Would You Drive An EV Tesla?

[CarGuy11]

Different but fun in its own way.

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[Escapist]

I actually considered getting a model 3 before I got my Supra but I've never owned a sports car before so I decided to treat myself. My next vehicle will be electric however! As a techie, I also love how much technology is packed into a Tesla. Can't wait to see how they implement Starlink into future vehicles.

 

[TexasMKV]

I actually considered getting a model 3 before I got my Supra but I've never owned a sports car before so I decided to treat myself. My next vehicle will be electric however! As a techie, I also love how much technology is packed into a Tesla. Can't wait to see how they implement Starlink into future vehicles.

It was the same for me. Model 3 was on the list and I was waiting for the update with the heat pump/new center console. It'll be nice to have one but I wanted to return to owning a sport car and be more engaged to the road.

 

[CarGuy11]

Here is the Tesla owner's review of Supra.

 

[KahnBB6]

Would I drive a Tesla? Sure. I've driven a couple of other EVs prior (a Fiat 500E and a 1st generation Toyota Mirai) and I'm sure I'll eventually try out a Tesla just to do it. But I have no interest in actually buying, owning or leasing a Tesla despite otherwise liking EVs in general.

They have amazing electric motor drive units, motor inverter (controllers) and battery packs but I'm really turned off by the exterior styling apart from the Model S and 2nd gen Roadster concept (the Model 3 looks like an egg TBH) and interior designs as well.

The involuntary over the air updates give the Elon mothership total control over the vehicle features, options and interface and it seems really pointless to bother buying any software enabled options since they'll be deleted if you ever sell your Tesla on the used market. That means they have $0.00 permanent value... so why get any of them at all or care about them? You own a car for years or even decades after all. Even if the auto industry at large is interested in going in this direction the same disinterest will apply to any of them offering expensive software-unlock features that get reset once the owner's user account is no longer associated with a specific VIN number.

The Model 3's have no driver oriented instrument cluster and scant few tactile buttons which forces a driver to look away from the road to adjust simple things like A/C temperature and view road speed, battery level, battery heat level, etc. That's another dealbreaker for me. An instrument cluster above the steering wheel doesn't always need a lot but those cars have nothing at all, emphasizing the future self-driving ride-hailing "fleet" intentions Tesla Motors has for them.

Also, why no solid roof option? Why only a panoramic glass roof on the Model 3? I've never liked glass roofs and sunroofs but they're usually forced on buyers as standard features in the U.S. I have zero interest in a glass roof in one of my vehicles.

The build quality concerns me a lot too. They're a young car company and I get it that they're improving things year after year but it's still a legitimate concern.

They generally won't sell owners new parts or the technical service manuals for the vehicles they have bought new or used and legally own. This is a huge one and a major problem. Also an instant dealbreaker for me. Tesla, despite getting my respect for bucking the dealer-franchise lobby, is not at all a supporter of Right To Repair legislation. They back this up by disallowing owners to directly buy new parts on their own or pay for access to technical service manuals to review themselves.

And they strongly dislike owner modification of the drivetrains and software calibration and can remotely, for any reason they wish to do so, turn off not only Supercharging function but also the universal Level 2 DC fast charging function. Very no bueno.

The 0-60 times can be very impressive but after a certain point that's not what draws me to a car. Many modern cars have stupid fast 0-60 times. I'm more interested in a driver-centric fun experience tossing the chassis around and driving spiritedly even if all you hear is tire noise, chassis noise, gear noise and electric motor whine.

Whenever leisure travel becomes a reasonable and safe thing again I'm overdue to get behind the wheel of a friend's Model 3 Long Range RWD so I'll have to see how I feel after that but the concerns outlined above still steer me away from Teslas. I'm *ALL* for EV's but the way Tesla Motors does them just does not interest me beyond casual curiosity.

......

Now on the other hand what DOES interest me about Teslas is taking one of their used motor drive units, inverters and battery pack systems and retrofitting those all into classic cars in transverse (with a custom subframe) or longitudinal (see EV West's latest offering combining a Torque Trends longitudinal gear reduction box) configurations all with custom circuit boards and open source control. That takes a lot of work, time and money to do but anything like that using modified open source controlled Tesla driveline parts is very appealing to me however outside of the norm it is.

I do give major credit to Tesla for spurring the rest of the auto industry into EV investment. And this is coming from someone who wants to see the very best of the last gas engine fun cars and manual transmission cars before the shift starts truly hitting dealer lots.

I'm just more interested in how other manufacturers will implement their own EVs as we go forward. Tesla has a very clear market and buyer demographic that they cater well to.

It's just not a demographic I'm that interested in despite being very interested in EVs in general.

I'll put it this way: Ford's recent electric Transit van (but not their Ford-Escape-EV-badged-as Mustang "Mustang Mach E" crossover thing), Mercedes' electric Sprinter van, the Honda E and the ultra-expensive Bollinger B1 truck and SUV all got more interest from me than the latest Tesla models.

......

So yes I will certainly drive a Tesla or two just to have had the casual curiosity experience of it marked off my list but other than that there are already plenty of reasons why a Tesla vehicle would never be a serious consideration of mine to own, lease, subscribe to, etc.

 

[Paolo]

EV is like the new fab kid at school with his new gadget /smartphone.
After a few days.... normality resumes and the old skool kids are back in song.

 

[KahnBB6]

Due to the direction everything is EV technology is here to stay and it’s going to become extremely prevalent in transportation. But there will be a lot of hybrids first for many years alongside it. Aside, the hydrogen variant will be for heavy duty and industrial applications primarily... with some passenger hydrogen EV’s in the mix (basically that will be the new diesel in several years as infrastructure and applications for it slowly increase).

Gasoline is sticking around for quite a while yet but its rate of use and cost are likely going to change over time.

None of this is happening overnight but over the long term that’s where the industry and infrastructure is going.

Other than that there is nothing about that writing on the wall that says every EV in the future has to be exactly like Tesla’s version/vision of an EV.

At current time we’re in the very early days of this shift and as such we’re seeing the first wave of truly livable cheap and expensive/desirable EV’s show up in the market. And the charging infrastructure is also at a very early stage.

The conventional and special gas cars we love are still going to be the norm for a few years and predominantly we’re going to see far more hybrids or range extended gas-generator EVs be the average norm before full EVs are the norm.

It’s a shift but it’s a gradual shift.

Battery, ultra-capacitor, charging infrastructure all have to come down in price further and get built out more before 2035-2050. And then, as the costs for the powerful versions of the hardware itself comes down in price there are better prospects for EV conversions to classic and otherwise desirable vehicles as people wish. That’s going to become more prevalent too but not now given the very high cost for, say, a mere 350 electric horsepower conversion driveline for a classic car. But that’ll also become cheaper in time.

 

[justbake]

EV is like the new fab kid at school with his new gadget /smartphone.
After a few days.... normality resumes and the old skool kids are back in song.

 

[CarGuy11]

Full self driving is very interesting for sure.

 

[tadda]

Would I drive an EV Tesla...Yes

Would I own one...No

 

[Mason]

id rather have the mach-e. teslas are just too ugly but i respect the speed ev will bring us in the future

 

[Bflood]

Only Tesla I'd drive..

 

[mark5ive_]

I have a Model 3. It’s great. Fantastic for long road trips, since you can fold the seats down flat and sleep in the back while leaving the car in Camp Mode, which keeps the climate control on while using minimal battery life. It’s saved me a ton of money on hotels (probably over $10k worth just this year). In hindsight a Model Y would’ve been even better. Granted you can do the same in a normal car/CUV, but less risk of carbon monoxide poisoning and I also like to sleep with Netflix on. Also feels safer with all the cameras when I’m in a shady or secluded area.

 

[AutoDelight]

I personally wouldn't unless I was given one. But then again, i would be picky and it would either have to be the X or the S.
There was another thread somewhere here and from my time there, build quality has always been an issue. Also, for me, maybe cause I like old school but a full touchscreen is gimmicky to me. Nice to have for a few days then i get over it. I enjoyed my time having a Model S for about week but then was much more happy to get back in to my ND Miata (at the time).

 

[romanLegion9574]

I'd definitely get an EV at some point. Once I feel confident that I can plan trips around where I want to go, as opposed to where it can be charged, I'd look into getting one.

It will never be a Tesla though; there's way too many red flags for me, both from the issues of the cars and the issues of the company:

• build quality: panel gaps galore, the roof detaching, the entire "bricked car because they ran out of disk storage" on the ECU. There's also been allegations of "stealth recalls"
• insurance & spare parts: most of you are aware that insurance premiums are high for Teslas because getting spare parts for any repair is a nightmare.
• "fixing" what ain't broke: steering wheel vs yoke -- steering in F1 is very different to steering on the road, cramming everything about the car into a touchscreen
• "Full Self Driving": Here's a CNN video testing it in Brooklyn. I don't think that's ready to be on public roads, beta or not. This isn't a video game or app; there's real problems if something goes wrong, and it's not just Tesla drivers who are beta testers, it's everyone in the vicinity. I'm curious to see what others think about this.
• general intolerance to negative feedback: there's a lot of Tesla & Musk dismissiveness about things third parties bring up (for example, IIHS stating unsatisfactory front overlap crash testing --> Musk said this was an unfair subjective test), and I can't ignore several reports of retaliation against whistleblowers for trying to improve processes (for example, the Martin Tripp affair -- it's a bit sensationalist, but there's a sense of some truth behind the story)

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