1 Year Used Tesla Model 3 Review

I’m a little overdue for this review and it may not be fully comprehensive of all my thoughts, but here it is… My 1st year review of purchasing and owning a Used Tesla Model 3 Performance.

Order Date: Feb 8, 2023
Delivery Date: Feb 27, 2023
Odometer at time of Purchase: 30562
Miles Driven Since Purchase: 23,500+

Purchase

Pros:

• Easy to find a vehicle with options I was looking for on the Tesla used inventory website
• FSD was included with all performance models available at the time and didn’t significantly increase the price compared to Long Range
• Adding a Wall Connector was simple and delivery was fast
• Delivery fee was a reasonable $500 to move the car from out of State to the local Service Center.
• Service Center staff were friendly

Cons:

• Performance model comes with summer tires and no option to change on purchase. It was still snow season at time of delivery and summer tires were not safe. Paid ~$1500 to replace with All-Season tires - which aren’t best, but much better than what came with the car.
• Delivery took 19 days, which might be okay for some, but compared to going to a dealer lot and driving home the same day, the Tesla experience was not pleasant; especially because…
• No communication from Tesla to keep me updated while I waited after paying for the vehicle. Calling the service center never resulted in answers. Telsa has no communication channel for customers to communicate with. It’s all a mystery until your delivery date is set and they call or message you to schedule pickup.
• No demo drive on delivery
• No demo at all to explain how the car worked
• Expected me to sign the acceptance of delivery before being shown the vehicle

Road Tripping

Pros:

• Built-in navigation is very useful for trip planning.
• Plenty of SuperChargers along the East Coast so not much concern of “range anxiety.”
• Most chargers are near a restroom and food
• The vehicle is decently efficient even on the 20” wheels. Getting to chargers at 10-14% or so and charging to 80% netted about an average of 250 miles
• 250kW chargers help reduce charge time
• Price per kWh is decent in most places and less than gas

Cons:

• Some cities only have one or two charging stations. At one destination city in South Carolina, the closest charger was a 30 minute drive away from the rental home. It takes time away from the vacation and puts extra miles on the car.
• Some charging stations are hidden in back lots and do not feel safe
• Lack of canopies means getting soaked in the rain to plug/unplug
• 150kW chargers increase time and sometimes you don’t have a choice. Navigation could do better at getting people to faster chargers
• The charging curve is good on my Model 3, but it doesn’t hold 250kW for very long and only at low SoC, then drops significantly as the car charges. While the charge times are good, trips could be shorter with a better charging curve.

Charging

Pros:

• see above for road tripping on SuperChargers
• Preconditioning on the way to a SuperChargers improves charging speeds and reduces charge time
• 9-11kW home charging is plenty to keep my “tank” filled to where I need it for my average daily driving. I’d like to get faster speeds at home, but I normally don’t need it to be any faster.
• An 80% SOC usually lasts me a couple days
• Cost per kWh at home is half the cost of a SuperCharger and could be much cheaper if I installed a dedicated meter and enrolled in the local State program

Cons:

• Would like an option to manually precondition the battery since the local SuperCharger is only ~1.5miles from my home and not enough time to warm up the battery properly. Setting the destination early can help mitigate this a bit but I often don’t have/take time to experiment with that. If I’m going to a SuperCharger locally it’s because I need more charge in the time available than what my home can provide.
• Supercharger wires are too short. Even when I’m a Tesla you sometimes struggle getting the wire to the port. Supposedly v4 cabinets will fix this, but at this point in time the short wires are an annoyance.

Tech

Pros:

• The primary screen is big enough
• Controls are fairly accessible on the screen and easy to understand with a little time using it
• The rear camera and guide lines are the best I have used for backing into spaces and reversing. Which is important for plugging in at a SuperCharger with vehicles on each side of the spot you’re pulling into.
• The fender cameras are good for checking blind spots
• Dog mode is great and came in handy when traveling with the my little buddy. The internal camera helps check in on them while you’re out eating and using restrooms.
• Traffic-Aware Cruise Control is really nice.
• Most of the video games run pretty well with a few exceptions of screen tearing (Cuphead, for example).
• Most of the video services work well enough, but can load a bit sluggishly
• The toy box features are okay to play with every now and then, but mostly forgettable
• Phone Key is mostly awesome. I like not needing to carry around a FOB.
• Valet mode is pretty great when handing the keycard to a service technician at a non-Tesla service center. I’m sure there are other good uses for valet mode, but the tire shop is where I have needed it and worked well.
• The scroll wheels are a convenient way to access certain settings and controls without having to use the screen. Though it did take me a couple days to understand how to click left and right using the wheels.

Cons:

• Can’t view internal camera if someone is in the car using the screen. This feels less like a technical limitation and could be changed with a software update. I’m sure it is an attempt at privacy, but I had a need to check in and could t because the kid was playing a game on the screen.
• Intel Atom has not aged well for running the tablet. The UI is mostly fine, but the speed difference between my car and newer Tesla vehicles is significant. Since this is also the car’s computer, it has limited (non-existent) upgrade options. Wouldn’t be more than $500 to have a swappable APU/mobo to run the screen that communicates with the car CPU and allows for upgrade options down the road when the software has surpassed a reasonable performance of the CPU. I’m not going to buy a whole new car just to get a little faster screen.
• Viewing Sentry Mode footage is tedious and slow. The timeline selector isn’t as smooth as I’d like. Makes going through 30+ “incidents” a challenge.
• Sentry mode doesn’t capture things like - who put this grocery cart against my bumper or - how did the car not realize this person parked bumper to bumper
• Automatic Windshield wipers are not good. Too many times I have to control them manually.
• Currently cannot configure FSD to activate only on a double-pull of the stalk. I want single pull to activate TACC only and double can then put on FSD, but there’s no way to change it.
• Once in Drive, the car will not let you switch from FSD to the AutoPilot or AutoSteer. You must stop to change those. It’s not reasonable to require 2 driver profiles in order to make this switch while on the road. To me, that’s not an acceptable work-around.
• My car did not receive the latest video games in the catalog. I was specifically excited for Vampire Survivors, which is not available for my car.
• The web browser is very slow and doesn’t work well.
• Phone Key has limitations. Too often I’ll be stuck in the rain because the car didn’t recognize my phone until I unlocked the device. This is supposedly improved for newer cars and iPhones, but my car doesn’t support the U1 chip and so I sometimes get left in the rain for a moment while I dig out my phone.
• Audio control buttons are too small. I’ll often hit the wrong button when attempting to tap Next, Play or Previous. I’ll often scroll the timeline when trying to tap the pause button.
• There’s no way to manage playlists on Apple Music.
• The car often forgets what I was playing and I’ll have to start a playlist all over again.
• Many time I get “Playback error” message no matter what service I was using last. I get in the car and it just errors out.
• It seems like the car will often just play my playlist while I’m in the store and I’ll come out to a totally different song that what I left it, even if I pause the song before I step out of the car.
• Trying to search for music while driving is difficult, even for the passenger. The car bumps around too much to easily use the on-screen keyboard.
• Overall the audio software has enough annoyances to be a let down. It’s more convenient than using my phone, but it’s glitchy and can get in the way.
• Voice control is very limited in its usefulness. It doesn’t understand my command every often. I pretty much only use it for specific things and not often.

Ugly

• FSD is not very useful. TACC and AutoSteer are enough for most people since those are the 2 most important features for taking long road trips and assisting with fatigue. The only time I use FSD now, after the v12.3.3 update, is on long highway trips. It adds automatic lane switching, but can get you into trouble near exits; both when attempting to exit and when people are trying to merge onto the highway around you. “Supervised” was necessary not only to avoid more lawsuits of potential confusion over the name, but because the driver definitely needs to be aware and ready to take over at any given moment.
• Disabling the radar on my car seems like a bad decision. Object detection got notably worse once they went vision only and it has not improved. Really feels like a significant step backwards and there seems to be no plans for Tesla to course correct. They put new radars on the S and X, but those seem to be experimental and possibly will be abandoned. Who knows.
• What does the + action actually do in the audio controls? Never what I want it to, that’s for sure.

Maintenance

Pros:

• The local service center staff have been really nice and helpful
• Setting up an appointment is fairly easy in the app
• Uber credits are provided when the service takes multiple hours - days. Sometimes option to borrow a demo car instead of using Uber.
• Theoretically, regenerative braking (one-pedal driving) saves wear on the brake pads. Maybe so, but it’s hard to compare. Break pads on my old ICE vehicles didn’t need replaced very often either.
• Road side assistance was easy to use for tire issues. When I got a flat tire from a pothole I was able to get someone out to my location within 30 minutes. They put on a temporary tire (albeit 18” instead of 20”, but it didn’t cause any problems). The service center had my tire ready to go by the time my appointment came around and it was a fairly quick visit to the service center. The service center also allowed me to ship my preferred tire replacement to them and they only charged me for the labor to install it.

Cons:

• Required to accept estimates ahead of appointment. Estimates do not consider in-warranty repairs and thus you have to agree to pay for things that you might not end up paying for, but you won’t know until after the service is completed. Have to communicate with service staff to ensure you don’t get charged on the final bill.
• It can be difficult communicating an issue via messages in the app. It’s better to get the service request submitted and then call the service center to make it clear what the issue is that you’re having.
• Seat controls have been stepped on and broken by multiple people. First repair cost $160. 2nd time cost $135. Seems like a design issue if multiple people are accidentally stepping on and breaking these controls.
• Tires. I’m tired of dealing with tires. Overall I have spent over $4500 on wheel and tire replacements in the first year. I was already cautious, but now I’m super anxious about bumpy roads, pot holes and speed bumps. These low profile wheels and tires cannot handle Indiana roads well.
• The steering wheel that came with the car started falling apart and by September I had to go in for a replacement. Thankfully this was covered by warranty, but it was an inconvenience and some people may not even attempt as the estimated cost was around $900 if it wouldn’t have been covered.
• When I got my car back from getting the steering wheel replaced the dash material was not sitting properly and had bulges. Plus the glovebox was no longer aligned and was leaning to the left. Had to go get that fixed. No cost.
• The material under the driver-side door button started falling off. Fixed with a bit of super glue instead of going into the service center.
• It seems my blue jeans don’t go well with the White Seats. My driver side seat has a blue tint that I can only assume comes from my jeans. Maybe not. Idk but I’m not wearing the cheapest jeans. This seems like something that shouldn’t be a problem. There are also wrinkles in the drive side seat. I’m planning to replace the seat at some point, but I’m not in a rush unless the material cracks open.
• Service center only sells the Pirelli summer tires for performance models. Which does not work in the middle of winter in Indiana. So while they allowed me to get a tire of my choice and they installed it, I was kind of forced into that by not really having a good choice from the service center itself.

Ugly:

• It sucks not knowing how long until the 12V battery goes out. I wish there was an easy way to check the battery health without having to pull the battery out of the car. I think it’s a bit too late to give a warning on the screen when the battery is about to die. I don’t know the solution, but it’s concerning that I might end up stranded and needing a tow because of the 12V going out at an inconvenient time.

Driving Experience

Pros:

• One-pedal driving is the Big Wheels for adults experience I knew I wanted but never thought I’d get. It works great for me. I do have to hit the brakes occasionally and that’s okay.
• The performance model definitely has some get up and go. Anybody who has driven one knows that feeling of falling back against your seat on takeoff. It’s not Model S Plaid, but it’s still a fun feeling.
• The car is relatively quiet. Road noise is an issue on the highways. I test drove a 3freshed “Highland” demo car and Tesla has greatly improved that for the new cars. I’m not going to trade up for it any time soon, though. It’s fine in my car. A bit worse if you have to fold down the back seats and the trunk noise added. Still good enough to be a pro and not a con.
• While I’d prefer a HUD, I’m okay with the speedometer sitting in the upper-left of the screen. It hasn’t been an issue for me.
• The climate controls are easy to use. The seat warmers are nice to have in the cold months and helps to keep food warm.
• The car handles pretty well. It’s a bit heavy, but fun to go around mountain curves at decent speeds.

Cons:

• Maybe this is just the performance suspension, but you definitely feel the bumps in the road. Hard to sit your head back on the headrest without your vision shaking to the rhythm of the road.

Miscellaneous

Pros:

• The frunk is nice for keeping my portable charger and air pump. I have used it for light grocery trips, but mostly I just use it for storing maintenance equipment.
• Being able to turn on the climate controls from the app is convenient. I could do this with my key fob in my previous car, but this is still nice. At least the Tesla app lets me change the temp and turn on/off seat heaters.
• Finding the car is a big parking lot is easier by checking the location in the app

Cons:

• Having to explain how to open the door to people who are new to Tesla is annoying. I’ve had a few people get out using the emergency door release because it’s placed and looks like a normal door latch. Thankfully nobody has broken anything yet. I do my best to explain whenever a new person sits in my car to make sure they don’t pull that handle and instead use the button.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

I like my Tesla. I enjoy driving it. I’ve put a lot miles on it in this first year and feel I have a good idea of what the experience is for a Tesla owner.

I chose the Model 3 over a Mustang Mach-E solely because of the SuperCharger network and my desire to take multiple, long road trips in 2023. Now that the other manufacturers are making the switch to J3400 and gaining access to the SuperCharger network, that is no longer a deciding factor for my next vehicle.

My car has depreciated so much in price that I would lose a lot of money if I were to sell it now. Trade-in values are not very good and would also end in a net loss for me way more than I anticipated when I bought the car. I expected to keep this car for the long haul, so I wasn’t concerned about it when I made the purchase, but it still kind of burns seeing the deals I could’ve gotten had I waited until the end of 2023 or later.

There are a lot of really nice EVs hitting the market and on the way. While I enjoy my Tesla, I don’t plan on replacing it with another Tesla when I’m ready to move on. There are too many changes that have been made in the recent vehicles that I don’t like and there are quality of life features in other vehicles that are more appealing to me.

I don’t like the sporatic methodology of course corrections that the company makes. Sometimes changing things with OTAs without regard to customer desires for those changes. OTAs can be great, but they can also be misused. In general, I’ve not been a fan of the direction of the company and their lack of focus on their vehicle division. A lot will need to change to convince me to stick with Tesla going forward.

It’s been a pretty good time driving my Model 3, but I am looking forward to moving on to something that sits higher, has a quieter and smoother ride and has better build materials.

 

[KerrySkates]

Impressive level of detail! I can't remember that much, not to mention things that would bother me initially, I would eventually just get used to, so some things were just normal adaptation issues.

A few comments on your experience:
• Delivery, it's different and annoying, happens only once, but I've forgotten.
• Roadtripping, looking at charge curves, I might save 4 1/2mins if a charger was 250kW vs 150kW, depending upon what SOC I start at. Too minor to care. I made a chart to help my passengers understand it.View attachment 1043449
• Tech, my car has always recognized my iPhone. I never pull out my phone. No music issues. 2 profiles to switch from FSD to AP is easy and the way I like it.
• FSDbeta is pretty amazing, are you on the beta v12? It's so much smoother than EAP, that EAP feels jarring to me!
• Radar, only notice it when stopped at a light, can't see there are 3 cars in front of me; otherwise, no noticeable difference.
• Seat controls, no one has ever stepped on them.
• 12v, do other cars have a way to check? I mean, you can install a BT device on your 12v, as some people have done. You can check the service menu. Uhm, you can carry a small lithium battery charger like a Noco, in case your 12v fails.
• I have a small neck cushion, it isolates my head so it doesn't rest on the headrest, so no bouncing.

When my CT reservation number comes up for fulfillment, I'll look closely at Rivian again, but at the moment, I don't see anything even close to being better, as a whole. Good luck.

Charging Curve

The bigger problem is that no matter what power level you start charging at, the curve dips way too fast at ~30%. I’d like to see greater improvements to the curve on newer Tesla vehicles. It should hold higher power for longer in order to reduce charge times.

Phone as Key

What model year car? What model phone? Those 2 factors make a difference to your experience. If you’ve been lucky enough to not experience the delay, the okay, but it doesn’t dismiss mine and others experience with the issue.

FSD

v12 and higher are now called “(Supervised)” and no longer carry the “beta” label. I believe where you live and what your area’s roads and traffic are like and how much data Tesla’s FSD AI has on your area all impact the experience. I can use FSD on the highways and not much else without several interventions. Even on the highway, FSD makes questionable decisions when merging and dealing with other vehicles on the road. FSD does not see potholes and other road debris. Some of the shortcomings also relate to the disabling of radar.

Radar

When parking in my garage I notice a significant quality dip since the sensors were disabled. My car cannot accurately tell me how close I am to the wall or an object in front of my vehicle. It has the same problems driving in reverse towards objects which makes parallel parking in tight spaces harder than it used to be. The vision cameras just do not have the ability to judge distance and see objects nearly as accurate as the radar could in conjunction with the cameras.

12V

This is more of a feature request. I would prefer that new cars find a way to give drivers a heads up on the state of their 12V (or 48V) battery. I am only going off what I’ve read online and there are stories of people who did not get early enough warnings in their Tesla.

 

[KenC]

Charging Curve

The bigger problem is that no matter what power level you start charging at, the curve dips way too fast at ~30%. I’d like to see greater improvements to the curve on newer Tesla vehicles. It should hold higher power for longer in order to reduce charge times.

Phone as Key

What model year car? What model phone? Those 2 factors make a difference to your experience. If you’ve been lucky enough to not experience the delay, the okay, but it doesn’t dismiss mine and others experience with the issue.

FSD

v12 and higher are now called “(Supervised)” and no longer carry the “beta” label. I believe where you live and what your area’s roads and traffic are like and how much data Tesla’s FSD AI has on your area all impact the experience. I can use FSD on the highways and not much else without several interventions. Even on the highway, FSD makes questionable decisions when merging and dealing with other vehicles on the road. FSD does not see potholes and other road debris. Some of the shortcomings also relate to the disabling of radar.

Radar

When parking in my garage I notice a significant quality dip since the sensors were disabled. My car cannot accurately tell me how close I am to the wall or an object in front of my vehicle. It has the same problems driving in reverse towards objects which makes parallel parking in tight spaces harder than it used to be. The vision cameras just do not have the ability to judge distance and see objects nearly as accurate as the radar could in conjunction with the cameras.

12V

This is more of a feature request. I would prefer that new cars find a way to give drivers a heads up on the state of their 12V (or 48V) battery. I am only going off what I’ve read online and there are stories of people who did not get early enough warnings in their Tesla.

Charging, sure, everyone wants faster charging, who doesn't? Having said that, I will from time2time, look at a big roadtrip I've taken, Maine to Denver. It's faster now with V3 chargers than V2 chargers. When I first did it, the average stop took 17m. Now, 13m. I barely have time to get out, plug in, walk off to the bathroom, get another coffee, and walk back, before it's time to go! So, yes, I like faster charging, but there are diminishing returns the faster they get. We're talking just a few minutes, which in the grand scheme of things is pretty minor. I don't want to have to run from the car to the bathroom, and run back because of idle time charges.

That's just a screenshot of my old spreadsheet. No need to study it, but for me, it helps me figure out my stop times, and optimal driving speeds, etc. And, in the future, I've been comparing Cybertruck configs and Rivian configs to better understand how things would change if I got one of those.

Phone key, it's at the bottom of my post, a 2018 LR-AWD. I have had several iPhones in that time, and they've all worked as my phone key, as expected. Never a problem. I've probably used an iPhone 8, X, 12, 13, 14.

As far as I'm concerned, FSD is still beta. It's a dot-point release from the previous beta, so it's most definitely not a gold master, so it's a beta. You can call it whatever you like. I'll continue to call it a beta.

As for using FSD on the highway, has it changed at all from V11? I thought they were still using the old software stack for the highway, so it hasn't changed all that much.

As for potholes, I've experienced FSD driving around large puddles, but they have to be large. I've been thinking about it, and was wondering if lidar would be needed to solve potholes. Having that depth info would be good to figure out what is a pothole and what is just a road discoloration.

I'm not sure what the shortcomings are without radar since I don't park in a garage; and I like to park myself, as long as I'm quicker than the car, it makes no sense to me to let the car park.

 

[KerrySkates]

Charging, sure, everyone wants faster charging, who doesn't? Having said that, I will from time2time, look at a big roadtrip I've taken, Maine to Denver. It's faster now with V3 chargers than V2 chargers. When I first did it, the average stop took 17m. Now, 13m. I barely have time to get out, plug in, walk off to the bathroom, get another coffee, and walk back, before it's time to go! So, yes, I like faster charging, but there are diminishing returns the faster they get. We're talking just a few minutes, which in the grand scheme of things is pretty minor. I don't want to have to run from the car to the bathroom, and run back because of idle time charges.View attachment 1043536
That's just a screenshot of my old spreadsheet. No need to study it, but for me, it helps me figure out my stop times, and optimal driving speeds, etc. And, in the future, I've been comparing Cybertruck configs and Rivian configs to better understand how things would change if I got one of those.

Phone key, it's at the bottom of my post, a 2018 LR-AWD. I have had several iPhones in that time, and they've all worked as my phone key, as expected. Never a problem. I've probably used an iPhone 8, X, 12, 13, 14.

As far as I'm concerned, FSD is still beta. It's a dot-point release from the previous beta, so it's most definitely not a gold master, so it's a beta. You can call it whatever you like. I'll continue to call it a beta.

As for using FSD on the highway, has it changed at all from V11? I thought they were still using the old software stack for the highway, so it hasn't changed all that much.

As for potholes, I've experienced FSD driving around large puddles, but they have to be large. I've been thinking about it, and was wondering if lidar would be needed to solve potholes. Having that depth info would be good to figure out what is a pothole and what is just a road discoloration.

I'm not sure what the shortcomings are without radar since I don't park in a garage; and I like to park myself, as long as I'm quicker than the car, it makes no sense to me to let the car park.

It’s not like the charge times are terrible, but people shouldn’t just accept this as the best curve Tesla could provide. BEVs have varying curves. I am just looking to the future when someone could spend 5 minutes filling their battery at a DCFC and then be on their way. 350kW+ speeds aren’t going to do much unless the charging curves are able to hold those speeds at higher SoC. I don’t know what it will take to get to that fast of charging, but I do believe this aspect is key. I’m fine with the speeds for now, but if I am going to consider another Tesla, I would want to see it heals higher power longer into the charging session.

I’m using my phone to view this, so maybe I don’t see your car info because it doesn’t show on the mobile view of this website

Tesla is the one who changed the name and told people this isn’t a Beta release. So, officially, it’s out of beta, even if it currently doesn’t achieve the level of autonomy that its name would suggest.

The only time I use FSD is on the highway with the exception of experimenting with new updates to look for improvements and degradations. FSD is its own stack and does not fall back for highways or any other scenarios. I didn’t use FSD but maybe once before v12. I didn’t trust it. Plus I’m not very comfortable when the car takes over the steering wheel. I prefer to just use Traffic Aware Cruise Control most of the time - though I have to make that decision before I leave otherwise I have to stop the car to have access to only TACC and nothing else.

I rarely use auto park. I mostly am driving my car manually. I use the measurements on screen to help me determine how close I am to an object. That’s where the cameras fail the most for me. Lidar could be helpful, but my car doesn’t have that. It would be nice if Tesla would reactivate my radar sensors in an update, but that’s highly unlikely to happen.

 

[KenC]

It’s not like the charge times are terrible, but people shouldn’t just accept this as the best curve Tesla could provide. BEVs have varying curves. I am just looking to the future when someone could spend 5 minutes filling their battery at a DCFC and then be on their way. 350kW+ speeds aren’t going to do much unless the charging curves are able to hold those speeds at higher SoC. I don’t know what it will take to get to that fast of charging, but I do believe this aspect is key. I’m fine with the speeds for now, but if I am going to consider another Tesla, I would want to see it heals higher power longer into the charging session.

I’m using my phone to view this, so maybe I don’t see your car info because it doesn’t show on the mobile view of this website

Tesla is the one who changed the name and told people this isn’t a Beta release. So, officially, it’s out of beta, even if it currently doesn’t achieve the level of autonomy that its name would suggest.

The only time I use FSD is on the highway with the exception of experimenting with new updates to look for improvements and degradations. FSD is its own stack and does not fall back for highways or any other scenarios. I didn’t use FSD but maybe once before v12. I didn’t trust it. Plus I’m not very comfortable when the car takes over the steering wheel. I prefer to just use Traffic Aware Cruise Control most of the time - though I have to make that decision before I leave otherwise I have to stop the car to have access to only TACC and nothing else.

I rarely use auto park. I mostly am driving my car manually. I use the measurements on screen to help me determine how close I am to an object. That’s where the cameras fail the most for me. Lidar could be helpful, but my car doesn’t have that. It would be nice if Tesla would reactivate my radar sensors in an update, but that’s highly unlikely to happen.

But what if it is the "best curve"? It's a tradeoff no? Faster DC charge rates, increase deg, no? They have the most battery data, no? Do I know better than them? Maybe! I still have zero deg after 5 ½ yrs and 64k miles!

Yes, 5 min charge times would be nice, would probably take a chemistry change. Either way, it's not going to happen while I own THIS Tesla, so it's an odd criticism to make, don't you think? I would only be concerned if other mfrs were able to have faster charge rates, with minimal deg. Either way, until other mfrs have comparable charging networks, or until the implementation of using Tesla's NACS is complete, the consideration of any other EV is a moot point.

What, Tesla officially announced this isn't "beta"? I missed the press release. You'd think that would merit something more than a dot-point release. Maybe the person who was supposed to send it out got fired. I did see Elon say, in the last couple days, these were minor releases, and that the big one would be 2024.4. Whatever. It's still a beta as far as I'm concerned.

Edit: I forgot, if this FSD is now official, then Tesla can recognize all the FSD revenue they've had to put into escrow to follow accounting rules. That'll help the financials!

 

[KerrySkates]

But what if it is the "best curve"? It's a tradeoff no? Faster DC charge rates, increase deg, no? They have the most battery data, no?

I’m not trying to provide the solution to get to better charging curves. I’m not even saying other manufacturers have solved the issue. I’m not asking for my current car to behave differently. I don’t expect my next car to have 5 minute charging. No; I don’t think it’s odd to criticize the current charging curves of BEVs. Their fine. I’ve traveled a lot and it’s not been a big deal for me, but I can see a future where it’s better. I think it’s odd to remain complacent with the status quo and never expect improvements in this area.

 

[KenC]

I’m not trying to provide the solution to get to better charging curves. I’m not even saying other manufacturers have solved the issue. I’m not asking for my current car to behave differently. I don’t expect my next car to have 5 minute charging. No; I don’t think it’s odd to criticize the current charging curves of BEVs. Their fine. I’ve traveled a lot and it’s not been a big deal for me, but I can see a future where it’s better. I think it’s odd to remain complacent with the status quo and never expect improvements in this area.

Yes, but complaining about things that we can all agree will naturally improve over time is just odd, and I'm not being complacent. I just don't state things that are obvious nor complain about things I have no control over.

 

[KerrySkates]

Yes, but complaining about things that we can all agree will naturally improve over time is just odd, and I'm not being complacent. I just don't state things that are obvious nor complain about things I have no control over.

This is what I said in my review…

• The charging curve is good on my Model 3, but it doesn’t hold 250kW for very long and only at low SoC, then drops significantly as the car charges. While the charge times are good, trips could be shorter with a better charging curve.

I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal about this. It’s a valid criticism.

People don’t review products based on assumptions of what might change in a future iteration. People review them based on what the products are at the time of the review.

With your logic, I might as well not criticize anything because the assumption is that it will all be better someday.

 

[KenC]

This is what I said in my review…


I don’t know why you’re making such a big deal about this. It’s a valid criticism.

People don’t review products based on assumptions of what might change in a future iteration. People review them based on what the products are at the time of the review.

With your logic, I might as well not criticize anything because the assumption is that it will all be better someday.

Hmmm...biting my tongue. Okay, you got the last word!

 

[Jerryr]

But Lord, the Lightning's price! $80-100K + is crazy talk.

My loaded 2023 Lightning Lariat with the 131 kWh battery plus Max tow, power deployable running boards, console safe, factory spray in bedliner, mobile charger, 3 years of Hands free blue cruise, tow technology package, powered twin panel moon roof had MSRP just under $80k so it qualified for $7,500 tax credit. Plus Ford had $8,250 in rebates and additional $2,500 dealer discount. So it came in just over $60k. My 2023 Model Y cost me $69,440 when I bought it 9/14/22. So it’s all relative.

I can even charge my Tesla using the Lightning’s 240v/30a outlet in the truck bed if needed

I don’t do road trips with my EVs. I use my F-450 diesel towing my 14,000# 5th wheel RV on road trips. The longest I do in a day is about 250 miles with my Lightning. It can do this charged to 80% at 65 mph.

As I stated, it takes 30-40% longer to replenish charge at home due to efficiency. But it’s sooo roomy and rides like a dream.

 

[UltronY2021]

You need PlugShare, the app is simple and you'll be able to find a slow charger that takes its time while you sleep.

I agree on the newer Teslas. I don't want a yoke and I like my USS. My 2021 Model Y LR is better for me than the refresh they're releasing.

 

[KerrySkates]

You need PlugShare, the app is simple and you'll be able to find a slow charger that takes its time while you sleep.

In this instance, I was staying at an Airbnb. I wasn’t about to leave my car somewhere else for overnight charging and have to Uber back and forth.