I thought I'd start a thread on what it's like to live with the Roadster day-to-day, good and bad.
I wanted to share how good electric cars are to actually live with and perhaps catalog some of the shortcomings here as well to create a list of improvements too; a market survey, a ‘long-term’ test report if you will.
I’ve had my car for three months and am getting into the daily stride with it now. Here’s what I found.
Month One
Obviously this is all about performance right? Well, mostly. It’s a period of adjustment too, not only is this is an electric car it’s also a low slung sports car with a pretty well defined purpose. I like small cars so am prepared to adapt but week one did raise a few reservations. It’s noisier than I recall, the whine from the motor is ever present. The steering is heavy and getting in and out is challenging; seriously, how will this be in the depth of winter, after a long day at work… when I’m suffering from man-flu?
The performance and handling is keeping me fully occupied and diverting my attention away from the lack of amenities like automatic HVAC and power steering.
At the end of the month I’ve given enough test drives and rides to hear enough ‘this is awesome’ to realize that I need to press on. I need a while longer to get used to it… I hope I do.
Month Two
The whine from the motors is fading; it’s replacing the engine and exhaust note in my head. A big surprise is how I’ve been weaned off the V10 sound to the motor. Up until today, my favourite sound was the Lambo V10; a spine tingling howl to be found in the Guiardo and S6. I was watching an episode of Carpool featuring Dave Vince, an electric car enthusiast who’s built his own Exige based BEV, when they took a test drive, the moment I heard the motor whine I know they were in for some fun; I’ve replaced the V10 with the electric motor in my list of associations; motor is good, V10 is harsh noise.
What’s also harsh is the brutal way my Audi A6 Avant bounces and lurches about while it makes its way up the road. I’ve not driven it for a month now and was taken aback when I did. The throttle is unresponsive and almost random in application; when you press it to set off the car jerks forwards and then jerks again and again in its helpless attempts to get going; all the while there is this thrashing din from up front; what is going on? Release the pedal and, at first nothing happens, you just drift on towards the car in front…. Brakes! To be fair it’s quite though and on the highway smooth.
Winter is approaching though and the Roadsters feeble headlamps are making night driving, in the rain, with oncoming traffic very tricky. They’re rated at 65W but seem very dim and yellow, as though running at a lower voltage. The MINI-E has bi-xenon lights; a much smarter choice.
Muscle memory has kicked in, getting in and out is no longer an issue, I don’t even think about it anymore.
One muscle that is giving me trouble though is my neck; I need to calm down on the go pedal as it is really causing trouble. After a whole day stint of test rides I had trouble sleeping.
Month Three
Lighting is fixed here http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/technical-discussion/3578-xenon-hid-upgrade.html#post39252 with a DIY xenon hid upgrade, well, much better anyway as there’s no fix for being this close to the ground.
It’s below freezing this morning and the heating is brilliant, hot air before I’m at the end of the driveway is great. My feet are a little cold so I need to fine tune the air distribution though it might be a feature of them being stuck out in front rather than down below in a regular car.
Sitting outside college waiting to pick up, in the freezing rain, I have the heating on, I have 115 miles of range to get the 15 miles home, there’s no engine sound, no vibration and no nagging feeling that I’d get when in an ICE car that my idling the engine is wasteful. I’m feeling very comfortable and very pleased with my car – this is a nice place to be.
Charging? I don’t get the whole charging time issue; to quote Paul Scott, a 70,000 mile RAV4-EV veteran “It takes me a few seconds to charge the car. I plug it in and am free to get on with my life eating, sleeping, etc.” I agree, I get home, plug it in to the cable dangling from the roof of the garage and go in. As I unlock it the following morning I release the connector; I don’t usually remember the event anymore. One change I’d like to see would be a taller slide switch on the connector that doesn’t require me to press down to slide it.
At the moment I’m on regular rate electricity, as I’m now using more than 70% of my electricity at night I’m going to switch this month. My daily charge runs to around $1.00 – $1.60 and I could half that.
Driving range is settling around 180 miles for suburban commuting and 150 (+ reserve) miles for my longest runs; into NYC, on the highway in the winter with lights and heating on.
For now, that’s it; the electric car has become the norm for me, so much so that I’ve a MINI E on the way to replace the Honda Insight; I don’t see any downside in day to day driving. I’ll use the A6 sparingly, not because it’s environmentally unsound but because I’ve no desire anymore. I can’t express more emphatically how much sense electrics make.
I wanted to share how good electric cars are to actually live with and perhaps catalog some of the shortcomings here as well to create a list of improvements too; a market survey, a ‘long-term’ test report if you will.
I’ve had my car for three months and am getting into the daily stride with it now. Here’s what I found.
Month One
Obviously this is all about performance right? Well, mostly. It’s a period of adjustment too, not only is this is an electric car it’s also a low slung sports car with a pretty well defined purpose. I like small cars so am prepared to adapt but week one did raise a few reservations. It’s noisier than I recall, the whine from the motor is ever present. The steering is heavy and getting in and out is challenging; seriously, how will this be in the depth of winter, after a long day at work… when I’m suffering from man-flu?
The performance and handling is keeping me fully occupied and diverting my attention away from the lack of amenities like automatic HVAC and power steering.
At the end of the month I’ve given enough test drives and rides to hear enough ‘this is awesome’ to realize that I need to press on. I need a while longer to get used to it… I hope I do.
Month Two
The whine from the motors is fading; it’s replacing the engine and exhaust note in my head. A big surprise is how I’ve been weaned off the V10 sound to the motor. Up until today, my favourite sound was the Lambo V10; a spine tingling howl to be found in the Guiardo and S6. I was watching an episode of Carpool featuring Dave Vince, an electric car enthusiast who’s built his own Exige based BEV, when they took a test drive, the moment I heard the motor whine I know they were in for some fun; I’ve replaced the V10 with the electric motor in my list of associations; motor is good, V10 is harsh noise.
What’s also harsh is the brutal way my Audi A6 Avant bounces and lurches about while it makes its way up the road. I’ve not driven it for a month now and was taken aback when I did. The throttle is unresponsive and almost random in application; when you press it to set off the car jerks forwards and then jerks again and again in its helpless attempts to get going; all the while there is this thrashing din from up front; what is going on? Release the pedal and, at first nothing happens, you just drift on towards the car in front…. Brakes! To be fair it’s quite though and on the highway smooth.
Winter is approaching though and the Roadsters feeble headlamps are making night driving, in the rain, with oncoming traffic very tricky. They’re rated at 65W but seem very dim and yellow, as though running at a lower voltage. The MINI-E has bi-xenon lights; a much smarter choice.
Muscle memory has kicked in, getting in and out is no longer an issue, I don’t even think about it anymore.
One muscle that is giving me trouble though is my neck; I need to calm down on the go pedal as it is really causing trouble. After a whole day stint of test rides I had trouble sleeping.
Month Three
Lighting is fixed here http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/technical-discussion/3578-xenon-hid-upgrade.html#post39252 with a DIY xenon hid upgrade, well, much better anyway as there’s no fix for being this close to the ground.
It’s below freezing this morning and the heating is brilliant, hot air before I’m at the end of the driveway is great. My feet are a little cold so I need to fine tune the air distribution though it might be a feature of them being stuck out in front rather than down below in a regular car.
Sitting outside college waiting to pick up, in the freezing rain, I have the heating on, I have 115 miles of range to get the 15 miles home, there’s no engine sound, no vibration and no nagging feeling that I’d get when in an ICE car that my idling the engine is wasteful. I’m feeling very comfortable and very pleased with my car – this is a nice place to be.
Charging? I don’t get the whole charging time issue; to quote Paul Scott, a 70,000 mile RAV4-EV veteran “It takes me a few seconds to charge the car. I plug it in and am free to get on with my life eating, sleeping, etc.” I agree, I get home, plug it in to the cable dangling from the roof of the garage and go in. As I unlock it the following morning I release the connector; I don’t usually remember the event anymore. One change I’d like to see would be a taller slide switch on the connector that doesn’t require me to press down to slide it.
At the moment I’m on regular rate electricity, as I’m now using more than 70% of my electricity at night I’m going to switch this month. My daily charge runs to around $1.00 – $1.60 and I could half that.
Driving range is settling around 180 miles for suburban commuting and 150 (+ reserve) miles for my longest runs; into NYC, on the highway in the winter with lights and heating on.
For now, that’s it; the electric car has become the norm for me, so much so that I’ve a MINI E on the way to replace the Honda Insight; I don’t see any downside in day to day driving. I’ll use the A6 sparingly, not because it’s environmentally unsound but because I’ve no desire anymore. I can’t express more emphatically how much sense electrics make.
