I think "very" is overstating it quite a bit. As a driver, for some reason I'm more inclined to use the button. Not sure why. But as a front seat passenger, my hand is more apt to be on or near the mechanical lever. Lifting it up and poking the door with my elbow seems the most natural to me. I guess others don't drive aggressive enough for me to keep my hand on the handle.
Have you driven a Tesla or just read about them?
There are many choices now for EVs. As this thread is mostly about Teslas, you will read the quirks and "features" that Tesla vehicles have, which skews your assessment. Other EVs will be different, and may well meet your needs better. Or they might not. There wouldn't be so many makes, models, and styles if a single vehicle met everyone's needs. EVs have come a long way in the areas that concerned people, mostly range. Fast charging will be the next major change (except for Tesla, as I noted earlier in the thread). As I also noted earlier in the thread, see what the Chinese have already done. If I owned a chain of gas stations, I'd consider investing in fast chargers to support those new batteries that have a demonstrated charge time of 5 minutes. One company potentially uniquely situated for this is Sapp Bros. I see their coffee pots starting in PA all the way out to CO along I-80.
It does have a valet mode and I use it every time I valet my car. Here is what it does.
Then don't buy one. I'm good with that.
I'm not sure what you mean by a dead zone. I haven't noticed a "dead zone" on the temperature setting. i.e. I don't need to cycle the temperature setting up/down to achieve the cabin temp I want. It cuts off the vents in the areas of the car that are unoccupied. Seems to work well. Heated steering wheel, front seats, and ventilated front seats (refreshed) can be set to Auto. That works really well.
If the Tesla haters don't read the Tesla threads then there won't be a problem. We aren't in the pickup truck threads talking about Teslas.
This right here bothers me a lot. Not unique to EVs, I'm sure. I simply cannot conceive of having a vehicle that the manufacturer (or dealership, even) could remotely render inoperable. How are folks okay with this?
I actually understand if we’re talking repossession or say the vehicle is involved in a crime. But, they locked me out because of a bill that I was waiting to pay after “pay bill” button on the app turned blue. They just do too much through the app and too much opportunity for typos. Some things are just easier in person or over the phone.
Oh I think you've grossly underestimated the power of software engineers to build user interfaces sideways to the logic the rest of the world would use. Or grossly overestimated the quality process that governs usability in almost every software organization I've been part of for 40 years. No alcohol, or gambling would have been required to get something like that through in the absence of either a regular user or a human factors expert involved.
Au contraire. From the Slate pickup truck thread...
Excellent points.
Here in the upper Midwest, Kwik Trip is starting to put charging stations in. Some are Tesla (including my most frequently used Supercharger station), some are third party.
IME - And I've been driving and discussing EVs for more than a decade now - the haters came first. And it wasn't just "haters" in the beginning - There was a LOT of FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) being spread around the Internet and mainstream media those days funded by the Koch brothers and other oil industry money. That resulted in a lot of people always asking the same questions - "How long does it take to charge?" being the primary one. When I was first discussing EVs I had a plug-in hybrid Ford Fusion Energi and I was just plugging it into a standard wall outlet, so I would answer "seven hours, empty to full"... But then I realized the correct answer was "Three seconds" because that's how long it takes to grab the plug off the wall and shove it into the car and that's the extent of my interaction with the process.
I wasn't talking about Teslas. I was talking about ugly. I could have said "Pontiac Aztek" but most people have banished that monstrosity from their minds and wouldn't get the point as easily.Au contraire. From the Slate pickup truck thread...
American EV truck/SUV under $20k
OK, so it's actually $27k-ish before the federal credit and there's a bit of DIY to it, but still...www.pilotsofamerica.com
Quite frankly, it’s this kind of misleading spin that makes people less interested in electric cars, not more. Telling people it “only takes three seconds to charge” isn’t clever—it’s disingenuous. People ask about charging time because it matters, especially for road trips or anyone who doesn’t have the luxury of home charging.
When I can pull a 20K lb gooseneck or fifth wheel with something that fits in my garage, I’ll consider an EV.
Yeah, towing makes it a 100% no-go for me as well. Even if you were willing to charge up every 60 miles, the charging stations are not designed for trailers. Dropping/picking up the trailer every single charge would be a serious pain in the ass.
And yet I remember you scrapping a trip to 6Y9 in your EV because the charging was going to take longer than the time you were going to be there. My previous post in this thread is also a conveniently ignored example.
It is getting closer.
Yep... But it's not super hard either. All cars have things in different places. I rented Teslas a few times before I owned one. It was always a bit nerve-wracking at first but once I spent a couple minutes getting things dialed in it was great!
That's one of those things that will throw some people for a loop while others are perfectly at home with it.
This was on a plug-in hybrid, so no it wasn't about road trips or lack of garage charging as neither of those would be required (or even possible, for fast charging).
Driving across the country in anything is a pain in the ass. I've done it probably more than anyone here!
If you want to iron-butt it or do a cannonball run and get there first, sure. But, infrastructure is finally getting there, and the adoption of NACS by the whole industry is a game-changer. I'm glad that Ford and Chevy are giving Tesla a run for their money in the pickup market too.
And now there are several more Superchargers up that way, so it wouldn't be a problem any more.
I tried it briefly, my EV will get 1.5 miles/hour. 0-100% in 12 days. When I bought it I temporarily plugged it into 120v, just because it was funny and I hadn't quite finished putting in the temporary 14-50 outlet until the charger arrived. 240v at 80A is much better. Now 0-100 in 12 hours. Of course you'd never need 0-100 but at least I can always fully charge overnight.
Do you have a large EV, like a Silverado, full size SUV, etc.?
Silverado, what it lacks in charging speed it makes up for in weight.
Which doesn't help GM vehicles at all. They're all hard restricted to 12A on 120V on any charger even ones that will report the proper 24A with a TT-30 adapter, so even a TT-30 only gets you 12A. Some owners have used a 120V-240V transformer so they can at least get 12A at 240V out of a TT-30.
Ok, that makes sense. I hear it one of the best at towing range.
That's odd. I wonder why they designed it like that. 12A is barely a trickle for your big battery.
Older Model S (and maybe X?) had a "dual charger" option which also allowed for 80A charging on a 100A hard-wired circuit.
Oh! I did not know that. I've never driven either the S or X so don't know a lot of their specifics.
No, but the type of buyer who bought a Model S early on tended to go very option-heavy, especially as that option wasn't available for retrofit. Also, people were a lot more worried about range and charging speed at the time. I think a majority of the ones where you could get it had it.
That’s fair.
I haven't yet, because I don't think I've ever had a time where I know I'm not going to drive it for 14 hours!
You must still have miles displayed... I switched from miles to percent before I left the lot at Tesla Highland Park the day I picked it up. Despite Tesla doing it better than most others, the guess-o-meter is meaningless, while a percentage tells me something useful.
Those are incredibly popular tires.