The most memorable moment made me wish I'd had a GoPro on the dash - it would have gone viral.
My mechanic of most of my driving life is now in his 70's, Italian, running his own shop. He had a Mercedes, BMW, Volvo dealership (all at once!) back in his younger years. Now he enjoys running his independent shop, training the young guys and talking to the customers. If you have a Ferrari (not many people do around here!), he's the guy. There's a Testarossa on display in the front floor area, a 348 in the lot and a Dino in pieces in the back. Over the years he's become more my friend than my mechanic! But bottom line, an old-school, Italian petrol-head if there ever was one.
I gave him plenty of warning that I was buying the Tesla, because I knew it would be hard to swallow. The diesel E-Class I'd been driving had been reliable and really, there was no reason to get rid of it. He humored my through the process, telling me that "you're an engineer, you should know what you're doing". Perhaps a statement, perhaps a warning!
So when I showed up on a Saturday and offered him a ride, he was clearly skeptical and curious all at the same time. Walked around it several times, commenting on how nice the lines were. Beautiful red, better than Ferrari's. Looking at the space inside, the details... becoming more impressed.
We drove off, gently, down the local streets while I pointed out some of the basic elements inside. Over the river on a narrow old wooden bridge to an industrial area on the other side. Nobody around, so I came to a stop and immediately launched it.
His eyes went wide and his arms came up... "Jesus Christ!"... "Momma Mia!" (apparently Italians do say this for real, it's not just a movie stereotype). He went from sombre to laughing like a kid on a carnival ride in about a quarter of a second. I pulled over and let him drive (the only person I've bestowed the honour). Out onto the highway, a few more launches, past the exit to the shop, up the hill another 6 or 8 km before turning around and driving back.
"It drives like an S-Class... very solid, very smooth... amazing acceleration... probably quicker than my Daytona was!"
To be compared favorably to both Mercedes and Ferrari in essentially the same sentence is high praise, believe me.
When we got back to the shop, he got out with either a defeated or chastised look on his face. Quietly, he told me he had to apologize... he'd had friends for dinner a few days earlier and had told them about me and my purchase and had evidently said some not-so-complimentary things about EV's and perhaps my intelligence... "I was wrong" he said, "this is a really nice car..."
And then the final seal of approval - very quietly almost to himself - "I would buy this car..."
However, I really don't think that manufacturers will have a problem shifting 200-rated BEVs at $35k, as long as they are BEV-peppy with <= 7s 0-60, especially in countries with high gas prices, and that includes cars that'd rely on slow-fast DC chargers. I really, truly believe that there's pent-up demand waiting for the cars. And I think that Toyota's going to be staring down the barrel of a gun. People didn't trust hybrids and within 10 years consideration had reached 80%. Same will happen with long-range BEV, and growth potential is higher than hybrid because the overall experience is better.
