Hello all! I have been looking into potentially getting an EV as a replacement for my 8.5 year old Audi that am hoping to retire within a year or two. I do an 80+ mile commute 3-4 days a week, sometimes five days a week and average about 15K miles per year on an auto.
I was originally looking into getting a hybrid, or a Leaf/Focus-EV but my wife has actually tried to get me to consider the Tesla Model S as she doesn't think I will be satisfied with an economy car.... also, my employer nixed their plans for EV charging stations so my roundtrip commute miles will rule out the smaller EVs completely, they simply won't have enough range for me.
I've been doing research on the Model S, but still looking to have a few questions answered if anyone here is kind enough to donate some time;
1. All batteries degrade over time. I understand that Tesla's 'secret sauce' is that they do extremely advanced management of the batteries, but I would imagine that range reduction over time is inevitable. Does anyone know what it is expected to be per year/15K mile increment?
2. Cold weather performance. I understand from threads on the Roadster that Tesla only suffers a bit of range reduction in cold temps, but how much is it? I don't plan on freezing my butt off in the winter time just to have enough juice to do my commute. While my wife and I do quite well financially the higher end battery pack model is probably a bit out of my comfort zone price wise, I was looking at the entry level 40kwh battery.
2. I am a bit concerned by the Model S seemingly trying to be the 'tech hub' while on the go. As far as I am concerned, autos simply can't do as good a job of this as a smartphone can do... how nicely is the Tesla going to play with my iPhone, etc? A lot of new systems (like the new BMW and Mercedes system) delegate as much to the phone as possible and use app suites to allow the phone to integrate to the car. I'm a bit worried that with the massive (oversized IMO) touchscreen in the Model S that Tesla will insist that the car is the hub and the phone will not do much in the car.
3. I absolutely despise in-vehicle navigation because typically they do a horrible job with traffic (most of them get their traffic data from Neanderthal sources such as satellite) ... Inrix on my iPhone is able to handle secondary road traffic data, etc... with Tesla partnering with Navigon (now owned by Garmin) what is the traffic source going to be for the turn by turn direction navigation? Will it integrate with their snazzy Google maps view? For me nothing is more frustrating than having to get my phone out in the car because the car is a POS at doing jobs like this.
4. Can anyone explain why the 160 mile range Model S has a lower mileage for the battery warranty than the 230 mile range version with the larger battery pack? I don't need more than the 160 mile range really but I am a bit concerned about the shorter battery warranty (I would probably exhaust the 100K mile cap in 6 yrs or so and would plan on trying to keep the car for longer than that).
Thanks again for anyone's time!
I was originally looking into getting a hybrid, or a Leaf/Focus-EV but my wife has actually tried to get me to consider the Tesla Model S as she doesn't think I will be satisfied with an economy car.... also, my employer nixed their plans for EV charging stations so my roundtrip commute miles will rule out the smaller EVs completely, they simply won't have enough range for me.
I've been doing research on the Model S, but still looking to have a few questions answered if anyone here is kind enough to donate some time;
1. All batteries degrade over time. I understand that Tesla's 'secret sauce' is that they do extremely advanced management of the batteries, but I would imagine that range reduction over time is inevitable. Does anyone know what it is expected to be per year/15K mile increment?
2. Cold weather performance. I understand from threads on the Roadster that Tesla only suffers a bit of range reduction in cold temps, but how much is it? I don't plan on freezing my butt off in the winter time just to have enough juice to do my commute. While my wife and I do quite well financially the higher end battery pack model is probably a bit out of my comfort zone price wise, I was looking at the entry level 40kwh battery.
2. I am a bit concerned by the Model S seemingly trying to be the 'tech hub' while on the go. As far as I am concerned, autos simply can't do as good a job of this as a smartphone can do... how nicely is the Tesla going to play with my iPhone, etc? A lot of new systems (like the new BMW and Mercedes system) delegate as much to the phone as possible and use app suites to allow the phone to integrate to the car. I'm a bit worried that with the massive (oversized IMO) touchscreen in the Model S that Tesla will insist that the car is the hub and the phone will not do much in the car.
3. I absolutely despise in-vehicle navigation because typically they do a horrible job with traffic (most of them get their traffic data from Neanderthal sources such as satellite) ... Inrix on my iPhone is able to handle secondary road traffic data, etc... with Tesla partnering with Navigon (now owned by Garmin) what is the traffic source going to be for the turn by turn direction navigation? Will it integrate with their snazzy Google maps view? For me nothing is more frustrating than having to get my phone out in the car because the car is a POS at doing jobs like this.
4. Can anyone explain why the 160 mile range Model S has a lower mileage for the battery warranty than the 230 mile range version with the larger battery pack? I don't need more than the 160 mile range really but I am a bit concerned about the shorter battery warranty (I would probably exhaust the 100K mile cap in 6 yrs or so and would plan on trying to keep the car for longer than that).
Thanks again for anyone's time!
