Hi Folks,

Ordered in June, amidst great excitement, we finally took delivery of our new Tesla Model 3  in November.

And I wasn’t there. I was stuck out in Iraq.

However, it was with great anticipation that I arrived home in December, keen to get behind the wheel and take the car for a drive.

Tesla

As I am sure you all know, Tesla have been at the fore front of Electric Car design for some years.  Whilst the majority of the mainstream car  manufacturers now have some kind of all-electric offering, until now, Tesla have pretty much dominated.  At the moment their range comprises the Model S, the Model 3, the Model X and the soon to be released Model Y.  ‘S3XY’ See what they did there? Or tried to. The model 3 was supposed to be called the Model E, but Ford have already nabbed that. Does it make more sense now?

There is also the amazingly sporty Roadster and the recently and in my opinion,  weird looking  Cybertruck which is due for release in 2022. Surprisingly, the Cybertruck seems to have been well received, despite the weird looks. And the embarrassing launch, involving ball bearings and supposedly unbreakable windows as shown here.

Test Drive

We test drove a Model S in the summer. I was, to say the least, unenthusiastic.  That is until I actually got behind the wheel. It was fast. I like fast.  The acceleration was truly impressive, as was the road holding. Wifey was very impressed but didn’t want the Model S, she wanted the Model 3. Slightly smaller but with equally impressive performance, that’s what we went for and that’s what arrived in November.

Tesla Model 3

We opted for the Long Range Version of the Model 3  in Midnight Silver. Tesla claim some impressive figures for the car:

Range – 348 miles

Top Speed – 145mph

0-62mph – 4.4 secs

This can be improved with a recent Tesla over-the-air software upgrade which knocks another 0.5 secs of the time, getting you to 62mph in 3.9 secs. Unlike most Tesla updates, this isn’t free and will set you back another 1500 quid.

Exterior

The Tesla Model 3 is a nice enough looking car.  Not hugely different from many saloons on the market these days. The front view always strikes me as being a bit strange. I put it down to the lack of a radiator grill, which, after  all, isn’t really needed. As mentioned, we went for the Midnight Silver finish. Polar white is the standard finish. Black, Midnight Silver, Metalic Blue or Red are options for an additional 1000 quid.

With a large boot (or trunk for our US friends) a sub boot and a front boot ( or Frunk as Tesla like to call it), there is lots of storage.

We opted for the standard 18 ” Aero wheels which have a strange plastic grill. This, we are told, helps air flow. May be true, all I know is they seem determined to fall off and I am constantly pushing them back on. We also opted for the tow hitch.  This is removable and ours has spent all of its time, so far in the Frunk.

It also boasts a glass roof that extends the full length of the car and makes it feel quite light and airy inside.

Interior

The inside of the Tesla Model 3 is comfortable, if a little boring. We went for the all black interior. There is a black and white option at anther 1000 quid, but it just didn’t do it for us. It’s a very spacious car and the glass roof adds to that feeling of space.

The front seats are electrically adjustable and both front and rear seats are heated.

There is a very impressive sound system with speakers seemingly dotted everywhere. I do like the sound. The car also comes with premium connectivity, allowing internet media streaming.

 

We seem to have acquired a Spotify account, which works quite well.   There is also FM radio, USB and Bluetooth connectivity, so lots of good entertainment.

The car has also one of the best Sat-Nav systems I have ever used.  As well as excellent directions, the system will advise on charging points and even advise how long you need to charge at each to efficiently complete a long journey.

Controls

I miss having buttons to play with. The Tesla has nothing. No dash, no buttons, nothing. Except a couple of thumb wheels on the steering wheel.  Oh and a 15″ Touch Screen.  All functionality, options and control is accessed from the touch screen.

I am still getting used to this. I am not totally convinced by it yet.

Hidden amongst the various features is the Toy Box. The Tesla designers have either got a great sense of humor, as witnessed by the S3XY gag, or they are all 15yrs old. I suspect the latter.

Toy Box

Delve into the menus on the touch screen and you will inevitably come across the Toy Box. In here you find such gems as Santa mode, Rainbow Road, old Atari style games, a drawing board, Mars mode and Emissions Control Mode.

Being December, Santa Mode got some good use. Select Santa mode and your turn indicators sound like sleigh bells, the car is depicted on the screen as Santas sleigh and you get a soundtrack of ‘Run Rudolph Run’. Pointless, but fun.

If you are in Autopilot and select Rainbow Road mode, you get a rendition of Don’t Fear the reaper and the old Saturday Night Live Cowbell sketch (this). Meanwhile the car is depicted on the screen driving on a rainbow road.

The Atari games are fun, the drawing board allows you to actually publish your artwork online. Not sure my efforts made the grade, but its just a question of time before Small Daughter is a famous artist.

Emissions Control

Then there is Emissions Control Mode. This has proven to be rather popular. Basically you can program any seat in the car to be a whoopee cushion and can select your preferred “fart’ noise. Great for embarrassing passengers.  Or if the driver is absent for a moment, your small daughter can program the turn indicator to ‘fart’. So next time you indicate, the drivers seat emits the ‘fart’ of your choice. Again, this creates much hilarity amongst small daughter and her chums in the back, or your 20 something year old elder offspring.

Everyone loves a good fart gag.

Driving

So, its a good looking car, its comfortable, clever and with all the storage space, very practical.  But how does it drive?

Well, that acceleration with all that instantaneous torque is awesome.  The car feels rock solid too. Its quite heavy with all those batteries located in the floor pan, so the center of gravity is very low. Hence it really hugs the road and you can fling it into corners with no worry whatsoever. The Long Range model has two motors so its an all wheel drive car and that just adds to the feeling of control and grip.

The car only has one gear, so once you select drive, you are off. Its rare to need to use the brake pedal, as the car has regenerative braking. i.e. when you take your foot off the accelerator, the car slows quite sharply and you reclaim some energy to recharge the batteries.  This takes a little getting used to at first, but soon becomes normal.

The Driving Experience

Its an easy car to drive, but not especially engaging. Once you have tired of roaring off at every junction, leaving everything for dead behind you, its a bit boring.

I drove No 1 son home to Aberdeen in the Aston DB9. We went via Dufftown and Huntly, so on winding country roads which, with the temperature below zero, were a bit frosty. Every corner was an adventure. I have the sports pack on my DB9 which means its quite a hard ride and the car can be a little squirrely even in perfect conditions. In icy or wet conditions, you are never quite certain what the car is going to do, especially coming out of a bend. I am not talking about speeding here. At 60 mph, the rear end was all over the place at times. Wifey hates that. I love it. Its exciting, its engaging and you have to drive the car.

Tesla Handling

In contrast, taking the Tesla for the same journey a few days later in similar conditions was absolutely mundane.  For most people, my Wife included, this is a good thing.  For me, I was bored and that makes me want to go faster. But with a physical ‘conscience’ sat next to me pointing out when my right foot is getting a little heavy, reinforced by the odd poke in the shoulder, I settled for turning up the music.

Efficiency

In real life, the Tesla claimed range isn’t possible. At least I don’t think so.  It does depend on how you drive. Its noticeable when comparing Wifey driving the car to my driving it over the same journey, she always finishes with more range left.  I tend to test the acceleration figures all the time. Wifey tends to drive more like a normal person.  inevitably, the harder you push the car, the less range you will get.

Even so, I have managed a good 250 + miles driving quite hard and with AC, music and heated seats going full belt.

Charging

Our car is charged overnight, every night.  Tesla recommend you don’t fully charge the batteries and you can select the % charge. We typically go for an 85% charge which quotes a range of around 275 miles.

There are loads of charging points dotted around. We have never yet managed to get one to work. I am sure this will get better. It may be due to our naivety or doing something wrong. But there are heaps of different companies that operate the charging points. Each seems to have a separate app’ for your phone and each claims to be superbly simple. And yet once again I state, we have never yet got one to work.  We have spent literally hours on the phone talking to the charge point customer  services. This is not straight forward either and has typically ended with their advising us that the charge point should be working and no idea why it wasn’t working for us.  This is not helpful.

Range Anxiety

Our inability to charge away from home at anything other than a Tesla charger does give rise to range anxiety. Well, for me anyway.  I am constantly aware of the range and constantly calculating how far to home. With a petrol car, I am happy to run until the fuel warning light comes on then find a petrol station. With the Tesla, as soon as it indicates less than 100 miles range remaining, I start to get anxious.

SO far we have only had one near miss.  We arrived home after a full day out in the car with a single figure range showing. AC was off, heating was off and the radio was off. Don’t know if this was necessary  but I crawled along at around 28 mph to tease the most miles out of the car.  Still we got home and all ended well. Poor management on my behalf (and failure to get a stupid charging point to work in Elgin)

Conclusion

I spent most of December driving the Tesla Model 3.  It is a nice car. Pretty, comfortable, good ride, clever and with impressive performance. The range, so far has not been a big problem and as soon as we figure out how to reliably use external charging points, that will improve further.

And yet. I find myself missing the old BMW. Wifey thinks the Tesla drive is similar to the BMW 530 we used to have. I disagree.  The BMW was more fun, in my opinion. I do miss the noise.  The sound of my big 6ltr V12 is amazing.  I am also a little horrified that the uprated Model 3 can out accelerate my DB9. It leaves me for dead.

However, I have to admit, the Tesla Model 3 is a good car. Wifey loves it as does Small daughter and that important.  She tells me she prefers it to the DB9, but then, she has never forgiven the Aston for biting her finger when she caught it in the door.

Electric cars are the future and the Model 3 is one of the best in my opinion.  I am and remain a petrol head but accept that I am a dinosaur.  I would like to try a Tesla Roadster. Now sure I would ever be able to afford one, but in the meantime, I guess I have the best of all worlds with the Tesla and The Aston. But just because I can, I am now very interested in test driving the new Landrover Defender. Well, I have to replace the old Volvo. And on that bombshell.

Bye for now and talk again soon.