75/100 price is a bigger gap now ...

I think I paid £1,500 for AP1 ... AP2 (let alone FSD) is a lot more now ...

Deposit is more too ...

 

[Peteski]

£16,700 to upgrade from 75D to 100D. It's a big decision to make!

IMHO you really need to be making serious everyday use of the additional mileage to justify the cost and extra weight.

 

[WannabeOwner]

Sure, but (for example) at 1 hour per month over 3 years its £460 per hour, 2 hours per month its half that of course ...

I don't suppose I could recoup 100% of Supercharger stoppage time into chargeable time ... but assuming I could the maths work for me

 

[Peteski]

Sure, but (for example) at 1 hour per month over 3 years its £460 per hour, 2 hours per month its half that of course ...

I don't suppose I could recoup 100% of Supercharger stoppage time into chargeable time ... but assuming I could the maths work for me

As I said, you have to work it out for yourself. For me the saving in time would be pretty minimal and it wouldn't be the sort of quality time that would convert into anything financially or life-enhancingly useful. It would be like 10 mins here and 10 mins there a couple of times per month at most. £17K in my pocket on the other hand is very handy!

On the environmental side, I'm carrying around a smaller and lighter battery. Handling is a little sharper too with 150 kg less battery. All good really unless you really do need the extra range. Even if money was no object I still wouldn't go for the 100D for my usage. Okay I might just buy a P100D for the performance in that situation!

 

[WannabeOwner]

On the environmental side, I'm carrying around a smaller and lighter battery

Yes, that's a bother. I persuade myself that "small steps" are OK on the path to EV improving the planet over time ...

I am pleased to see that the M3 is significantly more frugal than MS / MX

But I figure that as Battery Price falls people will buy more range-capacity. If 300 miles become the Norm then road-trip charging will be negligible (well in UK anyway, not if you want to drive across USA / to South of France!) and huge sums spent on rolling out fast-charging infrastructure won't be needed (although: even if many fewer people need it, the fleet will be much bigger, so maybe "ok" but not needing lots of bigger sites / expansion)

In order to get cheaper presumably batteries will have to increase energy-density, so hopefully people won/'t be paying less, for more range AND more weight ...

Okay I might just buy a P100D for the performance

I do some spirited driving now and then, but 90%, maybe 99%, of the time I just select AP and let the car get on with it - whilst I just supervise ... normally I get paid handsomely to do that!!

 

[Peteski]

Yeah, I was only really joking about the P100D. I test drove all versions of the MX and concluded that the base 75D is already plenty quick enough for everyday use, especially since they brought it up as close to 100D performance as makes no difference. Once the novelty of booting the P100D wears off, it's pretty pointless additional performance over a car that's already seriously quick for UK road use. So for me it was always 75D vs 100D for the increased range. I have to say I'm very happy with the 75D range in the coldest winter weather. It's obviously limited, but no issue at all for sub 100 mile daily driving. Just needs a little more thought when venturing further from home, but then so does the MX 100D in practice. Supercharging is actually quite fun when you only need to do it once in a while! I just sit and listen to a few tunes while watching other Teslas come and go or take a coffee break.

 

[WannabeOwner]

Once the novelty of booting the P100D wears off, it's pretty pointless additional performance

Yup. Sub 5-second 0-60 was a boy-hood benchmark for "Jolly (substitute own expletive!) Quick", and now I've grown up and own one there isn't a lot of use of it or anything even faster. That said, I did loads of launches for mates when the car was young, and even when there were no mates in the car but me! and I still got 30K miles out of the first set of factory-boots.

Supercharging is actually quite fun when you only need to do it once in a while!

I'll let you take my wife with you next time.

"This is such a nuisance".

Of course she has saved more time, not filling up an ICE, in a year than all the time she spends sat at a Supercharger.

"Shall we get a coffee?"

"You can get me one"

Where's the fun in that ...

And then she does her emails ... "You couldn't do that filling a car, and queuing to pay"

"Its not the same, at all"

OK ... at this point I'm completely lost !!

However: I would agree that Supercharging enforced stops are good, and important, for the driver every 2 -3 hours, but all it does for the Passenger is make the journey longer (apart from kids and geriatrics needing a loo stop of course ...)

while watching other Teslas come and go

That bit always intrigues me.

I'm rarely at the Supercharger for more than 15 minutes - I just need enough to get to Destination, unless we are going a properly long way. And in that time all the ones that were there when I arrived get up and leave, and more arrive ... it really is, mostly, a splash-and-dash

That said, quite often only 1/4 of the stalls, on average, are occupied.