Potential new owner

[Forest19]

Hi there, I am looking to change my current diesel car for a Model 3 in the coming weeks. I have a few questions that I hope someone may be able to answer. I am looking to buy second hand, either a 21 or 22 model year. I will be doing a daily commute three or four times a week at 130 miles a round trip. Would a standard range plus have the range in winter or would a long range be a better option? I plan to install a home charger so would usually only charge at home.

With buying a two year old model 3, is there anything in particular that I need to look out for?

Many thanks, Adrian

 

[Fat Wolfie]

If you’re looking into this, you might have already come across this video by RSEV

As a dealer the guy buys M3s on a weekly basis and knows his stuff.

Can‘t comment with certainty on whether an SR could do 130 mile round trip in winter but I’d be pretty confident it could. It’s about half what our M3 LR would do in winter so I would have thought 180 should easily be within its capabilities, others will know better than me.

good luck with the search,

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

How fast is the commute? Is your car parked in a garage?

130 miles 90% to 10% in a Model 3 SR+ would require about 3mi/kWh overall which should be fine in South England winters on a long journey unless you're driving _really_ fast.
If not parked in a garage at home you might need to precondition on the plug on colder winter mornings.

My biggest general piece of advice would be to check ride comfort. Lots of miles.

 

[Forest19]

How fast is the commute? Is your car parked in a garage?

130 miles 90% to 10% in a Model 3 SR+ would require about 3mi/kWh overall which should be fine in South England winters on a long journey unless you're driving _really_ fast.
If not parked in a garage at home you might need to precondition on the plug on colder winter mornings.

My biggest general piece of advice would be to check ride comfort. Lots of miles.

How fast is the commute? Is your car parked in a garage?

130 miles 90% to 10% in a Model 3 SR+ would require about 3mi/kWh overall which should be fine in South England winters on a long journey unless you're driving _really_ fast.
If not parked in a garage at home you might need to precondition on the plug on colder winter mornings.

My biggest general piece of advice would be to check ride comfort. Lots of miles.

Hi, the commute is 75% motorway. I tend to drive between 65-70 on the way home there’s a lot of stop start so I assume that will help with recharge. A standard range would be my preferred option as I can but a newer lower mileage car.

 

[Forest19]

Hi, the commute is 75% motorway. I tend to drive between 65-70 on the way home there’s a lot of stop start so I assume that will help with recharge. A standard range would be my preferred option as I can but a newer lower mileage car.

Parked on a driveway, I live and commute in the South East

 

[Forest19]

If you’re looking into this, you might have already come across this video by RSEV

As a dealer the guy buys M3s on a weekly basis and knows his stuff.

Can‘t comment with certainty on whether an SR could do 130 mile round trip in winter but I’d be pretty confident it could. It’s about half what our M3 LR would do in winter so I would have thought 180 should easily be within its capabilities, others will know better than me.

good luck with the search,

Brilliant, thanks will watch

 

[WannabeOwner]

I will be doing a daily commute three or four times a week at 130 miles a round trip

I recommend that you try ABetterRoutePlanner. Choose the Make / Model (or try what-if with different ones - SR vs LR etc. or see how much worse off you would be in a VW ), the longer journey(s) you regularly do, fiddle with WEATHER (Temp = 20C vs. 5C and try that both DRY and WET, you can try 0C [but in reality RAC and AA will be telling you to stay at home !!])

That would also show you where you might charge, and for how long, so if you can't make it at 0C (how many days a year is that?!) then that would tell you what the fall back is.

Also try starting at 90% rather than 100% - ideally you would only use 100% charge on less frequent conditions (and plan to "leave immediately-ish), although for SR with LFP battery then regular 100% charge is fine.

A single long journey in Winter is not too bad. Its the set-off cost that is the problem. If you warm the battery (on mains) before you start that helps. So for a "long journey, without stops" I reckon Winter is 10% worse than Summer.

That is for a single, "full range", journey. You have two - THERE and BACK - for THERE you can pre-condition, for RETURN you can't (I'll assume). The battery will get cold-soaked whilst you are parked there. If you can trickle charge, off 13AMP, whilst you are stationary that would help.

If you are at employers site tell them to get their finger out and install some chargers in their car park! Nearly 50% of the parking bays at my workplace have chargers. Government paid 50% of the cost - THAT won't last forever, and your employer is going to have to do it at some point ... and they can market how "Green" they are Our work-chargers are free for employees, but there is a QR code on each one - scan to charge - and the software enables re-charging etc. etc. so if we decided to charge its all easy to do.

If you are a travelling salesman, stop for an hour at each client, then all bets are off in Winter!

 

[yessuz]

General rule with EV is same as with any diesel / petrol.

It will consume more if you drive faster (I for example always keep 72 mph on autopilot and I drive 300 miles once a week.)

Cold weather also consume a bit more, but cars delivered after January 2022 will have heatpump (still 71 reg!) And cold weather is not so noticable.

Mine is long range 150 miles road tip (99% motorway) consumes about 50 % of my battery. So SR+ will definitely make 130 miles round trip if you drive according speed limit.

Btw upping speed from 72 mph to 80 mph is really noticable on consumption, it increases maybe 15-20% or so.

 

[MrBadger]

Btw upping speed from 72 mph to 80 mph is really noticable on consumption, it increases maybe 15-20% or so.

As is driving into a strong headwind.

It’s the same physics that affect all types of cars but with a BEV when getting use to them, it adds to the experience.

We are long past worrying about running out of petrol in a ICE vehicle but I remember the days about making sure you carried a spare can. I’m sure the equivalent for an EV would do really well. It’s a placebo that you never used, but knowing that you had a bit extra to fall back on was an unconscious comfort. It doesn’t have to be effective, just there as like the petrol can, you are probably never going to need it.

 

[Dilly]

…and gives potential for points on your licence and a fine!

 

[MrBadger]

Just adding ‘sentry mode’ aka attempt at dashcam to mix. If you intend to use sentry mode whilst away from charging, also deduct a significant % loss whilst in use. If the car cannot sleep, say sentry being used, then car consumes a significant amount of power which will be proportionally larger on a smaller battery car. Putting number on an LR, 24h sentry use may use close to 10% of battery.

 

[jankratochvil]

Cold weather also consume a bit more, but cars delivered after January 2022 will have heatpump (still 71 reg!) And cold weather is not so noticable.

Heat pump was introduced rather already in late 2020. My M3P from 2021 manufactured IIRC January/February and first buyer bought it in May already has a heat pump.
Anyway always get a LR, more battery is always convenient for everything and the price difference is usually not so big.

 

[yessuz]

Heat pump was introduced rather already in late 2020. My M3P from 2021 manufactured IIRC January/February and first buyer bought it in May already has a heat pump.
Anyway always get a LR, more battery is always convenient for everything and the price difference is usually not so big.

Could be. But there was a time when cars where inbetween

 

[WannabeOwner]

Anyway always get a LR, more battery is always convenient for everything and the price difference is usually not so big.

Yes, good point. Of course depends on Price / Budget. And the mix of trips. If just nipping to the shops its a bit overkill! But even for "We only long journey a couple of times a year" then that may well be holiday times, when superchargers are busy ...

The, say, 30 miles of "contingency comfort" is a smaller percentage of LR, than SR. Also the obvious of more trips that can be made without charging, and when charging then stop later, and less to fill (to reach destination), and also the option to choose / skip chargers - e.g. if they are busy.

Back when I was doing 35K miles a year I went from MS P90D (240 miles @ motorway speed) to Raven (300), and my Supercharging went from 2 days a month to a couple of times a year.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

Based on the years you’re looking you’ll be fine for the distances you’re talking. The earlier Standard Range (SR+) cars ha£ smaller batteries and no heat pump, but by the time you get to 21/22 even the shortest range cars have a realistic range approaching that of the earlier long range cars in winter.

I’m less enthusiastic about the RSEV videos, primarily because things change and the info can become out of date or worse, misleading. Videos aren’t maintained in the same way as a web page, but they do cover the basics. I’d also include Tesla-info website in your research, they have maintained buyers guides plus loads of data on the history of changes and comprehensive listings of cars for sale.

The one tip I’d give is don’t buy a car with over 50k miles (probably unlikely anyway) as you’ll want some protection from Tesla’s original warranty which lasts 4 years and 50 k miles, (the battery and motors have a much longer warranty), and I’d buy one that still has parking sensors which disappeared during 2022

 

[M1tch]

Why does my opinion matter? Due to a recurring issue, I’ve had the pleasure (or not) of all 3 variants of the M3. My issue is hopefully now fixed - third time lucky - but will find out when I next drive the car.

I live 160 ish miles from work and commute there on a Sunday, back on a Friday.

SR. This was the oldest (courtesy) car I had although don’t recall the exact age / reg. it had the worst quality, had a noisy cabin while driving, sounded “cheap” when closing the doors and just wasn’t like I was used to. In the wet, it would struggle to put its power down and it was boarder-line rangewise to get home when cold. Didn’t like. Wouldn’t buy.

LR. Much closer to my car. Again, slightly louder in the cabin due to single pane windows. Range was great, easily got home, 4WD was the same as mine. If i ever need to change my car, ill get a LR.

P. Same as mine. Loved it and no issues - again, easily got home.

Can’t remember which car it was/wasnt, but the non-matrix lights give a much better light coverage imo. The matrix are very blocky and not as consistent. All cars (inc mine) have parking sensors so have no comparison to make there.

I think that’s the main points, anything else is niff naff and minor differences imo.

 

[Forest19]

Based on the years you’re looking you’ll be fine for the distances you’re talking. The earlier Standard Range (SR+) cars ha£ smaller batteries and no heat pump, but by the time you get to 21/22 even the shortest range cars have a realistic range approaching that of the earlier long range cars in winter.

I’m less enthusiastic about the RSEV videos, primarily because things change and the info can become out of date or worse, misleading. Videos aren’t maintained in the same way as a web page, but they do cover the basics. I’d also include Tesla-info website in your research, they have maintained buyers guides plus loads of data on the history of changes and comprehensive listings of cars for sale.

The one tip I’d give is don’t buy a car with over 50k miles (probably unlikely anyway) as you’ll want some protection from Tesla’s original warranty which lasts 4 years and 50 k miles, (the battery and motors have a much longer warranty), and I’d buy one that still has parking sensors which disappeared during 2022

Thanks for the replies, I’m erring now towards a standard + later car with heat pump and with less than 20k miles. Nice that you can charge to 100% which will cover my range needs for commuting. Will also have at least 2 or 3 years warranty remaining. There seem to be some good deals out there but next consideration will be to install a home charging point.

 

[Momonga]

Probably worth considering that the range will be degraded on a used vehicle and will continue to degrade over time. Will it still go the distance in 5 years? Others may be able to advise on how much degradation can be expected. A recent thread on LFP batteries suggested about 2.5% per year, if I understood correctly?

Other consideration on the economics of it would be whether you can get 130 miles of charge in a single overnight off-peak charge at home. I think that would take about 6 hours, so do-able on Intelligent Octopus Go, but others on here will know better.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

At the typical 7kw charging speed you’ll add between 25 and 30 real world miles an hour, 5 hours of charging will add 125-150 miles so should be fine, either way, a LR doesn’t charge any faster on AC and as it has slightly worse efficiency would actually take slightly longer for the same amount of range. Even if you wanted to use cheap rate, if you needed a little at full price it wouldn’t be much.

I think a late-ish RWD car makes a lot of sense, assuming the price difference isn’t that great to the LR model of a similar age.

 

[spdpsba]

on the economics of it would be whether you can get 130 miles of charge in a single overnight off-peak charge at home. I think that would take about 6 hour

On the Octopus go tariff my SR+ get charged around 50% in the allotted time that will roughly translate to around 100-120miles. To consistently get the 130miles he needs around 65% whenever he wants to do the trip.