With 12 pages of thread to read through, I must confess I haven’t bothered BUT have actually now had a test drive of a Model 3 and thought I’d share the impressions here. We were invited to request a test drive while we were at the Silverstone Classic last weekend.
As a background, I am a bit sceptical about electric vehicles and whether they are all they are cracked up to be from an ecological perspective and think other power trains such as hydrogen could be better. So by no means going into the test drive as a Tesla (or any EV) fanboy.
I’d read on the Internet about poor build quality, panel gaps and generally that the Model 3 was a bit low- rent. My experience of the car was that is is very far from true, the fit and finish of the bodywork and interior were as good as anything I’ve seen (and I’ve owned a lot of high end cars (or to be precise, persuaded my employer to let me run them at their expense)) so I’m not comparing the Tesla to say a Corsa.
The interior on the car we tried was pretty stunning, light cream leather with dark seat backs and carpets, with a light headlining and pan roof. The interior space was impressive and in the back there seemed as much leg room as in my current Skoda Superb, which is known for being big.
So initial impressions were very positive.
We were shown around the instrumentation which is more like a big iPad in the middle of the cabin and probably of all the aspects of the car this was my least favourite. I think getting used to using it for basic functions such as changing the AC level and so on would take some time and be distracting in the short term. My previous car was a Velar which had fancy dual screens and that had some buttons too but I never really gelled with the system - maybe those of the PlayStation generation will find it fine but I’m still to be convinced.
In terms of driving, what can I say. How about Wow, and WTF, and other such amazed noises. It was a truly different experience driving along with only a little tyre noise for company, you certainly needed to keep an eye on the speedo.
We reached an open bit of road and the guy said “feel free to floor it, but brace yourself first”...I thought “yeah, whatever”, gave it a reasonable foot full (but by now means floored it) and all of a sudden the scenery was coming at me like something out of a movie on fast forward! Absolutely incredible acceleration, no noise, fuss, delay or anything, just instant power due to the torque of the motors. Most noise came from Swmbo in the back who thought her neck had snapped!
Cruising along at 65 on a dual carriageway, look to pull out to overtake and VOOM, it’s done, OmG that’s 90, foot off throttle and the regen braking brought speed down again as if I’d been on the brakes. Apparently the ferocity of the regen braking can be tailored and saved against your “user profile” so multiple drivers of the same car can set up just about everything as they want. So when you get in, select your profile and everything sets itself to your preference.
I didn’t get the chance to really try the handling but nothing happened during the test drive that made me think the power was beyond the chassis capabilities. The ride was fairly good, a little stiff maybe but the car was running 20 inch wheels so there was no real give in the tyre sidewalls to absorb bumps, instead relying on the suspension to cope. So there was a bit of bump-thump transferred the the cabin . Potentially the suspension could be programmed - I didn’t ask - but if I was ordering one, I’d go for 18 inch wheels. The 20s looked great but I’d get tired of the ride.
The boot was cavernous but to me the opening is small and they missed a trick with not making it a hatchback. There’s no way I could accommodate my dog (greyhound) in the boot, whereas if it was a hatchback I could drop the rear seats and let her be in the cabin behind a suitable grate. But the boot opening was too awkward.
Were there any negatives? No, not really. The range on the one I tried was (I think) 330 miles, slightly skinny but if it was truly 330 irrespective of how you use it and ambient temperatures then for me, that would be OK as we rarely go more than 250 miles a day. I’d be more comfortable with a perceived range of 400 but that’s only like buying a car that can do 150 mph not 120 mph - ie academic but nice to know it’s there.
I started the test drive convinced I’d not like the whole experience and that ICE propulsion was in my blood and anything else would be a huge compromise. I came away absolutely converted and if EV is the best way ahead, well, sign me up.
Currently I’m not going the EV route, but am looking forward to viewing and testing a Model Y when they appear. I’d prefer an estate to an SUV style but would compromise that for sure. I’d prefer range over performance too but 330 to 350 is actually OK.
I’m a little unconvinced that the infrastructure currently supports widespread adoption of EV but when petrol engines were new, there was no infrastructure for them and petrol was bought from the chemist.
One of the add ins available at Tesla (maybe elsewhere too) is the ability to have a solar harvesting system at home so you can charge up a big accumulator from the light, then plug in when you get home and charge the car for free. Brilliant.
I know there are a lot of knockers of Tesla’s: I used to own a Porsche Boxster which also got a lot of and press and criticism- but only from those who’d never actually driven one and were happy to be influenced by the views of Clarkson et al. I have a massive suspicion that the vast majority of people who are knocking Tesla’s have never actually looked at one in the flesh let alone driven on.
