In July my husband and I purchased a new Tesla Model 3 (the top selling new car in California in 2020 by far). This is not your Silicon Valley CEO’s $100,000 car, it’s the model that is much closer to real world prices (37K all in for the bottom of the line—obviously still not cheap). Since California’s Governor Gavin Newsom recently made an executive order to phase out The sale of new cars with internal combustion engines by 2035, a number of Californians have realized, “oh, I’m going to be driving and electric vehicle in the not too distant future, maybe I better learn more about them.”
Here are the top things that I think are useful to know about owning and driving a Tesla Model 3 vehicle (some of them pertain to all electric vehicles, some only to Tesla, some to this model Tesla):
- Tesla Supercharger stations line all the interstates in the country and all the major highways in California.
- So it is usually only about 50 miles between stations.
- The bottom of the line Tesla Model 3 can store just under 250 miles of driving range on its battery
- It takes about 15 minutes to charge another 100 miles at a supercharger (a full charge takes about 30-40 minutes)
- So by the time we’ve used the restroom and bought a beverage, we’re ready to go on the next leg.
- The Tesla knows where all the Superchargers are. An App called Plugshare knows where all kinds of other charging stations are along with how fast they charge, whether they’re free, etc.
- Contrary to popular belief, You can totally charge an electric vehicle on regular household slow current in pretty much any outlet. You do not need a special station, etc. to do this. Overnight, charging at a rate of 4-6 miles per hour, you can add 40-60 miles to the car, which is usually sufficient for in town. This year, we have stayed in Airbnbs on the road and plugged into our car to the house (traveling with a loooong extension cord and mats to cover it up and prevent trip hazards) and generally gotten plenty of charge for our day trips in the area.
- I have experienced “range anxiety” but over time I am realizing that it is largely irrational. There’s actually much more availability of electricity in the world than there is gasoline. There aren’t gas pumps in every home but there are electrical outlets.
- Now I’m wishing I wrote this as a “myths and facts” sheet, okay next time. Another popular myth about electric vehicles is that they lack power relative to regular engines. False. False. False. The acceleration on the Tesla (and also on our previous car, a plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt) is fast fast fast. The car also handles like a dream and is Much more like driving a sports car than a golf cart.
- Electric vehicles have and will prove to have much better maintenance records than ICEs—they have way fewer parts to break down. So a seriously used electric vehicle will have much less to go wrong.
- The exception to that is the battery which will eventually need to be replaced and is of course hecka expensive.
- The Tesla itself is a dream to drive. I really feel like I’m driving the car of the future. It’s space age console (like a giant iPad) does so many things I’m only just now discovering after 4 months of driving it. It’s got the built in functionality for driving autonomously and much of that is available for safety. The car knows where everything else is on the road and can automatically sense and break, maintain a certain distance from other cars, knows the speed limit and slows down (I set it to stay 9 miles above whatever the speed limit is and it does that).
- I just love our Tesla and would recommend it to anyone. The Chevy Bolt is another all electric vehicle that is a bit more affordable and that neighbors of mine seem to love. I have driven one of theirs as well and very much enjoyed it.