My Two Week Review - Heading towards 300,000 Miles

Hi All,

I really appriciated this forum for all the help and guidance as I was looking to make my purchase. I’ve been the proud owner of a 2023 Model Y LR for just over 2.5 weeks (Yep, weeks). I have logged about 2,500 miles. I drive over 30,000 miles per year, mostly for work. I live in cold Wisconsin so am interested in what the reality of winter driving will be but read enough feedback on this forum to move forward with my purchase.

I was planning to purchase a Toyota Camry XSE Hybrid until I switched to the Model Y thanks to the government tax incentive and Elon lowering the price. My numbers are subject to questioning but after building a spreadsheet including payments, fuel, maintenance, insurance, etc. I concluded that the Tesla was $28 per month cheaper than the Camry would have been…….over 10 years.

I know I could have driven the Camry 300,000 and for at least 10 years. Not sure I can do that with the Model Y, but gonna try.

So here are my thoughts, surprises, and disappointments.

Thoughts:
- I REALLY like this car. The tech is amazing. I don’t seem to have any of the build quality issues that some have had. (I have historically driven Corolla’s, so this is a step up for me.)
- The power is amazing. Just amazing.
- The super charger network (even in Wisconsin) is really good. They are everywhere I need them to be.

Surprises:
- I knew charging at home was going to save me money, but was surprised to find out that a full charge is less than $10. That’s great!
- Because of my long distance driving I’m simply going to have to charge at a super charge 3-4 times a week just to get home. I will have to charge to 100% at home, then use a super charger for 5-15 minutes. This is going to significantly cut into my estimated savings. Still cheaper than gas, but not nearly as much as I had hoped. For those that can charge almost exclusively at home, this is great.
- I got caught in a rainstorm and it dramatically reduced my range. I was surprised by the almost 5% loss in range just from 15-20 minutes of rain.


Disappointments:
- Super Charging is expensive. Based on 44 MPG (had I purchased the Camry Hybrid) my recent 850 mile trip to Ohio only saved me $10. I paid $60 in SC fees and would have paid $70 in gas.
- The lack of USS was known to me, but I remain disappointed. I bought the car anyway. I’m looking forward to updates that will hopefully improve some of the missing features I paid for.

Am I nervous about winter, yes. Am I glad I made the purchase, yes, so far. Do I like the car, yes!

I’m developing weird charging habits, probably uncessarily.

I arrive home and charge to 50%. Then set it to charge to the desired percentage the next morning when I need to go. Each day is different, so I’m not able to set it to one number and leave it.

I also feel I’m doing the two hardest things on the battery, but out of necessity for my lifestyle. I will charge it to 100% 2-4 times per week and leave the house almost immediately. I still will need to use a supercharger 2-4 times a week as well. This wasn’t what I hoped to do, but it is my reality.

Anyway, love the car. Hope things continue to go well.

oh, truck threw a rock and cracked my windshield on day 10 of ownership. Haha /sigh/

"0 Tesla Model Y 4" by Benespit is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Admin note: Imaged added for Blog Feed thumbnail

 

[Konicom04]

I totally understand I'm preaching to the choir. It's just in my personality to argue, even with people that aren't here.

we are very much alike then

 

[gad1976]

I confess to being a little jealous of those of you with short commutes. My use of my Tesla seems to be in the minority. 2 to 3 times a week I leave my house, knowing that I’m gonna be going two three or even 500 miles in a day. my goal is to see if I can leave with a 90 to 100% charge and get home again without having to use a Supercharger. I find that if I’m careful anything under 300 miles and I can do that. I made a game out of it, trying to do the math and adjust the speed accordingly. Obviously much over 300 miles and I have to stop at least once to supercharge, but I don’t mind. As others have said, I appreciate the opportunity to get up and stretch. I can see winter in Wisconsin around the corner so I’ll get my first taste of how my mileage takes a hit. I’m still hoping to be able to do at least 250 miles in the dead of winter on 100% charge. But I may be dreaming.

 

[Konicom04]

I confess to being a little jealous of those of you with short commutes. My use of my Tesla seems to be in the minority. 2 to 3 times a week I leave my house, knowing that I’m gonna be going two three or even 500 miles in a day. my goal is to see if I can leave with a 90 to 100% charge and get home again without having to use a Supercharger. I find that if I’m careful anything under 300 miles and I can do that. I made a game out of it, trying to do the math and adjust the speed accordingly. Obviously much over 300 miles and I have to stop at least once to supercharge, but I don’t mind. As others have said, I appreciate the opportunity to get up and stretch. I can see winter in Wisconsin around the corner so I’ll get my first taste of how my mileage takes a hit. I’m still hoping to be able to do at least 250 miles in the dead of winter on 100% charge. But I may be dreaming.

this remains me of my former commuting in a Volt.
I was paranoid to ONLY drive on electrons, and so was making a game out it to maximize my 30 mile range every possible way
Talk about range anxiety

 

[Amanfromconn]

I don't think this is the direction things are headed. If there are breakthroughs with energy density, it'll mostly be used to drive prices down.

There's just not a great need for cars with 600 mile batteries... that's what charging stations are for. 99% of driving is local commuting.

My wife and I typically don't use more than 10% of our range on a given day. On a heavy driving day, we might use 30%. Only on very occasionally long distance road trips is the entire range actually necessary.

I wouldn't spend another $10-20k to double our range. If anything, after owning a Model 3 LR for almost 3 years, I've learned we could get by on a lot less.

I'm more interested to see the $10k, $15k, $20k EVs of the future with sub 60kW/h batteries.

If they want everybody to go EV then the range will have to improve to at attract more range anxiety buyers. Longer range equal less charging if you don't do road trip. This would benefit people who can't install charger at home or who rents apartment. I'm sure by then they'll be more charging stations at every corners. Then again battery technologies improve too over time like Solid state battery. It might take less than 10 minutes to charge and offer more range than today's batteries. So many companies are jumping into building EV now, competition will drive the price down eventually. That's just my two cents.

 

[Amanfromconn]

this remains me of my former commuting in a Volt.
I was paranoid to ONLY drive on electrons, and so was making a game out it to maximize my 30 mile range every possible way
Talk about range anxiety

We have to change our driving habit too. Last night I was experimenting driving back home from work at 1:30AM doing 60Mph on a 65 Mph zone with auto pilot enable. On a 20 miles road, I only use 5% of my energy plus I gained some back from regenerative braking. Too bad I can't do that going in. People would be shooting bird at me left and right

 

[spokey]

I don't think this is the direction things are headed. If there are breakthroughs with energy density, it'll mostly be used to drive prices down.

There's just not a great need for cars with 600 mile batteries... that's what charging stations are for. 99% of driving is local commuting.

My wife and I typically don't use more than 10% of our range on a given day. On a heavy driving day, we might use 30%. Only on very occasionally long distance road trips is the entire range actually necessary.

I wouldn't spend another $10-20k to double our range. If anything, after owning a Model 3 LR for almost 3 years, I've learned we could get by on a lot less.

I'm more interested to see the $10k, $15k, $20k EVs of the future with sub 60kW/h batteries.

I don't think I use even 10% on a typical day. But if I were to buy right now and I could get a hitch, I would buy the MS for the <air quote>405</air quote> range. Recent 3900 mile trip (NJ->Denver and back) with the MYLR was OK, perhaps good. I figure I spent about 2 hours extra charging. That doesn't count charging in the evening because I'd read a book which I'd be doing at the hotel anyway. My 2 hours is charging when an ICE would have made it further and the extra 5-10 minutes here and there that I let it charge having gone to eat lunch in the meantime. So it's not bad but I think with less range than the current MYLR you'd end up having to charge a lot more when you were on the road and didn't need a break, ready for lunch, etc. In that case, I think my 2 hour estimate would have been many times more.

More charging won't help that. I didn't have any issues finding charges. I just think you would ramp up that charging time considerably.

Faster, high voltage, amperage etc would negate that and maybe that would occur. But right now I think if we had any less range, I'd be taking the hybrid on a trip rather than the EV. And that isn't a bad choice but doesn't help us get to the all EV.

I think we need to see buying options on the battery. We do a bit now with the Tesla SR vs LR but I think it would be a good thing to let people dial in their range from say 200 - 400 in 50 mi increments when they buy. If we were talking real range and not EPA/Tesla et. al. ranges, it could be lower.

Also allowing charging on interstates would be a good idea for the feds to allow. Having to get off a highway and drive a couple miles will also make shorter range vehicles less attractive.

 

[spokey]

I've owned the Y over six months now and I'm all about the commute. Haven't taken a long drive in years and I have the option of the wife's ICE BMW if needed but I just fly for those.

In '21 we drove NJ->Denver and back. I was driving my Outback out to my daughter who had not been able to get it since COVID and we were tired of it sitting in the driveway for a year. My wife didn't want to drive the MY so she took her Camry Hybrid. I drove all the way home. Two years later we're making the same trip and I drove all the way both ways. I felt the drive was better in the MY. And I think a bit was using FSDb. Yes, I know I'm supposed to keep my eyes on the road but it takes the car a bit to nag you. You can actually glance at say a bill board or some interesting structure for a few seconds at a time without running off the road. I think not having to stare at those white lines constantly for 10-12 hours a day was a big part of the better experience.

 

[Johnny Vector]

just, someone please please - put my mind at ease that all the bad media about EV's is actually noise?
We are not moving 500,000 lbs of earth using slave or child labor to get material for ONE EV battery, are we?

It's noise. Switching to renewables and EVs will drastically reduce the amount of mining. By orders of magnitude.

A Fossil Fuel Economy Requires 535x More Mining Than a Clean Energy Economy

Transitioning to clean energy would reduce the volume and harm of mining dramatically

www.distilled.earth

 

[father_of_6]

So it's not bad but I think with less range than the current MYLR you'd end up having to charge a lot more when you were on the road and didn't need a break, ready for lunch, etc.

Imagine a 35kW/h battery (so like half the size of a Model 3) where you stop once an hour for charging, but it only takes 3 minutes, the charger is *right* on your route (because they'll be ubiquitous) and you don't even have to get out of the car:

CATL reveals 'Superfast Charging Battery,' boasts 250 mi range with 10-min charge

In what it’s calling the world’s first, battery giant CATL (and major Tesla supplier) revealed its new “Shenxing Superfast Charging...

electrek.co

Now that car's price can be like $18k *before* government incentives, would have enough range for most people's daily driving, and is still totally viable for long road trips.

Tesla could even provide secondary rental batteries to increase your range just for long distance trips... and those batteries can be installed by an automated drive-thru vending machine.

 

[spokey]

just, someone please please - put my mind at ease that all the bad media about EV's is actually noise?
We are not moving 500,000 lbs of earth using slave or child labor to get material for ONE EV battery, are we?

In the next few years this won't be an issue as battery tech does away with rare earth batteries.

One thing I have wondered when this question is raised is how much of this stuff has gone to the EV market and how much has gone to every other dang electronic device? Do 10,000 cell phone (replaced every year or two) batteries equal a M3SR? There must be billions of cell phones lying around. Almost everything rechargeable these days is using this sutff yet I don't hear a hew and cry over other consumer batteries. I know I have several li-on flashlights, my fitbit, garmin watch, etc. Yes all those are small but do they add up to larger amount?

I certainly don't know the answer but that data would certainly be interesting. I'd bet that even if EVs are already the largest consumer that the rest of this stuff is a significant portion.

 

[spokey]

It's noise. Switching to renewables and EVs will drastically reduce the amount of mining. By orders of magnitude.

A Fossil Fuel Economy Requires 535x More Mining Than a Clean Energy Economy

Transitioning to clean energy would reduce the volume and harm of mining dramatically

www.distilled.earth

I don't know the facts but would guess the rebuttal is something about that mining not being as 'slave labor' intensive.

 

[father_of_6]

My point is that we can drive EV prices way down and reduce environmental impact by making smaller batteries viable.

 

[spokey]

Imagine a 35kW/h battery (so like half the size of a Model 3) where you stop once an hour for charging, but it only takes 3 minutes, the charger is *right* on your route (because they'll be ubiquitous) and you don't even have to get out of the car:

CATL reveals 'Superfast Charging Battery,' boasts 250 mi range with 10-min charge

In what it’s calling the world’s first, battery giant CATL (and major Tesla supplier) revealed its new “Shenxing Superfast Charging...

electrek.co

Now that car's price can be like $18k *before* government incentives, would have enough range for most people's daily driving, and is still totally viable for long road trips.

Tesla could even provide secondary rental batteries to increase your range just for long distance trips... and those batteries can be installed by an automated drive-thru vending machine.

Oh, I think all that is possible. As for swapping batteries I think that is not feasible as in your graphic's that was abandoned. But even under your scenario, We're talking a 1/2 hour or so charge time to go the 600 miles per tank that our camry gets.

And until the feds change their ways, you don't really charge on the interstates so while that camry has maybe an extra 5-10 minutes getting off and back on, your 1/2 battery M3 now has 3 or those.

Yes I think your scenario is possible but I don't think it is a sweeping victory for those who see this as a problem.

 

[father_of_6]

As for swapping batteries I think that is not feasible as in your graphic's that was abandoned.

I wasn't even thinking battery swapping, but a space for a second battery. I'm driving around with a thousand pound battery but routinely only use 10-20% of it. If we chop that in half, but leave a space for a second addon battery only for long distance, it would be more efficient.

 

[Amanfromconn]

Imagine a 35kW/h battery (so like half the size of a Model 3) where you stop once an hour for charging, but it only takes 3 minutes, the charger is *right* on your route (because they'll be ubiquitous) and you don't even have to get out of the car:

CATL reveals 'Superfast Charging Battery,' boasts 250 mi range with 10-min charge

In what it’s calling the world’s first, battery giant CATL (and major Tesla supplier) revealed its new “Shenxing Superfast Charging...

electrek.co

Now that car's price can be like $18k *before* government incentives, would have enough range for most people's daily driving, and is still totally viable for long road trips.

Tesla could even provide secondary rental batteries to increase your range just for long distance trips... and those batteries can be installed by an automated drive-thru vending machine.

 

[Amanfromconn]

I wasn't even thinking battery swapping, but a space for a second battery. I'm driving around with a thousand pound battery but routinely only use 10-20% of it. If we chop that in half, but leave a space for a second addon battery only for long distance, it would be more efficient.

Bettery swapping in China

The Battery Pack Of This Chinese EV Fell Out In The Middle Of The Road | Carscoops

The Cao Cao 60 has been designed for battery swapping but the battery pack shouldn't fall out like this

www.carscoops.com