DJP

Raven models also have new motor in the front, the Model 3 one I think. As for the suspension I’m running on coils as when I bought air was a paid option which I didn't go for. Nowadays there aren’t any option to speak of, much like Lexus pretty much everything is bundled in already. It takes about 2 minutes to configure a car - unlike the Porsche Taycan. I gave up after 15 minutes and having added about £15k in options that I considered base spec requirements. Much as I enjoyed buying my 3 Lexus cars over the years, and had a great relationship with my dealer, there’s something very refreshing about doing the whole thing from the comfort of your sofa. The price is the price, order on line, finance applied for and agreed within 2 mins and then just.....wait. Although I have to say waiting for one is infinitely easier when you are already driving one! it will also be interesting to see what happens with mine. It’s ‘only’ £2.9k to upgrade the software to Full Self Driving, which includes upgrading the chip and the car has free unlimited Supercharging for the life of the car. IOW the next owner gets free Supercharging and that will transfer to the next owner as well. If Tesla get their hands on it they turn off the free Supercharging before reselling the car or passing to the auction houses. Whether that means they’ll offer a decent p/x figure I’ve no idea.

There are some 3rd party repairers/garages in the UK but not many, and anything that is an insurance write off is essentially blacklisted by Tesla until it's been fully inspected - with a chunky price tag attached. No access to Superchargers for example. TBH I wouldn't want to be running one out of warranty at this early stage of their development.

Thanks @i-s and I wish I knew how to select part of your reply to respond to.. All a bit Tesla techy now but I don't think MCU1 to MCU2 upgrade is available in the UK yet but I agree with your point, normally it's buy a whole new car. Thanks also for the correction on the dashcam/sentry. I have AP2 with EAP so not seeing all the visualisations and I resisted upgrading to the full FSD unicorn at £2.9k. However what I have done is just decided to buy a new Model S and have gone for the FSD package, partly because I use Summon a fair bit, partly because I do see the functionality of it improving over the next few years, and partly because I need my head examined As for Lexus, I so wish they had a proper EV offering, it was the IS300h that first introduced my to the electric drivetrain. Also agree about the UX and hydrogen.

I've done one of these for the last couple of years so thought I may as well add something again. Here's a link to last year's which I think has one to the first if you are so inclined. https://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/topic/118838-lexus-to-tesla-2-years-on/?tab=comments#comment-1083268 Anyway I've now done 42,500 miles in 3 years 3 months. The acid question is am I still a happy owner and pleased I took the plunge? A definite Yes. Following the same format as before: Reliability Nothing bad of any consequence. I had a DRL LED fail and the passenger door mirror struggled to open sometimes. Both were repaired under warranty with a mobile mechanic Tesla call Rangers coming to my home and sorting both out. Very painless. Range & Battery Degradation My range is the same as before, so a long trip in the summer and 250/260 isn't a problem but range does suffer in the winter and 200 is nearer the max. According to the battery degradation report I can run from the 3rd party software that "talks" to the car I've lost about 4% of the battery capacity. None of this really matters unless I do a long drive and the Tesla network of Superchargers cover most of the country very well. The public charging network is slowly growing, without doubt the biggest problem is getting wayleave permission to lay cables. I suffer bladder anxiety much more than range anxiety! Servicing & Insurance Costs Tesla were rightly criticised for requiring an annual / 12.5k service and charging an arm and a leg for it. They've done a complete about face and the recommended servicing schedule is now 2 years with air filter and brake fluid type checks being all that's needed. Servicing and warranty work is all booked via the app and communications can be problematic. My insurance this year was cheaper than last and are no different to what I used to pay for the Lexus. Software Updates These are still a regular feature and arrive approx. every month or so. Sometimes they deliver new functionality and sometimes just bug fixes. The Autopilot software continues to evolve and improve but as for "full self driving" - not a chance. As with any computer the older ones slow down and newer one have greater capacity. It's no different with the Tesla and I have the first generation of the media control unit (MCU1). This means my car doesn't benefit from some of the latest improvements, e.g. all 8 camera now operate as a dashcam. That said, no other car that I've ever owned has got better the longer I've owned it. This one does. Downsides to Ownership Parts supply is still patchy and although the staff are very helpful the communications can be awful. It's not the staff, it's the systems or lack of that are the problem. You have to go in with your eyes open and understand you are buying something at the cutting edge. The biggest mistake, albeit an understandable one is "I've spent £60k/£100k or whatever" and there wasn't even a proper unveil when I picked the car up." Tesla aren't pretending it's a premium car but will have to up their game when the competition eventually arrives. The reality is the car isn't of Lexus build quality, but it's certainly "good enough" and the driving experience etc makes up for the odd panel gap that's not consistent. Competition Sadly still lacking and nothing comes close IMO. The Porsche Taycan is ridiculously priced, less range, mostly slower, no charging network (yet), no comparable technology. It has much better build quality and the badge - if that floats your boat. The Jag I Pace and the Audi E Tron are aero dynamic bricks with range to match, many have suffered with software problems and until the public charging network improves aren't IMO good enough for long journeys. That makes them very expensive "second" cars but are well built and have more of a premium feel to them. Lots of buttons! Driving & Overall Ownership Experience The electric drivetrain is so much fun. Near silent and leisurely as you like, or near silent and will slaughter pretty much anything else on the road. You choose where you want to be between those two points. I only have to touch the brake pedal if I want to come to a complete stop, deceleration is handled by the regeneration and controlled by my right foot. Fuel is cheap as chips and I never have to think about a petrol station. Being environmentally friendly is a bonus, I didn't buy the car for that reason. The autopilot software is pretty good if you understand its' limitations and don't believe Elon Musk when he says Full Self Driving is round the corner. If this helps anyone that's great and happy to expand on any point or answer questions.

That “self charging hybrid” line is brilliant marketing but in the case you describe would be the worst drive train you could buy. The teenyweeny motor is designed to support the engine at lower speeds, typically around town. They are good at that - when I moved from my IS250 to the IS300h I halved my petrol bill. In your case all you’d be doing is lugging around the weight of battery with no gain at all. There are some owners of the Model X who tow (the Model S isn’t type approved for towing) and the Supercharger network is extensive in Europe, but there’s no doubt the range gets hammered. If the aim is to get there as fast as possible then forget an EV for quite a while

There are plenty of owners doing galactic mileage, they must never be home! It does depend on your driving profile, but bear in mind a Supercharging stop for 20 mins will give you another 100/150 miles. I often find the car is ready before I’ve had time to have a leak and grab a coffee. Have a look at the network of Superchargers, and remember there are 6-8 stalls in each location so the likelihood of one not being available is vey small. The sat nav will also tell you how many stalls are occupied on a real time basis so if needs be you can miss out a stop and go to the next one. https://www.tesla.com/findus?v=2&bounds=51.71689632634334%2C0.2825150263976184%2C51.31824551177659%2C-0.3979506718445691&zoom=11&filters=store%2Cservice%2Csupercharger%2Cdestination charger

The big reduction was on the P100D (now called Performance) and that has hurt a lot of people, no doubt about it. Mine has only been affected marginally, but as I bought on PCP it’s the finance company that will take the hit. I deliberately went for PCP as I wanted to be able to bail out if anything went wrong and have always expected the market value to be below the GFV, which is a crazy generous 54% of purchase price after 4 years. The P100D was crazily over priced, but Elon Musk has never hidden the fact that the S and X were priced in part to subsidise the Model 3. The Performance version is now much closer to the price of mine, and I’m sure many will stretch to get into the 0-60 in 2.4 sec version 🤔. You’re probably right about the reliability v JLR, most of the problems with the Tesla are design faults e.g. the self presenting door handles were initially plagued with failures. They worked out what was going wrong and are now on Gen 3 with replacements being fitted FOC well past warranty.

1. I would never go back to internal combustion engine of any type through choice. The EV responsiveness, torque, quietness and largely one pedal driving using the regenerative braking is just superior to anything an ICE can produce. The acceleration from standstill is astonishing but equally you can waft along like royalty. 2. Yes I would without hesitation. Coming from Lexus I was very nervous about the brand, and they can be ‘challanging’ but the car is a breath of fresh air. The lack of knobs, buttons and dials is wonderful and the over the air updates with improvements to your car after you’ve bought it is, I think, unique. I would love to look at something else but as a main car for use on longer journeys the public charging network is rubbish by comparison to the Supercharger network. 3. When the high speed charging network gets established queuing shouldn’t be a problem, but it will take time. The current network only delivers at 50kW which is less than half the Supercharger speed of 120kW. It takes about 20 mins to get from 20-80% so with 4-8 stalls the throughput is pretty good.

I did an update a year ago and thought it might be worth doing another a year later. Here's a link to last years, hope it works as I'm not to clever with these things.. Anyway, this will be brief ( I always say that and never manage it) but the TL;DR is I'm still a very happy bunny. Various headings for use of reading. Reliability I have now done 30k in the 2 years and have not had a single solitary issue. It has been rock solid which considering the lack of pedigree is pretty amazing I think. Range & Battery Degradation I have the 75kWh battery and on a long journey in the summer at legal motorway speeds 260 miles is achievable. Nearer 200 in the winter. Obviously this only matters when I'm doing a long journey as on a day to day basis I'm home well before range becomes an issue. A pic of the instrument binnacle taken yesterday: My average lifetime consumption of 336Wh/m is about 10% over what Tesla think is "typical" for this car. This was taken at the end of my commute home where consumption was 504 Wh/m and really shows the impact of short journeys - all uphill too. In terms of cost per mile its running at about 3p compared to circa 20p on petrol. This is charging on E7, usually for no more than 1-2 at night, obviously depending on how far I've driven that day. I've lost a handful of miles in degradation and there are cars in the US and Scandinavia that have 300k+ miles without significant loss of range. This is in large measure due to the sophisticated battery management system that looks after the battery pack. Servicing & Insurance Costs I am on PCP so need to have the car and whilst not a requirement to be done by Tesla I have chosen to do so. It's far too expensive at £450 one year and £700 the next. 1 year / 12.5k miles interval. Insurance is about the same as I was paying for my NX so not eye watering at all. Software Updates These arrive about one a month and deliver either new features or fix bugs. Often they will introduce bugs which are then squashed in a later release. One of the most beneficial that spring to mind is the "PIN to Drive" which combats the keyless entry/start fob booster theft attempt. Foot on brake, PIN pad appears on centre screen and car won't engage drive until PIN is entered. An OTA improvements to Autopilot recently was the auto lane change update. When on Autopilot a single push down/up on the indicator stalk will initiate a lane change once the car has checked the intended lane is clear. There are now 8 cameras in operation plus sensors and radar for the adaptive cruise. Downsides to Ownership Parts supply is awful so heaven help you if you have an accident that takes the car off the road. If something breaks. Tesla communications can be poor and inconsistent - they could learn a lot from Lexus Competition Kudos to Jaguar for getting there first with the I Pace. A well built car (certainly better than the Tesla which is American don't forget) as is the Audi E tron. Both severely hampered that is the mess of a public charging network which is simply years behind the Tesla Supercharger network. It'll get better but it's a long way off and makes long journeys problematic. The Porsche Taycan looks good. Driving Experience Fantastic and brings a smile to my face every day. There is nothing like it. I welcome comments or questions if there are any.

My dealer has just got back from Portugal and says the car drives great (he’d hardly say it was rubbish though would he!). Can order in Jan, demo’s in March and delivery from April. Going to be interesting I think. UX v Q3 v E Pace are the runners.

Are any in the UK available to view/drive yet? My wife’s Q3 is up next next and I’d like to know whether this gets on the shortlist.

Yep, and about the only item that can't be done by someone else is changing the drivetrain oil, and that's something that's done at the first service. Plenty of owners have not had a service until the car has done 25k ish, and then possibly again just before 50k when the warranty runs out. Of course those of us on PCP have to follow the recommended schedule to protect the very generous GMFV (mine is 54% of purchase price at 48 months). As I think I mentioned above, my belief is that the proactive swapping out of parts under warranty is factored into the service cost and I view it as part of the TCO. YMMV of course.

I agree, and so do Tesla. They have said they are happy to share the network on agreed terms but seemingly there are no takers (or maybe Tesla want too much for the privilege, who knows). Jaguar have plenty of ex owners among the Tesla fraternity, and today’s launch of the I Pace has seem a number of them (via the Tesla closed Facebook Group) wringing their hands in frustration that a viable competitor isn’t because to charge the car on a long journey is going to take 90 mins instead of 20, IF you can get onto the one ‘high’ speed charger at the MSC. How many people are going to spend £80k with that sort of compromise?

The most common problem on the earlier cars was the self presenting handles. The internal mechanism has since been improved and they still occasionally fail but not nearly as often. It’s difficult to put into words, the fit and finish isn’t to Lexus standard but the car is so enjoyable to drive and just so different to anything else you get past the odd bit of rubber trim not quite fitting. I haven’t had a single thing fall off or break, no rattles, squeaks, creaks or groans - the loadest thing is the fan! I loved all 3 of the Lexus’s I had ( a colleague is still driving my IS250 without trouble) but they just feel so dated - the number of knobs and dials makes my head spin! It not just Lexus, any convential layout with a tiny screen just seems...antiquated. Service wise, there is no need to have one for warranty purposes but the ‘recommendation’ is 12,500 or annually. I think a link was posted earlier. Even if my car wasn’t in finance I would still have it serviced for peace of mind, and as I said earlier they proactively change things if required. It’s childish I know, but the anticipation of the next software update is crazy. You can turn the HVAC on via the official app (there’s a 3rd party app that enables you to schedule it like your central heating lol), and the OTA update yesterday improves that functionality by also turning on the rear defroster and heated steering wheel.

A Betamax v VHS battle I think. CCS is the winner in Europe thanks to the German manufacturers, leaving the Nissan CHAdeMO rather out in the cold. Shell have installed a 50kW units at a handful of stations, which is great, but looking ahead petrol stations will diminish like pubs have but for different reasons. Anyone that can park off road will have charging at home and "filling up" will be a thing of the past except for long journeys. Those that don't have off street or workplace charging will need different solutions, eg lamp post charging (being successfully trialled in a few places), supermarket/shopping centres etc. I'm certainly no expert and the transition will take many years but it's exciting times.