Hi Folks,

Its taken a while, but as I said in the last post, the long awaited Tesla has finally arrived.

If you recall, way back in June, I was hoping to persuade, or at least encourage wifey to consider a new BMW. An X3 or X5,  something of that ilk. But she preferred the i3.  Personally I think the i3 is a horrible little car. Probably good for belting around town, but not ideal for driving in the country or longer distances.  So by a tortuous route we ended up test driving a Tesla Model S and eventually decided to go for the new Tesla Model 3.

Elon Musk

Tesla, as I am sure you all know, is an American Automotive and Energy company owned by Elon Musk. Musk is an interesting character.  Born June 28, 1971 he is the archetypal  entrepreneur, an investor, and an engineer.  He holds South African, Canadian, and U.S. citizenship and in addition to Tesla, he is the founder, CEO, and chief engineer/designer of SpaceX.  And there is more.  He is also co-founder of Neuralink; founder of The Boring Company, co-founder and initial co-chairman of OpenAI and co-founder of PayPal.   In short he is a busy man and something like the 80th richest person in the world. Well it’s nice to  have ambition.

Tesla

For the moment, apart from PayPal, Musk is undoubtedly best known for Tesla and the impressive range of electric cars they produce.  Tesla was probably the first manufacturer to make a serious challenge to the traditional car market.  That hasn’t always gone down well and in the early years, Tesla received constant bad press and endured dire warnings of imminent financial ruin. And yet, they are still going strong and with the Model 3 have become a very serious world player.

The Tesla range includes the Model S, the Model 3 (which was supposed to be called the model E but Ford have claimed that). The Model X and the new Model Y.   S,E,X,Y.  See what they did there?  And they also do a very sexy roadster. Unbelievably fast but also unbelievably expensive.   The Model 3 represents their first mass market and reasonably affordable car.  Tesla have also invested very heavily in battery technology and this gave them their market advantage.

Its all in the Range

Range has always been the electric car’s Achilles heel. Tesla cars were the first to offer a range at least comparable to that of a traditional petrol car.  Whereas the BMW i3 offers something like 150miles on a single charge, the Model 3 can achieve a range of up to 330 miles. That makes the car far more practical and useable.

In 2018 the Model 3 sold over 146,000 units.  This year, orders looked even higher. One of the reasons ours took so long to arrive. Demand is outstripping supply, but Tesla are looking to increase output in order to rectify this situation.  At the moment, I believe the Nissan Leaf is the best selling, all-electric car, but I would keep an eye on the Tesla Model 3 as it really is very good.

The Model 3

And so to our new Tesla.  Ordered in June, it was initially expected by the end of July. Then August. Then by the end of September and later, inevitably, by end October. But on the 8th November, Wifey and Small took the train to Edinburgh to finally collect the beast.

I have to admit, I haven’t had the opportunity to drive it yet, so I am relying on Wifey and her verdict. And the verdict so far is good.  She was very fond of our old BMW 5 series and she tells me that the Tesla drives better than it does. Praise indeed.

We opted for the Extended Range version to get the 330 miles.  This boasts a combined output of 412 bhp allowing the car to do 0-62 in 4.4 secs. Which is fast. Not as fast as the Performance model which has 476bhp and achieves 0-62 in 3.2 secs. Which is very fast.

Practicality

So the performance and handling is good. It also looks quite pretty.  The standard colour is white. We opted to go for Midnight Silver with the black interior. Looks very pretty indeed.

In terms of practicality, not having a large petrol engine to house there is loads of storage space.  At the rear of the car is a voluminous trunk, or as we prefer to call it in the UK, the boot.  There is also a smaller compartment within the main boot, offering yet more luggage space.  But wait for it, there is also a boot at the front. Under the hood is the wonderfully named Frunk. (Front Trunk? Well, Froot for front boot would be silly.)

Interior

Inside,  the interior of the car is, in my opinion, a bit spartan.

The dash is a piece of wood which runs the full width of the car. It also has a full-width air vent and a 15-inch touchscreen.  Search the cab and the only physical buttons you’ll find are two scroll wheels on the steering wheel.  These are left blank so their functions can be changed if needs be via software updates from Tesla.  There are also buttons for the electric windows, a button for the hazard lights above your head and a button on the grab handle to open each door, although there’s a physical lever below that.

The seats are  electrically adjustable and heated. Oh and Vegan friendly. No leather in here.

Space in the back seats is fine and offers an endless view out of the full-length sunroof that wraps right around to the rear hatch.

Controls

When driving, the portion of the screen closest to the driver shows all the driving information you might need. The touch screen allows pretty much everything in the car to be adjusted. Wifey tells me it’s quite user friendly and likened it to a giant smart phone on wheels. An interesting concept.  I am looking forward to sampling the audio system.  The inside of the car is bristling with speakers and again, Wifey tells me its sound is fantastic. Setting up the Sat Nav, which is very good by the way, the wing mirrors, steering wheel position, climate control, upper speed limit, security, is all relatively simple.

Once that’s done, you can have fun exploring some of Tesla’s toy box. Gimmicks really, that are there for no reason other than to entertain you.  It certainly entertains Small.  There are modes like the Mars button that turns the map into the surface of the Red Planet, or the Santa setting (only available with Autopilot engaged) which turns your car into a sleigh, the road into a rainbow and other road users into reindeer, or a selection of old arcade games you can play with the steering wheel and scroll buttons.

Sense of Humor

One of the more unusual functions is the Emissions testing mode.  Basically, it seems this allows you to program any of the seats to be a whoopee cushion.  Tesla do have a sense of humour and you can’t beat a ‘fart’ gag.  Moreover, you can have the seat “fart’ each time you use the indicators.  I think every car should have one of these.

So far then, the verdict is that there Tesla is a good buy and a very pleasant car to drive and I look forward to trying it.  However, we have had the first instance of what I am calling Range Anxiety.  This is where the range of your car is running low, with no charging points nearby.  In real terms its a bit like running out of petrol in a conventional car, but somehow, with an electric car, it seems worse.

Stressful

The other evening, after a day of running around here and there, the car was indeed getting rather low on charge.  This resulted in severe range anxiety.  Not by the driver by me, 4500kms away.   Yes, with the Tesla App downloaded on my phone, I can monitor the car from here in Iraq. As the car got below 50 miles range, then 40 and then less than 30, I found myself growing increasingly tense. I was pacing around the room and trying to phone Wifey to demand she find a charger at once. It was terribly stressful.  Eventually I got through on the phone and got a very calm wifey telling me to relax. It was all under control.

It’s no good, I have had to delete the app, at least until I am back home. It’s all too stressful.

And on that bombshell, see you all again soon.

Graham Wannabe,  Nov 15th 2019