The following is a discussion with Aussie electric vehicle (EV) owner Rob about their purchase of a Tesla Model 3 Performance 2019 and experience driving, servicing, charging etc.
EDITOR: I’m publishing a regular series of articles with the views of Australian EV owners about their EV ownership experience.
This will help fill an information gap as the majority of electric car news articles are about new car launches and there’s relatively little published about the longer term Australian ownership experience after you’ve paid for your electric car. Hopefully this shared information helps other Aussies make their own EV purchase decision.
If you’re an Australian electric vehicle owner and would like to participate in this interview series by sharing your experience please contact me directly or add a comment below and let me know.
Was your electric car bought or leased?
Tesla bought new.
Please describe your purchasing / lease process experience … Easy, Mediocre, Frustrating..?
Tesla was extremely easy no haggling.
What has the regular servicing / dealership experience been like?
Excellent. 120,000Km in the Tesla and service has been just 2 times. Both times was a pleasant experience.
How do you regularly charge your car for day to day usage?
- plug in to standard PowerPoint at home (when there’s spare solar power)
- plug in to standard PowerPoint at home (scheduled for cheaper grid power time of day)
- plug in to specially installed faster EV charger at home (set to use solar power or grid, whatever’s available)
What has your day to day normal charging experience been like?
Very easy, majority of charging done at home, plug car in when returning home, unplug it before we leave to go anywhere.
How do you charge your car for longer road trips on the weekend or during holidays? Do you prefer any particular brand of public fast charger during road trips eg Evie, Tesla, Chargefox and why?
Prefer Tesla for long road trips, mainly for ease of use. they might be more expensive but as majority of charging is at home for free, the cost really isn’t an issue.
If Tesla chargers are not available where we are travelling, then we will use whatever is in the area.
Also we try to book accommodation that has overnight charging available for guests.
EDITOR: Rob’s approach for holiday roadtrip charging is the same as mine. I prefer Tesla superchargers as they are the most reliable and have the most chargers per location. I also prefer overnight accommodation that lets me charge to 100% while I sleep.
What’s the farthest road trip you’ve done in your EV and what did you learn from this experience that would be useful for others to know?
9500Km Sydney to Perth and return. Nothing out of the ordinary.
When we travelled there was a lack of fast charging for half of the trip, so we were relying on overnight slow chargers, or longer stays at roadhouses, approx. 3 to 4 hrs using slower AC charging at 11Kw.
Today now every place we needed a slow charge, is now serviced by a DC fast charger.
If you’ve done a long road trip and would like to share your experience of it please share. Detailed EV trip diaries give readers the confidence to do the same themselves.
See above, also have YouTube videos documenting the trip.
Does your EV have any special features like V2L reverse charging from the car to your portable/home appliances? If yes please share your experience using this special feature
EDITOR: Tesla doesn’t support V2L but it could be argued it has a special feature in being able to access the full network of Australian fast Tesla superchargers. Other brands of electric cars are only allowed to access about half the Australian fast Tesla supercharger network.
If you have roadside assist included with the car purchase/lease and have had to use it, which company provided the service and what was that experience like?
We have not used roadside assistance as of this time.
If you have had issues with your car and asked for these to be fixed under warranty, did the car brand do the right thing and fix it without causing you stress?
Tesla needed front upper control arms replaced due to dust in the suspension bushes, no safety issues, this was outside of the warranty period and cost was surprisingly cheap.
What are the 3 strongest aspects of your electric car compared to other similar price electric cars available in Australia?
The supercharger network and seamless integration of charging along with home charging as well.
Software updates that ensure the car is as up to day, and has the latest features similar to new versions.
Far better performance for the price, Storage, and Frunk.
What are the 3 weakest aspects of your electric car compared to other similar price electric cars available in Australia?
Can’t think of any.
What is your view on car software updates? Some people prefer it be done by dealers, some don’t want updates, others want them regularly over the air?
I love the regular OTA updates, means our car is as up to date as possible, with new features and improvements coming regularly, means the car does not become an obsolete older model as fast.
What questions would ask your car manufacturer HQ if you could?
When will we get Full Self Driving (FSD) in Australia?
Would you buy or lease this brand of electric car again and recommend it to others?
Yes
Do you have any other comments about your electric car brand, experience etc?
Not really. They are just better overall, cheaper to run, better drive and better for your health.
If you’re an Australian electric vehicle owner and would like to participate in this interview series by sharing your experience please contact me directly or add a comment below and let me know.
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