Diesel & petrol alternatives? Your thoughts please

well you could always WALK the extra 500 miles but i like your thinking. haha.

Tesla truck news. I wonder if someone will buy Tesla out and improve their production capabilities?

see here

I work in the motor trade and we've seen a huge change in the orders customers are placing for new cars.  

People are requesting petrol more and more, even in cars that would previously have been unheard of being bought as petrol versions.  In some cases we will no longer order diesel versions for stock.

Diesel is still exceptionally popular on the used market and whilst most people ask for the new SEAT Ateca as a petrol, they still want their Kia Sportage as a diesel.

The downside to all of this is that we are already seeing people returning having bought their petrol car are very unhappy with the fuel economy figures they are experiencing. 

We are already starting to think about replacing our Audi Q3 which is over 1/2 way through it's agreement and the one thing that's certain is it's replacement will still be a diesel.

I have looked long and hard at reviews of Hybrids for towing and not been convinced to buy one.  For me it's not so much economy or range but one of capability.  Granted the Lexus RX can match my Mercedes GLE (250d) on torque (Merc 500nM) but where I struggle is the reduced nose weight that all hybrids seem to suffer from.  I have a twin axle van and even when new and unladen still gave 100kg at the hitch.  It now runs at 106kg at the hitch fully laden.  My GLE will allow 145kg at the hitch whereas the Lexus (and others) are only quoting 75kg max - no good.  Unless there is a way of improving the tow car allowable nose weight I shall have to shy away from hybrids.

This thread was started in September last year. There have been lots of member contributions. Kelly, does the CAMC have any thoughts on this subject, I would be interested for their feedback too, especially from the towing car industry point of view?

No expert here, but interested in how, as usual,  very different points of view expressed here vary according to the information source - the selling dealer, the notoriously unbiased Daily Mail, (!) other industry sources... something I find really hard in all research is sifting the vested interest, with appropriately selective "facts" from the truly  unbiased, and there's not a lot of that last about.

Done some digging on the Tesla model X as it is possibly the most advanced therefore a likely likely towcar.

All this is gleaned from Teslas US owners forum and other web searches So may not be Factual. Please verify for yourself before making a purchasing decision!

OK so the P100 spec car solo has a specced range of 351 miles in ideal conditions. In the real world using heaters, aircon against the wind and up hills at motorway speeds owners report 250-260 miles with a slight drop off in battery capacity as the battery initially ages so your 351 drops to 340  over the 1st three months then stabilises.

Towing capacity on 20" wheels is 2250Kg and curiously only 1500Kg on 22" wheels. 

Some considerations are that aerodynamics play an important part in all Tesla designs so wacking a brick on the back will mess up the aero package somewhat more than conventional cars. Also stop start traffic could have an impact on range especially on a gradient.

One US owner has reported towing a boat (probably more aerodynamic than a caravan) of 2204Kg Towing performance as expected from the powerful electric motors is more than adequate, but he quotes energy usage of 575Whrs/mile solo and up to 800Whrs /mile towing which is 40% more.The owner estimated that in the worst case energy usage could be up to 60% more on gradient (hilly) routes. Taking the above best case and simply extrapolating the real world mileage would indicate a towing range of 150 miles max. Reducing the towing weight to 1500Kg would give approx 160 miles range. so you would probably need to pull off the motorway at 140 miles for a recharge. Maybe less if Van aerodynamics play more of a part.

If the service station has a Tesla supercharger the battery will charge at a rate of 167 miles per 20 mins  so about 45 mins or so for a full charge. However on a standard charger the charge rate is 25 miles per hour so you could be there 10hrs for a full charge.

Here is a summary of a US model X user towing a teardrop van of 573Kg possibly 750Kg laden

Towing distance: 1,003 miles (1,033 total)
Number of Supercharger stops: 11
Average stop time: 1 hour, 34 minutes
Average Energy consumption: 612 Wh/mile
Travel time: 40.25 hours (23.02 hours driving, 17.23 hours charging)
Average travel speed: 24.9 mph

So EV's have a long way to go in my opinion, a decent battery would help!

details of the above trip here

https://www.edmunds.com/tesla/model-x/2016/long-term-road-test/2016-tesla-model-x-range-and-charging-while-towing-a-trailer.html

In the USofA a trip of 1,000 miles is quite ordinary, and often people want to drive much greater distances.

3/10 "Must try harder"

About right Nav, 

The P90 spec model X has a nominal range of 250 miles solo, In the real world towing a very aerodynamic 750Kg it only managed 90 miles between recharges, with not much range left in hand. Also the driver turned off aircon etc in some cases to extend range.