jesim1 wrote: ↑Sat Oct 13, 2018 4:23 pm
I said I would give a quick update on driving the Tesla Model S after I had it for the past 24hrs - and it's probably getting lost in this thread of the Ipace, but it's part of my experience from the Ipace test drive and still relevant to anyone who has been following this.
So over the past 24hrs I've had a £90k Tesla Model S P100D on loan as I have been shopping about to see if it's worth changing my 3 year old Macan SD.
I had tried the Ipace, and at £65k with a range in real life of closer to 200 miles than the advertised 300 it concerned me about the range and network availability to charge it, plus it just does not feel like £65s worth. I then tried the Tesla Model X P100D, it was too big for what I want, very noisy on the motorway, a bit cumbersome, and with a £95k price tag just did not feel like a £95k quality car.
This leads me to the last trial - the Model S P100D.
This was by far the best EV I have driven so far, it felt like a "proper car" with good performance and the obvious instant acceleration you get from an EV. None of the noise that I experienced in the Model X was there, and with good handling and a comfortable ride it's the only one I would consider as it also had a real 300 mile range and access to the Tesla charging network. I only did about 140 miles in it of mixed roads and probably about 5 hours driving. I took it to the tip - as you do, and also shopping so I could get to know what it was like to live with, which is more important than it's 0-60 in real life. It is spacious inside and has a big boot, but is still fairly low for me and my old knees, which is partly why the Macan and it's SUV shape is a nice place to be.
But here is the rub - It's still £90k! You can buy a Porsche Panamera hybrid for that kind of money and get a car which is bigger, just as quick, has a more premium feel to it, and has a more prestigious badge on the bonnet. Add in to that it is likely to have a higher resale (based on Teslas own PCP deal) and that saving would wipe out any advantage cost wise from a running point of view unless you worked somewhere you had to deal with the congestion charge regularly. You would also never be stuck for a fill anywhere in the UK or be bothered about needing a driveway to charge it.
So for now I'm going to keep my Macan. It's too nice a car and too cheap compared to the alternatives for what I perceive I'd be getting in return - and I appreciate that is different for everyone. I really don't see the "value" in the Tesla - it's nice, but when you compare it to cars of a similar value it's just not a great deal, nor does it have the quality of a £90k+ car I would expect. This kind of leads me to think my best course of action is to watch what happens with EVs in general, but if Porsche can knock out a new Macan EV in the next 3 years when the current model is going to be replaced, then that could be my ideal next car, but I'd like to think by then they could do it for the price of a current turbo version?
James
I have to agree I think the 100D is expensive at £90K, although doesn't necessarily need as much option spend as a Panamera undoubtedly would! A 75D with the same performance (only 0.1 sec slower to 60 mph) and 50-60 miles less real world range is much better value at just over £70K. It still has a real world range close to 250 miles and weighs 150 kg less with the smaller battery. The P100D you keep mentioning is actually £126K, but has the supercar performance to go with that sort of price tag.
The latest Panamera is very nice (unlike the dog ugly original!), but I just don't buy into the hybrid drivetrain in the same way as the Tesla, especially now I've got used to living with an EV and discovered all the hidden *advantages that I was oblivious to on test drives. For me that trumps subjective quality of materials any day and I have to say the synthetic leather in our X is wearing better than any of our previous Porsche leather seats, showing none of the typical annoying crease marks or bolster wear. The Panamera is also smaller inside despite its external bulk, although still plenty big enough for most. But the boot in the S is truly enormous and very deep.
For me the Taycan is the true alternative to a Model S and yet to be proven. If they really can offer it for the £60-70K they are talking about and there isn't a multi-year waiting list, then I'd probably give it a go. But I would miss the Tesla Supercharger network on a longer trip.
* No more smelly filling station visits, no more getting caught low on fuel when in a hurry, the ability to silently pre-warm/cool the car from your phone (can't overstate the real world value of this feature), the ability to run climate control without a running engine when waiting in the car, no stop/start engine noise when queueing in traffic - just silence, no clutch, no gears, no auto creeping, no engine vibration, no engine warm-up time. All these things just make it a more pleasant everyday experience.