why do you need daily charging? the long range has 300 miles range so it shouldn't be that different from say the m3?

 

CorradoMR2, absolutely awesome review. Really enjoyed reading that - very helpful for anyone (myself included) who is kicking around the idea of owning a Tesla at some point. Can you comment on what change you saw in your insurance premium compared to your Stinger? I didn't see that listed anywhere.

Edit: Adding a potentially stupid question. Since your phone acts as the key, how do you valet park (how do they lock the car when done and how do they retrieve the car for you)?

 

You give them the Tesla key card. It acts as a physical key (size of a credit card)

 

Gotcha, thanks.

 

Congrats on the Model 3, definitely a fun move from the Stinger! Even after a week, the exterior door handles were still fairly frustrating to me. Curious how some owners with more rings/longer fingernails and/or jewelry are doing with not chipping that painted area just above the handles. Full EV is such a different ride and drive experience, I think it would be hard to go back to ICE after that. Although I do love the burble of a good V8.

Did you drive any other EVs like I-Pace or E-Tron?

 

^^^^ Don't know this for a fact, Henry, but my guess is that some people just like to keep a full charge in their EV to guard against a power failure.

 

power failures affect gas stations too, but ICE car owners don't have to keep their tank full all the time.

a home can also have a generator... my portable 10K one (with in ground gas supply) has a 220V outlet that i guess could be used to recharge a car too.

 

This doesn't necessarily affect conditions today, and I don't know if you were around (or driving) during the chronic gas shortages of 1974 and 1979...but a number of people did exactly that. They pretty much drove from station to station (when the stations actually had gas to sell, at inflated prices) topping the tank off as they went.

 

Thanks jrmckinley! EZZ answered the valet question. I will add that there is Valet mode as well that one can enable, which limits screen functionality and car drivability.

As for insurance, my yearly premium has dropped $80



Thanks! I will always miss the RC F's V8 and exhaust note. (Stinger was OK).
My daughter and wife have yet to scratch the car and don't have any trouble with the door handles despite the nails.
Agree, it will be hard going back to an ICE considering the NVH and power but most importantly, the hundreds saved monthly on energy costs.
Did not consider any other luxury (too expensive) or mainstream BEVs (Leaf, Bolt, Soul, etc did not interest me at all due to their styling, brand and the fact that they're not that much cheaper than the Model 3!).

 

I like to keep a full charge by topping up overnight each night since the electricity rates are cheapest. I try to minimize charging in the day (peak rates) unless it's weekends where the rates are cheap like the overnight rate.

Also, having the charge topped up gives me the freedom to run more errands, drive to kids' activities, etc without the need to Supercharge which is a (slight) inconvenience (and 2-3x the cost at home) vs plugging in at home.

For definition sake, a "full charge" is 80-85% capacity which is about 330km (205 miles) for my M3 SR+ .

 

exactly. EV range is more comparable with ICE now, and when there is power outage, gas station is out just as much as EV charging so there is not much difference

imho that's the beauty of EV -- you can charge at home and you charge it at night when you sleep (cheapest rate too). so as much as people complain how slow EV charges, it actually doesn't cost me any time since I am sleeping, vs with ICE i used to go to gas station at least once a week and that's easily 15 mins wasted.

of course, like you said, the problem with EV is that you need to have a plan, so you know you have enough charge to last through the day. obviously this is due to charging network. that's also big reason why i got the model 3 because my driving habit is very routine during the week. 50 miles around trip to work. i never have to worry about range. our other car is ICE because we want to have the freedom to drive everywhere without range anxiety

 

Nice, didn't know you had one or I missed you posting it somewhere.

Our ICE today is the UX 250h which to your point, is meant for the longer trips though I may try the Model 3 for a moderate-distance road trip (less than 300 miles) and see how it goes! P.S. Since the Tesla (5 weeks now), the UX has been little used for my wife's commute to work mainly, consumed just over half a tank (6 gallons) so we may end up visiting the gas station only once every 6-8 weeks!

 

haha i didn't really make a post about it. actually not many people know what i drive now lol.

we got our model 3 last november, the gs lease was about up and i wanted to take advantage of the federal credit. blk/blk long range awd. echo a lot with your review especially the driving part, it drives exceptionally well (far exceed my expectation). here in socal tesla is literally everywhere. just my work place alone there must be at least 100 of them. tesla must be doing something right

our ICE now is 2020 GLE350. the model 3 is my car and the GLE is my wife's car. we thought really hard about the model x (really love the fact about no more gas station run) but we just don't want to lose the flexibility of going some road trips and not worry about range. i think it works out pretty good for us so far.

 

Before you all groan and say "Not another Tesla thread", I felt this one was different enough, and interesting enough, from the (several) rock-throwing contests we had in earlier Tesla threads to warrant a new one. It deals with an actual Model 3 owner after a year of experience with the car. He's got some very interesting things to say, both pro and con.

 

............and I'll attach this video of an (attempted) teardown of a Tesla electric motor that was done just for curiosity.

(speedkar, you'll probably like this one if you haven't already seen it).

The amount of hardware and complexity inside of these powerplant-units is simply amazing. It is one (obvious) reason why Teslas cost so much.