A Non-Car Enthusiast's Review of Tesla Model 3

My wife and I are in our 30s and we own a 2018 Mazda 6 (full size sedan) as well as a 2019 Honda Odyssey VTi-L 7-seater. We have a 4-year-old and a 4-month-old. 

I do not count myself a car enthusiast; I don't spend my day lusting over the latest luxury or sports cars or researching each car's spec. However I am a technology enthusiast, and as with every other geek in the world I have been excited by Tesla's futuristic electric cars for their form, function and the long-term benefit of electric vehicles to the carbon footprint. I have watched various reviews of Tesla Model S and Model 3 on YouTube, and found myself engrossed by its crazy acceleration, the futuristic controls and just the overall sleekness. I have also observed TSLA's spectacular share performance in bewilderment. 

When I discovered a relatively affordable Tesla rental service in Australia, I jumped at the opportunity and decided to hire a Model 3 for a 3-day road trip with my family. I joined the Australian Tesla Model 3 Facebook group to learn more about the car and the charging facility, and made sure I am fully equipped with the know-how of the car. I even downloaded its user manual.  

My verdict? (a) It is fun. (b) I am not buying it at least in the near future. 

Performance

The Model 3 we hired was a 2020 Standard Range plus which is the base model of Tesla Model 3. It was purchased for 74,000 AUD in early 2020. 

The car is fast. Now I have not driven performance cars and the Mazda 6 is already a reasonably powerful car compared to everything else I have owned / driven; but it still only does 0 to 100 km/h in 8.2 seconds. This Tesla does it in 5.6. On paper it is only around 2.6 second difference, but the moment I floored the pedal for the first time I thoroughly loved how fast it picked up its pace. Bear in mind that this is only the base model, the two higher trim levels (long range and performance) do it in 4.4 and 3.3 seconds respectively. Even at highway speed, it takes just a press of the pedal for the car to pick up plenty of additional speed, making overtakes a piece of cake. This makes it such a joy to drive, and one can't help but to engage in some lighthearted traffic light drag-race. (Spoiler: You usually win)

Handling

The Tesla is very responsive for a 1.6-ton car, we drove through some winding roads and the car managed them with ease. At no point did it feel like we were driving a heavy car. 

I have known about regenerative braking from reading, but driving it still takes a bit of getting used to. Normally when you let a car coast by releasing its pedal, it will gradually slow to a stop. Not with the regenerative braking - releasing the pedal means that the car will noticeably brake immediately (as it uses the braking energy to recharge the battery). I got the hang of it within the first hour, but even by the last day of my road trip I still couldn't quite get the car to slow smoothly by controlling how I release the pedal slowly. Perhaps this would come after even more experience, I don't know. It makes for slightly uncomfortable braking at each of the stops whenever I am not using the car's autopilot (which I will come to later). 

Driving Enhancement 

Tesla cars are famed for their futuristic self-driving feature. In Australia, you are given the option of standard lane-keeping and traffic-aware cruise control; versus a "full self driving" add-on (worth an additional ten thousand dollars) which is able to change lane to overtake in the freeway, and for the car to park itself in a spot or come to you in a parking lot.

The car I hired only has the former, and to be honest it turned out to be a bit of a letdown. Adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping are becoming standard features for most of the newer cars (both my Mazda and Honda have it), and I greatly cherish their ability in reducing the mental strain of a long drive in highways. 

The Tesla's version of cruise control and lane-keeping (called "autosteer") works well but they are nothing to call home about. It maintains a safe distance from the car in front, keeps itself in its lane when there is clear marking, and stays on even in a bad congestion with stop-start traffic. My Mazda and Honda both refuse to work when the traffic is fully stopped; although they are relatively functional for normal traffic (Mazda's version being a lot more comfortable than the Honda's jarring braking). 

What turned me off though are the phantom-braking and bad decision-making in crossing traffic. In my three days of driving, the Tesla phantom-braked at least four times, which means that it decides to brake emergently for no good reason. Only once was there even a slightly plausible reason (another car in the same direction is turning right, but I am in a separate lane which is clear); in other cases there were zero reason for the car to brake. These make for uncomfortable, and sometimes frankly nerve-wrecking moments. For crossing traffic, when there's a car crossing the road a safe distance away, the Tesla would brake hard even though it's pretty obvious that we would not have collided if we kept our speed. Both Mazda and Honda's cruise control are smart enough to not slow down in those circumstances, and Tesla, for its famed auto-driving, is over-conservative. 

What I do like about Tesla's cruise control is its ability to recognise speed signs and adjust the cruising speed with just a tiny input (a one-second tap on the driving stick to tell the car to update cruising speed after a speed limit change). When the speed limit returns to the previous higher number, the cruise control goes back to that speed automatically. It was nifty and smart. 

Overall though, the smart-ness of the auto-steer let me down, and I found that they are not much of an improved experience to what I already experience in my slightly more affordable cars. In other words, I don't imagine my 40-minute commute being a lot more fun or stress-free in the Tesla, compared to my current Mazda.

Battery and Range

This is unfortunately still a major issue for EVs like Tesla in the context of a road trip. This particular Model 3 has a claimed range of 460km, though the real-world range is closer to 250-300km depending on driving speed, air-conditioning and the use of a few other features. The battery capacity is 50kWh, and the charging speed of various chargers are:

- Regular home socket: 2kW - meaning that it takes 25 hours (50 divided by 2) to fully charge the battery

- Home Tesla charger: 11kW

- Fast DC charger: 50kW mostly, some faster versions e.g. 320kW now becoming available. 

- Tesla superchargers: 120kW in most Australian stations. There is ONE supercharger station in Western Australia currently, 170km south of Perth, though one is being planned at Perth CBD. 

 

Note that these charging speed are all "maximum" values which only apply when the battery state of charge is low; when the state of charge is higher e.g. 80%, the charging speed is designed to slow significantly even at the supercharger to lengthen the long-term battery life. 

In practice, this means that I had to:

- plot my trips to coincide with fast chargers - right now these are spaced approximately every 50km at my standard Margaret River tourist route (Perth all the way down to Augusta). 

- at the fast chargers, I usually have to charge at least 30 minutes to get meaningful charges e.g. from 40% to 90%. 

- usually there is only one or two parking spots at the fast charger (except the one Tesla supercharger which has 6 chargers). This means that if the charger is currently occupied, you might end up waiting for 30 to 60 minutes before the current car leaves, and that is assuming that the owner is a responsible owner who returns to the car as soon as the car is ready. 

- one of the fast chargers failed (at Augusta) and I had to use the slower backup charger which took longer and provided much lower charge (24% of battery capacity after one hour). 

As I mentioned in the first paragraph of the section, these drawbacks are in the context of a road trip; the usual 250-300km range would have been sufficient for most commute or short-distance travels. However, before fast chargers become commonplace (e.g. found in all regional town's shopping centre parking lot), there remain a lot of range anxiety for road trips, and you have to be either by yourself and have a spirit of adventure, or have very understanding travel partners in order to make it work (i.e. a 4 month old is a bit of a stretch). 

Luxury

Model 3 is a mid-sized sedan, and it shows. The backseats were cramped after a booster and a capsule. The front seats are noticeably less spacious than the Mazda 6 the moment I sat down. We had to leave behind the pram for our 4-month-old as it wouldn't fit in the trunk after two medium-sized luggage. It has heated leather seats, excellent speaker system, a 15-inch touch screen to control almost every feature (down to opening the glovebox!) and a grill-less design of air-conditioning vents, which again is controlled with the touchscreen. It all looks super slick.  

Travelling in the middle of summer means that we could put the car's comfort to the test. One of the nice features was the ability to turn on the air conditioner remotely prior to entering the car - this proved extremely handy in the summer heat. The air conditioner usually cools down the cabin sufficiently within 5 minutes (and you could see the cabin temperature live as it does that!). The glass roof is extremely effective at blocking the thermal heat, such that we always had a clear panoramic view of the sky yet did not feel warm even at midday. 

The built and sound-proofing of the car however turned out to be a bit of a let-down. I am not sure whether it's just the optics and the sounds, but closing the car doors and the trunk all gave me the impression of slamming rather flimsy metal, not the impression one would associate with closing the door of a 70k luxury car. The soundproofing of Model 3 is also lacklustre, despite the much quieter motor (compared to a normal internal combustion engine), at highway speed the wind and tyre noise is quite significant and it is noticeably louder than my Mazda 6. Again, a bit of disappointment given the price point. 

Entertainment

I did not have enough time to explore all the Easter eggs but I played with a few. There are the fart sounds, Christmas jingles, and even a fireplace mode where the 15-inch screen displays a cracking fireplace while a romantic couple enjoy their private time in the parked car. One could also play some classic games like solitaire, or enjoy a Netflix show. 

Safety

The car has top safety rating including 5-star for Australian ANCAP standard. You could always see the GPS location with your phone app. There is a built-in dash cam feature where the car records visuals from all directions of the car. There is even a sentry mode when the car is parked, such that any curious strangers trying to touch the car will be warned that they are being recorded on the screen. 

Running Cost

From a road trip perspective, I did not manage to save any money from electricity compared to an ICE car. For the 832km trip I needed to pay for 158 kWh of electricity, which cost me 71.59 dollars (a combination of rates e.g. 0.52 per kWh for supercharger, 0.45 per kWh for fast charger, and 0.30 per kWh for home charger). 

I looked up a similar trip I did last year on Mazda 6. Using the fuel efficiency figure from that trip of 7.4L/100km, this trip would have required 61.57L of fuel which would cost me anywhere from 61.47 to 86.20 depending on which price point I fill the car in Perth's crazy fuel price cycle (1.00 to 1.40 per L currently). 

Outside the context of road trip, however, a Tesla would cost a lot less to drive than my Mazda. Home charging costs 0.30 per kWh (and lower if you have solar panels). You would also achieve better energy efficiency in general. There are also some free "destination chargers" around where you essentially get to charge your car for free, though at a relatively lower charging speed. 

EDIT: The home charging cost is much lower than 0.30/kWh if one uses off-peak electricity which is 0.15/kWh from 9pm to 7am here. 

Environmental Cost

This has been a huge reason behind EV's increasing popularity especially amongst the environmentally conscious. Many people erroneously label EV as "emission free driving" - this is of course false as it greatly depends on how clean your source of electricity is. If you charge your car using mainly coal-derived electricity, your car is still producing some carbon footprint - the  only major difference is you are now producing greenhouse gas at the coal generator rather than in your own engine. There is also significant carbon footprint involved in the mining of the lithium used for the battery, however over the lifespan of the EV this higher footprint is usually offset by the lower footprint during actual driving. 

In WA renewable energy is now overtaking fossil fuel as the main source of electric energy, so the equation tips heavily towards EV being more carbon-friendly. Besides, the lack of emission directly from the car is also extremely noticeable. When I was parked at local shopping centre, I immediately noticed exhaust gases from the adjacent idling cars a lot more when I was driving the Tesla. One wonders just how much we put up with in our modern society with these fumes, especially in areas where children hang out e.g. schools, shopping mall etc. The redirection of emission away from vehicle has to be advantageous for our children. 

Conclusion

As I alluded to in the beginning, despite my enthusiasm, I am not interested in owning this car (at least in the near future). And don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed my three-day road trip, and electric cars are definitely the future of personal vehicle. 

If the Model 3 costs the same as my Mazda 6 (38k 2 years ago) or only slightly more expensive, I would have bought it two years ago. At this point, however, it is still not a sound financial or practical decision for me. It is not a family car due to the smaller size (and if I wanted a more equivalent-sized car it would have to be a Model S which begins at 140k), and for my regular commute to work I still do not see it improving my driving experience enough to justify the much higher cost. If the price drops further, when I have had more savings and investments, when my kids grow out of the car seats, and when the chargers become more ubiquitous then it would make a bit more sense to own this car. On the balance of all these factors it is still not justified. 

You should try it out though if you have a chance. It's fun. 

Credit for photos 1 & 6: Matt Kocaj (from whom I hired the car).