Gone Electric... Xav's Tesla thread

[Xavier]

Another way of getting others to benefit form and experience the car has been through said car pooling. Shortly after I bought the Tesla, I joined Blablacar and have used it a few times, particularly when driving down to South West France (near Spain). As I do the 850+ mile journey alone in a single day, I have all the space and every now and then, it's nice to have company, so I decided to give Blablacar a go.

For those who aren't familiar with it, it's a bit like Uber, except that you say you have x number of seats available for driving from A to B. People search a trip they need transport for and if your drive matches their criteria, they can book you. The driver determines the far for each segment / passenger (Blablacar advise on what a decent going rate is) and then you approve and they have a seat booked.

Doing it in the Tesla where I need to stop a few times at Superchargers on the way actually works out really well: I selected the charging locations as pick up / drop off locations and would meet people there. As I didn't charge any more than the recommended rate, people would search for their trip requirements and when they have the choice between crammed in the back of a Renault 5 or in the comfort of a Tesla, the choice is quickly made As a result, I've ended up with 3-4 passengers in the car at a time.

The modest rate charged and income I get pretty much cover the motorway tolls in France (which aren't cheap - it's about €100 each way for what I do). Plus I get the benefit of the free Supercharging, so it's a way for me to get the free travel down and back, whilst discussing the car, tech with people.

I've not had any bad experiences at all, everyone has been very accommodating and despite planning a trip, it's not always easy to predict a 5-minute time slot when doing a 800 mile journey! But it has worked very well, I've received very good feedback and they have all absolutely loved the silence and comfort of the car. A great way to show the electric drive train and tech to people who've never experienced it before.

 

Does any one else here use blablacar or some equivalent?

[Chris]

I popped to the local Tesla shop in Cambridge yesterday for a look round a model S. The prices are starting to creep down now for used ones and starting to make more sense financially for me. 

 

So many different options though with motors, packs, autopilot etc. 

 

I specced a new one and there's various levels of autopilot too! Concerned that by buying used I'll miss out on the real good stuff but on the flip side get free supercharging. 

 

It's good to read about real world experiences. At the minute I do 86 miles a day for work with no charging points along the route. Would mean having to get one installed at home but then with the prospect of moving it could be a false economy. 

 

Keep up the thread! Useful info! 

[johnnyj]

Thanks to Xav yesterday for a tour of the Tesla after he helped me with some VCDS coding.  

 

Its a pretty special car and ludicrous mode is something else!! It took me part of the drive home for the blood to return to the front of my head after feeling what 0-60 mph in less than 3secs feels like!!  

[Xavier]

26 minutes ago, johnnyj said:

Thanks to Xav yesterday for a tour of the Tesla after he helped me with some VCDS coding.  

 

Its a pretty special car and ludicrous mode is something else!! It took me part of the drive home for the blood to return to the front of my head after feeling what 0-60 mph in less than 3secs feels like!!  

Thanks Karl. It's sometimes tricky asking people to "enjoy" what can make them feel a little nauseous! Hope the auto headlights work ok now.

[KenONeill]

@BossFox @Xavier - You guys are the most likely to know this I think: What is the body of a Tesla S made of (other than the floorpan which I know is aluminium)? Cheers.

[Xavier]

13 minutes ago, KenONeill said:

@BossFox @Xavier - You guys are the most likely to know this I think: What is the body of a Tesla S made of (other than the floorpan which I know is aluminium)? Cheers.

It's pretty much fully aluminium. I can't remember the numbers, but it's something like 85% aluminium.

Reinforced boron steel is used where necessary for structural strength.

Underbody is protected by titanium plating.

[Xavier]

As a side note, we had a great day at a Tesla bodyshop with surprisingly free access to see cars that had been in various states of work.

 

Drive train:

 

Edited 26 July, 2017 by Xavier
fixed video link

[RichardatWakefield]

Interesting floorpan pic, Xav; where are the front driveshafts? Can see holes for them to pass through hub.  Or is a motor hidden in each wheel? And is the battery pack hidden under those cross-members, or is this a floorpan minus batteries?

 

Aha, your video shows me the motor, diff, driveshafts, but unclear if the brief floorpan under-shot showed batteries; there is a black area, and a metallic at each side.

 

I'm unclear how we plan to supply the future burgeoning number of EV's with juice, given that, last week, my 16 solar PV panels gave a gross indicated output of 92.16Kwh, the real net output from the inverter is always less owing to heat losses. And that was a reasonable summer week's output, though it can do more in a good week.

 

Doesn't your car require roughly that much in one day's driving?

 

If I were to buy a used EV, could I trickle-charge it from the PVs, given that I have a van for work, and only really use the car a lot in a 3 day spell once per fortnight?

 

Or would I be better off keeping the car, and investing in a battery-bank to sit by the inverter, fill that up, use evenings and morning, sell surplus to grid?

Richard

Edited 26 July, 2017 by RichardatWakefield
Make my meaning clearer.

[Xavier]

That photo shows the non-D (RWD only) version. The D-version cars - D for Dual motors, has a motor centred in the front for the front wheels.

The photo is also missing the battery back which bolts under the car, covering the entire floorplan between the wheels - the top of the battery pack would be adjacent to the plating you see in the photo.

 

On the energy side, large-scale EV adoption is massively disruptive. I honestly believe it's entirely possible with the infrastructure we have in place TODAY. We would not need another Hinkley Point C... But it relies on renewable energy generation and battery storage.

 

So if you had an EV, yes, you would trickle charge during the day with your excess solar generation. With battery storage (in your house, not just the car), you can then top that up too with any unused amount, or what's not going into the EV if you've taken the EV out for the day.

 

In addition, you'd get cheap off-peak E7 tariff. That way you charge your car at night when it's cheap and there's an excess of energy on the grid. And you power shift your home battery storage too - use cheap electricity to charge up your battery storage so that you can then run your house off battery during the peak periods, compensating / topping up what your solar can produce or what your house demands, for example, in the evening in the winter when the sun has gone down but you have that spike for cooking and possibly heating.

 

Having battery storage allows you to really smooth out the spiky peaks and troughs of energy usage. If this were to be adopted nationwide, combined with renewables, you could probably even reduce the demand on the grid as it's so much more evenly spread out over the day. But that's a renewable energy & energy storage pipe dream, for now at least

[KenONeill]

@Xavier - Thanks; it's amazing just how reluctant the usual sources are to discuss the materials.

[wyx087]

Great thread. Nice to see you are enjoying your Tesla.

 

I've got my eyes on a Model 3, Model S is too rich for me unfortunately. My previous cars were £3000 Volvo, £6000 Mercedes, most recently £8000 Skoda. I'm hoping I'll be able to buy a Model 3 within next 3 years. By then, I hopefully would have saved up enough money for a new Model 3.  

 

I'm already totally sold on the idea of instant torque, zero petrol pump visit EV's.

[Xavier]

@RichardatWakefield, sorry, missed your edit. You can see one corner of the battery pack at the very beginning of the video. It's just a massive skateboard shape

The cells are in fact 18650 cells, just slightly bigger than an AA battery. It's just that there are over 9,000 of them all aligned in a very specific way, into various modules, etc.

The largish twin-blade orange connector you see at the end is the connection from the battery pack to the chassis of the car. The whole width is no more than a packet of cigs, yet it passes over 1,500 amps of current through it on the silly Ludicrous versioned cars. It's incredibly impressive engineering IMO.

 

I'm quite pleased to also read up on the various announcements the various European countries and manufacturers are now making. Volvo with no more non-electric cars in a couple of years, then the longer prospect no more ICE vehicle sales in France and now the UK. Yes, it's 20+ years away, but it'll surely focus the mind of car manufacturers.

 

As much as I like the sound of a V8 from time to time, for every day transport, the electric drive train is just unbeatable. If you haven't experienced it, it's certainly worth it. Even a Leaf / Zoe gives you an idea of what it's like. I admit, my P90D was very expensive, but with Model 3 round the corner, the economies of scale are making this far more attainable for everyone.

 

@wyx087, if you're ever out of West London, approaching Reading, let me know, I'll happily take you out in mine if you want to experience it.

[Xavier]

Small update. Well, more of the same really.

I've been working in Paris for the last month or so and after flying once, I've driven on subsequent trips. It's actually not really slower than flying, door to door. It works out really well: I leave Reading and as long as I have 50% charge or more, I can reach Folkestone Eurotunnel terminal. There, I charge up whilst having a coffee. Once on the French side, I can make it to Paris in a single stint, no need to charge. Both routes to Paris (A26 / A1 round the East or A16 round the West) are very similar timewise / distance wise. Either I top up at Senlis which is close to Paris, or I charge at Aire de la Baie de Somme which is near Abbeville if going round the West / A16 route.

 

A couple of times, I've also offered Blablacar and that always goes down very very well! People are quite amazed at the serene, quite, comfortable, effortless trip from Paris to Calais...

 

I've made a slight cosmetic change to the car though - I've added a nice carbon fibre spoiler on the back. It is a factory option, but couldn't justify it at over £500. Managed to get hold of a Chinese copy for free after helping a friend out, so thought I'd stick it on. It's not a perfect fit, but rounds off the back of the car. A slightly sportier, yet discreet addition

 

Since starting up a secondary business providing dedicated charging cables and adaptors for EVs and Tesla in particular, it's been really interesting seeing people's experience and understanding of the whole "how you charge your car" thing.

 

Very long cable runs aren't particularly good and give a big voltage drop which reduces charging speed (resistance in cable causes energy loss through heat dissipation). The most extreme cases are dangerous and cause fires when using unrolled cable reels, etc. But I did make a quick video which shows the effect a large current draw can have on an long circuit:

 

 

[Ryeman]

I guess the heavier and slower the traffic the more it suits the BEV.

[Xavier]

2 minutes ago, Ryeman said:

I guess the heavier and slower the traffic the more it suits the BEV.

Consistent slow speed is more efficient than stop / start. You do get some energy back from regen braking, but a constant 20mph is better than 0 - 30 - 0 all the time.

However, I have to admit, unless I'm late for a meeting or something, I really don't mind that much getting stuck in a jam when in the Tesla. The Autopilot takes the stop / start stress away and of course, you're in silence, no vibration, the filtration system gets rid of all the horrible odors, etc.

[Ryeman]

Just now, Xavier said:

Consistent slow speed is more efficient than stop / start. You do get some energy back from regen braking, but a constant 20mph is better than 0 - 30 - 0 all the time.

However, I have to admit, unless I'm late for a meeting or something, I really don't mind that much getting stuck in a jam when in the Tesla. The Autopilot takes the stop / start stress away and of course, you're in silence, no vibration, the filtration system gets rid of all the horrible odors, etc.

The M25 could even be enjoyable.

[Xavier]

Just now, Ryeman said:

The M25 could even be enjoyable.

Now, now! That's pushing it a bit! :p

But yes, I'm a hell of a lot less stressed when stuck on the M25 (unless I'm going to miss my Eurotunnel slot which has happened on a few occasions)

 

[KenONeill]

@Xavier - That's a point I've never seen actually made before, about the resistance of long(er) charger cable runs.

[mdk1]

Glad it's going well, is that your milage on the speedo? 42k that's good going in just over a year.

Does the battery still perform like new? Or does it's performance drop a little?

[wyx087]

These batteries are more age dependent. A 1 year old 60k vs a 3 year old 20k, as long as it hasn't been deep discharged, the 1 year old will hold more charge and perform better.

 

For Tesla, is there a way to get read-out of battery condition?

 

I purchased a used Nissan Leaf a few days ago, used LeafSpy to read battery condition and other data such as number of quick charging and home L2 charging. For a 3 years old car 19k mileage, battery shown to hold 94% of original capacity, and only 50 quick charges.

[Rooted]

This shows well the battery dimensions.

 

[Xavier]

12 hours ago, mdk1 said:

Glad it's going well, is that your milage on the speedo? 42k that's good going in just over a year.

Does the battery still perform like new? Or does it's performance drop a little?

That's kilometreage as I was in Paris. At 44,045km now, back in Paris, parked in the same spot. Amazing how it just seems to creep up

 

42 minutes ago, wyx087 said:

These batteries are more age dependent. A 1 year old 60k vs a 3 year old 20k, as long as it hasn't been deep discharged, the 1 year old will hold more charge and perform better.

 

For Tesla, is there a way to get read-out of battery condition?

 

I purchased a used Nissan Leaf a few days ago, used LeafSpy to read battery condition and other data such as number of quick charging and home L2 charging. For a 3 years old car 19k mileage, battery shown to hold 94% of original capacity, and only 50 quick charges.

I really don't worry about battery capacity. I might have lost a few percent, but you can't really notice it at all. Until you reach 10% loss which is a VERY long way away, it's not even worth thinking about. And I've supercharged mine a hell of a lot more than other people as I couldn't initially charge at home when I bought it. So 90% of my charging has been at super high speeds which arguably is not as good. Now, I have three-phase power at my business unit so charge there at a nice and steady 11kW whilst making my cables.

 

What I have noticed is that the charging profile on Superchargers has changed - the battery management system is now modifying the charging profile to optimise speed and battery life. I don't get quite the same insanely high 110kW+ power, but a steadier 90kW which seems to hold on longer, so doesn't really make in-journey charging stops much longer.

[Xavier]

Bit of an update.

 

If anyone's interested, drop me a PM with your name and email address and I'll put you forward.

Refer a friend to join the Tesla community and you will both be entered for a chance to win a trip for two to the Tesla Winter Experience in Kemi, Finland in March 2018. Each referral increases your chances of winning.

Selected finalists will have the opportunity to experience the unparalleled traction and control of electric all-wheel drive—with three hours of ice driving in Model S, along with the following:

    Travel for two to Kemi, Finland
    2 nights at Hotel Merihovi including breakfast
    3 hours of ice driving in a Tesla Model S with a qualified instructor
    Lunch and coffee throughout the driving day
    Dinner at the Kemi SnowCastle

 

I'll post a few more things soon...

 

Oh and if you followed the "semi" announcement, I went a bit mad...

 

 

 

 

[wyx087]

Ooooooh! niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. Now I'd like to take up your offer of an EV ride in your Roadster 2  

 

I'm definitely going full electric after this Skoda and most probably a Model 3 (I feel S is too big for my local roads). But I'll be waiting a long time for a CPO model 3. I've recently gone EV using Nissan switch scheme on a second hand Leaf as local family car for the wife. I love the driving sensation so much the wife haven't had much chance driving it!

[VRS Mike]

very nice, will your current car get moved on? I'm guessing the 3 will be the family car and roadster for pleasure?