Tesla test drive. Thoughts

Yes it can be very quick. I’ve had a charging speed of 1000miles per hour - however that does drop off as the battery gets fuller. Here’s a pic at 869miles per hour.

I loved my M3P and averaged 3.2miles/kwh over 36k miles and 3 years. I did a lot of journeys over 500 miles and it was effortless.

Just bought a M3 LR to replace it and although not as nice to look at and not quite as fast, it is better built and has lots of incremental improvements, including the heat pump. It is averaging 3.7 miles/kwh over 1,700miles so far, but once the weather warms up I am expecting over 4.

IMHO the Model 3 is still the best all round EV in terms of price, performance, efficiency, technology and charging.

I know, it's an absolute nightmare

Every day is different, depends where she goes.
Normally to work and back, (50 miles) she will average 220 watts per mile,she is no speedster, always in chill.
so looking at 4 miles per 1 KwH.
On the Octopus intelligent, thats 10 pence per unit.
So 10 pence for 4 miles.

Cheap as chips to run.

Next Next Saturday is a 260 mile journey. I will be using Peterborough services. Plug in, coffee and loo = 20-25 mins. Will come back to a car with 85% fill.

It really is very quick and not an issue.

That's the ideal scenario though. If you're travelling down a motorway with service stations 30 or 50 miles apart, and each one has 2-3 EV charging points at best, anxiety is simply higher. 1) the chargers could be broken when you arrive 2) they could be occupied - say 2 cars in front of you, that's an hour wait at least. What was going to be a 30 minute break to grab a coffe and have a toilet break, is now 2+ hours.

Our local Premier Inn supposedly offers EV charging. The one charger it has has been out of order for over a week. The probability of a destination charger not working and you being in a foreign place at midnight trying to find a charger because you have a meeting/event planned/plane to catch first thing tomorrow morning is very real.

EVs objectively are far behind on convenience and simplicity. They are inconvenient and overly complex right now - you could be in a dark remote place and the charger won't work because you don't have the correct app. And you can't download the correct app because there's no signal. Your range keeps dropping because you need the heater. There are many more aspects that are too complicated - like EV tariffs, learning what types of chargers you can buy for your home, preheating a battery(?), battery sizes and kilowatt hours (these will come with time and education I'm sure), the difference between cold weather and warm weather range, the gradient of your journey and wind speeds! (Note Google maps now takes this into account to give you an EV friendly route). The list goes on. These aren't things we care about or need to know for ICE, but EVs require you to understand these compromises and risks so you can manage them. Hence why I say they're inconvenient.

Things will improve. But let's not pretend they are ready for full mainstream adoption. They aren't and won't be for years. Public and private infrastructure, usability and affordability are real issues.

A lot of the EV owners I know also rock a PV array and a house battery, as do I. From November to mid-March, the battery will fully charge to 100% on the overnight tariff, making the cheap rate the ONLY rate you use.

Appreciate it's always possible to create corner cases, and I do think EVs would be perfect for my wife, and both my kids (although one of them would mean to put her car on charge later but would be too busy then forget so would constantly be stuck) none of whom generally go more than 30 miles from home. We've just had our house refurbed and I had the wiring put in for a charger.

In my use case, I'm regularly driving NW to SE. Leave early morning and don't stop on the way. Stay overnight and drive home next day. Around 360 miles round trip, takes about 3hrs each way.

I've taken to asking if the hotels I'm staying at have charging. Of the last three, only one had a charger, it was out of order and I got the impression it had been that way for a while.

So for to go EV I'd have to stop and charge. I wouldn't mind that if there was the same certainty about it as when stopping for diesel.

Except it's normally half an hour minimum wasted when you detour from your route.

Interesting. I’ve had a Model 3 for three years and test drove a Polestar 2 the other day. I thought the Polestar was a much better car. Quieter, more comfortable, same technology albeit with auto windscreen wipers, auto headlights and adaptive cruise that actually worked. No rattles, proper 360 cameras. Range of the refresh model will be on-par or better than the Model 3.

The only advantage I could see my Tesla having was a touch more room in the cabin, and the superchargers, and the latter is going away. So I’ll be buying a Polestar next.

I think the Model 3 is a superb EV. It’s just not a very good car.