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Why Won't They Send Me a Tesla to Test Drive?

funnelsgun 9y ago
> optimized for low-speeds, not high ones. And for short bursts, not continuous vigorous exercise. This is the issue I have with electric cars. Range is much poorer than ICE cars when not cruising at 70mph. Someone took their Model S on the Nurburgring last summer. Other than overheating and going into limp mode just 5 miles into the 14 mile circuit, the car used over 30% of its charge. That’s about 45 miles on a full charge. Even the thirstiest twin Turbo V8s will do somewhere between 100 and 150 miles to a tank on this track. When I was there in the BMW M2, we used 1/4 of a tank doing four fast laps. I can’t believe we’re not able to make electric cars more versatile in this respect?
- ZeroGravitas 9y ago
  This is apparently part of the reason for german car companies to not get on board EVs early, since speed on autobahns is a big part of what they consider a great car to be about. For me however, it seems somewhat ridiculous. I've always been baffled by people buying cars with tops speeds that are both illegal (in my jurisdiciton at least) and dangerous (probably true everywhere) and emphasising that figure as a sales point. I believe for any kind of driving I, or the average motorist, will do, the EV will be better (sportier, more responsive, whatever adjectives car journalists use to describe high-end cars) EVs will deliver that better.
  - dagw 9y ago
    A friend of mine bought an electric car for his wife to use for her commute. According to the calculations they did beforehand she should have no problem getting to her office and back on a single charge. Unfortunately non of their calculations took into account that his wife likes to drive 90 mph.
    - ZeroGravitas 9y ago
      I'd be interested to know if her commute actually took any longer when driving at the speed limit or below (assuming she stuck with the EV at least for a while). It'll be a rare commute which is mostly on empty, fast roads. Generally I find I catch up with the people going too fast at the next set of lights or traffic bottleneck, so little seems to have been gained.
- dagw 9y ago
  Range is much poorer than ICE cars when not cruising at 70mph. 70mph is way too fast if you want to optimize for range. According to Tesla's own number[0] you should be 'cruising' along at around 20-25 mph if you want to get as far as possible on a single charge. At 70 mph you're looking at a half your theoretical max range. [0]https://www.tesla.com/blog/model-s-efficiency-and-range https://www.tesla.com/blog/model-s-efficiency-and-range

> optimized for low-speeds, not high ones. And for short bursts, not continuous vigorous exercise. This is the issue I have with electric cars. Range is much poorer than ICE cars when not cruising at 70mph. Someone took their Model S on the Nurburgring last summer. Other than overheating and going into limp mode just 5 miles into the 14 mile circuit, the car used over 30% of its charge. That’s about 45 miles on a full charge. Even the thirstiest twin Turbo V8s will do somewhere between 100 and 150 miles to a tank on this track. When I was there in the BMW M2, we used 1/4 of a tank doing four fast laps. I can’t believe we’re not able to make electric cars more versatile in this respect?

ZeroGravitas 9y ago
This is apparently part of the reason for german car companies to not get on board EVs early, since speed on autobahns is a big part of what they consider a great car to be about. For me however, it seems somewhat ridiculous. I've always been baffled by people buying cars with tops speeds that are both illegal (in my jurisdiciton at least) and dangerous (probably true everywhere) and emphasising that figure as a sales point. I believe for any kind of driving I, or the average motorist, will do, the EV will be better (sportier, more responsive, whatever adjectives car journalists use to describe high-end cars) EVs will deliver that better.
- dagw 9y ago
  A friend of mine bought an electric car for his wife to use for her commute. According to the calculations they did beforehand she should have no problem getting to her office and back on a single charge. Unfortunately non of their calculations took into account that his wife likes to drive 90 mph.
  - ZeroGravitas 9y ago
    I'd be interested to know if her commute actually took any longer when driving at the speed limit or below (assuming she stuck with the EV at least for a while). It'll be a rare commute which is mostly on empty, fast roads. Generally I find I catch up with the people going too fast at the next set of lights or traffic bottleneck, so little seems to have been gained.
dagw 9y ago
Range is much poorer than ICE cars when not cruising at 70mph. 70mph is way too fast if you want to optimize for range. According to Tesla's own number[0] you should be 'cruising' along at around 20-25 mph if you want to get as far as possible on a single charge. At 70 mph you're looking at a half your theoretical max range. [0]https://www.tesla.com/blog/model-s-efficiency-and-range https://www.tesla.com/blog/model-s-efficiency-and-range