I understand this is the MY Waiting room, but I think this might be beneficial to new Tesla Owners.
This is my 3-week review of the RWD-MY.
Power Consumption:
We bought the standard range MY because we don't have to drive very far and away from charging locations. We work around the city and typical commute is 40km. I was initially disappointed with the power consumption of the car because it was showing ~15% reduction in battery after driving 40 km. I knew that the advertised range is not real, but I thought it should be around that number (i.e. advertised is 455km, I expected 420 to 430). But after a 40km drive, the car was reporting a range of ~380km.
Tesla advertises:
-132Wh/km
-455 km Range,
-Battery capacity of 57.5kw (useable)
But, 57.5kw/0.132 kw/km = 435 km (
)
Looking at the energy app, and trip data from the car, we were averaging 160 wh/km on flat Melbourne City driving. This was disappointing.
Started digging deeper and made the following adjustments:
1. changed the driving mode to "Chill"
2. rarely use A/C. the climate control for us is just a fan with no heating or cooling. We generally pre-condition the car and it maintains temps pretty easily through the drive.
After the above changes, our power consumption dropped to an average of 130 w/km which is inline with the expected range
.
If you use Sentry Mode, throw the above in the bin. It sucks so much juice. circa 5~7% a day if not parked at home. Recommend to turn this on only if you are sceptical about the location where you parked.
Autopilot:
I first tested the autopilot on city driving. That didn't go well. Combining tram tracks with windy roads gave a bit of a challenge for autopilot. The car was phantom breaking constantly (especially around windy roads).
But when used on freeways.... WOW! 120km drive, I did not intervene once! It is not your standard "Lane Correction" that other cars use. The cameras operate to maintain in the centre of the road at all times and vehicle detection to reduce/increase speed around cars is very smooth. Driven 120 km at night away from the city, and 120km back (into heavy traffic) with no issues both ways. Not a single phantom break. Really looking forward to long range driving now.
The car was also detecting other cars that are getting too close to you and shifts slightly to one edge of the lane to give a bit more distance.
I'm generally an anxious driver, I keep looking at mirrors and checking what cars next to me do all the time. But with autopilot on, I generally relaxed half way through. Car asks to keep hands on steering wheel. But even if you don't, autopilot still functions. Not sure if it starts yelling at you after a few minutes. I generally kept a hand on the wheel.
Tip- you need to enable autopilot while parked for each profile.
Rims
The 20" induction wheels look really good on this car. But the design of the Rims and Tires is not fit for purpose. Generally, most tires are slightly larger than the rims. That way, when you approach a Kerb, the tires will hit in lieu of the Rims. On those wheels, the Rim will hit first. We hit the Rims on day 3 of owning the car
. I'll now have to sand the rim edges down, and paint the effected area. Then I'll be buying Rim Skins and installing to reduce the impact of rim rash. (
Rimskins Australia)
If you have been driving a small car all your life, be mindful of the large turning circle of this car.
Body
This car is Novated through SG Fleet. Experience with them was really good and went without a hitch. They also include a ceramic coat and Window tint as part of the package. They used "Tint a Car" in Melbourne. The tint product was ok (it doesn't match the existing colour of the current tint, but it's only visible in direct sunlight.) didn't bother me. Couldn't tell the difference between the before and after ceramic coating. But the car cleans really easily. (i.e. a wet cloth with some dishwashing soap did the job). If you are getting a ceramic coat, you need to clean it fortnightly to maintain the product.
Charging
Tesla recommends once a week charging to 100% on MY. I'm getting my battery down to about 30% before I plug it into a 15Amp socket. Tesla still hasn't updated the firmware on the UMCs. So its still charging at 12Amps (12Amps * 240 volts = 2.88 kW). So it takes about 14 hours (40kw/2.88kw) to get back up to 100%. Park when I get home at 6ish, full tank by 8pm the next morning. No need for wall chargers, or superchargers for me. Once Tesla updates the firmware, it will be less than 12hours.
Good luck to all those that are waiting and I'm really hoping you enjoy the new wheels like I did (am)
Cheers