Tesla in Australia

[MangroveMike]

Argh this ranking irks me. They cite the lack of charging infrastructure as the reason the Tesla lost out on first spot, because it doesn't give "freedom" in some cases. This is just absolutely bogus and reflects old world thinking. Electric cars give you MORE freedom because you wake up every day with a full charge. It's more convenient. It gives us freedom from foreign oil. Not to mention that it gives 99% of drivers the same range freedom as an ICE 95% of the time. To say that you lose out on car of the year because of the tiny percentage of people who drive more than 50km a day, or that tiny percentage of your life when you'll take a huge road trip, is just ridiculous. It's driven by fear, not logic.

I know Tesla have done supremely well just to make the list, but at the same time I hate seeing the same reasons come up again and again, when they have very little basis in reality.

I see where you are coming from Tim and agree with my rose-coloured glasses on, but I think based upon a decision today, that they have probably got it right. In a years time I think that a lot of these grievances will be addressed as the SuperChargers roll out to increase the range and limitations that we as early adopters will have for the first few months of ownership.

When the Model S received the Car and Driver award last year in the US there were already quite a few (50+, I think) superchargers in the states. That would have worked greatly in it's favour.

 

[Dborn]

Have now used the superchargers at both the casino and the service centre (been giving lots of rides!!!). The casino is great, It is the valet parking ramp you use, just push the button and say "Tesla for charging" and they open up. Go down and 40mins later same thing on the exit ramp - " Tesla finished charging" and you are out. No charges anywhere!! The service centre is tight, but a bit of manoeuvring and you're good to go. Both are putting out 220 AMPS to start with which does taper down as the battery fills. These are the fastest superchargers that Tesla has.

 

[danielp]

Nice! What voltage?

 

[doctorwho]

Argh this ranking irks me. They cite the lack of charging infrastructure as the reason the Tesla lost out on first spot, because it doesn't give "freedom" in some cases. This is just absolutely bogus and reflects old world thinking. Electric cars give you MORE freedom because you wake up every day with a full charge. It's more convenient. It gives us freedom from foreign oil. Not to mention that it gives 99% of drivers the same range freedom as an ICE 95% of the time. To say that you lose out on car of the year because of the tiny percentage of people who drive more than 50km a day, or that tiny percentage of your life when you'll take a huge road trip, is just ridiculous. It's driven by fear, not logic.

I know Tesla have done supremely well just to make the list, but at the same time I hate seeing the same reasons come up again and again, when they have very little basis in reality.

Tim, don't be too concerned, "the change is gonna come" regardless and all the motoring journos understand that.

 

[Dborn]

Nice! What voltage?

380 to 400 odd.

 

[WhiteStar]

Have now used the superchargers at both the casino and the service centre (been giving lots of rides!!!). The casino is great, It is the valet parking ramp you use, just push the button and say "Tesla for charging" and they open up. Go down and 40mins later same thing on the exit ramp - " Tesla finished charging" and you are out. No charges anywhere!! The service centre is tight, but a bit of manoeuvring and you're good to go. Both are putting out 220 AMPS to start with which does taper down as the battery fills. These are the fastest superchargers that Tesla has.

Fantastic DB...thanks for the info! Sounds great...no doubt now, it was worth the wait.

 

[TesAus]

Ok an upside on Drive 2014 car of the year. Whilst the Model S didn't win overall, it did win the best luxury car over $80k category!

2014 Drive Car of the Year: Best Luxury Car Over $80,000

 

[Jimat]

Tim,
another test to add to your list
Test drive: The Tesla Model S and the button : Renew Economy

I've done a quick roundup of articles, let me know if I've missed any:

http://www.jetcharge.com.au/news

 

[LGGD]

After having already received some arcane questions (such as "are the batteries Lithium-Ion Phosphate?" (answer is "no") I decided to try to put together a 'cheat sheet' with some of the more obscure specifications of the Tesla Model S (specifically the P85 or P85+). Many of these specifications are not contained on the Tesla Website and some were quite difficult to uncover.

Anyway, here it is. I would love to have it added to by anyone who has any other obsure specifications to add.

Batteries:

85kWh capacity
7,104 Panasonic 18650 lithium ion with nickel-cobalt-aluminium oxide cathode batteries in 16 modules
Liquid cooled with Ethylene Glycol (HOAt 1-Hydroxy-7-azabenzotriazole)
366v DC Negative ground

Motor:

310kW AC motor (416hp) with 600 Nm of torque
(3 phase, 4 pole AC induction with copper rotor)
Max RPM 16,000.
Rated at 375v
Liquid cooled with Ethylene Glycol (HOAt 1-Hydroxy-7-azabenzotriazole)
DC-AC/AC-DC inverter (320kW maximum power)

Transmission:

1 speed fixed gear 9.73:1

Other specifications:

0-100k in 4.4 seconds
2108kg
48/52 distribution
Coefficient of drag 0.24


Premium Audio System is designed and manufactured by S1NN. (Pronounced 'sinn').

 

[Tasdevil]

Anyone had a chance to drive on the open road yet?
I'm curious to know how noisy the car is on our harsh aussie roads.

 

[TesAus]

I've done a quick roundup of articles, let me know if I've missed any:

http://www.jetcharge.com.au/news

Hi Timpoo,

Great round up.

You should add this one: 2014 Drive Car of the Year: Best Luxury Car Over $80,000

It is separate to the drive overall car of the year and is very complimentary of the model S which wins the category of best luxury car over $80k - the first EV to ever win a COTY category apparently.

 

[Dborn]

Still working on trying to get Rdio to work.I have come down to the conclusion that the email address and password for the Tesla account is missing from my car and its memory. Those fields were and are blank. Rebooting the centre console and pressing "restore" Teslas account does nothing. There is a photo from Ownership, provided to me that (indistinctly) shows that the fields should be filled in with Teslas details. Hopefully will get resolution of the issue soon, but anyone who has their car.. - please check under settings, audio whether those fields (email address and password) have any data in them?

 

[doctorwho]

Hi Timpoo,

Great round up.

You should add this one: 2014 Drive Car of the Year: Best Luxury Car Over $80,000

It is separate to the drive overall car of the year and is very complimentary of the model S which wins the category of best luxury car over $80k - the first EV to ever win a COTY category apparently.

Yes, bizarrely the Tesla S is a better car than the Mercedes S Class and the E Class with 2 existing supercharger locations but it's not better than the Mercedes C class because of only 2 existing Supercharger locations. Quite coincidentally 'of course' the Age website is bracketed by Mercedes advertising today.

 

[Mark E]

I don't have my car yet thanks to DP World deciding to shut down operations. Unbelievable.
DP World and MUA face off as negotiations break down | News

 

[Dborn]

I don't have my car yet thanks to DP World deciding to shut down operations. Unbelievable.
DP World and MUA face off as negotiations break down | News

Makes two of us.

 

[mspcooper]

App access has been given, only to find out this has to be activated from the car. Car "scheduled" for delivery on 18th. What is interesting is that Tesla Australia didn't even bother asking what day or time they wanted the delivery completed!
Also with registration (atleast for me in queensland), there was no need to have the car present, just vital info to fill up the paperwork, you would think they would have got this info on their computers to give it to us (where they don't do the registration!).

I think they need to hire more people to handle the hype, otherwise there would be far too many lost sales, I would assume if they have more sales, they could expedite the supercharger networks and get them all built by first half of next year!

 

[nzfatmatt]

I think they need to hire more people to handle the hype, otherwise there would be far too many lost sales, I would assume if they have more sales, they could expedite the supercharger networks and get them all built by first half of next year!

Out of interest I was looking at the jobs on the website. There are 39 or so I think I saw in Australia.

 

[WhiteStar]

I think they need to hire more people to handle the hype, otherwise there would be far too many lost sales, I would assume if they have more sales, they could expedite the supercharger networks and get them all built by first half of next year!

I hope so. It'll help Tesla in Australia no end. Establishing it as the de facto standard requires fast tracking...I think a big upsurge in sales is bound to follow (or even precede the actual completion of the network).

 

[Dborn]

It is the first question i am asked, how do you charge it and how far can you go. also can you drive long distance. Next series of questions - -who makes it?.....

 

[timpoo]

It is the first question i am asked, how do you charge it and how far can you go. also can you drive long distance. Next series of questions - -who makes it?.....

How do you handle the "how much does it cost" question.