EV general discussion

Jonnycoupe · 11 Oct 2026 at 19:29

Diddums said:
Tesla puts food on the table for 140k people. It's contributions to the auto industry probably rival or even surpass what Ford achieved with the Model T and the production line. It changed the charging infrastructure worldwide.

I'm no fanboy by any stretch of the imagination but there's no denying their achievements.

By all means avoid it if you don't like Musk, but to preach to others for buying a quality product involves ignoring all of the above and to be quite frank, makes you look a bit of an idiot.

Being all serious doesn’t suit you. Sorry.

Meanwhile we have mods hoping for bankruptcy of a British based automaker. Couldn’t make it up really.

Jonnycoupe · 11 Oct 2026 at 19:34

personal view is the leaf gets overlook aswell, it did play a role in making EV mainstream

jpaul · 11 Oct 2026 at 20:58

BYD didn't miss the party either, Nissan feeding 6K uk citizens, along with pioneering chademo network in europe.

Is tesla in profit just on cars+superchargers, if you remove the tax payer help and(misguided) ev credits, but maybe Mr Ford had help too (like VAG/BMW)

chanjy · 11 Oct 2026 at 21:08

Diddums said:
Tesla puts food on the table for 140k people. It's contributions to the auto industry probably rival or even surpass what Ford achieved with the Model T and the production line. It changed the charging infrastructure worldwide.

I'm no fanboy by any stretch of the imagination but there's no denying their achievements.

By all means avoid it if you don't like Musk, but to preach to others for buying a quality product involves ignoring all of the above and to be quite frank, makes you look a bit of an idiot.

So we're saying go buy a Ford are we?

b0rn2sk8 · 11 Oct 2026 at 22:03

GravyMonster said:
Are you sure it was a test drive car? Being Kettering I thought you just went out and stole one you liked the look of

Haha the supercharger is in a relatively expensive hotel (for Kettering) so there were plenty of decent cars to choose from :cry:

In all seriousness, it was sign written as a test drive car.

ICDP · 12 Oct 2026 at 00:11

Diddums said:
Tesla puts food on the table for 140k people. It's contributions to the auto industry probably rival or even surpass what Ford achieved with the Model T and the production line. It changed the charging infrastructure worldwide.

I'm no fanboy by any stretch of the imagination but there's no denying their achievements.

By all means avoid it if you don't like Musk, but to preach to others for buying a quality product involves ignoring all of the above and to be quite frank, makes you look a bit of an idiot.

Claims not to be a fanboy and calls people idiots for daring to have a different opinion.

Your reasons for liking Telsa are perfectly valid if you do a lot of public charging and want it to be relatively hassle free. Though that does not mean that non Tesla owners are stuck up and down the land unable to public charge without jumping through hoops. It used to be a problem with multiple apps etc, but the new mandate for rapid chargers installed since 2024 to go contactless, means it just isn’t the case now that Tesla have any major advantage.

In my 6 years of non Tesla EV ownership I have never had major issues with rapid public charging hubs. I don’t rapid charge often but I think about 6 times using public rapid chargers and I have had only one issue, but it was my fault as I forgot I had set the car to only charge between 1am and 8am.

ICDP · 12 Oct 2026 at 06:56

Jonnycoupe said:
personal view is the leaf gets overlook aswell, it did play a role in making EV mainstream

Tesla did push the boundaries and helped advance EV adoption, but they didn’t do it alone. The Koreans and even BMW had early adoption of EVs. But cars like the Leaf, Kona EV and E-Niro also did what Tesla did at a much cheaper price point.

Tesla’s biggest achievement was with the Supercharger network when other public charging was a single 50kWh rapid charger at the backend of some supermarket car park. But some of the posts on here seem to push some narrative that in 2026 public charging in anything but a Tesla is a painful exercise in futility.

MrRongCar · 12 Oct 2026 at 07:52

Diddums said:
Tesla puts food on the table for 140k people.

Just to be clear, so did Nazi Germany.

Just because an individual helps fund an economy, it isn’t a reason to carry on supporting them.

Diddums said:
for buying a quality product

Tesla is many things - a quality product it is not.

I’m not saying it isn’t a good product but it’s not a “quality product”.

If we voted with our wallets more, we’d have fewer mental people running the place.

Very much a “leopards ate our face” situation with Tesla.

chanjy · 12 Oct 2026 at 07:58

I’ve never owned a tesla and public charging has been a breeze

thebandit · 12 Oct 2026 at 09:17

ICDP said:
Tesla did push the boundaries and helped advance EV adoption, but they didn’t do it alone. The Koreans and even BMW had early adoption of EVs. But cars like the Leaf, Kona EV and E-Niro also did what Tesla did at a much cheaper price point.

Tesla’s biggest achievement was with the Supercharger network when other public charging was a single 50kWh rapid charger at the backend of some supermarket car park. But some of the posts on here seem to push some narrative that in 2026 public charging in anything but a Tesla is a painful exercise in futility.

I aslo think Tesla's active thermal battery management set them apart in the early days which massively helped reduce battery degradation. Cars like the leaf had poor range to start with and then fell off a cliff. My old CTO at work had an original Leaf and the range dropped by half in little over 3 years.

Jonnycoupe · 12 Oct 2026 at 09:31

Leaf was standout for air cooled battery frankly, nothing to do with the 'active thermal management'. Cost choice, much like Model 3 not launching with a heat pump either.

Chrisc · 12 Oct 2026 at 10:07

MrRongCar said:
Just to be clear, so did Nazi Germany.

Just because an individual helps fund an economy, it isn’t a reason to carry on supporting them.

Tesla is many things - a quality product it is not.

I’m not saying it isn’t a good product but it’s not a “quality product”.

If we voted with our wallets more, we’d have fewer mental people running the place.

Very much a “leopards ate our face” situation with Tesla.

This used to be the case for early model 3's.

i believe post 2021, they're made in China and are made much better.

I cant stand musk as a person, but I wouldnt hesitate to buy a Tesla. In fact, if id not had to ***** £7k in savings on an engine rebuild last year, id probably be driving one right now.

tamzzy · 12 Oct 2026 at 10:12

MrRongCar said:
Tesla is many things - a quality product it is not.
I’m not saying it isn’t a good product but it’s not a “quality product”.

please don't buy a tesla, please don't buy a tesla, please don't buy a tesla...

Shadowness · 12 Oct 2026 at 10:16

MrRongCar said:
Tesla is many things - a quality product it is not.

I’m not saying it isn’t a good product but it’s not a “quality product”.

And the reasoning for this is.........?

What differs a good product from a quality product? What would you compare Tesla to then also?

Robbo · 12 Oct 2026 at 10:17

MrRongCar said:
Tesla is many things - a quality product it is not.

I’m not saying it isn’t a good product but it’s not a “quality product”.

I'd push back on that slightly, I assume you are talking about material and build quality? I think at the price point, it's fine. I am fussy when it comes to these things, but I've found it to be quite acceptable overall, but of course it's nothing like my previous 7 Series - not much is. If we're talking older Model 3's and Y's then I haven't experienced them, but the newer ones are decent. Beyond that, in terms of quality, the software, charging infrastructure and tech is very much what I'd call quality. Reliability wise they are pretty good too.

ICDP said:
Tesla did push the boundaries and helped advance EV adoption, but they didn’t do it alone. The Koreans and even BMW had early adoption of EVs. But cars like the Leaf, Kona EV and E-Niro also did what Tesla did at a much cheaper price point.

Tesla’s biggest achievement was with the Supercharger network when other public charging was a single 50kWh rapid charger at the backend of some supermarket car park. But some of the posts on here seem to push some narrative that in 2026 public charging in anything but a Tesla is a painful exercise in futility.

The Leaf is an interesting one, they were quite popular in Norway when I was there in the early EV days (2012~) before everyone started buying the Model S. They're now the world leaders for EV adoption, basically no new ICE cars are sold there.

Rilot · 12 Oct 2026 at 10:35

I think the build quality is fine for where the car is positioned. Then again, I've not driven anything recent from BMW or Mercedes so they may have moved the game on - although most reports I see say that material quality has gone down in recent years.
It's certainly better than the Mustang Mach-E we looked at that was full of scratchy plastics.

I do not understand some of the design decisions though. Some things feel like they have been made to work through loads of effort when another solution already existed that worked fine and required no effort to get to the same or better place. For example:
Wipers. Why do they use the cameras for this rather than the sensors like literally everyone else does? They work, but not as well as normal rain sensing wipers.
Parking sensors. It only uses the cameras for this. It works, but not as well as ultrasonic sensors.
Parking cameras. Why show a 3D representation of what the cameras think they can see, when they could have just give you a bird's-eye view like everyone else does and then you would know what was there.
Adaptive cruise control. Why not use radar? Many times the car will phantom brake when on ACC because it saw a shadow or something and didn't know what it was. I've never had any car with radar do this.

It's as if Elon went "I want it to use this technology and only this technology. Make it work". Just seems bizarre to me. I'm not a trillionaire though, so what do I know?

Diddums · 12 Oct 2026 at 10:36

Rilot said:
It's as if Elon went "I want it to use this technology and only this technology. Make it work". Just seems bizarre to me.

Maybe he got a really good deal on cameras.

Either way, it'll be down to cost I reckon.

tamzzy · 12 Oct 2026 at 10:36

Robbo said:
If we're talking older Model 3's and Y's then I haven't experienced them, but the newer ones are decent.

i've driven all 3 revisions so i can probably chime in on that

the original model 3 2017-2021 (the ones with the chrome lining) has very variable build quality, if i didn't inspect the car, i wouldn't touch with a bargepole
the revised model 3 2022-2023 (made in china, and has the upgrades - black lining, ryzen, heatpump etc) the early examples still suffered from variable build quality, but the later ones were very acceptable - i currently own this one
the latest model 3 2024+ (highland) is a massive step in general ride comfort, interior quality, noise insulation and general fit and finish

to rate the fit and finish only, versus my old f36 440i - the 22-23 model 3 was a step down, the highland model 3 i'd consider on par if not just slightly better
the original bmw g20 is better obvs (not sure about the LCI with all the tackiness involved though :cry:

)

tamzzy · 12 Oct 2026 at 10:37

Diddums said:
Either way, it'll be down to cost I reckon.

definitely this.

tamzzy · 12 Oct 2026 at 10:40

Rilot said:
Adaptive cruise control. Why not use radar? Many times the car will phantom brake when on ACC because it saw a shadow or something and didn't know what it was. I've never had any car with radar do this.

AP/EAP for the UK is stuck on v12, so ACC/TACC is also stuck on v12. the latest FSD v14's algorithms supposedly improves this a lot, hopefully VCA approves this sooner rather than later