I’ve now owned my Model 3 SR Highland for a solid 7 months now, and honestly, it’s been one of the most enjoyable vehicles I have ever owned. As such, even though old mate Elon’s doing all kinds of bad shit, i can absolutely, hand-on-heart still recommend one to anyone who wants an EV.
…But it’s important to note that I still think Elon sucks. but his cars? Fucking awesome. Go buy one.
So… Why did I buy one?
Easy. My Commodore Ute was dying. That car was a thirsty beast at best, and a thoroughly annoying vehicle to live with at worst. Let’s say i wanted to take more than one other person out for lunch or whatever… Well unless they’re wanting to jump in the back of the tray and hold on for dear life, that wasn’t happening.
On top of that, it’s frankly woeful fuel economy made actually wanting to go out and drive it a tedious chore. Oh, i want to go for a drive in the hills? That means i’m about to blow $20 in fuel and another $5 in maintenance costs, just to have a little fun. If i drove that thing like a grandmother, around town i’d get at best, about 9L/100km. If i drove it like it should be driven? I’d be getting about 12-13L/100km. That meant to do 100km at the cheapest fuel prices available, i’d be spending $19.50, assuming i fill up at $1.50/L.
Now, on average, my efficiency in the Tesla has been around the 125Wh/km mark, or about 12.5kWh/100km. To go 100km in the Tesla? Assuming the cost of power is about $0.33/kWh, that’s $4. That’d mean that driving the Tesla, all things considered, and depending on the drive i’m taking and where i’m going, could oftentimes be cheaper than public transport (unless it’s a Sunday, or at least until Roger Cook’s plan to bring transport down to $2.80/ticket works out)
If you look at the image on the left, that’s from the Tesla App. Basically the app that underpins the car, acts as the key to said car, and also provides you with controls for everything from locking and unlocking, to remotely ripping farts when people walk past your car (yes, that’s something you can do, i told you Elon’s got the mental maturity of a child.)
One of the things you can see in the app, is how much fuel you’ve saved over the life of the vehicle. So far, i’ve owned the car since December last year, and i’ve saved, at least according to the App, $672 on petrol costs. Keep in mind, i was in Japan for half of January and February, and that most of my charging during the sunnier months (So, December through to May) has been mostly using my solar panel array, so the cost to me during those months is less than $0.02/kWh. I of course understand that solar panels are not free, lol.
So, even if 100% of my charging is done using the grid, which mind you, is still cleaner than using your engine even if the electricity is coal-fired, i’m still saving money and reducing my overall transport emissions, whilst also driving a car that’s fun, technically advanced, and a surprisingly good handling vehicle. Speaking of that…
The fun stuff.
Yeah, i hate to admit it, but EVs, and especially Teslas, are really fun to drive.
Not fun as in the sense that “I’m trying to justify a $1000/month car payment” kinda fun, no, actually fun to drive. That low centre of gravity (thanks to that 650kg LFP battery sitting right under your butt), coupled with the Highland’s suspension which for some reason, is a completely different animal when you throw it at a corner, and the insane levels of torque, even for a base model, means this thing is an absolute rocketship in the hills. Throwing it at… Respectable speeds down Mundairing Weir road in Standard acceleration mode, is an absolute riot. It does get a little roly-poly, (mostly because they tuned this model for comfort), but it’s still, at least in my opinion, just as fun as my old NA MX5. The MX5 makes you work for your power, and it then, it corners like it’s on rails. The Tesla surprises you with a little bit of rolly handling, but the power delivery is so effortless that you can just send it to Mexico in the straights, and then use the massive combined stopping power of a set of 320mm four-piston Brembos up front, and its Regenerative braking in the rear, to nose in to the corners. I would like to see Tesla use pure Ceramic brake pads in lieu of the hybrid iron-ceramic pads, because of the squeaking caused by using the brakes a lot less during daily driving.
Considering that I was tossing up between this Tesla and an MX5? Well, i definitely do not regret my decision. I get four fifths of the handling and fun of the MX5, without all the creature comforts i’d be sacrificing. Plus once again, it’s cheaper to drive than said MX5.
The MX5 also doesn’t drive itself. Which, speaking of…
The comfortable stuff.
The Seats? They’re Comfy. The heat’s warm when you need ’em, and the ventilation is a weapons-grade defence against chronic Aussie summer swamp-arse. The steering wheel heat is roasting hot at its full temperature, and gently warm at half power.
I got the car windows tinted, sure, but that doesn’t do much to keep the heat at bay, because Australia is a hellscape that is borderline inhospitable for humans in summer. What does is the built-in ability to cool or heat the car before you get in. This is a neat party trick that most modern EVs can do now, so it’s not exclusive to Teslas, but still, it’s neat being able to walk up to a nicely conditioned car after leaving it parked outside. It’s great for beach days, that’s for sure.
What’s brilliant is that there’s also an onboard 65W charger for your laptop, meaning if you’re like me and sometimes have to go from set-to-set or if you have to drop your folks off to doctor’s appointments or whatever, and you need to get some work done, you can pretty much set up your laptop and work while you wait for a charge, or while you wait for them to finish.
On top of that? There’s freakin’ Autopilot. Now sure, Americans and their end-to-end AI version of FSD is making me super jealous right now, but Autopilot makes driving long distances an absolute breeze. Most modern vehicles these days have some sort of semi-autonomous driving assist package (BYD Calls theirs God’s Eye, Polestar calls theirs Pilot Assist, GM calls theirs SuperCruise, etc), but Tesla’s seems to work surprisingly well, and appears to get a little better with each drive and each update.
Oh, and the software updates? They are actually usable. One update I got a function that allowed me to remove my aftermarket charger by holding the door handle on the rear left for three seconds with a key nearby (so, a phone or an Apple Watch), and the most recent one gave me the ability to turn my car into a freakin’ nightclub with its Light Sync feature. Another update i got gave me cross-traffic alert and Pedestrian and Cyclist collision warning without needing to take the car back in for said upgrade.
The practical stuff.
My god is this thing practical. Okay, sure. It’s not a NIO ET5T or VW ID7 Tourer, (Please Tesla, please just make a Wagon already for god’s sake) , but it’s one of the most practical cars i’ve ever owned. This is coming from a fella who’s got an absolute love for the 4th Gen Commodore Wagon here, This thing is as practical as that car. Not even kidding here.
For a sedan, there’s an absolutely cavernous amount of room thanks to the fact that it has two boots, one of which has even more boot if you open up the floor.
When my dear partner and I nicked off to Japan for a month, I could easily fit two full-size suitcases, two carry-ons, a car cover, all the cleaning gear i needed to keep the car clean, its charging cables, and the two of us, comfortably. When I went to IKEA to pick up the cabinetry I needed to do our bathroom? I could fit the entire set of cabinets in the car, as well as the suspension rail for said cabinets, easily in the back.
On film shoots? I can fit my full Sony FS5 kit, and all the lights, stands, tripods, shotbags and other stuff I need, plus the camera cart in the back easily, and still have room to spare for shopping bags and other stuff.
Now sure, it’s going to struggle with bigger and longer loads (giggity) but for anything bigger than say, two metres in length, or anything that weighs more than 20 kilos, you’d really want to get that kinda stuff delivered anyways. Carrying those kinda things up the stairs in our apartment isn’t really a single-person job after all.
On top of this? Charging. Charging your car at home means you basically have a fuel station available with just the drop of a cable from wherever your nearest power socket is. Imagine having access to literally millions of fuel sources wherever you go! Instead of needing to rely solely on dedicated car infrastructure, (ie, your local Servo) you can just plug into a regular 240V 10A socket and fill up your car while you sleep. After all, when your car’s parked, it’s literally doing nothing, so it may as well get some “fuel”.
Due to its frankly, incredible efficiency, on a regular 240V 10A socket, a Model 3 SR will recover about 50% of its battery, or roughly 200km of driving range overnight. That’s because Tesla goes for the “small battery, big efficiency” approach, by making its cars slippery and lightweight (my car weighs about 1750kgs, which is really light for an EV.)
I spent about $300 getting a IP66 240V 10A power socket installed on one of the uprights of my balcony, and when combined with Depow’s 10/15A, 15M Long EV Charger, and a simple plug swap from the stock IP54 plugs to threaded IP66 plugs, I now have a charging solution that covers five parking bays below my unit.
But, if you do want to DC Fast Charge, Teslas (and in Australia, pretty much every EV, to be fair) offer you the convenience of the Tesla Supercharger network, and because Australian Teslas use the CCS2 standard (Thanks, Europe!) It means that charging a Tesla at a non-Tesla charger is pretty much pain-free, and if you own say, a BYD or a Hyundai or a Polestar or whatever, doing the opposite is also relatively easy. I tend to use Evie Networks chargers as well as Tesla’s chargers. All depends on where I am, really.
My rule of thumb for DCFC is essentially, if i dip below 50% battery capacity on a day’s driving, i will stop at a DCFC to top up to between 90 and 100%, and then drive home and fill up the rest of the pack when I’m there. The amount of times i’ve needed to do this however is slim by comparison to the amount of driving I actually do. Out of the 10,000km of charging i’ve done, a solid 91% of it has been off my dangled 240V plug.
In short? Being able to wake up and have 450km of driving range (Tesla quotes 513 but that’s based on the WLTP Cycle, which is never a realistic measure), is nuts. By comparison, sure, your Camry might have 650km of usable fuel range, but that 650km will cost you more, and requires you to use infrastructure that, whilst it is very plentiful, it is publicly accessible, It also makes you live your life around said infrastructure due to fuel price fluctuations. With more DCFCs opening up every month, it’s a no-brainer that eventually DCFCs will expand into, and eventually replace petrol stations, albeit with reduced frequency due to the fact that most people don’t bother with using DCFCs for daily charging in the first place.
Just to put it into perspective, I can drive from Perth to York and back, and still have 30% battery left. I can drive from Perth to Albany and i’d only need to stop for about 10 minutes at one of the two Superchargers along the route to do a quick topup, which is about the same route speed as a regular ICEV. Now sure, crossing the Nullarbor is going to be a struggle in my Standard Range Model 3, but realistically how often are you actually doing that?
Speaking of the struggles of EV drivers on long commutes there’s another aspect I love about EV ownership.
The community.
Tesla fanatics are truly fanatical, that’s for sure, but the EV community in general has some form of a camaraderie i’ve not seen from the car community for years. That picture above of my Tesla at an Evie Networks charger is on PlugShare, and is currently the cover photo for that site. PlugShare is just one of the many things that help bring the community together. People rate and comment on the quality of chargers, they locate and tag where new chargers are, and they help eachother out by letting people know when they’re coming and going.
At that site I helped a couple of wonderful people who were heading down to Albany in their newly acquired MG ZS EV. They had some quirk with their car which kept kicking them off the charger, which we later found out required them to keep their key in the car when charging. That charger then had some uptime issues which resulted in it being kicked off the network for a bit. People started reporting it to PlugShare, and that resulted in Evie getting things into motion to get it operational within a week or two. Apparently it was some sort of comms-related issue which stopped the chargers from delivering power or something.
The fact that the EV community bands together to help eachother out is something i’ve not seen since the days when I was in the modified car scene. There’s all sorts of different communities. People who talk about energy infrastructure, people who hypermile and go on massive roadtrips in cars you wouldn’t think could do them (shout to AttoGal and her ballsy trip in a BYD Atto 3 across Australia) , and others are into modifying and customising their EVs (such as the Ruined EVs crew)
Buying an EV, and especially buying a Tesla (thanks to their huge level of aftermarket support), brings you into a community of enthusiastic and passionate people, but also a group of people who just want to do things a little differently. Something which i’ve always said makes you a proper car enthusiast.
I say you cannot be a car enthusiast unless you have something positive to say about a car that the community at large thinks is bad. I was always the guy at car meets back when I drove an ICEV defending Teslas and Priuses, because there is indeed value in economy and efficiency. I defended Hyundais and Kias when they were oftentimes seen as pariahs amongst the car scene, especially amongst JDM fanboys. I still to this day, think Chinese cars are getting better, especially Chinese-made EVs. I mean, I own a chinese made EV, my Model 3 was built at Gigafactory Shanghai, after all.
And like the opinions of all communities, the opinions surrounding Teslas, and especially their owner are varied. A small segment glazes Elon like he’s the second coming of Christ. Most Tesla owners are ambivalent to him. Some of them (myself included), hate the guy but love the cars, due to the legacy of the brand itself. Some Tesla owners cannot stand him and are moving to other brands now that they’re becoming more available and are being better supported. Some EV drivers find greater value in other EVs due to other reasons. It’s why the automotive industry is a competitive market in the first place.
So… Have I had any issues?
Yes, but they aren’t dealbreaking issues, just nitpicks I have about the car.
I have to state, that Tesla paint is absolute garbage in my opinion, and i’ve already had two rock chips. One of which is on the rear left fender, that put a dent in the bodywork and left a nasty dent in the paint, and the other on the frunk, which is too small for me to even notice. If I did it all again? I’d buy one in Pearl White. But Quicksilver is soooo pretty.
There’s also a brake squeak, but that’s normal considering how much I use regen braking. A simple burnishing cycle will be enough to get rid of that. Or hell, I drive it with the brakes a lot more in the winter while the regen is limited. That seems to be helping. I think i might switch out for Ceramic pads though, especially due to the fact that it’ll end up being parked up for several days at a time come the re-opening of the Armadale line.
Some of the ergonomics are a bit clunky. For example, switching from Chill Mode (which is what most of my driving is done in) to Standard Mode requires you to set up a shortcut, do a long-press of the left scroll wheel and switch modes, making the procedure of passing a truck a little… Tedious. I’ve ordered some Enhance Auto S3XY buttons and a Commander to deal with this though, as the Commander also unlocks some pretty neat features i wanna try out.
The brilliant thing about Giga Shanghai cars, is that the Chinese actually know how to put a car together properly. There was no issues with panel gaps, no issues with mismatched paint colours, and all the spacings are even. In short, the horror stories about Teslas you hear from America are irrelevant to the Australian market.
In short? the car’s borderline flawless. I’m just a nitpicker.
So… Why did I buy one again?
Simple. It has been one of the most practical, comfortable, reliable and fun vehicles i’ve ever owned.
In the time that i’ve had to depend on it for my daily commute, it’s been wonderful. October 13th is coming, which means at that point it’ll probably only end up getting taken out on weekends to see friends, or to just pick up the groceries of a weekday to keep the K’s off the Getz, which is due to be sold soonish.
I love this car. Despite all the things that’re flying around the news, the best way to see if a Tesla is right for you is to just go out and drive one. Tesla’s service centres (shoutout to the people at O’Connor for making the experience so nice) can let you borrow the car for an extended period of time if you book multiple sessions in a row, so if you need to take the time to go drive it, most Tesla reps will be happy to let you drive it for an extended period if need be.
Ideally too, you should also drive the competition as well, but absolutely use a Model 3 as your benchmark. If I was to buy a Tesla today, i’d probably buy a Model Y Juniper due to its slightly better AP performance and the inclusion of an indicator stalk, as well as its bigger cargo volume. However, the Model 3 is a brilliant choice, especially if you’re a more enthusiastic driver like me.
In short, who cares about Elon? Go buy one! They’re good!
Beano out.