Tesla Model 3 1000km test review

I was considering buying an electric car and Tesla is an obvious choice, so I decided to rent a Model 3 for a weekend and drove it about 1000km in order to evaluate it.

I am from Genova, Italy but live in Zurich, Switzerland so my use case is to find a car that allows me to enjoy a weekend/day trip in Switzerland and occasionally can comfortably bring me to Genova without increasing the total trip time too much (over 30 minutes) due to charging needs.

With a common ICE car, the fastest one way trip without any rest/fuel stop can be done in about 5-5.30 hours; on average it takes 6-6.30 due to queues (damn Gotthard) and rarely it is 7+ hours.

So what about an EV? Here is my review after a 960km round trip in two days.

 

First of all the car specs of the model I tried:

- Model 3 Long Range AWD (bought in 2018, so should be HW2.5), had about 40.000 km on odometer

- 19" wheels (best choice for range would have been 18" with Aero covers, apparently you get around 10% more range in total)

- FSD with latest software update as of 11th September 2020 (should have noted down then version number, I know)

- Premium connectivity

The trip I did was a mix of highways and country roads, with short distances in a city. When possible I would drive exactly at the speed limit, while trying to keep a comfortable ride (eg: on curvy or busy roads, I would stay about 10 - 20 km/h lower than the allowed limit) and I would use cruise control as much as possible.

The weather during the whole test was sunny and dry, with little to no headwind and temperatures between 25 and 30 °C.

I had AC on the whole trip on Auto set at around 22-23°C and used Spotify for music. 

I had a passenger and some bags, for a total of about 120kg extra weight.

Note on highway speed limits: in Switzerland they range from 80 to maximum 120km/h, while in north Italy they range from 80 to maximum 130km/h. On average you can expect to drive around 100km/h in Switzerland and around 120km/h in north Italy.

Trip breakdown - day 1:

- Aargau, Switzerland starting charge 94%: I got the car and drove about 343km in 5 hours (had at least 1-1.5 hours queue - damn Gotthard) with an average consumption on 140Wh per km and ended with 25% charge.

- Dorno, Italy supercharger (max 150kWh, 6 stalls) stop: charged from 25 to 86% in about 25 minutes. 

There were 3 Model 3s charging (including mine) and all were using the fast charging cable. We were all equally spaced so charging speed was a decent 100kWh on average. 

Currently the superchargers are only available at the stop on the way to Genova, they are being built in the opposite direction.

During the stop I had AC off and no sentry mode, we locked the car. I did not note the total charge price at the end, would say it was about 11 euros.

- Serravalle, Italy stop: we drove about 53km in 45 minutes with an average consumption of 193Wh per km and ended up with 72% charge. 

We then charged from a type 3A charger for about 1 hour. The average charging speed was 4kWh and there were 4 Teslas (3 Model 3, one model X), including mine, charging from two stalls. The stalls had 2 plugs each, a type 2 and a type 3A. At the end we had 75% charge. 

During the stop I had AC on, and was in the car playing games or watching YouTube. Charging here was free.

- Genova, Italy arrival: we drove about 57km in 1.15 hours with an average consumption of 131Wh per km and ended up with 64% charge.

- Genova, Italy charge: we charged at a EnelX public charging station from a type 2 charger rated at 22kWh for about 1 hour. Even though we were the only car on that stall, we got only 11kWh average and charged up to 77% at the end. 

During the stop I had AC off, no sentry mode, we locked the car. I paid about 4 euros for this charge.

 

Summary - day 1: 

- total trip: 453km

- average consumption: 155Wh per km

- total percentage used from start to end: 94%

- total charge cost: about 15 euros

 

This means with the 18" Aero wheels and a 100% starting charge we should have made it with just enough charge left to go to a stall and start the overnight charge. However, it seems to be quite a stretch and would not leave enough room for a change of plan in case the charger is broken/taken/slow

Trip breakdown - day 2:

- overnight charge loss: I parked the car (unplugged) on the street (night temperature around 27°C) without pre-cool or pre-heat set and without sentry mode. Total charge loss after 15 hours was 3%, so we went from 77% to 74%. It seems quite a bit of consumption for a sleeping car.

- Genova, Italy starting charge 74%: drove about 233km in 3 hours with an average consumption of 164Wh per km and ended with 20% charge left.

- Monte Ceneri, Switzerland supercharger (max 125kWh, 6 stalls) stop: we charged for about 40 minutes to 81%. 

All stalls were occupied by Model 3s fast charging, so our average charge speed was about 50kWh; once some cars left we jumped to 80kWh.

During the stop I had AC on and we played some games for 10 minutes. Total charge cost was 14CHF (about 13 euros).

- Zurich, Switzerland arrival: we drove about 244km in 4 hours (DAMN GOTTHARD) with an average consumption of 143Wh per km. 

Due to the huge queue at damn Gotthard, we took San Bernardino pass instead, and ended up in queue later there. End charge was 31%.

- Aargau, Switzerland car return: I drove about 30km more to return the car (and of course got yet more queue on the highway) on city roads in about 45 minutes, ended up with about 26% charge left, but forgot to note the consumption there.

 

Summary - day 2: 

- total trip: 500km

- average consumption: 154Wh per km

- total percentage used from start to end: 104%

- total charge cost: about 13 euros

 

This means we would have definitely not made it in a single charge, maybe, just maybe with the 18" Aero wheels and Jesus as copilot. Definitely not a comfortable thought.

 

Results:

It appears consumption is sitting between 150-160Wh per km for this specific model and test. Note that these were optimal conditions for driving an electric vehicle as rain or cold would reduce your range.

Therefore, I would consider the effective range to be somewhere between 400-430km starting with 100% charge and arriving at the destination with about 1-5% left. 

The cost of charging would cap around 20 euros for a full supercharger charge, which means you are paying around 20 cents per km.

Notes on the car - BAD things:

Here are my thoughts on some features of the car I noticed during the trip which I did not like, in no particular order.

- mirrors coating: the mirrors and the rear view mirror are coated with some anti-glare/anti-flash cover which does indeed prevent glare and reduces annoyance of people high beaming you from behind, but also makes it very difficult to see anything in low light conditions. 

At night, you can barely understand there is a car somewhere behind, as the mirrors appear a dark black, even with street lighting.

- no buttons: while I do appreciate the airy and roomy design of the cabin, the lack of buttons for common functions such as AC, windshield wipers or lights is a problem. I would not mind having 3 stalks, one for the gears and two for functionality.

Using those features requires you to be distracted while looking at the touchscreen, which is not safe. However, this can be mitigated by using voice controls instead, which bring us to the next point

- voice controls: at the moment voice controls are available only when there is connectivity (does NOT require buying the premium connectivity subscription), which depending on your location might not always be active. 

If you have connection, it might take a couple tries to get the car do what you want, but it mostly works fine. However, without connectivity, no voice commands can be given at all (not even filing a bug report!). 

The worst case though, is when even with connectivity, they just stop working altogether; in this scenario, you are required to stop and restart or reboot the car to fix the problem. Definitely NOT acceptable.

- autopilot: it is a nice proof of concept, but unless you are on a 5 line empty highway, I would not trust it much. 

I used it when driving at higher speeds (80-100km/h) for about 10 minutes and it panicked when I tried to make it change lane using the turn indicator on an empty patch of straight road; in this instance, it started to move to the left, but then abruptly went back on the right and displayed a message saying that the time to change lane had passed and I would need to try again using my turn indicator.

It also slammed on the brakes once for no apparent reason.

- cruise control: avoid this fucking thing. In two days I experienced at least 20 times the phantom braking issue (without autopilot engaged), which is very uncomfortable and also very dangerous. For some reason it would decide there is an obstacle and it would slam hard on the brakes, then it would restart driving as nothing happened. It seems to be doing this often when big shadows appear on the road.

Additionally, after being set to keep a certain speed, it would sometimes change the set speed to something higher and accelerate to match the new limit he set (I guarantee I did NOT hit the right scrollwheel to change the speed limit). 

The lack of a speed limiter mode as in most cars, makes the cruise control the only option if you want to avoid speeding and therefore getting fined. 

However, with this erratic braking behavior (which cannot be disabled even if the collision prevention emergency braking is disabled), it must be avoided, making the ride much less pleasant since you would need to maintain the speed yourself by checking the monitor and carefully dosing your foot on the accelerator.

Note for those muricans wondering what a speed limiter mode is: as standard feature since ages now, cars with cruise control also allow the driver to set a desired maximum speed limit, without having the car accelerate/brake automatically to match it. Instead, the driver himself drives the car as he pleases using the brakes and accelerator, but the car will prevent him to go above the set limit. This is a very useful feature when you want to avoid fines, but also are driving on busy/curvy roads where it would be uncomfortable to keep a constant speed for the whole ride.

I also tried to mitigate the braking issue by slightly pressing on the accelerator since in this case the car displays a message that cruise control would not brake automatically because I was accelerating. Unfortunately, it is not the solution as it might make the car accelerate over the set limit, therefore nullifying the purpose of setting a limit at all.

- no manual air vents: the only way to control air flow from the AC vents is to use the touchscreen. 

It is a bit absurd to think a person would want the exact same air setting through a whole trip, sometimes I like having air blow in my face, sometimes I want no air at all while my passenger wants it, sometimes I want air but not directly on me. 

On traditional vehicles, this is easily controlled by aiming/closing the air vents manually, but on the Model 3 you must look at the touchscreen and control it from there. Not safe and not comfortable.

- theater mode: very nice and useful if you are stopped at a charging station BUT it requires internet connection AND a Netflix subscription. Why can't I just put a USB in there and play a video I have?

- no driver dashboard/heads up display: every information you want to have is on the main screen in the center of the car. 

While the speed is easily seen on the top corner, navigation info or cruise control settings require you to look just a little further away distracting you from the road. These simple information should be put in front of the driver at all times instead.

- poor assembly: driving over 100km/h made the front left of my cabin emit a strange vibration noise, as if something was not correctly assembled. The other side of the car was fine. Also the rear right beam cover was poorly fitted and a small gap was noticeable where the rear and middle beams connect. For a price of 55.000CHF in Switzerland or 60.000 euros in Italy, this is not acceptable

- no app store: something very puzzling to me is why did Tesla not fit its cars with a slightly more powerful computer and set up an app store. I can guarantee there would be a plethora of useful apps taking advantage of this huge display. Apps such as ABetterRoutePlanner or PlugShare would definitely add value. This also brings us to the next point

- no Android Auto (I could not care less about Apple, sorry guys): without a Tesla app store, the next best thing would be allowing the driver to connect his phone and use features provided by that ecosystem rather than the limited car options

- navigation: the navigation system is a quite basic Google Maps which requires an internet connection but NOT the premium connectivity subscription. 

While this is surely enough for some trips, there are better offerings (eg: TomTom) that can work even while offline and provide more precise directions when driving at junctions or for highway lane changes

Notes on the car - GOOD things:

Here are my thoughts on some features of the car I noticed during the trip which I liked, in no particular order.

- silence: I knew EVs are silent, but I did not image exactly how much. Compared to an ICE engine, this car at highway speed was very quiet and the wind/road noise was not disturbing at all

- smooth driving: minus the cruise control braking issue, the driving was very smooth even on bumps. Chill acceleration mode offers good performance without jerking you constantly back every time you press a bit more. Regenerative braking was also very comfortable and driving one pedal was possible for most of the trip

- seating: the standard seats were comfortable and had enough configuration options (including lumbar support) to make it a good choice for longer trips

- autopilot: I know it's also in the BAD list, but the best usage I found for it, was when we were stuck in queue and we set it to drive at top speed 10km/h. There, we could be distracted rather than bored waiting for cars to move, in the end we did not suffer being stuck as much as we would otherwise do

- steering wheel controls: I think the two scrollwheels on the steering wheel might be the best controls ever used. They are easy to access and very precise, hope others copy them

- games: this is a very nice feature, useful when you are stopped charging your car. It makes the stop time pass much faster than otherwise it would, even if the charge area has no facilities. They also work offline luckily.

- supercharger: under the right conditions, this is definitely something that greatly offsets the main issue with EVs, which is the charging time. However, do not assume you will always find a free stall and also do not assume you will always charge at the maximum speed possible

- glass roof: I checked while driving under the sun for a long period and the roof got quite hot, but my head was perfectly fine. I guess the back seat passengers would enjoy this feature the most since from the front seat you must look straight up, which would not be common

- frunk and trunk: unlike other EVs, these Teslas have a lot more space available in both front and back trunks. Even the pockets under the trunk are quite spacious, giving plenty of room for two travellers at least. Consider that you will definitely need quite a bit of space for all your cables anyway

- rear camera: the quality is on par with some other automakers, but the huge screen give a very good view of the rear helping with manouvering. This is basically mandatory since from the back window you cannot see a thing.

- infotainment: no other manufacturer comes even close to this. While it might not be as necessary for ICE cars since stops tend to be much quicker, it is still the best offering currently seen in a car today, not only in terms of screen size, but also for apps.

- lolz: the car has quite many nice nerd references which I appreciate, I wish however they would add seat farts features after cruise control features. I don't know how they manage their SCRUM boards, but definitely went wrong at some point

Final comment:

I tried the BMW i3, Hyundai Kona, Tesla Model 3 and Model S and the Renault Zoe. I definitely think in terms of driving potential of an electric vehicle for range and charging options the Tesla Model 3 is currently the best buy for the price. However, it is not a good choice for a car at least in a case such as mine.

For city or short trip purposes I would go for the Zoe which has a much lower price and provides a good EV experience while avoiding some of the issues I found in the Model 3.

For longer trips or mixed usage such as my case, at the price point this car currently is, there are much better ICE alternatives starting already at around 15.000CHF (14.000 euros).

It feels the Model 3 is a solid proof of concept product which is not yet where it would like to be. Hopefully their trend continues improving as it did since the beginning, finally offering a real ICE alternative for everyday people. 

In my opinion this describes quite well the state of the art for EVs today, combining the current model offerings with the current lack of charging organization (sometimes you need an app, sometimes you need a chip, sometimes you can pay with card) make EVs not yet a complete replacement for ICEs in most use cases