Current Electric Vehicle Landscape review

Electric Vehicle Landscape

Review

Plus: Rivian R1T detail review

Back Story:

With Gas prices continuing to grind higher (Now over $7+/Gal in CA) I’m being continually asked for my thoughts on the whole EV landscape (being a relatively early adopter).  Questions range from what vehicle should I buy?  What about range anxiety?  How do I charge? How much does charging cost? How long does it take to get one?  And many more.

I’ve owned a 2016 Tesla Model X (over 100K miles now) for 6+ Years.  I blogged about my experience with it extensively in the first few years. We also own a 2014 Chevrolet Volt. Two weeks ago, we bought a Rivian R1T.  I’ve personally test driven the Lucid Air, Ford Mustang Mach-E and Volvo XC-40.  Obviously, since I bought the Rivian that is my top choice.  I will cover the reasoning in detail later.  If you’re just looking for the Rivian review jump to the end.

First let’s cover some basics:

• Purchase tax credits.  The Federal Government still offers up to $7,500 in tax credits off your taxes for the year in which you purchase the qualifying vehicle.  Be sure to check whether the vehicles you are considering qualify.  See Link here to see if your vehicle will qualify.  Some states also offer tax credits as well as other incentives like HOV lane stickers.
• Charging.  EVs are electric vehicles.  They need to be charged to operate.  Charging is not free!!  Except if you own a very early Tesla Model X where they included free charging for the life of the vehicle.  I’ve found a rule of thumb to be on a per mile basis it will cost you between 1/3^rd and ½ as much as operating a gas powered equivalent sized vehicle and heading lower.  This is electricity usage to charge v Gas to run.
• Where to charge
  • Public charging stations – They are virtually everywhere now.  If you’re just getting started looking at EV’s by the time you get on a reserve list and receive your vehicle they will be everywhere else as well.  This is not an issue now and will only get better as time goes on.  Note all “super or High speed” chargers are not the same and depending on the rate at which your EV can accept a high-speed charge, your experience will vary dramatically.  For example, Tesla has 70KW, 150kw and 300kw charging stations.  Tesla also connects two stations to one source.  So, if there are vehicles parked at both stations sharing one source your rate will be cut in half from what’s published.  I have not yet used enough non-Tesla public charging stations to know if they do the same thing.  When you first plug in your EV to a public supercharging station it will charge slowly at first while the battery is pre-conditioned and then slow again for the last 30% to not damage the battery as it nears capacity.  Note: Tesla for about 2 years had downloaded SW onto my car that limited the supercharge rate to 74kw regardless of the capacity of the charging station.  My cynical side says they did this to stave off a battery warranty claim.  They said it was to save me from myself and help preserve the life of the battery.  See list below of public charging networks rolling out in the US:
    • Here is a good overall rundown and comparison of networks
    • Tesla – Tesla only.  Pretty much everywhere along major highways nationwide
    • ChargePoint- The largest
    • Electrify America.  Born from the settlement with VW and Audi over the catalytic converter scandal.  $1B paid in.  They are almost caught up to Tesla in terms of locations and stations.
    • EVGO – Pretty much everywhere now as well.
    • Variety of proprietary newcomers (Like Rivian) building out their own networks plus utilizing partnerships with public networks.
  • Home charging.  Obviously the most convenient and usually the least expensive on a $/kw basis.  Most vehicles coming out now can be charged off one of the following plug sources:
    • 120V, 240V or wall installed unit from the manufacturer.  Some wall installed units plug directly into a 240V outlet and some require hard wiring directly into your home electrical panel (requires an electrician).  The charge rate varies by plug source type.  120V = 2-3 MPH of charging time.  240V can go up to around 20 MPH and with a wall Unit up to maybe around 30 MPH
    • For me, I’ve found the 240V outlet to be good enough.  The Tesla charges at around 20MPH and the Rivian around 18MPH.  Both are adequate for my use style.  For the volt we have a Bosch wall unit, and it charges at a rate of around 13MPH
• Range.  The distance you can travel on a full charge.  Seems like a simple issue, right?  Wrong!!
  • Headlines coming from the manufacturer are assuming a full charge and perfect conditions.  The standard now is 270+, some options at the 315 level and very few 400+, 1 or 2 500+.  This will continue to improve in lock step with Battery tech.
  • Now comes the complications.  How to convert the manufactured stated range (MSR) to real road driven miles range.  Let’s look at the factors in descending order of impact:
    • Most manufacturers “suggest” you not charge beyond 80% capacity nor let it drop below 20% capacity to protect the life of the battery.  If you abide by this, you knock off 40% of the range right there.  I don’t abide by this.  I’ve run the battery down to 1-2% and if I’m going on a trip and I need the full charge I always fully charge to 100%.  So far, with the Tesla the capacity of the battery has dropped from 250 Miles when new to 220 now.  Not bad for 6 years and over 100K miles.
    • Elevation climbing.  I routinely drive into the mountains.  I climb around 7K feet over a 60-mile range.  For that climb I budget 2 MSR miles for one real road mile.  The good news is for the return trip I can cover the 60 real road miles using only about 10 MSR miles.
    • Speed.  Driving above 70 MPH you will start to see degradation in range performance.  Above 80MPH even more.
    • Air temp.  Outside Air temps above 90 degrees or below 32 degrees and you will see degradation.
    • Weight of cargo.  Add 500 lbs. or more of passengers and cargo weight and the range will degrade.  Towing a trailer is a whole different story.  I have no personal experience here.
    • When on a trip you will find yourself constantly optimizing stops (minimum) with time at stops charging at highest rate.  You will get better at this as you practice.  The Vehicle NAV does not really look to optimize on your behalf.  It attempts to keep you between the 20% and 80% battery capacity.
    • When the vehicle is fully charged you will notice that in the first mile you drive, 3-5 miles will come off your range.  Might be as the battery ages as that is certainly the case for my Tesla now and as I recall was when it was new as well.
    • Bottom line:  MSR miles DO NOT = real road miles.
• Maintenance.  This is a big one!!
  • I’ve had my Tesla Model X for 6 years and over 100K miles.  Never had it serviced once.  That’s right not once.
  • The only maintenance for me has been tires, wiper blades and windshield washer fluid.  In fact, since it never rains in CA anymore, I’ve only changed the blades once and filled the washer tank twice.  I am on my fourth set of tires and they’re not cheap!  Brakes and brake pads can be a maintenance item but since I use the one pedal driving 95% of time, I rarely actually activate the brakes since the engine does the braking.  Have not changed even the pads yet.
  • I’m expecting the same experience with the Rivan.

Choosing an EV

EV Manufacturers are coming out with all shapes and sizes.  I’m mostly going to stick to my own experience with some generalizing applied.  I don’t want to pretend I’ve thoroughly evaluated everything out there.  Mainly I see the manufacturers balancing the style of vehicle the public wants with the type of vehicle that lends itself best to being all electric.  That’s why you see more SUVs and Pick-up trucks coming out first as that’s what the public is buying and with the larger frame dimensions there is more room to store batteries and increase range.

EV features to focus on:

• Range range range!  Range anxiety is real thing.  Don’t underestimate it!!  Just ask my oldest daughter, her husband and then 3-month-old Liam as it took us 17 hours to get home from the mountains last Christmas.  Oh Boy!!!
• Performance.  In my opinion, this should not be much of a consideration.  I don’t need 0-60 in less than 2 seconds.  Most EVs out now are so much higher performing than any Combustion engine car getting to sub 2 seconds does not really matter.  Most EVs do a smooth 0-60 in 3-5 seconds.  And I mean smooth.  100% linear acceleration.  No more going through gears.
• One pedal regenerative driving.  No more using the brake pedal.  Just let off the accelerator and the car brakes.  All the way to a stop with the Rivian.  Not quite to a stop with the 2016 Tesla Model X.  Plus, using the engine to brake rather than the actual brake on the wheels adds energy to the battery and saves having to ever replace brake pads or brakes themselves.
• Driver assist features.
  • Fully autonomous driving mode.  I’m NOT a fan of this.  I used it initially when I got the Tesla to just demonstrate it to passengers as the future of driving (less).  Way too many close calls.  Eventually the NTSB mandated Tesla tighten up on its proof the driver was paying attention and made the whole feature essentially useless.
  • Dynamic cruise is awesome.  Both the Tesla and the Rivian.  I use it 95% of the time I’m on the highway.  All you do is steer.  Choose the car lengths you want to be kept from the car in front and that’s it.
• Cabin noise when driving.  When you test drive the vehicle pay attention to how much noise you hear.  Tire/road noise, wind noise.  Rattling’s.  The Tesla has them all.  Rivian just wind noise.  With no engine noise drowning out all other noises these other noise sources become more pronounced.
• Effective and usable storage.  With the manufactures trying to add every possible additional battery into the vehicle for range purposes, storage can become a premium.  Tesla has good storage; Rivian has great storage.  Ford Mach-E, Volvo not so much.
• Getting in and out.  For whatever reason I’ve found EVs to be harder than old style vehicles to get into and out of.  I waited for the Model X because I found the Model S way to hard to get into and out of.  I still find the Lucid way to hard to get into and out of.  Even the sales guy warned me to duck as I slid into the driver seat.  He was totally right.  I will likely take myself off that list shortly.  Tesla is easiest to access once all doors are fully open.  Fully opening them is the challenge in the Model X.  The Falcon Wing doors are way cool but completely impractical in so many ways I can’t list them all here.  Rarely do they fully open thanks to the overly sensitive sensors.  When they’re open and it’s raining the water just runs right down and into the cabin.  I can go on!!  Oh, one more.  Because there is no frame around the front doors if you open the window while on the freeway and then try and close it, the wind draft prevents it from slotting into the rubber seal on the car frame.  It just runs right up the outside and feels like it will be ripped off the car from the wind force.  After 6 years and I can’t count how many attempts to fix it, they have not been able to fix it.  I never open the window while driving.  Point being, make sure you are comfortable with getting in and out and any price you might have to pay for ease of access.  The Rivian nailed it.  By far the easiest to get in and out of and NO compromising anything to do it.

Rivian R1T review:

• I put my name on the reserve list in February of 2019.  Very early but not as early as I was with the Tesla Model X.  If I compare the experience of the Rivian at the early stage with the tesla Model X at a similar early stage, it’s like night and day!  The Tesla simply was not ready to be released.  The Rivian was.
• I’ve had the R1T for about 3 weeks.  Absolutely love it!  Honestly, I was not sure about a pick-up truck before I took delivery.  Totally sold on it now.  It took some practice parking it in tight spots but now I take it everywhere.
• It feels and drives like a slightly oversized SUV.  But you get a very comfortable 5 passenger seating and massive amounts of storage.  The front Trunk is 50% larger than the Tesla.  Golf clubs easily fit in it.  The Tunnel storage is also very handy and spacious.  The truck bed is well, a truck bed.  Stores tons of stuff with the cover closed and even more with it open and a cargo net holding everything down.  There is also a very handy storage area under the floor of the truck bed which I use for a full size spare but can also be used as a cooler or anything else for that matter.  Has a drain.
• Purchase cost.  For people new to the reserve list figure around $85K – $90K Plus local sales tax and fees.  take $10K off this for early reservations before price increase.  Although a lot of money it’s still 40% less than the Tesla Model X.  This does not factor in the tax incentives.
• Range.  Again awesome.  The range was advertised as 317 Miles per full charge.  I’m getting 330 and still have not hit the break-in point.  I expect to get even more once the battery is fully broken in.  The battery capacity is 135kW v 90kW in my Model X which topped out at 250 when new and now 225.  Comparable curb weights.
• One pedal driving.  Awesome.  You can bring the car to a complete hold stop.  Couldn’t do that with the Tesla.  Only downside is you can’t turn this feature off in favor of creep.  They say it’s coming in a future download.
• Bi-direction energy flow not there yet but coming via a SW update soon.  Can’t currently use the car as a back-up power source for our home.  Key feature.  Looking forward to it SOON!
• Charging rate at home off a 240-volt outlet (NO wall charging unit) is acceptable but not as high as the Tesla.  I’m getting a rate of 18MPH v the Tesla of 22MPH.  I have not installed the wall charging unit yet and most likely will not.  The wall unit must be hard wired to the main electrical panel.  Rivian says you get 25 MPH with the wall unit.  I can live with 18MPH.
• The Rivian charging cable should have been made a few feet longer.  It’s much easier to back into a parking spot in our garage than to pull front in.  The charging port on the Rivian is front left.  This means a long distance from the outlet (on the wall perpendicular to the car when parked) to the charge port when backed in.  Does not reach.  Forcing me to park front in.
• Rivian does not include any useable free super charging.  They include one year of charging in their own network but the only location on the west coast is in Yosemite.  With my Tesla Model X, I got unlimited free charging for the life of the car in the Tesla network.  I have not yet had to charge the Rivian at any of the partner charging networks so can’t report on cost, speed, or availability.  I’m sure they will be fine.  For most of the time owning the Model X the Tesla network has been great.  Lately, with so many more cars shipped and, on the road, it’s showing signs of overload.  More and more out of service stations, more times I have had to wait for a station.  More frequently splitting charge rate with a car beside me.
• Super easy to get in and out.  Tons of leg room in both rows of seats.  Also, huge headroom.  Seats are extremely well designed ergonomically.  Long drives are no problem.
• Great sound system!  Best!!  Audio quality when talking on the phone also the best.  People on the other end cannot tell I’m in a car (Well Truck).  No built in XM Satellite Radio though.  I must stream it from my phone app.  Cheaper, no extra subscription but not as convenient.  I’m getting used to it.
• One interesting feature which I’m not sure of the actual value yet is what they call “gear guard”.  Essentially, this is the cameras remaining on while the vehicle is parked and when any camera senses motion it records the motion and stores it locally for when you return to the vehicle.  It’s supposed to be a security feature in case someone tries to steel your gear or break into the vehicle.  Until it becomes more widely known this feature exists and is running, I doubt it will serve as much of a deterrent.  It also comes with a downside.  While the cameras are running it drains the battery by around 8-10 miles of range every 24 hours.  This feature comes standard in the activated toggle position.  It took me a few conversations with Rivian support to figure out the connection between the battery drain I was experiencing and the Gear Guard feature.
• Great NAV system.  Not google maps like Tesla uses.  Must be their own.  Not sure if they OEM it from someone but it’s fabulous.
• The info-entertainment screen is set horizontally not vertically like Tesla and others.  Took a little getting used to but I like it better that way.  From an aesthetic point of view, I would rather it more “embedded” in the dash than set against the dash.  But that’s a very minor complaint.
• Blind spot monitoring and lane keep assist are excellent.  The Tesla did not have blind spot monitoring and its lane keep assist was almost useless.  Just created a slight vibration in the steering wheel when you veered out of your lane.
• One minor complaint I have which surprised me is that there is no traditional Glove Box under the dash in front of the front passenger.  You will need to find other places to put things that traditionally go in the glove box.  There is a deep center console storage area as well as flip down shallow storage things under each of the front seats.  Only one double pop out drink holder in the front and back.  Small drink containers only.
• Tons of outlets to run power to various things like phones, power tools etc.  3 120 Volt outlets.  I will be providing the power for my daughters up coming wedding.  Wireless phone charging pad (very slow).
• Very handy Air compressor for pumping up anything.  Water rafts, bike tires, car tires, scooter tires.  Works great!!  Nice long hose to reach the items around the truck.  Easy to use control panel so not to overinflate anything.
• I’m not a big off road, wilderness camper so can’t comment on my experience there.  But I’m sure those that are will be thrilled with all the well thought out attachments and standard built in features for off roading and wilderness exploring.
• The Rivian mobile app needs a lot of work.  Very much a version 1.0.  Very poor UX design and missing key capabilities like setting of charge capacity.  Tesla is miles ahead in their mobile app.  The Rivian mobile app does also serve as one key option which Tesla does not have.  Rivian offers three key options.  The mobile app, an actual key and then a card fob sort of thing.  I just use the mobile app.

There are many other options coming:

• I’m on the wait list for the Ford Mustang Mach-e, Ford F150 Lightning, Volvo SC40, Lucid (likely will pull off).  Our Chevy volt is now 9 years old and getting long in the tooth.
• There are many others coming.  Kia and Hyundai look to have solid offerings in the entry level price range.  GM has the Hummer and soon pick-up truck.  Porsche, BMW, Cadillac and Mercedes have their high-end sedans.  Volvo owned Polestar is out there.  VW and Audi also out with initial vehicles.  Lots of choices and more to come.  Tesla finally has competition!  Most of the top-quality options come with wait lists.

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Tesla Model X update two. You need to be way up Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs

This update post is intended for a variety of audiences;  1)  Current owners of the Model X  2)  Anyone considering a model X, and 3)  All those of you who enjoy sneering at all those who took the plunge and bought one.  I hope you all consider this packed with useful, entertaining and realistic bits of info from over 10K miles of experience with one.

 

First let’s get right to the reference to Maslow in the title.  There’s something very soul searching that comes from driving a car capable of 0-60 MPH in 3.2 seconds and 50-100 in 2.5 seconds, that you spent a ridiculous amount of money on, but most of your long distance driving time is spent in the far right lane (you know that lane referenced in the signs posted that say “slower traffic keep right”) being passed continuously by every four cylinder car on the road.  To make it all even more humiliating the passengers in these cars are always looking at you like you should have your hazard lights on due to the obvious malfunction the car is experiencing.  Either that or they’re just outright laughing at you as they zip by, many times with a speed differential of at least 20 MPH.  This is all due to the inverse correlation of the speed your travelling and the range efficiency of the Model X and the spacing of the Supercharging stations along my most frequented trip route (SF Bay area to and from Central Oregon).  By my calculations, for every 5 MPH you drive above ~55 MPH you take roughly a 10% hit in range efficiency.  At 55 MPH you roughly get the published range (in the model X that’s 250 miles) per full charge.  Not counting the fact Tesla almost forces you to only charge to 80% of the capacity or 225 miles.  This to “preserve the battery life”.  Yikes!!  With charging stations positioned from 85 miles to 125 miles apart along major freeways like I5 in CA this leaves you either stopping at each one or trying to skip one and do the white knuckle drive hoping you have enough range and just sit in the right hand lane like your towing a 18 wheel shipping container, while watching the Prius’s and low end Korean cars zipping past you like you’re standing still.  If you’re not well up Maslow’s needs hierarchy you will be likely looking for the next bridge to just drive off and put yourself out of your misery.  Then try this trip with Kidney Stones and see how much fun it is.  Uh Huh!!

 

Speaking of the Super charging experience…

Last week when I was driving back from Oregon to SF I stopped at the charging station in Corning CA.  It was 109 degrees cool when I got out of the car and placed the charging connector into the car.  The connector had been resting in its holster in the shade.  When I returned 20 minutes later to pull it out and go on my way it was so hot (thanks to the electrical current and the 109 degree temps)  you literally could not touch it.  There were 4 of us at this bank of charging ports all looking at each other wondering what we’re going to do now.  We could wait until the sun goes down…  Even if you wrapped your shirt around the handle it still burned right through it.  Finally I went into the local restaurant and said to the owner “listen, there are 4 of us with Tesla’s parked at the charging ports and we can’t get the port connectors out of our cars.  Do you happen to have an oven mitt we can borrow”.  YES you guessed it this was Maslow moment number 2!!

Oh before I forget to mention these charging stations are wired in pairs (1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, etc.)  the 170 miles per 30 minutes charge (claimed by Tesla) only goes to the combined pair of 1A and 1B.  So, if cars are parked and using both 1A and 1B simultaneously you’re only getting 85 miles per 30 minutes charge.  Try finding that little fine print detail anywhere on the Tesla website.  I would guess 90% of the Tesla owners I chat with while our cars are charging are unaware of this.  They just concluded the charging port was malfunctioning.  As more Teslas fill the roads and the stations get busier this will become more of a problem.

 

Now let’s get back to what the Tesla Model X is and isn’t…

Everything it shares in common with the Model S and with SpaceX is well tested , brilliant and works as advertised.  This includes most of the really breakthrough aspects to the Car (calling it a “Car” is a real stretch) like the engine, the handling, the braking, the seats, the panoramic glass, the auto-pilot/cruise control, the air conditioning, etc..  It’s all the little things that you’ve grown accustomed to after 20+ years of driving high end “cars” that are woefully missing or lacking.  I’ve experienced over 25 issues just with exterior moldings, fittings, weather stripping, etc.  To me the exterior of the car looks like it was hand assembled as an 8th grade shop project.  Pretty much anywhere two outer body pieces come together they do so with no alignment.  Looks like someone just eyeballed each piece and where it should be positioned and attached it.  Many of these have now been fixed after two separate trips into the factory for about a week each trip.  Some still remain outstanding while we wait for re-engineered parts to come from suppliers that meet the spec.  Another very annoying feature missing is any way to hard wire connect media devices to the Car stereo system.  No Aux cord!!  They expect all media devices to connect via Bluetooth.  This means every time you have a passenger who wants to connect their iPhone it has to be paired via Bluetooth then I need to remove it from the paired list later on (more on why this removal needs to happen later).  There is no way to simply plug it in quickly and hit play.  There are USB ports all over the interior of the car but are only good for charging or if you happen to have a thumb drive (do any of you carry your music around on a thumb drive) with music you can play the music.  Really!!  Also the car microphone was located assuming the driver was sitting about 12 inches away.  When the driver seat is all the way back the microphone works very poorly and the fidelity is not sufficient to leave messages on most voicemail recorders or communicate via speech to text conversion apps like Cortana or Siri.

The next major area lacking is seating capacity for 6 adults.  Just can’t be done if the adults are all 5’10” and above.  Or everyone is willing to sit side saddle on the middle and rear row seats with their legs hanging out into the middle isle.  I have the 2 captains chairs configuration in the middle row.  Thank goodness I chose that configuration or there would be absolutely now way to get anyone with legs into the back row seats.  Maybe that’s why they did not configure any arm rests in the middle row towards the middle of the car. 🙂  In fact to be honest it seems like the back row of seats was an afterthought.  Moving the back row of seats up and down is as inconvenient and problematic as I’ve ever seen.  Getting them to drop down from the upright position is fine once you learn the double click feature on the release button.  It’s getting them back up that’s the back breaker.  There is virtually no way to do it from the back.  You have to come around to the front and open the Falcon door and do it from there.  Opening the falcon wing doors is always an experience.  No telling what’s going to happen or how long it will take or how many people will come watch.  Sometimes they sense obstacles in the way that aren’t there and just start acting like a 2 year old that will not accept “NO” for an answer.  They simply won’t open or close.  Then there are the times they don’t sense an obvious obstacle like a human being (my daughter for one) and they open anyway pinning my daughter up against the car next to us.  Yikes! hate it when that happens.  That drew some ooo’s and ahhh’s from the crowd to say the least.  All the doors operate exclusively via electric motors.  No manual option.  To initiate the door opening process you have to press on the external embedded chrome strip in the door.  you need to press right in the middle and hard.  My mother is not strong enough to depress the strip enough to activate the door opening.  I’ve now taken to getting in the car first and opening the doors exclusively from the touchscreen.  After of course making sure everyone is clear of danger.  Not easy to do once you’re in the car.  I think you get the picture.  Once the doors are all open getting in and out is a breeze and very enjoyable.  Opening and closing all the doors safely is always an adventure to say the least.

Let’s quickly hit on the computer that sits at the heart of the electronics.  Last week I was noticing the NAV had drastically slowed down to the point it was issuing turn commands well after we had passed the turn off then taking 30 seconds or more to re-calculate the route and give us another turn command.  I called Tesla support only to find out the memory had filled up and was (like any computer) not able to run the major apps properly.  They said “well have you cleared the browser cache recently?”.  I said “what???”  Turns out I had left the on board browser on the ESPN site and it was continuously updating the PGA scores taking up more and more memory until it squeezed out the NAV.  It was then a Microsoft like experience.  Hold down the two wheel buttons simultaneously for 30 seconds to reboot the display, then go into the browser and delete the cache and make sure it was set to the Google start page.  Does this sound like something you would expect to do in a car??  Then I needed to hold down two other buttons simultaneously for another 30 seconds to reset the dashboard which runs off the same computer.  After all this the NAV was back in action.  By the way, overall I love the NAV.

I can’t finish this blog post without recounting the now infamous key story.  When I was first delivered the car and handed the keys I have to say my reaction was “REALLY!!”.  this is the key.  It’s a cheap plastic model replica of a Model X.  Looks shiny and cool but also looks like it will last about one or two good drops as you get out of the car or leap for your daughter as the falcon Wing is about to pin her against the car next to you.  anyway, I was just finishing up a round of golf up in Central Oregon a month ago on a very hot day and walked up to the car and stuck my hand in the pocket where I had put the key only to pull my hand out with a fist full of 12 pieces into which the key had broken into.  As the gravity of this situation sunk in it was as I call it a “Martian moment”.  OMG!  How am I going to grow enough potatoes to fix this problem.  I have no spare key up here in Oregon.  I called the Tesla roadside assistance and they said they can unlock the car remotely but aren’t legally allowed to start it.  They said just use the iPhone Tesla App and you can start it and run it until you get a new key.  Welllll, this would be great except as all of you know by now I don’t have an iPhone and even this will not motivate me to get one.  Hmm.  Well after more contemplation on how I would grow all these potatoes we came up with the idea that one of the kids working behind the desk in the pro shop who had an iPhone would download the App, I would give him my login credentials and he would be on call to start my car when needed until I got a new key.  It worked!!  Got the new key the next day and to this day the kid in the pro shop has not decided to track my car and quietly remove it from my garage never to be seen again.  I hope he does not read this blog and get any new ideas.

 

Last major issue of note is the Spare tire.  Rather the lack of one.  I realize they’re not the only car to ditch the spare tire so maybe this one is in the trend line of where cars are going.  I spend enough time on stretches of road in areas of the country that have no cell coverage that riding with no spare tire just gives me the Willies.  So I bought an extra wheel.  Not knowing how huuuge (as D Trump says) this thing was.  With the two rear seats down it literally takes up the whole back area leaving no room for anything else.  So I ended up buying a spare tire rack to mount on the hitch I included in my configuration (fortunately as it was not intended for this purpose).  Bought the following rack (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009YIE1O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and extender (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BROATE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) since without the extender the rear lift-gate does not clear the attached wheel.  I then bought 3 quarter inch bolts and first bolted them to the rack in the proper position to be able to drop the wheel on, then set the wheel on them and used locking nuts to bolt the wheel on the rack and leave the whole thing assembled when I take it on and off when needed.  Actually works very well.  Haven’t had to use it yet and hopefully won’t have to but my mind is at peace…

 

So where does all this leave me in terms of my enthusiasm to carry out this early adopter journey.  Well, I’ve taken some body blows and my ego has definitely been put in a new place but I’m soldiering on.  Tesla remains committed to making everything right.  August 10th I’m taking it in again for the third time and they seem committed to fixing the remaining dozen or so issues.  I really think we’re getting to the end of the long trail of fixable issues.  I’ve had it for 6 months and have over 10K miles on the car.  There will undoubtedly be some things I will just need to live with and work around but the technology advancements are still so overwhelmingly breakthrough I feel I have to get to the end of this journey and see where it drops me off.

 

Stay tuned..

 

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My Tesla Model X ownership journey begins with 600 mile drive from Portland, OR to Lafayette, CA. What a ride!!!

Okay, let me start this by saying it’s no coincidence Elons’ other company SpaceX so prominently features the letter “X” as does now the new Model X car (if you can really call it a car).

 

Having pre-ordered my Model X in January of 2013, I picked it up Tuesday of this week.  Yes, that’s a little later than originally expected.  Well, maybe a lot later than originally expected, but that’s all water under the bridge now.  I have it now!!  I picked it up in the Portland Oregon delivery location and proceeded to drive it straight to Lafayette.  What follows are my first impressions.

Impression 1

As I said above the Model X is really not a car by any modern definition.  It’s much more of a cross between a space capsule and a super computer.  I’ve never actually sat in a space capsule before but sitting in the driver seat of the Model X must be pretty close.  The first thing you immediately notice is the massive panoramic windshield that essentially surrounds you.  Along with the over sized side windows you have a full 180 degree view of what’s in front of you and a 90 degree view upwards to what’s above you.  It’s really hard to describe the feeling this creates.  The sense you’re really travelling through space not driving along a road is then fully realized when you step on the accelerator.  OMG!  60 MPH to 100 MPH in a second.  I’m not kidding.  And as smooth as you’ve ever felt.  Simply feels like a rocket booster just fired.  Then add to this the auto pilot mode where you’re just sitting there being completely controlled by NASA and you get the full picture.  The driver seat is the most comfortable seat of any kind I’ve ever sat in.  Tesla should consider going into the furniture business next.  The 10 hour drive from Portland to Lafayette went by in a snap and I arrived feeling no car weariness I’ve grown so used to in the past.  With all the controls managed from the massively over sized iPad mounted in the center of the console this completes the feeling of being in a space capsule being remotely controlled by a super computer.  It’s certainly not a feeling everyone will immediately appreciate and it takes some getting used to for sure, but wow! it’s nothing like anything I’ve experienced before.

The picture below gives you a little sense for the panoramic view.

Impression 2 (Auto Pilot)

The Tesla auto pilot is truly a game changer and you can feel it’s the way all cars will operate in the near future.  The trip from Portland to Lafayette covered roughly 600 miles.  I would estimate I covered at least 550 of those miles in auto pilot mode.  You just double tap the cruise stick and you’re in AP mode.  Look Ma, no hands, no feet!!  You just sit there and let the car take over.  To change lanes you just hold down the turn signal stick until the car decides it’s safe to change lanes and executes the lane change.  You set the speed you ideally would like to go with no obstacles in your way and the car will always return to that speed when there’s open road ahead.  As it comes up on a car in front it comfortably slows the car to a nice safe distance back.  Honestly it does a much better job of this than if I were handling the controls.  When changing lanes it detects cars in front, behind or directly on your side in the way and speeds up or slows down to slot you comfortably into the desired lane and then executes the lane change.  First tips back to Tesla.  It dos not do a great job factoring in the speed differential of a car approaching in the lane you want to merge into.  In other words if a car is approaching rapidly in the other lane from behind the car does not deal with that nuance well.  Second tip is it would be nice to not have to manually hold down the turn signal stick to get this done.  If you hit the turn signal all the way you don’t have to manually hold it but it also does not turn off once the lane change has been executed.  You still have to manually shut it off.

Be aware!!  It’s not perfect.  You do need to be paying attention.  In particular when driving over bridges or overpasses where the surface of the road changes and the lane lines either disappear or change in style.  Numerous times when this happened the Telemetry got confused and either shut off completely or simply hesitated too long for my comfort, to regain it’s lock.  When this happens it does send out an audible warning but then again there are a lot of audible warnings going off regularly.  One in particular is if you have your hands off the wheel for more than a few minutes it beeps at you to be sure you’re paying attention.  If you don’t put your hands on the wheel at least for a few seconds it beeps again and then with the third warning it starts slowing the car down.  Bottom line it really does want you paying attention and not taking a nap or migrating to the back seat.  Even taking into account the need to “pay attention” I still found it 100 times more relaxing than having to be actively driving the car.

Impression 3 (Handling and performance)

Simply off the charts!!  The car feels locked to the road.  Handles better than any car (not to mention SUV) I’ve ever driven.  I really have no need to get off the line from a standing stop to 60 MPH in 3 seconds so I didn’t even try it to test it.  I do have a need to get from 55 to 90 quickly when driving on two lane country highways in Central Oregon.  Getting past 2 back to back 18 wheel tractor trailers climbing a long 4% grade going 45 MPH no longer places my heart in my throat while I wonder weather I can beat the on coming truck back into my lane before we collide head on.  In fact this can even be accomplished in Auto Pilot mode (not factoring in the on coming truck in the opposite direction).  Between the handling, the acceleration when needed and knowing all the engineering that’s gone into the car in terms of safety features you really do feel 100% safer than in any other car.  I now believe Elon when he says the NHTSA is now considering a 6 star rating just for the Tesla Model X.  Simply “off the charts”.

 

Impression 4 (Range and Super charging)

The published range per charge is 250 miles for the P90D.  If you drive around 60 MPH and are on flat ground this can be done.  Add speed and hills and it drops off pretty quickly.  Thankfully the NAV and the frequency of Super charging stations goes a long way to relieving the range anxiety feeling.  The NAV is fabulous!  I did have one reminder moment that at the heart of this car is a computer.  I was down to about 7 miles left and pulling off to go find the super charging station when the screen on the control system went completely blank.  Think of the blue screen of death from Microsoft days in yesteryear.  In this case it’s the Tesla grey screen of death.  Yikes!  7 miles left and no way to find the charging station.  Thankfully it just rebooted and came back in a couple minutes and all was restored and good.  Phew!!  The charging stations are all situated within .25 of a mile from the freeway and mostly on the property of a motel surrounded by restaurants.  I stopped at 4 along the way.  2 of the 4 had 4 stalls for charging and one was an 8 stall station.  Never more than one other car charging.  Charging time ranges from 40 minutes to get from 7 to 220 or less to just get enough to comfortably make it to the next station.  All calculations are done by the NAV as to where to stop next and at what speed you need to drive to make it to which stop.  Between the super charging stations there are also trickle charging options if you completely blow it.  I would say having to pull off and charge added 45 minutes total to the trip, was free and forced me to stop and stretch anyway.  The 45 minutes does not count the time spent talking with the various people that would immediately surround the car wanting to ask questions or just stare at it.  When using the car to just get around locally they strongly recommend you only charge to 90% of he 250 capacity to preserve battery life.  In fact the car will not allow you to charge past 220 unless you override the standard setting and claim “trip” status.  then it will allow the full charge to 250.  In 72 hours from when you change the status to Trip it will default back to 90% limit.

Impression 5 (Comfort features)

Love the climate control system.  Really does filter the air to pure form.  Very comfortable at all times.  Works instantly when you turn it on.  Does impact range slightly so may not want it running if you’re cutting it tight to the next charge station.  Sound system is fabulous.  Center console in the front is a huge upgrade to the Model S.  Lots of cup holders and storage.  Great ergonomic positioning of the arm rests to go with all time most comfortable seat.  Enormous leg room.  I didn’t even have to push the seat all the way back to get the needed leg room.  Great feeling steering wheel when you’re actually needing to use it.  Getting in and out of the car was fabulous.  Just drop in and swing out.  you may recall this what forced me to this car in the first place.  100% satisfaction.  The gull winged rear doors create super easy access to both the second and third rows of seats.  I got the two captains seats in the middle row so you can access the 3rd row either by climbing in front of the seat in the middle row and then walking back between the two middle seats or leaning the second row seat forward and walking directly back to the third row seat.  Easy both ways.  Comfortably seats 6 large adults.  Tremendous storage area.  the front storage area easily stores two sets of golf clubs or equivalent.  Even with the 3rd row of seats upright the rear storage area will store at least 4 sets of golf clubs.  In addition, the 3rd row of seats easily folds down flat creating unlimited storage (for my needs that is).  Also comes with a trailer hitch standard to tow or just attach bike or more storage racks.  No roof rack option due to gull winged doors.

Impression 6 (Not perfect!)

Tesla still clearly has some manufacturing or design issues to sort out.  I had to ruthlessly badger my delivery specialist to release the car to me.  They had been holding the car  in the “inspection” phase of production for almost 2 months.  I kept saying how long can it possibly take to inspect one car.  He kept saying they wanted it to be “perfect” when I took delivery.  As you would expect the first thing I did when I got home was to wash it and see how it did or see how well the inspection process went.  Well there were no less than 6 issues I noticed with the car upon my inspection.  These issues ranged from metal and plastic molding coming apart to a visibly poor welding job to poor choice of plastic material exposed to weather elements that got spotted and stained badly.  All fixable and will get fixed as they debug the manufacturing process.

 

Overall I could not be happier.  Love it!!

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In case you missed the Tesla Model X launch event last night

It was truly a remarkable event last night!!  In numerous ways, both plus and minus.  I received my invitation about 5 days before the event as a result of being an early reservation holder.  Yes, I’ve been on the reservation list for over 3 years.

I tried very hard to convince myself to buy the S but in the end I just could not get comfortable with the way the ergonomics of the driver seat and cabin were engineered.  It was much improved over the roadster but still not something I could see myself getting in an out of with my 6’3″ frame and proportionately even longer legs.  When you sat in the driver seat with the seat all the way back the side cross bar support steel beam essentially aligned to my mid thigh.  To get out of the car you needed to scootch forward to the very front of the seat, then swing your legs out and then lift yourself out while not hitting your head in the process.  If I’m going to spend this kind of money it needs to be much easier than that.

So that’s why I’m here.  I’ve been told the main focus of the Model X was to fix the ingress and egress issues for all passengers (driver and rear seat passengers alike).  So let’s take a step back now and walk you through the whole event experience and my impressions of Tesla the company, the Model X itself and Elon himself.

Lets start out with the truly UGLY!  As an invited “special” guest and in theory one of Tesla’s most valued customers to be I honestly felt more like one of those cows you see off I5 on your way from SF to LA just waiting to be slaughtered.  The published agenda for the program was as follows:

—  6:00PM parking lots open

—  7:00PM Doors open

—  7:30PM  The program begins (Elon’s presentation and the official first presentation of the car)

—  8:00PM  Test drives begin

Reality:

1. The event staff directing traffic did not even know which side of the building the guests were going to enter and trust me the Tesla Factory is a big building.  This lead to mass confusion as to where you were to park and line up.
2. Parking lot did not open until more like 6:45.  People were left for 45 minutes standing around outside a closed sliding steal gate door to the parking lot.  Most people like myself by this point had parked elsewhere and walked to the entrance.
3. Once the gate opened people and cars started streaming into the lot and you were ushered into an area where you lined up for your badge and then lined up again to wait to get into the building.  First image of that poor cow on the I-5 freeway begins to emerge.
4. The doors finally open to the event itself around 7:45PM.  By this time I would estimate there are at least 5,000 people in the line.  We’re all then lead into a section of the factory meant to maybe accommodate 500 people comfortably.  Mostly open floor but with a main stage and a few other side stage areas along with several large projection screens.  All this lead to most people figuring this was where the event itself was most likely going to take place.  We were all kept in the section of the factory for 45 minutes, crammed in like sardines wondering what and where is this event going to take place.
5. 8:30 strikes and now they open 4 small tunnel areas through which these 5K people were all ushered through leading to an adjacent section of the factory where the event was really going to take place.  20 more minutes of feeling like a sardine in the new factory area when Elon finally comes on and the car shows up.  It’s now about 8:45, the program was supposed to have started at 7:30 and most of us have been standing in lines and bullpens crammed together for over 2 hours.  Elon’s pitch and the car better be something really special!!

Well I guess the bottom line is Tesla seems to be trying to create an Apple-like cult culture around the company, only geared towards those of us that are struggling to remember what it was like to be a teenager.  Funny to see so many 50 and 60 somethings behaving like teenagers and tolerating this treatment.  I guess since I did stay and tolerate it to hear the pitch and see and feel the car it makes me one of those.  OK OK.

Now onto Elon’s pitch and the car.  The pitch was good.  Not Steve Jobs great, but good.  Numerous loud rounds of applause and ooh-ing and ahhh-ing.  Note: always a standing ovation due to the fact we had were all standing anyway and had been for almost 3 hours.

Elon’s emphasis in his pitch:

1. Safety.  Safest SUV on the road by a wide margin.  Claims to be forcing the NHSTB to add a 6 star rating to their rating system.  Elon clearly very proud of this aspect of the car.  He spent about 1/3rd of his entire presentation on this.
2. Performance engineering.  Not much new v the S but still way ahead of any of the competition.  0-60 in 3.2 Seconds with an SUV.  Still tops the Porsche 911.
3. Ingress and egress comfort when accessing all seating positions in the Car.  Mission accomplished for the driver!!  That’s what I was looking for.
4. Practical and functional use.  Tremendous amount of storage capacity, can tow up to 5K pounds, comes with a utility hitch for bikes and skis, etc.

Now onto the car/SUV/Rig itself.  It’s brilliant in every way!!

1. Most important to me I fit perfectly in the Driver’s seat and can get in and out just as easily if not more easily than I do in our Lexus RX450H.  In all honestly the driver’s seat is the most comfortable seat/chair/couch or even bed, I’ve ever sat in or on.  I’m not sure I can tell you exactly why or how they did it, they just did.  Brilliant!!
2. Range is 257 for the standard P90 and 250 for the P90 ludicrous.  The straight P90 gets from 0-60 in 4.8 seconds v the Ludicrous in 3.2 seconds.  The range is less than the S by around 10%.  Not bad given the extra weight and the worse aerodynamics that go along with the larger body style.  They had to keep the standard side view mirrors.  It had been rumored they were going to side view cameras only.  My guess is this was due to not getting the needed regulatory approvals.  I doubt it was a technology issue.
3. Safety.  Simply off the charts.  The NTHSB star rating system essentially measures the probability of being severely injured or killed in a high speed frontal or side collision. One star is 30%, 2 star 25%, 3 star 20%, 4 star 15% and five star (the highest they go) is 10%.  The Model X came in at 6%.  The next best SUV on the market was rated above 10%.  Remember this does not count all the collision avoidance technology in the car.  Just amazing what it can do in terms of detecting dangerous situations and automatically adjusting to avoid the danger.
4. Safety – Air quality.  Elon takes great pride in the air filtration system in the car.  In fact they’ve even added a button to max the filtration they call the bio-weapon defense button.  Claims it filters “everything” out of the air you breathe including all spores and viruses.  He showed off a chart of 8-10 of the worlds major cities and what your increased life expectancy would be if you drove the X for the rest of your life.  Needless to say he expects to sell a lot of these in Beijing!!
5. Comfort and practicality.  Easy access to all seats was a major priority and they accomplished it.  I already covered the driver.  The gull winged doors were a key component to this.  I really don’t think they did it just because it was cool looking.  It took the gull winged doors around 5 seconds to fully open and the same to close.  With the doors all the way up and the push button controls to slide the middle seat forward you can easily get into and out of all passenger seats in the back.  The seats are all amazingly comfortable and practical.  They’re mounted more like airplane seats with room underneath to slide feet underneath and store backpacks.  The middle row of seats is 3 full and complete seats.  Not the half strange middle seat you get with all other SUVs.  While I was waiting my turn to try the driver seat (over an hour) at one point there were 7 people in the car all over 6 feet and all fit comfortably.  Not sure I would want to do a four drive to Bandon Dunes like this but otherwise everyone fit nicely.  With the gull winged doors you cannot mount a roof rack so they offer instead a utility rack that is mounted from the hitch in the back that can carry 6 bikes and skis or snow boards.  Looked very practical to me.  The storage capacity even with all 7 seats in place was amazing.  The rear storage area goes down deep in a vertical direction.  Looked to me like you really could store golf clubs vertically, it’s that deep.  The horizontal depth is not great.  Maybe only 18-20 inches.  I did not measure it.  In terms of width I would say it’s as wide if not a bit wider than my RX450.  Again, I was not able to measure it.  The front storage area seems to be much larger than the S to me.  Easily fit a double baby stroller plus a couple shopping bags .  If you take out the back row of seats you massively increase the capacity.  Looked easy to do but I was not able to do it or see it done.  With the third row of seats removed I would expect it easy to store skis, snow boards and bikes inside.  Someone asked me last week to see if vacuuming up breadcrumbs would be easy.  A snap.  Very easy.  One really cool feature is the automatically opening driver door when you approach and then once you’re in the seat it automatically closes.  Also, the gull winged doors have sensors (not visible eternally) that detect objects in their way like a low garage ceiling and will adjust the pattern of the opening to be sure not to make any contact.  I assume this same technology is in the driver door but did not hear it said or saw it demonstrated.  The massive glass windscreen is also amazing.  Gives you an amazing panoramic view.  The glass looks permanently tinted and there is a visor mounted to the side that swings down and over to block specific sunlight or glare
6. 
7. Functional specs – None provided.  No pricing detailed or timing on deliveries.

Overall summary:

1. The Car/SUV is perfect!
2. Tesla has done a great job designing and engineering it in every way.
3. Elon is a Steve Jobs category visionary.  Not as motivating a speaker but just as visionary and bold.
4. The event itself leaves a lot to be desired.  The staff was completely unprepared for the event.  Trying their best but completely in the dark on virtually everything.  To actually get the promised test drive I’m sure many people waited around to the wee hours of the morning.  Heck the way it was going they may still be there.  There were people there from as far away as Sydney Australia.  Many people came long distances to be there.  Very cult like feeling but completely different to the Apple enthusiasts in virtually every other way.

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