Looking at the used market for a Tesla Model S

[vitesse]

The battery would have been hot as he/we were shuttling folk between the car park and the show at FCL.

I was genuinely surprised at how stomach-churning it was; no exaggeration!

I've managed to get some squeeks from passengers in the 70D, but this was completely different.

 

[vitesse]

Didn't you have any wet roads today? its been chucking it down here ...

... the Non-D loaners I had squirmed a lot on damp roads, compared to my D-Model

Still have the non-D 75 loaner. Had to take my wife to work very early this morning - chucking it down - yup, had to correct a big power-on twitch. This prompted us both to congratulate ourselves for choosing a dual-motor car!

 

[vitesse]

Almost 6 weeks since we became Model S 70D owners and I swapped the rather confusing S75 loaner back for our car yesterday.

The S75 feels quicker but the AP2 and TACC are very unrefined compared to our AP1. I did like the 3rd-gen seats on the S75 though. Our red 70D definitely outshone the white S75, though

Tesla have been very keen to please and fixed some damaged paint to the nearside rear door, a recalcitrant power tailgate and some loose trim on the roof near the rear window. I drove the car to the SC in the rain and the sunroof leaked on the way, so they have addressed that as well. I did pressure them to bring the original delivery date forward so I am wondering if this work should have been done beforehand, but who knows?

The car looks great and I intend to work hard to keep it that way - more advice on cleaning and general maintenance will be sought separately!

The SC put the car on a Supercharger before my scheduled collection time and I had a to wait a little as it was set to charge to 100%. Pleasantly surprised to find that the 100% typical miles reached 223 (1 more than previous 100% charges - perhaps because of warmer weather?). One big anxiety of mine before getting our car was getting saddled with a below average battery pack. I now know that our one is in very good condition for its mileage and age. The 70 pack does seem to be one of the more resilient ones. In fact there was hardly anything between the range shown for the S75 (half the miles and age) and our 70D, even bearing in mind the D spec is slightly more efficient.

Charging at home continues to be a head-scratcher. It has never worked consistently properly with our car. However, the ROLEC behaved itself perfectly with the S75 and also when I plugged in the 70D briefly last night - with the electrician present to diagnose and fix the problem we have been having (a few minutes of charging and then it stops). We're playing it by ear for now. He now thinks the Mode 3 mechanism is unlikely to be at fault as there was no problem with the S75. A possibility is the earthing rod - if the ground it's inserted into gets too dry it can cause similar issues to the one we've experienced. The suspect other is the plug that goes into the car. But we agreed that the fault needs to be present to be diagnosed. The electrician lives locally, thankfully, and has offered to pop round at short notice if we have problems again.

Overall, despite some issues, we're really happy!

 

[zap fizzle]

220-223 is right for a 70D with the "true 70" (not sw-locked 75) pack. It's a good pack, made of the same cells as the 85 which are very long-lived. Being 350v it is slow on chademo, and it supercharges pretty slowly over 50% SoC, but it is a solid piece of kit unlike the ropey 90s.

I've seen reports of 230 miles, but in a survey on the FB group, all the 70D people in the UK were 218-225 at 100%. It goes up and down by the odd mile or two but the degradation is very slow.

It will really do it, too, on a warm day if you go gently.

 

[vitesse]

220-223 is right for a 70D with the "true 70" (not sw-locked 75) pack. It's a good pack, made of the same cells as the 85 which are very long-lived. Being 350v it is slow on chademo, and it supercharges pretty slowly over 50% SoC, but it is a solid piece of kit unlike the ropey 90s.

I've seen reports of 230 miles, but in a survey on the FB group, all the 70D people in the UK were 218-225 at 100%. It goes up and down by the odd mile or two but the degradation is very slow.

It will really do it, too, on a warm day if you go gently.

The software-locked 75 version uses the same battery chemistry as the 90 doesn't it? How typical is one of those at 100%.

Also do you know what the classic 70D was at 100% when new?

 

[arg]

A possibility is the earthing rod - if the ground it's inserted into gets too dry it can cause similar issues to the one we've experienced.

That's probably advice applicable to Renault Zoe, whose on-board charger is of unconventional design and actively measures the earth impedance. Those cars have regular issues with compatibility with chargepoints that can charge other cars without trouble.

I believe that the Tesla on-board charger does not care about the earth, since it's designed for use in a range of countries with different earthing schemes (notably Norway which has significant areas with the IT earthing system). Tesla's UMC does check for an earth connection - there's a different model UMC for Norway, and you have to care about plug orientation in Germany etc. - but AFAIK the car does not.

Is temperature a possible factor in when it works or doesn't work?

 

[vitesse]

@arg I'm struggling to link temperature with our charging problem. It's as little warmer now than before, but not radically.

Because if the problems I was forced to use to use the UMC and that worked flawlessly. No problems with superchargers either.

Tonight the ROLEC also didn't miss a beat.

 

[zap fizzle]

The software-locked 75 version uses the same battery chemistry as the 90 doesn't it? How typical is one of those at 100%.

Also do you know what the classic 70D was at 100% when new?

Yes the sw-locked 75 dates to when the 75 pack was the same cells as the 90.

 

[vitesse]

Three days in a row now the ROLEC has worked faultlessly with our own car. Prior to it staying at Tesla for week of various service jobs we could not get the ROLEC to work more than a few minutes at a time. But the loaner worked fine and now it is back, that works. What has happened?

Could it have been dirt on the car's charge port contacts? Is their routine charge port cleaning at SCs?

 

[arg]

Could it have been dirt on the car's charge port contacts?

That's certainly a plausible explanation - combined with manufacturing residues on the Rolec connector perhaps. But not really very likely unless it's in combination with the Rolec connector being at extreme tolerance and so only just making connection.

Is their routine charge port cleaning at SCs?

Not that I have ever heard of.

 

[vitesse]

So range anxiety is really gone now. I'm pretty confident, given the pretty good conditions we had yesterday, it's possible to get well over 200 miles on 90% charge (being that you wouldn't want to go below 10% from a 100% charge).

I get asked a lot what the range is so from now on I'll confidently say up to 220 miles under ideal conditions if you aren't in a hurry.

Experience when charging to 100% on a Supercharger is, don't. The last 10% takes for ever. So unless I really needed every drop, I would probably limit to 90%.

So that leaves 80% realistically safe usable battery and, again given ideal conditions, I'm confident 190 miles is achievable.

Can't wait to test this out on a holiday road trip; we frequently do a 1,000 mile road trip to see friends in France. Hopefully we'll be doing this later in the summer.

Phantom drain is a concern. I've got the dashcams running 24 hours via the OBDII port power now. I'm also trying Teslafi and I suspect these are amplifying drain. It's about 5% a day. I definitely need to address that.

That's our car, snapped from my daughter's room at her student house in Portsmouth yesterday

 

[WannabeOwner]

220 miles under ideal conditions

My rule of thumb:

Charge to 100% if you are going more than 70% of max range. I've been charged to 90% battery on a 70%-of-max-range journey and only just made it (bad weather [which includes torrential summer rain] / unexpected detour / etc)

 

[12Pack]

The battery would have been hot as he/we were shuttling folk between the car park and the show at FCL.

I was genuinely surprised at how stomach-churning it was; no exaggeration!

I've managed to get some squeeks from passengers in the 70D, but this was completely different.

Indeed the thing with the P models is the jerk - the technical term for rate of change of acceleration. One moment you are at standstill, and next you are full acceleration. While my P100D is no match for my Mac at speed, from a standing stop it still amazes....

 

[vitesse]

Indeed the thing with the P models is the jerk - the technical term for rate of change of acceleration. One moment you are at standstill, and next you are full acceleration. While my P100D is no match for my Mac at speed, from a standing stop it still amazes....

Are you tempted by the forthcoming Roadster 2?

 

[12Pack]

Are you tempted by the forthcoming Roadster 2?

Indeed. Reservation made but for my place in the US. Was quite a challenge since my Tesla account is in the UK.....
Looking forward not just for the performance - but for the range.

 

[zap fizzle]

View attachment 422295
Phantom drain is a concern. I've got the dashcams running 24 hours via the OBDII port power now. I'm also trying Teslafi and I suspect these are amplifying drain. It's about 5% a day. I definitely need to address that.

It's teslafi, not the dashcams. Vampire drain is barely altered by dashcams - they're perhaps 10W each at worst - whereas 5% a day represents vampire drain of perhaps 140W. I speak from experience - I have no teslafi, nothing keeping the car awake, power saving enabled, dual dashcams running 24/7 and my vampire drain is 1 or 2 % per day.

 

[jaitch]

Indeed the thing with the P models is the jerk - the technical term for rate of change of acceleration. One moment you are at standstill, and next you are full acceleration. While my P100D is no match for my Mac at speed, from a standing stop it still amazes....

Which Mac? I have a 500 + twin turbo old school Mitsi GTO - that has more mid and top end punch than my P90DL. On launch the GTO is similar just needs a lot more effort and lack of mechanical sympathy to match the P90DL consistently.

James

 

[12Pack]

Which Mac? I have a 500 + twin turbo old school Mitsi GTO - that has more mid and top end punch than my P90DL. On launch the GTO is similar just needs a lot more effort and lack of mechanical sympathy to match the P90DL consistently.

James

675LT spider. Like an F1 car, it has too much power-to-weight to simply nail the throttle to launch, like you do on the Tesla. Once going, it’s another story, especially when the aero comes in to play.

But that’s what’s cool about the P cars - you can be anti-social without being anti-social just on the way to work.

 

[WannabeOwner]

P cars - you can be anti-social without being anti-social just on the way to work

 

[vitesse]

My slogan for this thread is 'learning all the time!'

I've just realised that the door mirrors auto-dim. That's really cool. I know it's on other high-spec cars and is not really new, but I've only experienced the central rear view mirror doing that before.

Not so cool (sic) is the climate control system. While it's good that there are vents for the rear passengers and the cooling is sufficient (and you can turn the cooling or heating on remotely of course) I can't see any left/right dual zone control option, which our old Mazda had.

And can you have both air directed to your feet and the vents at the she time?

Next, the sunroof and windows; I was expecting to be able to use the key to close both remotely; not managed that yet.