When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Too bad they forgot about all the other expenses and costs.
Initial purchase price.
Higher insurance.
Inconvenience.
Still think you are driving for free?
Regarding initial price: "Tesla’s most recent round of price cuts to the Model Y have brought the vehicle’s introductory trim level to a starting price below that of the average new car or truck in the United States."
Regarding insurance: Wait for Tesla to move into Canada with its in-house insurance. Eventually the other insurance companies will be forced to adjust their rates to match or they risk losing a lot of business.
Regarding inconvenience: Yes it is a bother to have to plug the car in at night when parked in your garage, but that only takes a few seconds. Try standing beside your car at the gas pumps on a windy winter day of -20 when every minute seems like an hour.
In the meantime the cost of operation and maintenance is a fraction of an ICE car. For that, I can accept some inconvenience.
Regarding insurance: Wait for Tesla to move into Canada with its in-house insurance. Eventually the other insurance companies will be forced to adjust their rates to match or they risk losing a lot of business.
Tesla like when you buy a car for 0% or 0.9% or 1.9% is buying the rate down. Nothing is free and other insurance companies won't care and simply won't insure them.
Plugging in is not the inconvenience, it is the range when new and the range when it is 10 years old and when the battery capacity is way down after 200,000 kms of use. The car is worthless at that point, or you can make it a city-only car. Also, I am not interested in waiting at charge stations as someone I know did.
You know, EV owners are like Fast Eddie Lawson. I am sure you know what that means.
I spent a week in the UK with a Polestar 2 that I rented at Hertz. Absolutely brillant car, the infotainment system was a bit wonky at times though. The car had 10 miles on it, first person renting it. Skipping the line thanks to Hertz 5 star we were off to Oxfordshire to visit a friend, about a 65 mile drive. Immediately the Polestar felt better screwed together than the Model 3 I had in FRA. The suspension was firm but also comfortable, the seats held you better as well going around B road corners. What impressed me was the real world efficiency at motorway way speeds. It wasn’t far off the Tesla… I used sport steering the entire time and full one pedal driving. Even my friend who hates EVs was impressed but did want to punch me in the face when I didn’t shut up about charge rates and charge curves
The car comes with a Shell recharge card that is billed to your account at Hertz. Although Shell is insanely expensive per kWh
The charging network in this area of the UK is pretty damn good as well with multiple options from Gridserve, Shell Recharge, Instavolt, Ionity, Tesla etc. Even over a busy bank holiday weekend the dispensers were available. All motorway services will have dispensers from 100-350kwh. We were staying near to central London and again many options for charging including just plugging into a lamp post… another bonus of the EV rental is no congestion charge in central London. FYI I normally don’t stay anywhere near London but I was there for a cycling event.
By far the most impressive setups were the Gridserve Fourcourt in Braintree with 32 dispensers and the Shell Recharge location in Fulham with is a proof of concept for Shell using an old petrol station.
The only downside I guess would be if you don’t own an EV and getting stuck with one as they are sometimes the cheapest option. I had to help these people from southern USA who were having a meltdown because they didn’t know what to do. They didn’t even know it was an EV until the GPS was saying “charge needed go here” they followed directions to a shell dispenser already the husband had horribly curbed the wheels. Nobody at hertz tells you anything. Not even where the charging cables are for hotel or outlet charging. I calmed them down and showed them what to do. I also told them a full charge on such a low state of charge would be about 35 mins and they should go for faster 10-15 min top offs on their trip and find out if the hotel has a wallbox
The amount of EVs on the road in the UK is staggering and speaking to a couple owners companies can’t keep up with the pace that they are installing dispensers. As like back in Canada most people charge at home or on the street at 22kw lampposts. So fast charging is only used on road trips
That polestar is heinous. Looks like someone took a Pontiac Aztek and for a moment thought they would spend money to improve the styling and then decided to forget it.
That polestar is heinous. Looks like someone took a Pontiac Aztek and for a moment thought they would spend money to improve the styling and then decided to forget it.
It’s a lift back. Good enough for me ! Not sure I’d buy one given the Tesla price drops but it’s a fine car
Back from a 10 day trip to the Scottish Highlands. We rented a Model Y LR for 700$ CDN and drove around 1800 miles during that time. Zero issues charging, everyone said we would be stranded running out of charge. The LR is a range beast. Absolutely fantastic and one of our most memorable trips
Spent about 400$ in charging. Superchargers were by far the cheapest and we used them more than I expected as you were always near one. The local public network charge place Scotland worked well enough for our needs but CCS charging with them was slow but good for top offs but expensive. Tesla around around £0.35kwh while CPS was around £0.70kwh
only annoying part was the Type2 cable was missing from our car, it had 2000 miles on it. So my plan to charge on the dispenser at our cottage was a bit foiled. We did have the mobile connector but didn’t bother with it.
04-27-2023, 05:30 PM
