Tesla killed my electric car....

I do not know, have you ever driven one? It's blazingly fast until you get to around 80mph then it really dies down. Tops out way below what I would consider a true Supercar. Around town it's kind of tough with no power steering. It's handling is very poor and there is a lot of road noise from the top and slamming sounds from the front end. A 911 Turbo is a very well refined Supercar that blows the doors off that Tesla overall - except for the fact that the 911 isn't electric.

Other things I learned during the almost-purchase process was that the cars are mostly built in England (full glider with working electronics and paint, only missing the Electric stuff) then air-shipped to Menlo. That is super non-eco friendly, I was kind of horrified when they told me that the cars are loaded on an airplane instead of a boat.

Then they later explained to me that the Tesla had to stay plugged in, while in my Phoenix garage in order to self-cool it's batteries to "room temperature". My garage gets to 120 in the summer, they explained that this would cost me around $30/month in extra electricity costs to keep the car cool even if I never used it. While $30 isn't much - the carbon footprint of the Tesla started growing in my mind. Then when they basically admitted that the battery would have to be replaced or seriously serviced within 7 years, the footprint grew further.

I really wanted that Tesla and am very dissapointed. But overall, now that I know what goes on behind the curtain I think it is for the best. Electric cars should be more eco friendly than their gasoline counterparts. The Tesla really isn't.

I could buy an older Lotus (because the Tesla is built on the old Lotus platform not the new one), and then donate $80k to Carbonfund.org and still come out way ahead. I think that would probably be better for the planet too.

I hope that someone will make a truly eco-friendly electric car soon!

For those of you who already own a Tesla please do not let my experience salt yours at all. I recall my test driving experience with much joy and fun. It was like a ride at an amusement park (so long as I didn't take hard turns). The accelleration was phenomenal and the Tesla made my daughter smile. That alone is worth more than money.

 

You're the best I'll tell that one to my wife

 

Thank you xs, some people got very heated at me over my posts. Actually I tried talking with Tesla owners about this in their forum but they so heavily moderate it that only a few of my posts made it through. They did allow my main post through (they only slightly edited it) but then I'd reply to many people just to have my response 'dissapear'. My posts were polite and very reasonable if not apologetic. I don't see any reason to censor them

Note to Teslamotorsclub forum readers - please accept my sincere apologies guys. I know from experience that your car is a heck of a lot of fun and I hope you enjoy every day with it.

 

I was dealing with Tesla Corporate. The shipping cost was not disclosed up front. I think that it could just be a misunderstanding. I live in more than one place and maybe they weren't sure where the car was going to be delivered (even though they did ask...).

The man George that I was working with in the end said he was the national sales manager of Tesla. He said the only person above him was Eon Musk and he directed me to contact Eon. I tried a few times but he never got back to me. I'm sure he thought I was a problem customer and not worth the aggravation. From his perspective I really don't blame him and I really do wish Tesla much success.

I'm sure they and I will learn from this experience in positive ways.

 

I think I must have misunderstood them. They said how they send technicians to service cars for free to areas where they have not yet opened a dealership. They talked about how even if there is not a dealership in my area they make the experience so fluid (immediately flying out a tech, having a rep in your area, etc..) that they provide the same or even a higher level of service to those outside of their dealership area. That's why it was such a shock to see the $1000 "out of dealership area" delivery charge. They said if I could pick it up at a dealership the charge would not apply. So I asked them to deliver it to their LA dealer and I'd pick it up there (that's kind of close to Phoenix). Then they said that wasn't allowed, it had to be delivered. There was a lot of double talk going on, but it was probably just a mistunderstanding.

For example, many of my posts on their Tesla forum were deleted (never went up). When I poked fun of them for censoring me, first their forum admin posted that I was wrong and they never do that, then later they admitted that my posts were somehow caught in one of their filters and now the posts are old and duplicated so they went ahead and deleted them. That is probably completely true - but given the way things have been going for me with Tesla, it's just another unfortunate misunderstanding that leaves a bad taste.

I received a PM that it takes over 20,000lbs of fossil fuel based carbon just to make a Tesla (the air freight shipping of the completed body from London is probably a huge culprit). If that is true it would be very hard to feel good about buying an "eco car" that creates so much pollution. There has to be a better way.

Does anyone know if this 20,000lb number is even remotely accurate? God I hope not.

 

Interesting - I tried to reply to another post on the Tesla Motors Club forum and found my post dissapearing again... I've given up on that forum.

People on that forum actually posted this in response to my queries;

He's under the impression that the delivery of the gliders from UK via plane is not Eco-friendly. Obviously he hasn't researched it to know Tesla is contracting reduced rates on flights that happen regardless if a Roadster is onboard or not. Cheaper and not less Eco-friendly.

'Cmon really? Do these people really think it's more eco friendly to air-freight a car from the UK to Menlo than to send it by freighter? What Telsa tells people is that they have reduced rates by using Lotus's negotiated discounts with the air freight companies, since Lotus builds for them. To say that shipping those cars by AIR compared to SEA is eco friendly is wrong by a factor of 50;

air is the most GHG-intensive option. Carbon dioxide emissions for air freight are 3.7 times those for truck, 37.7 times (yes - that's nearly 40 times) those for rail transport and 48.5 times (nearly 50 times) those for ocean shipping by container, according to recent work by Weber and Matthews

One keen person on their forum has a signature that resonates with me. It says "the world loves to be deceived" and that certainly seems to be true. We all want to beleive that an electric car will somehow save the planet. We don't want to recognize that the best way to save the planet is not to drive at all....

If the point of a Tesla is not to be eco friendly but to prove that Electric cars can be fast than that point has been well proven and the world will someday thank them for that. Now let's move on and find ways to build electric cars that create less - not more - pollution than their gasoline counterparts.

Your ZAP appears to be a very green vehicle and you should be proud of your choice. I have an electric Smart coming soon (supposedly) which ironically uses some Telsa technology. I was fortunate enough to be chosen for one of the few they are bringing to North America on a special closed end lease. Of course I won't know for sure until I get my hands on the keys - but they have assured me that it's coming soon.

Until then I still have my old CDI Smart which manages around 80mpg and is mostly recycleable. We run it on Biodiesel made locally by a friend.

 

Thank you for your very well written and thoughtful post. I didn't confirm my cancellation of the model S until I conversed with Elon Musk. After that, I really felt it was for the best for me to distance myself from Teslaco altogether. I have seen behind their curtain and didn't like what I saw.

When you say that Tesla's doing good things for EVs and the environment, can you elaborate on the second part of that? While they have done good things for EVs - with the information at hand (perhaps 20,000lbs of carbon per Roadster and a battery that will need to be disposed of in 7 years which will create a lot more carbon to replace) what good things are they doing for the environment?

We have many electric forklifts and similar machines, and the newer ones are quite amazing (see Jungheinrich AG - Hand pallet trucks, Lift trucks, Forklift trucks, High-rack stackers, Battery-powered pedestrian trucks, Diesel lift trucks, Order pickers, Reach trucks, Rack systems, Rental forklifts, forklifts, Driver training ). They have regenerative braking and can last a week without being recharged under normal use. When the batteries on on older lifts die, we often have to junk the entire machine as the battery is the lifeblood of them. To me if the Telsa has a 7 year battery life this means the car has a 7 year life (don't flame me for this please, you know what I mean).

The PM's I received say that Teslaco's main invention in-a-nutshell is adding cooling to a Li-Ion battery pack. I'm sure they've done more than that - since you have researched them could you explain some of their major inventions and thank you for the intel.

The purchase was not a spur of the moment one for me but it was harried due to trying to make it b/f year end. I did some research onlne but was too busy to dig in the way that you think I should have. I relied upon them to disclose to me everything about the car. They didn't do it in a normal way. For example I only found out about the way they fly the cars in from England when they gave me a status update of my car and it was still in England (due for delivery in 3 weeks). That led to a "how long are we going to be delayed" question which resulted in them disclosing that they were flying the car in from England. I balked and asked if they could just send it by sea instead (b/c of GHG concerns). They explained that no, all Telsas are flown, it costs them the same as ocean etc..

Did you know that they fly them all? I don't think there is any regular research I could have done to find out that information. Early in the process one of my friends mentioned that the Tesla wasn't as green as I thought. I did some online quick searches and was releived by what I found. However the information I read did not take into account the flying of the car or limited battery life.

Every online review and article I found describes the Roadster as Green. After reading them how could an average consumer such as myself think that the roadster is not green?

"The global online auto review site Autoguide.com tested Tesla's fourth-generation car in October 2010. Autoguide editor Derek Kreindler said "The Tesla Roadster 2.5 S is a massively impressive vehicle, more spacecraft than sports car. Theories like global warming, peak oil and rising oil prices should no longer bring heart palpitations to car fans. The Tesla shows just how good zero-emissions “green” technology can be."

"The Tesla turns the frugal environmentalist aesthetic on its head. Sure, it doesn't burn petroleum, and if plugged into a wind turbine or a nuclear plant, it would be a very low-carbon machine. But anyone who buys one will get the most satisfaction from smoking someone's doors off. The Tesla's message is that "green" technology can appeal to the id, not just the superego."

"a small carbon footprint in carbon fiber."

Jay Leno wrote, "If you like sports cars and you want to be green, this is the only way to go."

There are probably 100 more articles just like these, they all describe the Roadster as "Green".

Anyway I am off topic entirely but wanted you to understand why I thought it was actually a green choice. Please do reply with the eco friendly information so that maybe I will reconsider the model S. You seem to know a lot more than me, and I wish we had spoken before I had started the roadster purchase.