My first EV: 2019 Tesla Model 3 Long Range
Discussion
We collected our new model 3 a couple of weeks ago. It’s a staggering upgrade in every way to the model Y we have and old 3LR it replaces.
Teslas are great cars. It’s incredible that in England you can get one for £20k with reasonable mileage. In Austria the prices are still fairly high. €22k gets you one that’s been crashed with 120k km on it. It’s a good €35k for similar offers to the UK at £20k.
Certainly if I lived in England and was looking for a car in that price bracket, a model 3 for £18-20k would be a very attractive option.
Teslas are great cars. It’s incredible that in England you can get one for £20k with reasonable mileage. In Austria the prices are still fairly high. €22k gets you one that’s been crashed with 120k km on it. It’s a good €35k for similar offers to the UK at £20k.
Certainly if I lived in England and was looking for a car in that price bracket, a model 3 for £18-20k would be a very attractive option.
Great read. These are very tempting now they've dropped to the £20k mark. Very hard to find another car that combines performance, usability and relative youth for anything like the money.
I do a fairly regular 250 mile round trip to parents several counties away and a Tesla is the only EV I'd not stress about doing it in, both in terms of real world range, and also the supercharger network. There are several superchargers en-route and it would be a 10-15 minute top-up, max.
Build niggles aside, everyone I know who has actually spent any time with a Tesla has nothing but praise for it. My cousin has run a M3LR for 3 years, and taken it all over the UK with no hassles. My boss has just got a MYLR on salary sacrifice, and reckons it's costing him about 4p a mile to run, and is an absolute pleasure to drive. Plus, he and his wife are having great fun winding each other up by doing things like setting off the whoopee cushions via the app when the other is driving, or uploading embarrassing wavs to be played when the doors are locked etc before the other drives it.
I do a fairly regular 250 mile round trip to parents several counties away and a Tesla is the only EV I'd not stress about doing it in, both in terms of real world range, and also the supercharger network. There are several superchargers en-route and it would be a 10-15 minute top-up, max.
Build niggles aside, everyone I know who has actually spent any time with a Tesla has nothing but praise for it. My cousin has run a M3LR for 3 years, and taken it all over the UK with no hassles. My boss has just got a MYLR on salary sacrifice, and reckons it's costing him about 4p a mile to run, and is an absolute pleasure to drive. Plus, he and his wife are having great fun winding each other up by doing things like setting off the whoopee cushions via the app when the other is driving, or uploading embarrassing wavs to be played when the doors are locked etc before the other drives it.
Still in Scotland on holiday. Drive back tomorrow.
It's ticked over 70,500 miles up here, which means i've done 4k miles in 2 months!! Crikey
370 miles via a stop off at Hexham, so looking to stop once or twice to charge.
Rough plan is to stop at Abington and top up, but not really necessary. Then over to Hexham and if possible/needed then plug in there while we have lunch. If necessary there's Ferrybridge.
This trip has largely cured my range anxiety. There's always somewhere available.
For my normal sub-200 mile usage it's not ever a consideration, but knowing big trips are fine too has been a successful experiment.
It's ticked over 70,500 miles up here, which means i've done 4k miles in 2 months!! Crikey
370 miles via a stop off at Hexham, so looking to stop once or twice to charge.
Rough plan is to stop at Abington and top up, but not really necessary. Then over to Hexham and if possible/needed then plug in there while we have lunch. If necessary there's Ferrybridge.
This trip has largely cured my range anxiety. There's always somewhere available.
For my normal sub-200 mile usage it's not ever a consideration, but knowing big trips are fine too has been a successful experiment.
Anastie said:
Great read. I tested a M3 Highlander and loved it. I may be ok with the standard ranges range. However, the long range is out of my budget.
I need to test drive a late M3 to see if the difference in build quality is an issue. Same for Model Y. So much choice.
I went for the standard range for a couple of reasons, drives better thanks to less weight up front and RWD, the LFP battery can be charged to 100% without battery degradation. I need to test drive a late M3 to see if the difference in build quality is an issue. Same for Model Y. So much choice.
I would have probably gone long range if we had a single daily car as the extra power is fun and the additional range would be useful.
Interesting read this.
Starting to consider one for family wheels myself. Currently have a F11 530d for such duties and a R35 GTR for, well, not a lot in reality.
Probably only £5k or so to change from the F11 to an early standard range Model 3 and would be getting a far newer, lower mileage, lower running costs car.
Average yearly mileage is probably only 8000 or so, mostly short journey stuff so likely far better suited than a diesel too. Hmm.
Starting to consider one for family wheels myself. Currently have a F11 530d for such duties and a R35 GTR for, well, not a lot in reality.
Probably only £5k or so to change from the F11 to an early standard range Model 3 and would be getting a far newer, lower mileage, lower running costs car.
Average yearly mileage is probably only 8000 or so, mostly short journey stuff so likely far better suited than a diesel too. Hmm.
Good thread. It's always interesting to read how other PHers take to a car that seems to divide a lot of people.
I bought an ex-demo RWD last year. I didn't really set out to buy a Tesla but it does a lot of EV things very well and relative to other comparable EVs you got a lot more stuff for your money. We bought it primarily for soaking up the day-to-day miles ferrying kids to school, but have ended up putting a lot more miles on it than expected. I enjoy driving it, it's quite fun to hustle along.
It's definitely not perfect, and Teslas inexperience as a car manufacturer shows in many areas. In a lot of ways, it feels like the product of an oddly well-funded low-volume manufacturer.
To my surprise, my wife has also chosen to take it on her own on longer journeys to see her family or work trips involving flights from Gatwick. She's quite happy calling into the supercharger at the vineyard in Dorking for 10mins. We borrowed another EV a couple of years ago and had a miserable time messing about with broken Ionity and oversubscribed Gridserve chargers at Cobham, so it's interesting to see her opt to take an EV when we also have petrol and diesel cars.
As an IT geek, I've enjoyed messing about with things like TeslaMate and Home Assistant.
I bought an ex-demo RWD last year. I didn't really set out to buy a Tesla but it does a lot of EV things very well and relative to other comparable EVs you got a lot more stuff for your money. We bought it primarily for soaking up the day-to-day miles ferrying kids to school, but have ended up putting a lot more miles on it than expected. I enjoy driving it, it's quite fun to hustle along.
It's definitely not perfect, and Teslas inexperience as a car manufacturer shows in many areas. In a lot of ways, it feels like the product of an oddly well-funded low-volume manufacturer.
To my surprise, my wife has also chosen to take it on her own on longer journeys to see her family or work trips involving flights from Gatwick. She's quite happy calling into the supercharger at the vineyard in Dorking for 10mins. We borrowed another EV a couple of years ago and had a miserable time messing about with broken Ionity and oversubscribed Gridserve chargers at Cobham, so it's interesting to see her opt to take an EV when we also have petrol and diesel cars.
As an IT geek, I've enjoyed messing about with things like TeslaMate and Home Assistant.
We've just completed our first European trip in our model Y rwd,
Leeds to Dover ferry port over to Dunkirk, to Bruges for a couple of days, then Ypres for another 2 days. After that a trip over to Paris via theipval and then home via calais ferry.
1050 mile round trip and absolutely no issues with charging anywhere. Managed to time all but one charging stop with either lunch or dinner on all our various trips and always used Tesla super chargers.
Total cost for the trip at chargers was £74.52 (using current euro exchange rate), giving the equivalent of 94mpg in petrol. Not bad considering that's all public charging
My only complaint being that Dover REALLY needs some charging facilities, it's bonkers there isn't a row of Tesla SCs and ionity chargers just outside the ferry port. Because of that we had to make an extra stop near Amiens to ensure we had enough to get to Medway.
Leeds to Dover ferry port over to Dunkirk, to Bruges for a couple of days, then Ypres for another 2 days. After that a trip over to Paris via theipval and then home via calais ferry.
1050 mile round trip and absolutely no issues with charging anywhere. Managed to time all but one charging stop with either lunch or dinner on all our various trips and always used Tesla super chargers.
Total cost for the trip at chargers was £74.52 (using current euro exchange rate), giving the equivalent of 94mpg in petrol. Not bad considering that's all public charging
My only complaint being that Dover REALLY needs some charging facilities, it's bonkers there isn't a row of Tesla SCs and ionity chargers just outside the ferry port. Because of that we had to make an extra stop near Amiens to ensure we had enough to get to Medway.
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