ganzoom

^^ What can I say I like all cars, been known to change 3 times in 12 months before, but combustion cars were all getting so boring. Cannot wait to see what others come up with interms of EV, I cannot remember ever been so excited about up and coming cars as I am now :).

Jag have just announced their Battery EV SUV, due in less than 18 months time. I excepted something good from Jag but not so soon or so attractive (18 month to delivery??). According to piston heads, price 10-15% above equivalent F-pace. The closest F-pace with similar performance is £53K before options, so say £63K with a few options, and on 10-15% your looking at £70K mark that's bang on Model X money. Bugger...Maybe I jumped the gun with the Model X order, really really want one of these over any Tesla. Really tempted now to cancel the Tesla order - take the £2K hit on the deposit, get a cheap used Leaf/Zoe/i3 to bridge the 12 months gap before the i-Pace hit production. Jaguar I-Pace heralds electric future | PistonHeads

And here's me worrying I was going to think our next car (Model X) was going to be too slow with a 0-60 time of 5.5 seconds :).

So it looks like Toyota might finally be seeing the light. Mirai has only sold less than 800 in 12 months despite all the money wasted in setting up fuel stations and heavy discounts. So we might see a battery EV Lexus at some point :) https://electrek.co/2016/11/07/toyota-long-range-battery-powered-electric-cars-2020-hydrogen-fuel-cells-failing/

@DJP Am just a tad jealous your likely get your Tesla before me. Agree about the IS/NX been fab cars. Drove ours again last night, really cannot fault it..... But once you get use to full EV driving there is no going back . I suspect we'll probably be keeping the IS alot longer than most, its mainly my wifes car, her last car was a Civic that was kept for nearly 8 years from new. I would hope by 2022 there will be a whole range of EVs for us to choose from to replace the IS with, who knows maybe it might even have a Lexus badge on :).

If I was doing 20K a year I would be getting a Tesla in a heartbeat. I persume alot of business miles?? Fuel costs on any EV is not more than 3-4p per mile, I now charge my Leaf 100% at home its working out at 2p per mile, total electricity used for car charging has been £216 to cover 10800 miles. Just switched to E7 meter which will drop that to 1.5p per mile!!! Even if you don't bother with E7 do some on the road charging using free Tesla supercharger you can get that down to way below 2p a mile. 100% tax allowance in first year if your a business owner, 45p / per 10k mile than 25p/mile for business miles claimable as per HMRC guidance. For calculations sake lets call it 5p per mile for electricity costs. 20k miles you should be claiming back £6k after 'fuel' costs are taken into account. In effect the government will be paying you £6k to drive a Tesla. Forget everything else financially why wouldn't you choose a car that generates you income?? Don't forget you don't even need to service the thing, so electricity and tyres are your only maintenance costs. My biggest issue is actually keeping the miles off the Leaf. Its so cheap to drive we've gone way over our normal usage patterns. As a result in another 3000 miles i'll hit my PCP limit but still have another 6 months to run.

Or a fool I've wasted money on some dead end tech before, MiniDiscs and HDDVD come to mind!! But after doing 11k miles in the last 18month in a Nissan Leaf with essentially no issues/worries I'm 100% convinced battery EVs are the future. The Tesla is ridiculously expensive, but cars are a passion for me, having owned/driven the best combustion cars around I can honestly say I wouldn't swap the Leaf for any combustion car. For me within 100 yards of driving the Leaf I lost all interest in combustion cars..... After the Leaf test drive I sat there in my near 400bhp 3L twinturbo BMW that I had just spent ££££ on having the injectors cleaned and thought to my self 'Why on earth are we still driving these things'. I signed up to the Leaf the next day and the BMW was sold a week later. My frustration with Lexus/Toyota is simply because out of all the current manufacturers developing EVs none would have as much chance of producing a rival to Tesla as Toyota, but yet all Toyota do is continue to push hydrogen fuel cell cars. If Lexus did a battery EV version of the IS I would buy one without a second thought. I look forwards to the day when Lexus do come out with a battery EV. For those of you who just don't get what am on about, have a read of this blog, its written by the chap who originally founded the pistonheads website, so as a big petrolhead nut as you can get... His opening line sums it up 'Our toys are budding museum pieces - enjoy the moment' https://www.blatters.com/mag/the-end-is-nigh/55c9cb540d4369a64a8b464b

^^ Early adopters always pay more for new technology. I had the first 3G iPhone, and yes I was one of the people that spent stupid amounts on an earlish plasma screen. This thread is about what car people want to get next. We are on the cusp of a massive revolution in personal transportation and energy generation. Going into denial mode about the future seems like rather bizzar state of mind when there is so much exciting changes ahead. I wouldn't stop going on about EVs because I want my daughter to grow in a world where we no longer need to explode a fuel we dig out of the ground in order to provide us with powered transportation. So you can absolutely ignore me but change is coming like it or not, and I suspect alot quicker than what many people realise.

I absolutely agree, £90k is crazy money for a base car and they wouldn't see any at that price in the Uk, which is exactly what I was pointing out. But you wouldn't find me spending a single £ on ancient outdated technology known as the internal combustion engine. Its like going out now to buy a old CRT TV, yes you can get one for much cheaper than a 4K OLED panel, but why would you waste money on outdated tech??

Those are just sensor programming issues, and apparently sorted on early cars. Personally I'm more worried about the issues people have had with front doors, because they are all motorised (self opening/closing), if the motor fails they don't seem to latch. The saving grace is the car comes with a 4 year warranty which remain intact regardless if you 'service it or not'. Mine wouldn't go near a Tesla service centre unless it's for warranty work, which is almost a certainty, or at 3 years and 11 month just before the warranty expires for them to fix any issues than :).

^^ Well I suspect soon there wouldn't be that many Model X owners in the UK anyways to worry about anything. It's pretty inevitable a 10%+ price increase will be coming to ALL Tesla cars to adjust for the weak £. Tesla have already removed the cheapest version of the X (the one I ordered), so now the cheapest 6 seater version (buying the 5 seater version is pretty pointless since you might as well just get the S) with leather is over £81K with no additional options, add in the expected 10% price increase thats £90K for the CHEAPEST version of the car when you add in leather+more than 5 seats . Even the cheapest Model S will be over £60K before any options. I'm just glad the invoice price for our order is 'locked in' and not affected by any future price increases, but anyone actually seriously interested in buying a Tesla anytime soon would be well advised to put in a deposit now, prices are heading north and turning an expensive car into fantasy land for most. I'll be amazed if Lexus prices don't up too at some point, really not good news for us customers .

I wouldn't worry, even when the TCR is switched 'off' it really is still on. Last winter when we had an empty snowy car park at work I tried everything possible to get the rear-end to do a bit of dancing, it just wouldn't do it, no matter what buttons I pressed, how hard I pushed the car the rear end just refused to do what I wanted. I think Lexus fully practices 'safety first' approach, shame in a way because in the few seconds of freedom you do get before the TCR kicks you can really feel the balance of the car is really good.

I don't expect our X to be reliable, it took Tesla 2 years to sort out all the issues with the S but having owned a BMW recently I'm fully prepared for multiple trips to the garage :). The doors though are amazing, they open in spaces normal doors cannot. I've played with them on two occasions now for 30min each, constantly opening/closing them, they were faultless. I'm checking my Tesla order page twice a day at the moment patiently waiting for our X to be given a VIN and build slot. I really cannot remember ever been this excited about any car before, and I've been lucky enough to own/drive some very tasty machinery.

Its pretty clear what Lexus/Toyota think of EVs But sadly for Toyota EV sales are only heading in one direction. https://electrek.co/2016/10/17/electric-vehicle-sales-have-now-surpassed-500000-total-cars-in-the-us/ And whilst EV sales are constantly growing the same cannot be said for Lexus sales in the US. The longer Toyota/Lexus refuse to accept they have backed the wrong horse interms of wasting time and money on hydrogen, the sooner they can start to develop relevant products people want to buy, but for now its head in the sand apporach. https://lexusenthusiast.com/2016/09/01/lexus-august-2016-sales-report/ You might remember a small company called Kodak, 'invented' the first digital camera, but apparently there was no future in that product;) http://mashable.com/2012/01/20/kodak-digital-missteps/#ZWcVjW6VPkq4

Well as you probably can work out I'm neither pretty or stylish. We all have different priorities in life, for me I've never got the point of fashion/style etc, and probably never will :).

^^ Sorry are those people suppose change my mind about when to wear trainers ...actually I'm not even sure who they are suppose to be, presumably some one famous??

I don't buy trainers for how they look, nor do I wear trainers when I'm not doing something that doesn't involve breaking a sweat. We just have to agree to disagree on this one ;)

All of which in my eyes are just total waste of money, personally i much rather have something which delivers substance before style. But sadly the vast majority of people are happy with all show but no go.

Apart from the fact Lexus even use the word 'Sport' for the F 'Sport' trim. :) But I agree the IS300H is excellent at eatting up the M-way miles whilst keeping you in comfort and returns better mpg than our old diesel Civic. It's just a case I wouldn't consider the IS300H to be an alternative to something like a 335/340i.

@Slickk I wouldn't take anything said on forums as anything personal, people get emotional about their cars, especially when individuals who have been with a particular brand for a long time and you try to point out justifiable deficiencies in a product. It's a bit like the grief reaction.....I would say anyone who have moved on from the denial stage is starting to make progress to acceptance :). I fully agree with you, I love our IS300H as a comfortable way to get from A to B, but if you want more 'fun' / 'engagement' it falls way short due to the power delivery. But a bit back on topic, the 3L turbo engine found in the 335i/340i cars are in my honest opinion the best it gets for combustion engines. My old 335i had the first generation of that engine and I cannot fault it, not very reliable, but very very good. Hardly any turbo lag, below 3-4K revs very quite, lots of torque even at below 2K, will return 35-40mpg if take things easy...But thrash the thing at near the red line it sounds amazing, above 3-4K there is no throttle lag at all, totally linear power delivery, oh and your talking about so much power/torque to make 265 section rear tyres loss grip in 3rd gear at speeds of 60mph+ if you go full throttle on anything but perfectly dry/flat asphalt, so you need to be awake to drive thing. There is good reason why as we approach 2017 BMW are still essentially using the block/turbo setup as back in 2006 when the first N54 unit was released. If your after a combustion powered sports saloon you cannot go wrong with a 340i, I would hope by now BMW has also sorted out all the reliability issues :). If I wasn't so bitten by the EV bug I would find it hard to choose anything else but a 340i touring for my next car, that's despite my hatred of BMW dealers, and all the reliability issues I had with my previous 335i.

Real life battery degradation on all the current EVs have been much lower than expected. I charge my Leaf to 100% every time, often leave it plugged in even when 100% full - which is almost as bad a leaving the pack totally dead, in 11K miles I honestly cannot say the range has changed at all. Data points provided by Tesla owners show an average loss of charge capacity at 23 miles after 100K miles, bare in mind Tesla's have 200miles+ range. http://www.teslacentral.com/worried-about-tesla-battery-degradation-its-23-miles-every-100000-driven This one particular owner used their car as a Taxi, daily charged to 100%, 6% loss in charge capacity in 200K. So charging to 100% daily and than using the battery charge fully may not be that bad for the battery at all. https://eideard.com/2016/10/03/tesla-taxi-crossing-200000-miles-maintenance-costs-battery-life-impressive/

The best way to maximise battery life is to actually charge to 50%, and than drain down to 0%. The US military have done a study showing this....But who cares about battery life, I just found out our next car due Feb 2017 comes with the hardware needed for Level 5 autonomous driving. Basically once the software is perfected, and the boring legal bits done, our car will be able to do this. This isn't a one off tech demo, it's tech which is going to be the car we be driving around in soon!!......Some one needs to tell Tesla to stop brining the future to the present day . I cannot believe I'm lucky enough to be alive to witness the transformation of the automobile to the next level of automation

It's not really the fact it makes a noise that annoys me, it's the type of noise the IS300H combustion engine makes when under load. 'Drone' is a kind way to describe it, it sounds like a 1.0L 3 cylinder unit that's at the red line about to blow a gasket. I cannot see how anyone can 'enjoy' the noise made by the IS300H when under hard acceleration.

You got to be joking, just where exactly do Lexus see customers refueling the thing?? Last time I checked even in California where Toyota has spent stupid amounts in hydrogen fuel stations there are only 20 or so fuel stations covering an area nearly twice the size of the UK. Hydrogen fuel cell tech is dead already and Toyota needs to move on, not waste more money/time on it.

^^ Every one wants better batteries but don't confuse lab experiments with real life production. Lithium-Ion has taken 20 years + to go from initial commercialisation to been an affordable mass produced product. Same with OLED, the first OLED panels were shown off in 1990's and they have only just become cheap enough for mass production. All the 'breakthrough' battery concepts are not even close to commercialisation let alone mass production. I'm pretty sure in a few years through design changes we'll be seeing 80-90kWh lithium-ion packs in cars the size of the Leaf, which at 4 miles per kWh real life efficiency will give you 250-300 miles+ use on a charge. It's not actually Tesla backing the Gigafactory, Panasonic is putting in huge amounts of money, so is LG via their own factory and virtually every other consumer electronics producer. I'm just frustrated a company the size of Toyota cannot swallow their pride, stop wasting time on hydrogen fuel cell cars (any fuel that needs to be stored at 1000PSI is not something the public should given access to), and start properly investing in Battery EV development like BMW/Audi/Jaguar/Ford/GM/Mercedes, basically everyone else apart from Toyota.