The luxury buyer | Mashable [Date of publ. unknown...]

[SwedishAdvocate]

The luxury buyer
The earliest Tesla adopters aren't all geeks from Silicon Valley. Some just want the latest high-profile toy.

by Lance Ulanoff

[...


For early adopters, Tesla luxury is real and so are its limitations | Mashable

Searched the forum and couldn't find it. As noted, could also not find a date of publication.

...and I haven't read it, but from glancing a few seconds it seams favorable...

 

[S'toon]

Searched the forum and couldn't find it. As noted, could also not find a date of publication.

...and I haven't read it, but from glancing a few seconds it seams favorable...

As for the date, the link is in part "2015/04/27"

It has a slight "Electric cars = range anxiety, you can't drive long distances" bias to it.

Without gas as a backup, Tesla cars and their owners are at the mercy of hundreds of charging stations dotted all over the U.S. The ones that matter most to Tesla owners are what’s known as Supercharger stations.

<snip>

The reality is, most Tesla owners, like Karos, charge the car overnight at home. “I had an electrician install a 220 line in the garage. It was a piece of cake,” she says.

<snip>

As Karos drove, she noticed the warning message: “Charge Now. Charge Now." Her concern grew. She realized she’d need to find a charging station well before her planned destination.

<snip>
She found the nearest freeway exit and started getting off the highway, but the message continued blinking. She couldn’t shake the feeling she wasn’t going to make it. (Karos claims the Tesla will simply “dead stop” if it runs out of juice.) " I was trying to cross the light…and barely made it. If my car would have died there, it would have been horrific.”


Beside her sat Karos’ adult daughter, who was near tears with concern and frustration. In desperation, Karos contacted her Tesla dealer and asked in near panic, “Am I going to run out?”

<snip>

Still, as far as Karos is concerned, the Tesla is not designed for long-distance driving. “It was an experience that was not a good one. It was very stressful,” she recalls.


Overall, she gives Tesla’s service and support high marks, but thinks they lacked a bit on the sales side. By her measure, they didn’t prepare her for the variables of electric driving and, perhaps, didn’t stress strongly enough the limitations.
<snip>

 

[hiroshiy]

Generally speaking the sales side seems to have some problems. The website says car cost lower than actual (with fuel savings), everybody is disappointed with that. The salespeople says it goes 500km on one charge, which is NEDC cycle, but actually our rated range is 396km (=248 miles @200Wh/mile). Some older people never do research on the web and believes it can go 500km or 313 miles...

In the article the lady didn't receive proper planning advice before going roadtrip. That's also true in Japan.

Maybe it's time for Tesla to add some more employee training for people with less information.

 

[S'toon]

Generally speaking the sales side seems to have some problems. The website says car cost lower than actual (with fuel savings), everybody is disappointed with that. The salespeople says it goes 500km on one charge, which is NEDC cycle, but actually our rated range is 396km (=248 miles @200Wh/mile). Some older people never do research on the web and believes it can go 500km or 313 miles...

In the article the lady didn't receive proper planning advice before going roadtrip. That's also true in Japan.

Maybe it's time for Tesla to add some more employee training for people with less information.

I know Chevrolet had owner's classes when the Volt first came out.

There was a thread about a new owner's workshop one store had.
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/49985-New-Owners-Workshop

 

[hiroshiy]

Hi, S'toon, interesting! Tesla need to train employees first, then owners, especially range and charging.