Speak EV - Electric Car Forums banner

Tesla Model 3 ordered

2K views 12 replies 7 participants last post by  DrEskimo 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi,
At the weekend ordered by first ever electric car a Tesla Model 3 performance. I'm a real petrolhead, so didn't think i would ever do it.

I currently have an Alfa Romeo 4c and a Ford Focus RS Mk3, but the RS is going.

I'm thinking about getting a pod point charger, however I emailed them asking for their lead time, but they haven't responded. I'm a little worried about paying the money and ordering, then waiting for delivery with no fixed date. Has anyone else used them?
 
#2 ·
Welcome. Good choice of car, I have one.

Are you aware that the quoted range isn't a real world range? With your car you'll probably get about 250 miles from a full battery, in winter that could be only 200 miles.

If you don't do any long journeys then it's not an issue, if you are then you'll need to charge every 150 - 200 miles. It's something that surprises new owners.

Pod point are good, they are a big company, I'm sure someone will get back to you. Any charger will do the job.
 
#3 ·
Welcome. Good choice of car, I have one.

Are you aware that the quoted range isn't a real world range? With your car you'll probably get about 250 miles from a full battery, in winter that could be only 200 miles.

If you don't do any long journeys then it's not an issue, if you are then you'll need to charge every 150 - 200 miles. It's something that surprises new owners.

Pod point are good, they are a big company, I'm sure someone will get back to you. Any charger will do the job.
WOW as low as 200 miles, that does surprise me I was expected closer to to 300 range
 
#4 ·
There is a lot to learn about owning and living with an EV, even more so with a Tesla, they are more complex.

Another thing that I didn't know about or think of until after I owned one was that the battery drains when you're not using, they call it battery vampire drain. If you don't use your car, it will lose around 1 - 3% per day, it can be even more in very cold weather. There's stories of people parking their cars in airport car parks and the battery being flat or close to flat when they get back.

I'd recommend that you keep reading and learning. Having an EV is totally worth it, for legal speeds on the roads, I don't think anything is more enjoyable to drive than the Tesla Model 3 performance.
 
#5 ·
In practise with my Model S I find I tend to want to stop for a break well before the battery is in any danger of running out. The difference from my ICE is that I now stop at locations with rapid charging (ideally Tesla) and plug in while I get a coffee, visit the facilities etc. In practice the delays to my journey time have been minimal but it does limit your options somewhat. It won't work for everyone of course but I've regularly been making daily journeys well in excess of the single charge range and don't give it much consideration any more.

With regard to parking at airports I enable energy saving, turn always connected off and (importantly) don't keep checking via the app while away - this drops the parasitic loss to around 0.5% per day which has never yet caused me any issues. Particularly in the winter there is usually a drop of a few % in the first day due to the pack cooling off which can be concerning at first but is quite normal. The newer Teslas have sentry mode which I suspect will eat power so for a long stay you would probably need to disable this as well - this does give the risk of a non-recorded bump of course but I suspect otherwise the battery will flatten quite quickly.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Congratulations. I think Podpoint are quite busy so give them a call if you don't get a reply.

We got our Model 3 LR in August and 5K miles on we are very pleased with it. With a long list of previous EVs in UK and a Model S in USA we are experienced in understanding the real world of EV driving and how to get a good range when necessary. A lot of our Model 3 journeys are short so the range doesn't matter. On a longer journey we will sometimes drive more gently and slower to get to either the destination or a charger.

Heating uses a lot of power so having a 7kW charging point and preheating the car (and charging to 100%) before a long journey can make a big difference to range and reduce the need to stop and charge. The Tesla doesn't have non-Tesla chargers in the navigation and often it will be better to stop at a rapid charger than a long detour to a supercharger. The only place we have struggled was in North Wales as we couldn't charge at the cottage we rented.

If you switch Sentry off at home (we do as have CCTV) the Model 3 doesn't use much "vampire" power on latest software, but we plug in almost every night as want 250+ indicated range every morning in case of urgent need to drive to elderly relatives, etc. That 250 displayed will be substantially less if you drive at motorway speed limits and use heating.

The site below is very useful for planning routes and using other charging stops.

 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top