So Friday I was at the Paris Motor show to take my fist live look at the Tesla Model 3. Must day it didn´t disappoint! As others have said, it looks much better in person than in pictures. Very clean and elegant lines on the outside, including the front that I wasn´t 100% sure about. I am 6 ft 1 in/186 cm and fit perfectly in the front seats. In the back my head is somewhat close to the roof, but just ok. Also with my legs were above the rear seat so no perfect support. I sat in many other cars of similar size though including BMW 3 series and both things happened in most of them, so nothing Model 3 specific. Otherwise it made a very solid impression.
There were lots of people in line all the time though it was a weekday (my guess would be 20-30 people, 20-30 min wait), but as a reservation holder you could skip the line to get near the car. Very well managed. That was while they actually placed two of each Model S and X much more prominently to attract the masses.
The two representatives I talked to (independently) at first were very nice but I think I knew more about the car
. The Model 3 was the US version, charge port was closed (probably not to confuse anyone to think it didn´t have a Type 2 connector). Sounded like they had heard the question on whether the European version would have CCS before, but didn´t have an answer, said they didn´t know and I believe them. Later I talked to a guy who was much more knowledgeable about the car overall, turned out to be a head technical guy in a service center. Asked him about CCS, too, but he wasn´t even aware of the situation that CCS was the standard pushed by the EU and Germany having put it into law already (possibly) limiting Tesla from building new Superchargers without CCS
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So
@NicoV , unfortunately no news to share here.
Funny story developed when I walked up to the iPace at the Jaguar stand right next to Tesla (no line there). Jag guy came up to me and asked me if I was interested in the car, I replied I was generally interested in EVs and also had a Model 3 reservation. This must have rang some bell, 5 min later I had an appointment for a test drive scheduled
. Was fun driving through Paris in a quick EV though I would have much preferred testing the Model 3
. What I didn´t like was the two selectable regen settings - the high was a bit too strong (much more than what I am used from the Renault Zoe I drive mostly and the Teslas I have driven) though I generally like regen not to be too weak. The weak setting on the other hand resembled what a gas car would do, so hardly any slow down at all (probably to appeal to people who are not used to EVs). Likely for the same reason the car has an optional engine sound
which I find ridiculous. Also all those buttons...
Looked at a lot of other EVs - I think the Renault (ZoE) and the Koreans are on the best track with the Hyundai Ioniq, Kona and KIA Niro, which all have a good range for a decent price. They are solid offerings in the price range of the cheapest Model 3 when it becomes available but nothing exciting about them otherwise, just regular cars which happen to be electric.
