@thebird said in [Electric Vehicles \(EVs\)](/post/1395890) said:
I wrote only one thing since joining the forum then vanished. New job, broken heart in recent weeks etc etc.
So I happen to own to a Tesla model 3 long range. I sold my S1000R BMW and put a deposit on one of these to try and support an Australian start up as well.
Savic
I also own a Passat R36 which is one of the best sounding cars I’ve ever heard out of a factory and I had a VY, VZ and VE V8
A couple of points.
I’ve seen a lot of people talk about missing the noise but you don’t miss it when you’re in the car, but I enjoy it when in another car if that makes sense. I over rev the Passat when I’m in it for that reason.
Beating my friends Porsche in a drag was a pretty nice feeling. Smashing Mustangs is even better. My 3rd slowest on the market Tesla will beat the last HSV ever made to 100.
It’s 1.5 years old now, its not been serviced and likely won’t be a for another 1.5 years, it has 30,000 k’s, even the tyres are lasting longer which I assume is because of the independent motors rather than normal AWD.
You don’t hear about the handling, but if feels very 3 series BMW, all that weight even distributed thanks to the motors and huge battery goes a long way.
Due to regen braking I will usually drive to and from work never touching the brake pedal. My brakes last check had only 10% wear and again 30,000 k’s on the clock.
I can drive from Canberra to Sydney on a single charge and can often find hotels with a plug. If I can’t find one 30 minutes at a super charger in Sydney or Canberra will do the trick.
Stop at Mittagong to and from Canberra there and I can basically travel for free thanks to the free NRMA charger. As these grow the cost of ownership gets lower.
Negatives
If you don’t have 3 phase power or somewhere to store the car its a mute point. You can’t keep it on a street and living off super chargers, it would just be too inconvenient. Solar panels go a long way to subsidising the cost.
The range claim is opposite to petrol, lower speed, lots of re gen = more k’s. Highway driving means less range so realistically 350 k’s versus the 620 claimed. Does not help I fall it way more than I need to.
Finding chargers on the road can be a pain, as a city car its amazing, really big trips take a lot of planning and if the charger is broken which happens you are in trouble.
Were you using the power saving settings on the highway? Climate control? Charging your phone?
There is no direct power saving mode. Really it comes down to speed. I was driving it on the highway the other day and it gave me two options for getting home, 1 Going to a super charger as I was under 80% charge 2 Doing under 110kph. I was never going to do under 110kph.
