Can someone persuade me?

[thrash]

Hey guys

So I test drove a M3 a good few months ago now as my employer recently signed up to a salary sacrifice car scheme and the M3 was one of the best EVs for the price. The idea kinda fell away as we were moving house, lockdown came in, etc. so I'm back looking again now and seriously considering it with another test drive (with the missus) booked in soon.

I do have a few concerns though - it would be the only car in the household, anyone else in this position? I know it ultimately comes down to individuals lifestyles but just a bit concerned that there could be situations where I have hardly any charge left and have to make an urgent journey. It seems unlikely but always possible I guess. Especially if for whatever reason technology fails and the car doesn't charge at home (again unlikely but knowing technology, possible?). How many miles could you get from say a quick 10 minute charge on a home charger? I imagine very little?

Secondly, im not sure on the costs. I have a Mercedes C Class at the minute which is a 2L petrol on a PCP, I would need to pay at least £1k to get out of this deal and then go for the M3. It works out about £100 per month more expensive but does include servicing, tyres, etc. but not insurance, which I got a quote for £800 which isn't toooo bad. I don't do many long journeys - probably about 9,000 a year and I'm averaging 35.8mpg in my C Class, at 109.9 a litre that works out about £1200 a year in fuel if my maths is correct but probably a bit skewed because of lockdown.
Just a bit cautious committing to a 4 year deal if it somehow works out even more expensive than my current car, is that impossible when taking into account home chargers, paying to charge at places, electricity rates, etc.?

Sorry for the probably stupid questions, if it was a PCP then I wouldn't be so bothered cus I could sell it at any time and deal with the consequences after (and I've done that a few times!) but I know it's not quite as simple with a lease. It just seems like now is one of the best times to take the plunge!

Thanks in advance!

 

[TheEVadvisor]

Hey can’t really advice on the finance side of things, however the model 3 is a great everyday car. I have the model S and whilst it’s comfortable it’s a big large for streets around London and parking in general. The 3 isa good size with decent head room for all occupants. The boot is also good size but bare in mind the tailgate does rise with the glass just boot lid.

min terms of charging from home you should get around 21 miles added every hour with a home charger and 10 mins charge won’t add much, if you need a fast just you need to visit and supercharger or rapid charger.

I very much doubt costs will be more than your current car. It cost about £5 to fill the Tesla up from flat to almost full VS about £50 for a full tank on your Mercedes

 

[hingus2000]

I know everyone's circumstances are different but we do a similar mileage to you and I am yet to have a situation where the car is sat there with too little charge to make an emergency drive and we don't even have off-street parking or home charging.

A couple of times we've arrived from a long journey with say 15-25% and I have stuck it on our local residential charger overnight. The vast, vast majority of the time the car is idle it is idle with 50-70% charge with easily enough for any emergency.

P.S. - If/when you do order, do so directly through Tesla and then give them the details of your third party finance (there is an option to do so). You then get to see/control the order far better than relying on the finance company to place it for you, and you can also use a referral code for 1000 free supercharger miles...

 

[Alistairuk]

I’d suggest you look at the following as they apply to yourself;

- Average distance you drive each day
- Maximum distance you routinely drive each day
- Do you have ability to charge at home
- Do you have any nearby super chargers / rapid chargers

I’d suggest if you routinely drive a maximum distance close to the cars maximum range you may want to question if it’s the right car for you.

I wouldn’t worry about a few road trips per year as using rapid or the super chargers will be a minor inconvenience on a few occasions with long trips.

As for 10 minutes charging at home - it depends on your rate but I’d assume no more than 2 miles (more like zero)

 

[Durzel]

Have a look on Map of charging points for electric car drivers in UK: Zap-Map at where you live and where your nearby fast (Type 2) and rapid (CCS) chargers are. You can include superchargers too, but they will cost a bit more to use.

Pre-lockdown I was doing 200 miles a week in a BMW i3, my first EV, so a little over your usage, and I got by perfectly fine for 9 months without any home charging at all. I would just drive to a rapid charger near to work once or twice a week either at lunch or after work, and come back and the car would have enough juice for the next week.

A Model 3 will have a bigger battery so the likelihood is with your usage you'd be using a rapid charger once a week, for maybe 45 minutes, and have enough juice for the next week.

As said above, realistically you're always likely to end up with enough charge for emergencies unless you actually go out of your way to run the battery down and ignore opportunities to charge.

Worst case scenario you have to sit in the car for a bit and watch Netflix while its rapid charging, but honestly you quickly get into the habit of getting familiar with your local chargers and using them whenever possible, whilst you do shopping or whatever. More and more supermarkets have fast chargers now, some even have rapids.

 

[Roy W.]

Welcome to the forum @thrash

We’ve got the Model 3 LR AWD as our only car. It’s almost a year old. Before that we had a Kona electric as our only car for a year. So that’s two years we’ve managed using an EV as our only car. We do about 15k miles a year when not in lockdown.

We’ve never been close to running out of charge on a trip.

A 7kW home charger adds about 30 miles of charge an hour, so in ten minutes would add about 5 miles!

You don’t use an EV like an ICE car - fill up, run it until the fuel is low, fill up again. With an EV most people (as long as you’ve got home charging), top the charge up each night using cheap rate electricity, like Octopus GO.

Your 9k miles a year would cost you less than £100 in electricity at cheap rates. If you’re on a long trip and you use Tesla Superchargers, they cost about 6p a mile in electricity if you’re paying. Order your car using a referral code and you get 1000 free Supercharger miles.

We’ve been right up to the Isle of Skye in an EV, no problem, just a little forethought and planning to include charging on the route. A couple of weeks ago we had a week in the Scottish Borders, covered 950 miles, and all the charging was free! If I’d have paid for all the charging, I worked out it would have cost me ~£57, so about 6p a mile.

Any more questions and we’re all happy to help!

 

[LongRanger]

10 minutes on home charging is a tricky one to work out as how often would you realistically only be at home for 10 mins in a state of low charge.

most folks will chuck it on the charger each evening to take advantage of cheaper tariff deals then they have 40-80% charge ready for the next day - on the Performance this might give you say 200-250 range, 200 to be safe. How often will you start with 200 in a morning and then by afternoon only be having 10 minutes available to recharge having done 150+ miles ?

I went through the same mental process when I let go of my big diesel, 48 hours with the SR+ version was enough to show me range/charging anxiety isn't really a thing if you adjust your brain to just get used to top-up charging to stay around 80% as often as possible.

And it will be much cheaper to run overall, you will save not only on fuel but also petrol station goodies as you just don't need to give them your money for stuff you don't need but was by the counter and looked tasty. and no shoes covered in diesel / interacting with the great and the good in their pyjamas at Murco.

 

[pgkevet]

I bought my S 2 years ago and overall I like it but it's the bad stuff you need to understand first: Build quality, service delays, delivery delays, software problems, promises that havenlt happened yet...
Library of Congress Aesop Fables

 

[Durzel]

You don’t use an EV like an ICE car - fill up, run it until the fuel is low, fill up again. With an EV most people (as long as you’ve got home charging), top the charge up each night using cheap rate electricity, like Octopus GO.

This is the thing that I had to adjust to both mentally and practically. If you're like me you end up basically adjusting your habits slightly to charge up whenever the opportunity presents. For example, I used to not particularly care where I parked when I went shopping, now I aim to park in a particular multistorey that has Podpoint chargepoints there. More often than not you'll find - as a bonus - that the parking spaces are bigger too, so you don't have to worry as much about door dings etc.

 

[interbear]

It's not a stupid question @thrash it's entirely understandable question for anyone pondering a move to an electric vehicle. I asked myself similar questions. In reality though, my experience is that it simply is not an issue, you will get into a habit of keeping the car with a certain level of charge. Especially if you get a home charger that you plug into every night, as recommended by Tesla. So my Model 3 usually wakes up with 80-85% charge, if I use it for day to day local driving I'll plug it in overnight even if it's to just top it up a few %. It will go much lower on a road trip of course. But my pre purchase anxiety over range and this type of emergency scenario evaporated very quickly when I realised I had immediately developed a habit of just plugging it in whenever. It does not harm the battery to do so based on all my reading as long as you don't always charge to 100%. Hence why I keep mine at 80-85% and all seems fine.

 

[Dilly]

The M3 is not our only car, the other is a PHEV. Our previous EV only had 140 mile range. It wasn’t enough for a holiday trip without anxiety.
The M3 is a different beast altogether. It’s quirky, certainly not mainstream yet, and fun to drive. There have have been some charging issues. These have now been sorted with OTA software updates.
I don’t do more than 6000 miles per year But having had EV’s for a couple of years, and as others have said, you won’t leave it empty.
I have the long range and it’s usually at 280 miles (80%) most mornings. The longest ‘emergency’ trip I’m likely to do is 200 miles. I could pretty much do it without stopping on 80% charge.

the build quality isn’t Mercedes. Some people do have build issues. I’m not one of them.

We have sufficient solar panels to provide more than enough charge during the summer. In winter, I’ll use off peak.
Fuel costs really are cheap however you charge.
The one good thing with winter is the ability to pre-warm the car and seats.

presently, electric is the future. We don’t regret moving away from ICE. Could an M3 be our only car? Yes.

Tesla’s Aftersales service leaves a fair bit to be desired. They’ll learn!

 

[AnthonyLR]

I love my M3 LR. Have had it since March and done 2400 miles in it. I spent 4 hours in it the other day driving to and from Stratford-upon-Avon from London via Berkhamsted. I started with 87% charge and finished with 17%. There was a Supercharger on the way back but I didn't need to bother. It's not the only car in the family but it would be fine as one.

 

[freekie]

We are a family of 4 - 2 drivers (mostly me) 2 children. It’s our only car. I have got used to not having a hatchback. That has been the only drawback (especially as we want to get a dog again one day). You get into a routine of charging so I wouldn’t worry about that. I’ve only forgotten once because of the irregular driving since lockdown started. If things get back to normal you may well find your driving goes up as you start to look for excuses to drive! We had already planned a staycation before COVID (for the first time in about 20 yrs) so we could drive. Cannot comment on finances as bought mine and have written off in my mind what I paid! The car became my new baby and 5th member of our family. Recommend LR AWD for safer driving in poor conditions and reduction of range anxiety. Range anxiety can also be reduced by going on a long trip ( the Alps for us last winter). Additional benefit is pride and pleasure in driving a super car and not polluting our town. If affordable, sign up and enjoy.

 

[thrash]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I guess it will just be a change of mindset i.e. not treating like a petrol car and running it until empty but trying to charge wherever and whenever possible. I have checked on Zap-Map for my local town which is only a few miles away and my office, despite only being across the road from a shopping centre with a Tesla shop there are no chargers above 7kW it seems.

I also wanted to ask about home charger installation, I'm sure theres lots of info on here but how much does it cost these days? We have power outlets in the garage which is fed from the CU in the house but do they need to be installed in a specific location?

 

[Alistairuk]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I guess it will just be a change of mindset i.e. not treating like a petrol car and running it until empty but trying to charge wherever and whenever possible. I have checked on Zap-Map for my local town which is only a few miles away and my office, despite only being across the road from a shopping centre with a Tesla shop there are no chargers above 7kW it seems.

I also wanted to ask about home charger installation, I'm sure theres lots of info on here but how much does it cost these days? We have power outlets in the garage which is fed from the CU in the house but do they need to be installed in a specific location?

Unless you're planning on plugging it into a socket (you'll get very slow charging) you'll need to run a dedicated line from your distribution box, probably also install a new earth rod and the dedicated charger.

 

[Mr Miserable]

I had a Merc S class and was very nervous about going down the EV route. My wife wouldn't let me sell the Merc - just in case.
Now, she won't drive anything but the Tesla. It is different, you do plan your journeys, it's not a Merc but it's fun to drive and damn cheap to operate.

 

[TheManofMead]

Your current car Benefit in Kind on your Merc is likely to be costing you £200/m of net pay, so opting for the Tesla would increase your take home pay. If you are taxed on fuel benefit too (you didn't mention it) then your saving would increase even more dramatically. The £200 mentioned is assuming you are a 20% taxpayer. If you are a 40% taxpayer then you will be around £400/month better off. Again if you pay fuel benefit in kind that would have an even bigger effect again.

 

[spooksman]

On the finance side, I would have thought a salary sacrifice on an EV should be much cheaper than on any petrol car - you'll save on tax and NI, and with the BiK rate of 0% this year (and even at 1% and 2% for the next couple of years) it is a great deal right now. Even your employer gets to save Class 1A - a proper win-win!

On the fuel, yes, I reckon the petrol would be costing you about £1,300 right now - even with a little supercharging and public charging, I'd have thought the same mileage would be just over £300 for a Tesla, and with the right tariff that could be even cheaper. For what its worth, I've done about 2,300 miles and spent about £69 so far (including a few long runs and Supercharger stops). I treat it just like my mobile - I put it on charge when I get home and it is full when I leave in the morning. I no longer jump in the car and think "damn, gotta stop for petrol!". Not visiting petrol stations is a joy!

More importantly, I also love the car - it is so relaxing to drive - be that on the motorway or in heavy traffic. Oh, and the acceleration puts a huge smile on my face every time!

 

[deftelf]

I think on this forum you're going to get the same answer pretty reliably: "Yes do it!"

That said, given the decent range of any Tesla and how common and reliable the supercharger network is, I would say it's perfectly suited to be a main car, particularly if you can charge at home. You always leave with a full 'tank', and if you need more than the range of the car then it's a short stop to top-up, a stop you probably need unless you have an infinite bladder.

One thing I will say is that the 'stated' max range is almost not worth paying attention to, my SR+ has a range of 250 miles apparently, but that is a mixed-road range, not a motorway range. Since we generally only care about long ranges at high-speed, it's a bit pointless. Mine will not do the London-Leeds (200mile) trip without a 15 minute stop to charge. Which is fine for me as I, the squidgy biological thing behind the wheel, will not do a 200 mile drive without stopping atleast once anyway.

 

[Rustybkts]

@thrash welcome to the forum and great questions as they will be the ones uppermost in ICE drivers minds.

As for emergency range, I have 80 miles at the moment on my SR+ which is the short range model and was going to plug in for the night but decided to tomorrow, I'm that lazy. Just how far do you need to go in an emergency?

I guess you will have a proper charge lead at home so plug in when the car is parked just like your moby.
No going out of your way to get fuel anymore.

I went from Leicestershire to Cornwall recently and stopped twice at Tesla's superchargers. Once at Bristol and secondly to fill up for local driving, I didn't need to do the second stop but decided to so I didn't have to charge during my stay.

The stop at Bristol was no longer than the very necessary dash and splash and less than half an hour.


BTW the build quality can be a bit hit or miss but maybe I am one of the lucky ones and mine is excellent in all respects.

Go for it and if you order using my referral code, we will get 1000 free miles each.