Quote:
Originally Posted by robg
Are the instant torque and cheaper energy costs really enough to overcome the downsides? For those of you who recently placed orders, what pushed this car ahead of the similarly priced (but conventional) competitors?
|
Make an appointment and go drive one. The instant torque is really neat.
But I was coming into this with the seemingly impossible goal of finding a car that is (a) fun, and (b) relaxing to commute into NYC in. The Tesla manages to do both. You giggle as it effortlessly glides up to speed at insane rates, the instant torque makes it easy to fill gaps when changing lanes, and the regen braking allows one-pedal driving which is more pleasant and rewarding in traffic than scraping (and pulsing!!) brake rotors. I left thinking, damn the electric motor really is the future of daily transportation.
However, once it sank in how much I'm spending and how many other cars I could have for that money, I did start to wonder. And those cars are much better sports cars... and better screwed together.
I don't buy that maintenance will be cheaper. There's still plenty of stuff to break (think of all the sensors and actuators) and when it does it'll be hella expensive. Some guy cracked his windshield and it was ~$1600 to replace at the dealer - no one else makes them so they're your only choice. And isn't there a regular maintenance/checkup schedule that I fairly expensive at the dealer? They also eat tires if you accelerate hard often. The thing weights 4,000 lbs. I suspect that tire cost alone will balance out any savings from fuel.
And I'm not optimistic about resale. The first run of a hastily produced EV vehicle? With a tired battery? After Tesla and other manufactures have come out with newer tech? This thing is going to be about as easy to sell on eBay as my 4 year old Samsung S6.