Electric vehicles and towing

Easticks28 said:
Then there's the cost......
Expensive public chargers drive up the cost of electric car ownership
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I know - the cost is huge - I’ve spent £8 on fuel since June 2020 on mine......





Seriously, the cost of fuel is practically nothing. I can charge for free at work admittedly, but a full tank at home is about £3 (60kw x 5p a kw) there are still lots of free public chargers and so on. I only really pay to rapid charge which I have done once....

Seriously, electric cars cost nothing to fuel at the moment.
 
I have a tesla model 3 (latest 2021 variant) with the removable towbar. The regerative braking of the car works just as well when towing and although the capacity isn’t huge when compared to a 4x4 there will be some other brands which will fill that market soon I imagine. The most noteworthy at the moment I would suggest is Rivian with a much larger battery pack than the Model X.
 
Somerset Jim said:
I have a tesla model 3 (latest 2021 variant) with the removable towbar. The regerative braking of the car works just as well when towing and although the capacity isn’t huge when compared to a 4x4 there will be some other brands which will fill that market soon I imagine. The most noteworthy at the moment I would suggest is Rivian with a much larger battery pack than the Model X.
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Jim, I’m thinking of getting the Model 3 (range extender). Any words of wisdom for me?
 
Bouba said:
Jim, I’m thinking of getting the Model 3 (range extender). Any words of wisdom for me?
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i have had quite a few issues with the paint. Primarily with it being so thin that it comes off of the car within a a matter of a hundred miles or so. If you are considering buying one then I’d get the bottom half covered in PPF to protect this from the get go.
other than this the car is excellent and a joy to drive.

We are lucky enough to have 3 phase in the house which enables us to charge the car quickly if required.
 
ontheplane said:
I know - the cost is huge - I’ve spent £8 on fuel since June 2020 on mine......

Seriously, the cost of fuel is practically nothing. I can charge for free at work admittedly, but a full tank at home is about £3 (60kw x 5p a kw) there are still lots of free public chargers and so on. I only really pay to rapid charge which I have done once....

Seriously, electric cars cost nothing to fuel at the moment.
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How do you get 5p per kw? Cheapest deal I could get last year was more than double that price.
What provider are you with?
 
Somerset Jim said:
i have had quite a few issues with the paint. Primarily with it being so thin that it comes off of the car within a a matter of a hundred miles or so. If you are considering buying one then I’d get the bottom half covered in PPF to protect this from the get go.
other than this the car is excellent and a joy to drive.

We are lucky enough to have 3 phase in the house which enables us to charge the car quickly if required.
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LongJohnSilver said his son’s Tesla also had paint that fell off, so that is two (unless you happen to be LJS’s son??). I saw a black Model 3 the other day and it’s finish looked superb. Is Tesla being helpful to you over this paint issue ?
Do you think (in the limited time you’ve had the car) that it would last many years if looked after?
 
Bouba said:
unless you happen to be LJS’s son??
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Yes that’s me.

Its hard to tell whether it is likely to last for a long time. I’d say probably nothing near my other cars but it is very early days. The forums are full of people complaining about the paint falling off of their new model 3’s. It doesn’t seem to have been an issue for the other models.

Tesla have had the car 3 times so far and the job still isn’t right. They want the car for a 4th time but I’m very reluctant to let them have it and would rather have another car or a full respray. They have altered or botched literally every panel on the exterior of the car!
 
That is bad. I’ve seen a lot of US reviews where no-one mentioned it - wonder if it’s a right hand drive supply issue (different production line).

I am hearing some superb things about the new Mach-E as well - extended range is supposed to be awesome, and handles better than Model 3 - proper powerslides possible too apparently lol

Downside - no superchargers, but with a 379 mile range I can’t imagine you’d need rapid charge very often.
 
I can’t speak much for the mustang having never driven it but it would need to be going some to best the model 3 on handling Given that it is an SUV vs a saloon.

I think the production issues with paint have been a fairly recent issue (circa November 2020 onwards). Once they sort that out the car will be excellent and very cheap to run by comparison to a similarly sporty car.
 
Somerset Jim said:
Yes that’s me.

Its hard to tell whether it is likely to last for a long time. I’d say probably nothing near my other cars but it is very early days. The forums are full of people complaining about the paint falling off of their new model 3’s. It doesn’t seem to have been an issue for the other models.

Tesla have had the car 3 times so far and the job still isn’t right. They want the car for a 4th time but I’m very reluctant to let them have it and would rather have another car or a full respray. They have altered or botched literally every panel on the exterior of the car!
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I am researching the paint and other quality control issues. But it’s a mixed bag, either faultless or disaster (and a few inbetweens). If you had the chance to buy it again, would you ?
 
Somerset Jim said:
I can’t speak much for the mustang having never driven it but it would need to be going some to best the model 3 on handling Given that it is an SUV vs a saloon.

I think the production issues with paint have been a fairly recent issue (circa November 2020 onwards). Once they sort that out the car will be excellent and very cheap to run by comparison to a similarly sporty car.
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Yup - handling was one of the Ford engineers top priorities.

They knew there was going to be upset over calling it a Mustang, so they were determined to make it at least handle like one.

It’s not so much an SUV as a very tall hatch - his point higher than a focus, but no where near a Range Rover.

Worth trying before buying the Tesla.
 
Somerset Jim said:
I can’t speak much for the mustang having never driven it but it would need to be going some to best the model 3 on handling Given that it is an SUV vs a saloon.

I think the production issues with paint have been a fairly recent issue (circa November 2020 onwards). Once they sort that out the car will be excellent and very cheap to run by comparison to a similarly sporty car.
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I found this from an interview of Elon, where he says not to buy the car during the massive production ramp up;

‘In an interview with industry analyst Sandy Munro, Musk admitted that Tesla wasn’t letting the paint dry enough on its cars built towards the end of last year, even into December.
He said: ‘One of the things that was happening when we were ramping production was the paint wasn’t necessarily drying enough.’

Do you think that matches up with your experience ?
 
Bouba said:
Jim, I’m thinking of getting the Model 3 (range extender). Any words of wisdom for me?
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For your info, I believe that "Range Extenders" are the small petrol generators that can be used to extend mileage. I have a BMW i3, a model that had a range extender option until it was discontinued in the UK when the 120ah model was released.

I'm not sure Tesla ever fitted Range Extenders, it's certainly not an option these days.
 
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