As we pulled in front of our friends’ house on Christmas evening, arriving for a multi-family, multi-generational feast, I was surprised to see a new Tesla Model 3 in the driveway. Neither our hosts, nor any of the other guests I could think of, are “car people”. Then it clicked. Our friends’ son had a Model 3 on order, but it had been so long I had forgotten all about it.
Sure enough, it was his, just 5 days old, and within minutes I had been offered a test drive. It was dark, I was eager to socialize, and it was someone else’s $45,000 car, so my drive was brief. But there’s been enough Tesla discussion here that Paul suggested that I share my experience and impressions.
What I perhaps love most about CC is not so much reading about and seeing pictures of interesting vehicles, as the affirmation that you can be a car buff without necessarily being interested in Lamborghinis, or Challengers, or even old Packards (though I like those too). Every car, and car owner, has a story. While I filled my childhood and youth with automotive obsession and automotive history and technology trivia, my actual car ownership over the past 40+ years has been pretty mundane. I’ve never driven a Lexus or an Audi, nor a Mercedes newer than about 1983 (except for an A-Class rental in the late ’90s). So a lot of my takeaway from this car may have nothing to do with its Tesla-ness, just the fact that I was driving a modern luxury car for the first time since I drove a friend’s E39 BMW 540i. As for electrics, I’ve driven a Leaf and a BMW i3, and even a Corbin Sparrow years ago.
But first, I had to get in the Tesla. You may be wondering why I chose a picture of the door handle for the lead. Unlike the Model S, which has motorized door handles which reach out and invite you in, the Model 3 was a bit more mysterious. Manual door handles, which you have to push in at the rear, to pivot out and allow you to grasp them. I needed some coaching from the owner before I got it. Once inside though, it felt quite normal. The large touch screen was actually fairly easy to read, and there are steering wheel buttons to make adjustments that you’ve selected on the screen, for example the mirrors. On the other hand, I had no idea how the car actually unlocked or powered on … I assume it had something to do with the proximity of the owner’s phone.
Getting it moving was easy. CC’ers will appreciate that it has a column shifter, and you pull it down from Park into Drive. Just like my grandfather’s 1972 Dart Swinger that I learned to drive on. Once in Drive, no creep though. I touched the go pedal and it eased forward in the driveway quite smoothly; off the pedal and it stopped immediately. Once out on the narrow, parked up street I experimented with the pedal cautiously; “throttle” response was very smooth, but lifting off the pedal and engaging regenerative braking was like pressing a brake pedal. For my entire drive, I only needed the brake pedal to insure a stop at stop signs and traffic lights, and when re-parking the car.
Once out of the tighter residential street and onto a major four lane arterial, with absolutely no traffic around at 6PM on Christmas, I nailed the throttle. Now I have driven a few (very few) fast cars in my life, a friend’s Ferrari 360 and a 911, a couple of BMW M3’s, and a few V8 pony cars, not to mention some very high performance motorcycles. but nothing prepared me for the instant, silent, visceral thrust of the Tesla. Now this car was a dual motor (AWD) long range version, not the performance version. 0-60 mph is 4.5 seconds, not 3.3. But still, instant acceleration that pushed me back in the seat like nothing I’ve felt.
After that, the rest of the drive back was uneventful. The ride and seat comfort felt good, the fit and finish was nice, the big center touch screen was surprisingly unobtrusive. Backing into the narrow driveway in the dark, with garbage cans and plants on either side, was easy with a good rearview camera and guiding lines.
Do I see one in my future? At first, I thought probably not. I’m no more likely to buy anything from Tesla’s current lineup than I am to buy an ICE Audi, BMW, Mercedes, or in fact any sedan or CUV. But I fully expect that there will be an EV in our driveway within the next decade, though I may need to add a few more solar panels on our roof. And when I drove our manual transmission turbocharged Golf over the curvy mountain pass towards home at the end of the evening, I enjoyed the connection with the car and the road. Weeks later though, I started wondering again. As I age, a safe, comfortable car would make the kind of long road trips I enjoy less tiring. Reducing carbon emissions, especially with renewable energy sources, is a good thing in our current world. And though it’s been almost 25 years since I’ve owned an American branded vehicle, owning a car manufactured in the country and county of my birth, in fact a city I used to live and work in, would feel good too. We’ll see …
(images from the web)
Ok, I’m old. I got a good giggle out of your initial mention (and picture) of the door handle. You’re not the first article on the Model 3 to mention this, and all sorts of people are seeing this as something brand new.
I seem to remember it as part of the 1956 Chrysler line – granted, their door handles weren’t flush with the body, and the point where you put your thumb pressure to make the rest of the handle was instantly obvious, but new?
Fascinating ride. Maybe in about ten years, I’ll be able to afford a used one. The reality of having a maximum budget of around $15,000.00 when shopping for a car or truck pretty much leaves me out on anybody’s 2019 models. And definitely leaves me out on anybody’s 2019 models that I’d want to own.
Yes, that 55-56 Chrysler/DeSoto door handle was the first thing I thought of too.
The ’69-’72 Grand Prix had this type of door handle as well.
Didn’t the second generation Toronado share that door handle? It certainly wasn’t a generic GM unit.
thanks, that’s the popout door handle I remember from our next door neighbor’s GP in 1970 or so.
Aston Martin’s had that type of flush/manual-pivoting handle since about 2005. The current (2009-) Nissan GT-R has one as well.
The Jaguar F-Pace has a similarly pivoting handle, but the pivot function is motorized. It shouldn’t be confused with other Jaguar/Land Rover vehicles that have flush handles (Range Rover Velar, I-Pace), as those cars have the full popout-style, like the Model S.
Good review. Thank you. Electrics don’t seem like cars to me. More like computers or appliances. I enjoy the visceral feel of an ICE powered car. Probably won’t ever have an electric until ICEs are outlawed or until I can’t buy one. But for now no danger of having one as I soldier on in my 32 yr old Mark VII
As readers of this site likely know, electrics were among the earliest cars, back when internal combustion engines were in their infancy.
Teslas and other modern electrics are, obviously, quite different from those early ancestors, but electric vehicles are not a new thing and have never gone away. Modern trains, for example, are powered by electric motors, electric buses are making inroads, and electric trolleys and trolleybuses still ply the streets of cities around the world.
It seems unlikely that I will be in the market for a Tesla anytime soon. Like the author, I have always been a used car buyer, and, even if I could afford one I doubt I would purchase a Tesla. Nothing against Tesla, I just don’t want to spend that much money on a car. On the other hand, I appreciate the practicality of a modern electric automobile and would consider a Honda or Toyota when the charging infrastructure becomes more widespread and the price of the cars comes down.
If the world goes that way, imagine how good, and how strange initially, it will be to have a car with a drivetrain that needs very little maintenance. A car that accelerates quickly, is quiet, leaves no stains in the driveway, and produces no noxious fumes. Other things will break, of course, but electric motors have a beauty in their simplicity and reliability that internal combustion engines can’t match.
As a car owner/home mechanic who rarely takes my cars to a professional, it will be a strange thing indeed. My tools, some of which came from my late father, who was a professional mechanic, will be lonely and I will have more time for other things, but, at least for a while, I will miss gasoline engines, their sounds and smells, their neediness, the satisfaction I get when I bring a wounded one back to life.
Perhaps I will get an electric as my daily driver and have more time to work on my F100.
Further reading
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1897-riker-electric-back-to-the-future/
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/bus-stop-classic/bus-stop-classics-a-short-history-of-daytons-trolley-buses/
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/bus-stop-classic/bus-stop-classics-proterra-all-electric-urban-transit-bus-the-shape-of-things-to-come/
Just because the powertrain is electric doesn’t mean everything else car about it won’t need maintenance and service eventually. Ball joints, bearings, shocks, brakes, tires, A/C etc. Other than periodic oil changes (which are quite long between intervals) very few modern ICE cars will require you regularly busting out a massive tool kit for maintenance either.
Quite true. I alluded to that in my post but didn’t want to dive in any deeper at the time.
In my experience maintaining vehicles, engine work requires more time, tools, parts and money than do the other things, but, as you noted, the other things won’t go away.
I would actually say my most expensive and specialized tools I’ve bought or acquired came from needing them to complete a suspension, steering, or brake related job, and take up the most space in the box. Conversely an engine can pretty much be rebuilt from the ground up with a basic 3/8” drive socket set, an in/lb and ft/lb torque wrench, + a specialty tool or two. It’s not often(or recommended) that I find myself getting anywhere near an engine with the impact wrench and its sockets, or for that matter any socket larger than 1/2” (13mm)
It is funny though, as Rich said, despite this stuff being like any other car it’s hard not to look at EVs as a whole more like a “Do not open” smartphone.
Actually the brakes last far longer in hybrids and EVs thanks to regenerative braking by the motor, which becomes a generator when you use the brakes. My first Prius went 140K miles before I traded it and still had the factory pads. Modern suspension components seem to last the life of a car in normal street use. Tires do wear out as always, but that’s about it. The powertrain has so few moving parts there’s no maintenance and repairs are rare.
This is why existing ICE dealers hate EVs, they promise to kill their service revenue, which is the primary profit stream nowadays. Thus the existing car companies have been lukewarm or worse on EVs. Thus the need for a major new disrupter like Tesla to upend the whole dealer and service business model.
Those longevity factors apply to almost any given modern ICE car as well though, save for the additional step of periodic oil changes(though I do find it worthy of note that factory recommended intervals are triple what they were in the past) if you have a modern car that needs anything apart from fluids in 200k miles you most certainly have terrible luck or subjected the car to great abuse. Even OEM spark plugs often last north of 100k miles. More moving parts in an ICE engine is as much of red herring used in the pro-EV argument as the expensive battery pack is for the pro-ICE argument. The likelihood of an EV buyer needing a replacement battery pack is about as likely as the ICE buyer ever needing new connecting rod bearings.
Dealers will always be able to pile up the repairs regardless of powertrain IMO, be it the old but still prevalent grease points, or the diagnosis and repair of various body problems, from bad window motors to wind noise. At worst dealers will just make stronger cases to get people to trade in on a new one, like you would if you brought in a iPhone 6 to an Apple store for repair.
XR7matt:
Battery, fuel pump, pads, rotors, tires, tie rods ends, sensors, ignition coils, spark plugs, serpentine belt, belt tensioner, fan clutch, alternator, radiator…all things that you could potentially need before 200k. Some of them more than once. Some of the Korean models are known for needing a whole engine by then. Obviously battery electrics lack several of those parts that alone gives the electrics a probability advantage. There’s no reason why an ICE cant go a million miles without parts. Class 8 trucks do just that. But it is a fact that passenger cars do not. Maybe someday they will.
Along with environmental concerns and greater fuel economy, significantly reduced routine maintenance is a feature of modern EV/hybrid cars that is often overlooked. I have no evidence, but I would venture to guess that this is a big factor of many buyers (or a pleasant surprise when it’s discovered later down the road).
Someone will probably bring up the cost of eventually replacing the traction battery offsetting the cost of not having ICE-related maintenance repairs. Well, so far, old Prius traction batteries under normal use have been very long-lived, with the only replacements being for damaged or abused batteries.
The original Honda Insight, OTOH, did/does have an issue with the traction battery life. Honda, unlike Toyota, designed the original Insight to rely more heavily on the battery for superior fuel economy. Indeed, the Insight got significantly better fuel mileage than the Prius. The trade-off was going deeper into the battery’s reserves also shortened battery life. But that car was the exception, rather than the rule.
njohn, I’m quite intimately aware of all the things that can potentially fail on an automobile(though I’m struggling to think of the last modern car I’ve seen with a viscous fan clutch). Pads, rotors, tires, tie rod ends and non-engine related sensors are on EVs too, The point is EVs won’t magically solve all the possible woes of the automobile, just the usual things related to powertrain and even the electric motors might need the odd replacement now and then(like alternators).
Keep in mind the widescale adoption of distributerless ignition systems and fuel injection alone took away a huge chunk of service revenue for dealers and shops, virtually eliminating the “tune up” overnight and also in helping engines last longer before a need to rebuild(which was a common enough thing where they were done on site at a time). Not to mention strides in engineering modern powerplants to improve longevity even further, and eliminating other serviceable things like hydraulic power steering for electric. What EVs will take away won’t be much more extensive of a revolutionary shift in vehicle maintenance than that. Yeah, you absolutely have less that *can* fail with them, but for your average ICE car like a Camry you might have one or two powertrain items on that list that need replacement in 200k miles, but most likely merely the spark plugs and oxygen sensors on top of the periodic oil and coolant changes.
Matt: the Equinox profiled in the COAL the other day is a good example: transmission shot at 73k, and the engine is now as good as shot. How many times has he been to the dealer about that?
And let’s not forget the endless pushing to change fluids, oil, transmission, coolant, etc..
You have some valid points, but there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind (most of all the dealers’) that EVs, especially once they’re perfected, are going to be a negative impact on their service business. They’re saying so, quite loudly.
All true, I’m admittedly making the presumptions that when EVs are representing that majority portion of the market that A. dealers will probably do their best to find new services as a substitution for the lost ones, and B. that there will be the troublesome Equinox equivelants among EVs too. The current small crop of EVs are quite good now, but I have to imagine there will still be the CR worst cars list when they become the normal.
Very interesting and good review. It’s not bad looking from the outside and it was interesting to hear how it ran and drove. The interior reminds me, however, of a really expensive appliance like a subzero fridge. I just can’t warm up to that look, and it’s not limited to Tesla. Also reminds me of sci-fi movies from 20 years ago.
I think I could afford one of these in a few years, but I would never spend that kind of money on a car when it could be put into real estate, the market, or other utilities. Like Rich, I love ICEs, especially my older ones, and having spent a good deal of wheel time in my mom’s Prius there’s just no connection to these high tech machines for me.
Thanks for bringing your experience to us. These intrigue me, no two ways about it. The combination of performance and mechanical simplicity is something I find appealing. The modern IC vehicle has become a maze of complexity. Some pull it off quite well but others (like the Equinox we read about earlier today) do not.
Like Rich above, I enjoy the sensation of an IC car. But I could see enjoying something from the purely mechanical era for fun while being served day-to-day by something like this. Many modern IC vehicles combine the worst of both kinds.
Bet those door handles would function real well in our snowy icy North… not.
I predict Tesla won’t be around in 10 years, maybe 5. At least not in present form, after possibly being swallowed up by much larger (by manufacturing capacity, not phony cap values) and more experienced Mfr’s as they bring their size and experience to bear, or just imploding from hubristic mega-overreach. How’re those roof tiles and PowerWall doing anyway? The future is electric, just not Tesla’s.
Elon Musk has proven to be a tenacious and resourceful competitor in a tough business, and I respect him for that. Though Tesla seems to have turned a corner in its ability to build cars and deliver them to buyers, It is hard for me to imagine a scenario different from what Randerson and other authors here at CC and elsewhere have described.
Though Musk has been able to keep the investor money flowing through the difficult infancy of his ambitious business venture, it seems to me that the established major players have the financial resources and industrial and sales infrastructure to either swallow up Tesla or relegate it to a niche competitor when they decide to jump into the market that Tesla is in.
It seems that electric cars are, and have to be, a major part of the future of the automobile, in the US and elsewhere, especially China, whose already considerable influence on markets will continue to grow. Tesla has, to their credit, been a major innovator in ways that the big players have not.
The big question, which will be answered in the fullness of time, is the role that they will play moving forward as the major manufacturers inevitably and inexorably home in on the electric vehicle market.
Further reading
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/new-cars/future-cc-outtake-tesla-model-x-and-tesla-model-3-if-theyre-here-theyll-be-everywhere/
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/independents-week-question-tesla-the-next-kaiser-frazer-or-the-next-mercedes/
It’s a tough call at this point. On one hand, the major automakers are about ready to jump in with full force, with the power of 100 years of experience building cars, established parts and service channels, established old-line dealerships. Many of the scale-up troubles Tesla has had, the majors already know how to deal with and have the money to do so. OTOH, Tesla has the cachet of a successful startup, a brand with no mixed legacy to live down like, say, Cadillac. The pure EV-only ethos appeals to the target market of techies and greenies. And only Tesla drivers can take advantage of the thousands of refueling points Tesla has built. It could become like hybrids, where there’s now dozens to choose from but half of them remain Priuses (sorry, I don’t like Prii). For many people, “electric car” = Tesla the same way hybrid = Prius.
The “established old-line dealerships” appear to be as much a curse as a blessing. It’ll be interesting to watch/see what the upcoming upper-tier of manufacturers’ (Audi, Jaguar, Porsche etc) experience is with their dealers in regard to BEV’s as compared to the bad stories from Nissan, GM, etc to do with on-site chargers broken or always blocked, limited to no inventory, active anti-selling in favor of ICE, etc. Sure, not every traditional dealer has a poor track record but the bad stories tarnish the whole bunch.
As much as the no-dealer thing has hurt or held Tesla back, it just as much has helped by eliminating that variable entirely.
Right. Those larger, more experienced manufacturers really know what they’re doing: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1980-chevrolet-citation-gms-deadliest-sin/
I recently drove a friend’s Model 3–my first time behind the wheel of an electric car. In terms of driving dynamics, it’s very easy to “bond” with the car: the power delivery and braking are extremely linear and predictable, the suspension is well-sorted, and the steering nice enough (not Miata or Porsche, but in the norm for a modern sport-sedan). I had expected a soulless fridge on wheels, but instead I got fahrvergnügen!
But… it’s crammed with needless complexity. I detest the center-mounted screen–it’s worse than most, because even on the old Scions and Quests and Renaults, at least the display was near the base of the windshield, so it didn’t require such a big shift in your gaze to see your speed. And the danger of using touch-screens while driving is so well-understood that I won’t bother to review it now. The user-interface is poorly thought out: my friend couldn’t get the car into gear for about two minutes… it turns out it won’t engage Drive unless you’re wearing your seat belt. (Fine! But that huge touch screen should at least explain why it’s overriding your gearshift command.) And the door-handles are silly.
And that’s just what I observed from my 20-minute drive. It doesn’t even touch on the long-term reliability, battery durability, and unpredictable range.
If you treat it like a motorcycle (focus on the road, ignore the gadgets), it’s a stellar vehicle. But otherwise it’s totally underbaked. When Toyota decides to bring their perfectionism to this market, they’ll take the world by storm. But for now, I’m sure that Teslas will be limited to the small fraction of people who don’t mind the compromises.
I’m sorry, but if your friend tried to put it in gear without putting his seat belt on, that’s dumb, and it’s an excellent safety measure. Don’t blame that on “needless complexity”.
The overwhelming majority of Tesla users become quite comfortable and happy with their touch screens. And there’s also voice commands available.
But then I understand that some folks had a hard time with computers and smart phones initially too.
Durability? The battery is warranted for 8 years. Teslas are used as taxis in some places, and some have now exceeded 400k miles.
Unpredictable range? That’s not really any different than in any car, except that in an EV city driving actually increases range.
By the time Toyota gets around to building an EV, the market will most likely be saturated. There’s really not much to improve, for that matter, if you understand how an EV works.
A couple of comments from an owner with a model S for 2 years.
1) I am not aware of the option to not allow shifting from Park to Drive or Reverse without your seatbelt (and yes I always wear mine). When you put your foot on the brake to ‘turn on’ the car you get 1 bing if the driver or any passenger does not have their belt on. When you shift into drive or reverse you get 3 more, then a pause for a minute before additional warnings. Not unlike other cars.
2) The column shifter is not ‘like’ but the same part as used in MBs.
3) There are options for steering feel (BMW, MB, Lexus), creep (drives just like an ICE with an automatic) or no creep, any level of regerative braking (I like max as you only need the brakes in an emergency or to come to a complete stop.
Lastly, I understand that those of us with Tesla have drunk the kool-aide, and if you don’t love them, that’s fine. I just don’t understand the vitriol I see expressed regarding the car or Elon Musk.
Dave
I was just making an assumption, which I shouldn’t have, about the seat belt. But my assumption that this driver may not yet have figured out how to drive his Tesla seems self evident.
Seems to me this is an aggressive comment. Unless things have changed, it is recommended you put your seat belt on *after* you have removed your car from its parking space and start down the road. This is why your fasten belt reminder doesn’t start until that time. I won’t bother stating what is self evident.
Did you read my later comment? I said I was just making an assumption, which I shouldn’t have, about the seat belt.
It wasn’t the seat belt at all. It was an interface problem with the bluetooth, presumably.
It turns out that there is occasionally a glitch in the communications between the driver’s phone app (which unlocks the car) and the car. A quick reset of the car’s computer (hold down two buttons on steering wheel) fixes it. A bluetooth issue.
Putting on the seatbelt: My friend is not dumb at all. What is dumb is the fact that the car wouldn’t go into gear without an explanation as to why.
Perhaps the overwhelming majority of Tesla users are “comfortable and happy” with their touchscreens. But that’s not the correct metric. The question is whether they are more distracted than when driving a non-touchscreen car. Interestingly, a small study reports that both factors are true: drivers are more distracted when their cars have touch screens, but they like it anyway.
https://www.gearbrain.com/car-touchscreens-are-driver-distractions-2579671418.html
Durability: Caprices were used as taxis too, but I would rather drive a Camry for 10 years. Ask Consumer Reports (“Tesla’s reliability tumbles to near the bottom in latest survey”)
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/10/24/tesla-reliability-tumbles-consumer-reports-survey/1748024002/
Unpredictable range: This is based on my friend’s experience in San Francisco. Though the weather is mild compared to the rest of the country, she says that her range shrinks drastically when it’s chilly (and that’s San Francisco “chilly,” not Northeast or Midwest).
“By the time Toyota gets around to building an EV, the market will most likely be saturated.” There were plenty of mid-sized sedans on the market by the time the Camry and Accord showed up…
Regarding the touchscreen: this is how Tesla chose to design their cars. If folks don’t like it, they don’t have to buy them. It’s a design feature.
Teslas are not for everyone.
Agreed a very poor design that they don’t tell you why it won’t go into “gear” when they have that massive touch screen. My car will tell me to put my foot on the brake to start it, or to put it in gear if I attempt to do either of those actions w/o pressing the brake first.
As I’ve said before: the Tesla also has voice actuation, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s the real future, more than touch screens. Think Alexa. And this will just get better and better. There will be little or no need to ever touch the screen.
I’ve owned my Model 3 for four months, now, and none of david42’s concerns about his Model 3 experiences are shared by me. I’ve backed up my car without the seatbelt on. It bings in protest but does not prevent me from doing it.
The large screen…I liked it right away. I drove my wife’s Kia Sorento today, and missed the screen dearly, along with a few other things my car does so well – like pass everything on the road, including gas stations.
I watched Tesla for over two years before I bought my car. I knew what I was in for when I went for it. So far it’s been a great experience…including the delivery, which went quite smoothly as compared to horror stories many may have read about. The build quality of my car is fine – no glaring panel gaps or other overly annoying niggles other than a minor rattle in the phone holder in the console, which I know how to fix.
Overall, it beats the pants off my early carbuereted cars – balky, smelly things that had to be coaxed to life and down the road on cold days. And it’s the most fun-to-drive car I’ve ever owned to date. I don’t miss fueling up at gas stations on cold nights…or when running late for work. I love that it leaves no toxic wake behind it as I go down the road; this time of year the ICE vehicle fumes are thick in the cold air…I can only imagine the components within those toxic plumes we all must breathe every day.
the Tesla also has voice actuation, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s the real future, more than touch screens. Think Alexa. And this will just get better and better.
That would be a huge problem for the deaf and hard-of-hearing people as well as for people with speech or hearing disabilities that affect their abilities to interact with the command centre by voice or hearing if this technology is the biggest thing in the coming times. Not to mention some hearing people with accents that tripped up the speech recognition system. YouTube, for instance, is known to misdetect the English-speaking person as Dutch and generate the captions in Dutch language too often.
It‘s more preferrable to have physical access to the controls as fall-back measure. I don‘t like it when I spend so much time browsing through menu and submenu looking for something I need or figuring out how to navigate through the menu every time I hire the cars with this not-so-intuitive system. I am still smarting from 2013 BMW 525d that I hired for East German road trip, namely that gear selector whose functions seemed to defeat the logic thinking.
I was grateful when my 77-year-old mum bought a 2009 Volkswagen Polo with old school dashboard. Otherwise, I would spend a lot of time teaching the old dog new tricks. Again and again.
Plenty of people are buying Teslas even at the huge prices charged here, Ive not been given a turn in one so cant comment on how they drive but the massive touch screen should be deleted driver distraction causes many crashes here and big touch screens are not a help with that even having gauges spread all over the dash in a truck is a stupid idea they take you focus away from the main event.
Somehow, I just can’t picture Junior Samples driving one of these…
Carbon emissions are only reduced if the electricity you are recharging these with is produced with renewables, and most is not. So it’s not the great leap forward most people think it is.
Please do not regurgitate that pro-oil/coal anti-EV fake news here again. IIRC, this is not the first time from you.
Because an electric motor operates at about 95% efficiency while a gas motor operates at between 20-35% efficiency, CO2 emissions are even reduced when using the dirtiest (highest coal percentage) electricity in the country. And the percentage of coal being used is dropping very steadily, regardless of what our dear leader would like you to think.
As the percentage of renewables meanwhile is steadily (and faster than predicted) increases, the CO2 reduction from EVs overall keeps becoming more significant. Here in the PNW, we get some 90+% of our electricity from renewables.
There’s a reason the Model 3 is rated at 126 empg, as that is the equivalent amount of fossil fuel energy it uses due to its stellar efficiency.
You may not like EVs, but spewing falsehoods about them is not going to further your cause.
Here is an excellent video that explains why electric cars are much better for the environment even if their power source comes from non-renewable energy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RhtiPefVzM
Basically, any electric car will produce less carbon emissions over time than any internal combustion vehicle.
Furthermore, I suspect, though I haven’t seen the data, that the long-term cost of operating EVs can be lower, or at least more predictable than those of internal combustion vehicles.
Because of the way the market for electricity is regulated, residential electricity costs are much less volatile than the retail cost of hydrocarbon fuels. You can know your cost per kWh a year or more in advance, and they tend to rise slowly over time rather than abruptly rising and falling like gasoline and diesel fuel prices.
A significant number of electric vehicles charging at night could contribute to more efficient use of the electrical generation and transmission infrastructure, and potentially decrease the price per kWh.
Peaks and valleys in demand (high daytime demand/low nighttime demand) make the system less efficient, and also less profitable for power plant operators and utilities, and are the reason why utility companies are willing to contribute to subsidies for solar installations that reduce peak demand, and therefore wholesale electricity costs. On the flip side, EV charging at night could increase demand at a time when it is low, thereby leading to more profits for power plant operators. The combination of lower peaks and higher valleys contributes to increased overall system efficiency, which could conceivably lead to lower rates, or at least smaller future increases.
On the other hand, lots of vehicles charging during the day would contribute to peak load and congestion (of the infrastructure), though, for most individuals and businesses it makes more sense to charge at night.
It is possible in some areas to get differential rates for peak vs off-peak electricity use and therefore take advantage of lower rates nights and weekends. In this way, savvy EV users can save even more, and contribute to more efficient utilization of the electrical generation and transmission infrastructure.
There is much more to the story for those who like learning about the electrical infrastructure and the economic and regulatory forces behind it. On balance, as I understand it, increasing EV usage, wisely controlled, has the potential to lead to more efficient use of the electrical infrastructure, decreased pollution, including CO2 emissions, and lower costs to consumers.
Reasonable people can discuss EV vs. ICE-electric hybrid efficiency. This fellow claims to show that while most EVs are more efficient than E10 vehicles, Prius-size ICE hybrid efficiency can actually exceed a similar size EV vehicle efficiency on a well-to-wheel basis:
https://www.energycentral.com/c/ec/comparison-energy-efficiency-and-co2-gasoline-and-electric-vehicles
I’m not saying he’s right; I’m not smart enough. But his study looks reasonable. Also interesting is his analysis of MPGe. A snippet:
“EPA EV mileage = total miles/(fuel energy/energy/gal) = 65/(83154/112114) = 87.6 MPGe. The EPA deliberately ignores the US electrical system upstream SE factor and the E10 upstream SE factor. If the US SE factor were applied, the real mileage would be 87.6/2.8776 = 30.4 mpg, similar to the 28 mpg of the E10 vehicle, as one would expect.
The car manufacturers are in on the deal, because they are allowed to take those low MPGe numbers and average them into their CAFE mpg, making it look lower than it really is to befuddle the public, which is somewhat of a sham.”
“SE” means “source energy.” Again, I’m not smart enough to agree or disagree with him. He may be full of stuffing for all I know.
That said, at some point I’ll be in the market for an old EV, one with a kaput battery. They’re showing up on the local Craig’s List for <$5K now and I imagine they'll be in the $2-$3K range in the next few years. At that price I'll buy one and tinker with it. I like the idea of driving a slot car on the street.
In a place like British Columbia, we get almost all our power from hydro-electric. I would much rather pay a publicly owned utility to drive than a foreign owned oil company.
Most people around here with Teslas have solar power so they aren’t driving dirty. But many of them also don’t really care about that aspect of it, it’s simply a different and perhaps better way of powering a car. Don’t get hung up on the environmental aspect of the power and actually go out and try one for yourself.
When bringing out the unclean power canard, people seem to imply that the alternative (internal combustion) fuel is clean which it obviously isn’t. But at worst, even if true, an electric might be on par (which it isn’t) with regular cars. At that point the driving experience matters, and until actually sampled one is unqualified to render objective judgment.
I’d wondered about that, if it gets better overall efficiency then great. Given the difficulties of scrubbing coal emissions it’s certainly easier on a large scale.
When I get an electric car I can always say it’s powered by Niagara Falls since that’s the closest major power plant since the big Nanticoke coal generating station got mothballed 🙂
Your impressions match mine from the time I had a ride in a Tesla 3. It’s not for me, but I can see a time coming when an electric car will make sense for us.
The driving sensation mirrors what I felt when driving a friend’s Model S a few years back. If you haven’t driven a Tesla it is not possible to imagine it. While a powerful ICE car may provide a “visceral” feel, a powerful electric has a very different but no less intoxicating feel. Perhaps even more so as the noise is so different while doing what it does, it is surreal as we have all been conditioned as to what to expect with ICE cars. I completely get the appeal after having driven one but never thought it would be so different than it is before I had the opportunity.
Thanks for sharing. I don’t see Tesla staying an “Independent” automaker once the mainline companies come online with compelling products.
I’m going to commit heresy and say I’ll be very glad when when I can buy a new Toyota SUV or car with an appropriate H point for someone middle aged or older for the price of my Highlander that has the smooth quiet power delivery of an electric drivetrain and gets rid of the mechanical cacophony. No more 4 cylinder shake at idle in gear, V6 moaning sounds, gear changes, belt driven AC compressor clicks, etc.
Electric power train vehicles are not ever going to eliminate ICE vehicles but they are a superior option for a lot of people. The truth is somewhere between the Tesla koolaid drinkers and the fearful chicken littles.
Like JPC the mechanical simplicity is where I find myself appreciating Tesla as of late, they may not have the visceral sensations and tinkerability of ICE engines but they are closer to the torquey big block cars we love in the pre smog era in terms of mechanical packaging than anything else.
Nobody can argue the impressive statistics of modern ICE powerplants, even the most mundane of them would leave some big engined muscle cars of yore in the dust, but it’s accomplished with boatloads of electronic tech to make it possible, with tight yet very complex mechanical packaging, variable camshaft timing, turbochargers/superchargers, and 8-9 speed automatic transmissions, and with so much refinement all the visceral sensations there are are completely muffled and numbed away save for the light hum of an engine with not enough cylinders in the right arrangement to stimulate my ears. Is that what I want? I mean I used to be as skeptical and cynical about EVs as the most obnoxious opponents to them, but the reality is whatever concern regarding longterm ownership and battery longevity/cost I pretty much have for just a single given subsystem in a modern ICE car as well.
We can bicker all day long about our political religions, the cult of personality of Elon Musk, what’s better and worse for the environment all day long, but the EV isn’t an idyllic fantasy looking to solve the sins of mankind anymore. It’s here now, so just go with it and see what happens, don’t like it don’t buy it, it really is as simple as that.
Generally, Teslas are interesting cars, with a mix of both outstanding and odd characteristics, strengths and weaknesses. (Well, at least two out of three isn’t bad; the Model X is weird and less than useful in some key ways). As with any particular car, they don’t fill everyone’s needs, all the time. If I had need of a purely local daily driver, they’d be fine. We take long trips, sometimes with two cars depending on where we’re going and how many months we’ll be there. Tesla is disqualified for us on that basis alone.
I do have a nearly genetic resentment of the huge taxpayer-supported handouts to the company, but I certainly am not a “hater” of the impressive product and can’t understand why anyone would feel that way.
Interesting review! I haven’t had the chance to drive a Tesla, but I would like to try one some day. The closest I got was sitting in a Model S at the Toronto Car show a few years ago, although I can’t say I was overly enamoured with that car. I’d really like to try the throttle/regen brake setup on these cars. When we had our Prius, there was a very obvious change in the pedal feel from regen brakes to the hydraulic.
Despite my love for old vehicles, as I age I have far less passion for our daily driven vehicles. New cars just aren’t interesting to me, and when it comes to my transportation needs, I am not overly picky – I just want it to work and not cost me a ton of money. I find it rather appealing to have a daily driven vehicle that requires little maintenance. Which is also why I have tended to prioritize long term reliability in my vehicle purchases.
There are many naysayers out there on electric vehicles, especially in cold climates like where I live. Heck, lots of people still question a Hybrids ability to operate in the cold. My wife’s former Gen III Prius was flawless for the 5 years we owned it, even in the extreme cold. I would certainly have no hesitations in adopting an electric vehicle (although we’d need an ICE vehicle as well to make it work for us).
What I do have hesitations about Tesla in particular is there long term reliability, and serviceability. They haven’t really been out long We don’t live near any place that services Teslas, and even though they haven’t been on the roads for 10 years yet statistically they aren’t near top of the heap for reliability (according to CR).
I also have my reservations about the touch screen controlling everything. I have no issue with using a touch screen or new technology for that matter. But what I do have issue with is technology for the sake of fashion, that offers no real advantage over the old technology. I see no advantage to having HVAC controls being controlled by a touch screen. There is not a vehicle I have driven that with these type of controls were it is safer or easier to used than the traditional three knobs or even the two sliders and vertical fan control. In cold weather, most are rater unresponsive as well. It’s fine to have a bunch of unimportant controls on a touch screen, but basic vehicle controls should be able to be operated without taking your eyes off the road.
Cold weather is where I’m personally still not sold on EV, not because of vehicle operation but simply that they must sap range to generate heat. ICE engines are inefficient because of the waste heat they generate at all times, but in very cold weather it’s very welcome and you don’t have that eternal struggle to balance frugality and comfort when setting the thermostat for heat (I’m scarred by the contentious arguments my parents had about 68° or 72°!). I see things shaking out in the long run to regional flavors, with ICE or Hybrids dominant in cold climates and EVs dominant in the warm climates.
I agree completely with touchscreens. It has nothing to do with being tech savvy or a luddite, Tesla buyers right now are very fashion conscious, so of course they aren’t going to complain about the touch screens, as they want to like that feature as much as anything else, having it reflect the other technological marvel of the modern age, the smartphone. I’m millennial and use touch screens literally all day, iPhone, iPad, and Laptop, I’m using it now, but I’m not operating a 4,000 vehicle with my hands and feet with my eyes scanning for potential obstacles, I’m looking right at the screen as I type, sitting comfortably in a chair, and yet I still make type-os. I’m expected to play with this thing for quick operations in a car? Hah! Not everyone is equal when it comes to hand/eye coordination, doesn’t matter one’s age or whether or not they embrace new technology. The Tesla touchscreen setup strikes me as a purely aesthetic marvel, analogous to tailfins of the 50s reflecting the jet-age, and like tailfins it’s not actually making the cars they’re affixed to any better, and may in fact obviously date them. I understand they have voice activation as an alternative given but my contentious exchanges with Siri, Alexa and Xfinity voice remotes, I’m skeptical of its performance.
There are a LOT of Teslas where I live in Colorado even with our closest dealer over an hour away in Denver, serious range issues due to low temps (of which we have plenty) isn’t anything I’ve heard being an issue. Same with aquantainces with a Bolt and others with Leafs. You’re near Chicago, aren’t you? I thought there were a lot there as well but could be mistaken on either count. Perhaps less an issue with those EVs that have greater range to start with but even if there is a hit it doesn’t seem to be significant enough to make the vehicle unusable. They are regularly seen in ski area parking lots as well, most of which aren’t just around the corner from major metro areas, i.e. usually a more or less a significant (hour or several) drive away and certainly cold.
Oh yeah, there are a bunch here. I’m not suggesting the heater depletes the battery to the point of unusable, just that I’m not convinced the vast majority of the buying public will be super happy that their range drops when they crank the heat way up on a cold day as is somewhat customary for a lot of drivers here. I think it’s early yet to assume the masses will fully embrace them based on the ones you see on the roads now – Bolts and Leafs are non-existent and even Model 3s are less common than elsewhere compared to the very abundant Model S, so most Chicagoland Tesla owners are clearly in it for the trendyness first and the EVness second. Even with range taking a noticable hit in the cold they just see it as a worthwhile trade off.
I’ve also been to Denver quite a bit in recent years due to some complicated family issues so I’m also familiar with that climate, compared to Chicago’s cold wet darkness between late October and late April it may as well be SoCal. The sun is always out, the weather is mostly dry and cold days are often followed by warmish days, so cabin heat is easy to regulate and often not even needed, I don’t think the energy use of the heaters are comparable, just based on the way I operated it in my ICE car between places.
Keep in mind that unless you’re heading off on a long trip in the cold weather, for daily use range is essentially a non issue, given that these have some 300 mile range to start with every morning after having been plugged in. Even with a lot of heat on, that’s going to be drastically more than a typical winter’s day driving.
Folks tend to forget that every morning you’re getting into a fully charged car.
Yes, Paul, that’s a big effect that’s hard to really appreciate until you’re driving electric every day. Once you have more than enough range, you don’t really worry about cold weather effects, or hooning away from stoplights for that matter, since the incremental energy used is cheap. My Fiat 500e only has about 80 miles of range, but I’ve never needed more than 40 in a day, so another 80 miles range really wouldn’t matter.
Also on the topic of cold weather range, it’s not just the heater. Colder air is denser and takes more work per mile to push out of the way. You don’t notice the difference in an inefficient ICE car, but it does show up if you’re watching the mileage in a hybrid, and it affects the range of a pure EV, even it you don’t use the heater.
Paul hit the nail on the head. Our daily slug with the family car might see 60 or 70 miles in a day on a very busy day. So I wouldn’t be too worried about the range even with the heater and heated seats cranked. As long as it can put out enough heat to keep the car warm in sub zero temperatures, I’d be fine with it. For my situation, if we ever got one, it’d live in a a garage anyway, which means I the interior would already be semi warm in the morning.
Vince – Many (most?) EV’s will allow you to warm the cabin to whatever temp you desire before you get in, often (usually) there’s a app for that. If it’s in a garage and plugged in this would use house power to do so. You then leave your warm house, step into the attached but colder garage and then get into your whatever degree you desire EV.
Jim I was pretty sure most could warm up while plugged in. A colleague’s wife had a Volt and she used to warm it up in their garage. For our situation our garage is heated so we don’t need to warm up our ICE car even on the coldest days. My truck on the other had sits outside and is stone cold, but I minimize warm up time as much as possible.
Like Vince I’ll stick with old cars for fun, and want safe and economical transportation otherwise out of day-to-day cars. Closing in on 70 my wife & I are contemplating owning just one car for transport, and we have also been researching solar options for the house, and for facilitating moving to an electric or hybrid-electric vehicle as perhaps the last one we will buy.
Consequently we set aside 5 kW worth of Kyocera (non-Chinese) panels just before prices went up drastically, seasonal-angle adjustable pole mounts, and one of the most advanced inverters (no DC-AC conversion) on the market. Li battery storage is next and is currently (lol) under research & investigation. When fully installed (more panels eventually) we should be able power the house, the car, lawnmower, all the electric tools… the whole shebang we hope.
When we reduce to just 1 car/suv, it will need to have long range capability, so we’ve decided it should have 300+ mile range on pure electric, and hybrid configuration for longer trips without charging inconvenience. We’ve read that Mazda is considering a rotary hybrid-electric, and it seems to me a rotary engine with it’s compact dimensions in 1 or 2 rotor format, and smooth quiet operation, may be ideal if apex seal and consumption/emission problems have been solved. We always had thought a small diesel would make sense in a hybrid, but for various reasons they are falling out of favor, again, and a rotary hybrid is very intriguing. In any event the big guys are now on board, and the next 3-5 years should be very interesting (check out what SAAB/NEVS is doing) with options that have not been contemplated heretofore, and we haven’t even talked about Hydrogen yet, where solar options may be able to solve some of the problems there as well!
That nose is begging for a grille, it’s like an apple pie without apples.
My least favorite feature as well, I expected it would have the small slot opening of the post-facelift Model S, which I found a huge improvement over the faux gaping maw nose it had previously. The 3 has an indent of where one would expect a grille to be but without any opening, it reminds me of those 70s Aston Martin Vantages with the weird blank out.
Daman:
I would like to hear more about your’s and Mr. Randerson’s experiences with solar power. Perhaps if the directors of this site would permit it, you might consider doing so. It appears that there is at least some latent interest in the subject.
Hi, not sure if this was addressed to me (Dman not Daman) but I’m no expert on solar. We have a 13 panel 3.51 kw system with Enphase micro inverters in each panel and no storage (batteries). It just works (maybe 5 years old). We configured it to bring our annual electric usage down to the lowest rates but not necessarily zero. Randerson mentioned no AC-DC conversion; not sure how that works as the panels generate DC and your household power unless isolated from the grid uses AC. By definition an inverter converts from DC to AC, and of course there’s also transformers to convert the voltage.
We installed a 14-panel 4.2 kW system with Enphase micro inverters about 15 months ago. Likewise it just works. Delightful the way it keeps up with our heat pump keeping us cool on summer days, and how much it contributes year round.
Plus I like to think of my Fiat 500e as being solar powered, at least in the sunnier parts of the year. Of course I charge it at night but the net-net is the power drawn to charge the car is offset by the solar power generated.
I had nine LG 350 watt units with Enphase micro inverters installed last summer. Other than problems with Enphase transmitting production data, I have been well satisfied, despite their less than optimal positioning. My net cost, after rebates was about $8200. It should, on an annualized basis, produce all of our electricity, but that is largely because we use so little, about 3000 kilowatts per year. People ask me if I will get all of my investment back, to which i reply: do you think that the people who are spending $35,000 for a new car (the average transaction price today) are going to get any of that back?
A recent trip to Australia indicated that about 10% of the homes there have solar. I suspect that there may be other visitors to this site that also have them. I am intrigued by the concept of producing the electricity for one’s vehicle at home. This seems like a workable concept for many people in the southern half of the country.
It’s workable anywhere. Germany has less solar input that the Northeast US but one of the highest % of solar installations in the world.
check out http://www.pika-energy.com for details.
As to our experience, our son has his undergrad and grad degrees in Physics/Math and Nuclear Physics and does R&D/design of medical instrumentation, so we’ve left it to him to spec and design our system. We’re still assembling all of the components piecemeal so as to afford 100% ownership from the get-go, thus have yet to install it. However as soon as he specifies the battery/storage/interface system so we can run both on and off grid, we hope in ’19, we intend to get everything up and running. I can tell you that he specified the 18 Kyocera made non-Chinese 270 watt panels, mounted on 2 seasonally adjustable-angle pole mounts (rather than roof-top) for maximum efficiency, and the advanced Pika Energy Island inverter system: http://www.pika-energy.com We will likely go with their Pika Harbor energy storage system as well. Lots to research, and YYMV depending on your needs. For us complete independence from the grid when desired is paramount.
I’ll try to stay away from the philosophical, or emotional stuff, but I can’t resist a few additional comments …
Even taking into account subsidies, the popularity of Tesla’s in Norway, as well as Holland, and apparently Colorado must say something about cold-weather capability. I have seen Tesla’s in Death Valley, Yosemite in winter with snow on the roads, and other somewhat remote places.
When I drove the Tesla at night, the touch screen was not obtrusive; perhaps it dims automatically or the owner dimmed it. In any case it seemed to have the opportunity to actually become simpler to operate (with experience) and less visually distracting than the smaller modern automotive touchscreens which need more layers of menus, and also combine the touch screen with legacy instruments and controls. My late model Tacoma is no paragon of usability and “controls at my fingertips” design. Our VW is better, but I think only because it’s simpler. As someone who uses a smart phone and tablet all the time, the touch screen interface and menus seem pretty logical. And just for context, I learned to drive when you pulled or twisted a knob on the dash for lights and wipers, and pressed a button on the floor for high/low beams.
I intentionally used the word “visceral” to describe the acceleration. It literally pressed on my viscera, and in no way felt like a computer or appliance. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. After driving this Model 3, I got a fairly long ride on a twisty road in the back seat of another friend’s Model S. He drove enthusiastically (his previous car was an M3) and as a passenger it felt like any other sports sedan. The Model S is phenomenally roomy and the space behind the back seat makes the Model X frankly seem unnecessary. The Model S owner also has an Outback (Turbo manual), and he said the Tesla is far roomier for cargo and is his Home Depot and dump run vehicle.
Sure the Tesla has a quiet engine and no opportunity to shift gears manually or pseudo-manually, but aside from that it doesn’t feel at all appliance-like based on my two experiences. This owner has 75K miles on his early Model S and it has been mostly trouble-free and other than tires, brakes, SW and some warranty glitches has required no maintenance. I also rode in a 240K mile Model S airport limo and it felt at least as solid as similar mileage Town Cars, Crown Vic’s and Mercedes S Class I’ve ridden in similar duty. I do prefer the Model S’s more conventional instrumentation, at least from a passenger’s perspective.
Thanks for all the comments, and good to hear from some real owners.
On the subject of how clean electric cars are, the big thing is that an EV is just as clean as its power source, which can change for the better during the car’s lifetime.
As the power grid turns away from coal and petroleum, and towards wind, solar and nuclear, all the EVs it charges get cleaner right away. Someday nuclear fusion will come on line, and even today’s EVs will then be powered by nuclear fusion. A gasoline car, conventional or hybrid, will always burn gasoline and release CO2.
Thank you DMAN for the impressions and info from owners.
Having to fasten the seatbelt to reposition in the driveway or in a parking lot would be far too nanny for me.
I’ve lived in places where the roads are steep and icy with cliffs getting out and the safe thing is to be ready to jump if needed, cars are replaceable. Still find myself without a belt for the first few miles sometimes after living in one of those for a few years.
But if people want to be controlled by their car’s designer and lawyers it’s fine with me. I’ll find a 60’s pickup and live dangerously.
I rented one of these for a day an a half a few months back. The car drove well, I enjoyed that part.
But the electronics were a DISASTER. Three times, the stereo came on all my itself at full volume, necessitating a reboot (hold down both steering wheel buttons for a few seconds – while enjoying the blasting music). Then the car kept its AC on while we had a long dinner – when we came back to the car it was freezing, and 25 miles of range were gone. And the nav decided at one point I was where I’d been several hours earlier. Then it got gray stripes across the screen.
This all happened in 36 hours with the car. If a Chevy or a Toyota did this, there would be an uproar. Tesla gets some slack, but I’ve got to wonder how long that’s going to continue.
Those look like the door handles Dave Kindig puts on everything.
The Model S is a fabulous driving experience, no question. However, even my #1 Tesla owner and proponent friend is starting to get tired of the excessive time his 4 year old Model S spends in the shop. Tesla always provides a loaner, but it is still a hassle. Currently his car has been at the dealer for 3 weeks waiting for a new rack and pinion steering unit. Part is on backorder and no word as to when to expect it.
Strangely, I hear the Chevy Bolt is remarkably trouble-free and when issues do arise they are resolved very quickly. Maybe there’s something to be said for GM’s Service and Parts Organization, and good franchised dealerships.
The current problem with Tesla (and EVs, in general) has nothing to do with the cars; it’s infrastructure and housing prices that are holding them back.
I can’t imagine anyone buying an EV who doesn’t have a home base to charge their car. And there are a lot of the motoring public who cannot afford to own their own home due entirely to the astronomical price of home ownership. That, in and of itself, limits EV ownership to those with the resources to own their home and overnight charging station.
Barring that, there simply doesn’t exist the wide infrastructure to support recharging an EV away from home. Oh, yeah, there are a few EV charging stations here and there (some are even free) but the pay EV stations charge an exorbitant amount compared to filling up your tank with gas.
Maybe at sometime in the future there will be plenty of reasonably priced charging stations available for EV owners who don’t have home charging, but until that day comes, EVs will mostly just be a novelty for the well-off. Dual-power hybrids seem more like the way to go for the vast majority, at least in today’s world.
Precisely the reason why an EV is off the cards for me.
Not everyone that rents ends up in a condo or apartment without a garage. Plenty of single family homes get rented and if my tenant asked me I’d consider pitching in to make a charging station viable in the garage. It’d be a potential plus when it gets rented to the next person or eventually sold. If my tenant wanted to pay for it all himself I’d be even more on-board and would source the necessary permits etc. That’s how my previous rental ended up with a full cedar fence, the tenant wanted a fence and asked if I would be averse to the idea if he paid for it. Fine with me, he ended up only staying a year, but I got a $4500 fence out of it.
In addition to that, some developers have specifically noted this need and are including charging accessibility in apartment garages. It’s a feature and could well make one property more attractive over another, just like any other feature.
Well, yeah, if a tenant wants to foot the bill, what home-owner/landlord wouldn’t say, “Sure” to getting a free improvement in the guise of an EV charger? Most homes are already wired for a 220v clothes dryer, anyway (although it seems like they’re switching to those that run on 120v now).
But the truly enlightened landlord (home or apartment) would foot the bill to wire a 220v garage plug for a portable EV charger that an EV owner could take with them when they left. That seems like a solid compromise. As to an apartment, it would seem to be a no-brainer for a tenant with an EV to be willing to cough up, say, another $10/month for access to a charger the landlord had installed.
It’s worth noting that some of the EV charger location apps actually show private homes where individuals evidently offer their chargers for use.
I’ve long believed that the whole ‘value-added’ aspect is an area where a smart, non-residential business would install a free charger, just to draw in EV owners to patronize the business. They’d easily make up the cost of the charger with revenue from whatever service/product the business draws in. For example, I’ve seen free EV chargers located at motels, and that seems like a really smart play.
Conversely, there was a situation some years ago where Costco had actually installed EV chargers at some of their stores. Unfortunately, the chargers being used were some sort of proprietary Mitsubishi ‘paddle’ chargers that were rarely (if if ever) used. So, rather than updating the chargers with the now somewhat standard style plug, Costco simply yanked the chargers from all their stores. A real shame.
It’s a terribly ugly car with hilariously bad ergonomics. Supercharger prices are up 33% so there’s almost no cost per mile advantage to these Teslas over any other vehicle.
Good post! I drove a Tesla Model S for the first time last year and it is definitely a different feel. It’s not so different though that it feels foreign, just takes a little getting used to. And that acceleration…WOW!!!!! It’s almost scary, like riding the Superman or the Viper at Six Flags!! No loud engine growl, no torque steer, no vibration; just smooth, quiet, effortless acceleration. Definitely not your aunt’s Prius!!!! I’ve driven some fast cars in my time and owned a few sports cars, but nothing as frightfully fast as that thing!!! I was truly skeptical about EV’s when they first came out, but after that one test drive, I can definitely see them being commonplace in the years to come. If only I weren’t poor 🙂
Living year after year through the NE Iowa winters and regularly plying over vigilantly salted roads, I’m seeing the rust armies attacking my bride’s and my car with a vengeance. The old Sebring now is at 134k and rapidly climbing, and, as I have an 82-mile daily round-trip commute between home and my teaching job, it’s like walking a tightrope in multiple ways. There’s nothing I’d love more than an EV to eliminate the $200-plus monthly gasoline bill. I have a two-car garage that could be an ideal overnight charging station. But, I’m 61, and my wife will be 65 this year, and we’re barely squeaking by now; I’m not sure we ever could afford to buy an EV, or even a hybrid. Not in this life. It seems we’re hamsters on the ICE wheel.
Thanks for the report. I scanned some postings on this site and am surprised there hasn’t been anything other than a roadster mentioned.
My 86 year old mother picked up her Tesla Model 3 a few months ago and thanks me frequently for encouraging her to get it. She comes from a long line of interesting cars including a ’65 Karmann Ghia, a ’68 Porsche 912, several Audis and a Lexus among others. She said her Tesla is by far the most fun car she has ever had and she has had little trouble getting used to the interface. She seems to find excuses to get out and drive it.
I have almost 100k miles on my 2015 Model S P85D and can report that it has been the most trouble free and lowest car to operate by far of what I’ve had, including my Honda Odyssey, Audi A8L and Mercedes S500 AMG. The ergonomics are better than any of those cars and the technology works seamlessly. My operating costs have yet to go over $1000 and my brake pads are still at 80%.
I still look forward to getting into my car every day and it brings a big smile to my face. The car has a great personality. I hope you get to spend more time with one soon.