TECH Long term review of Tesla Model Y BEV

[The Mountain]

No, 13k for a motor inverter
.e

I'm curious: how "modular" are the various components of the electrical system in Teslas? Does the computer "know" the various parts, or are they interchangeable without needing to update something in the software?

In other words, could someone with the proper electrical training swap out the inverter you mentioned from a car that had been "totalled" due to a software brick or battery failure, or is that something that only a factory service center with access to proprietary Tesla equipment could do?

 

[Griz3752]

"You HATE and DESPISE EV's? Ok, thats fine. Do you think anyone who drives a BEV is a communist parasite? Well, turn off your tv, its making you stupid. Please don't waste our time on this thread just bashing the tech. These are tools to me, very expensive tools. You hate tools, fine, please keep it to yourself. You have actual information about how tools have let you or a relative down? (as in, you have first hand knowledge of how BEV's suck, by all means, please share. Second hand "news" of how shitty BEV's are...please do not place on this thread. BEV's do not catch on fire more than ICE, the facts show quite the opposite. Please bring those lies up somewhere else, not here. ACTUAL negative YOU or friends YOU KNOW PERSONALLY are VERY WELCOME! "news" isn't! Its lies....everyone here should know this already...."

Just an observation:
You seem to presume there's a lot of hatred or misinformation about EVs. Pretty sure I don't hate much and generally reserve such emotions for deserving people, not machines.

I do know that at this juncture, because of where and how we drive added to the lack of a national readily available charging system, they don't work for my wife and I. That may change but at this juncture I'm more in the Hybrid camp (ala Toyota system) than anything else.

Today I think EVs do yeoman service in urban settings particularly in terms of lowering pollution but I've yet to see anything I can trust on how EVs, with their requirement for shore charging, are having a net-positive impact on resource consumption and strain on the current grid.

My wife is in IT and knows some early adopters of EVs so, we've had some experiences around them; I've even driven a couple for short distances (less than 50 miles).
I've also had to go and retrieve my wife when she went somewhere with someone driving an EV which ran out of charge or a working charge point couldn't be found. No biggy; shyte happens and ICE vehicles fail or run out of fuel too.

Lets see where this goes - I suspect you may get some divergent opinions, even push back.

 

[Griz3752]

I promise you it wouldn’t be $1100 in Texas. Double that certainly.

And the denser the population, the higher that annual premium will be.

 

[Jeff Allen]

In another thread AlfaMan told of his finding repeated problems with Tesla castings, including late model Y's (which is what I have). So I said I would look at mine the next time I rotated tires, which was Friday and report back on this thread.

AlfaMan was correct (no surprise there!) in that its super easy to get the front "frunk" parts out in just a few minutes with a 10mm socket...like 5ish minutes, its super easy. Then I spent the next 5 minutes scratching my head and wondering....WTF...did they "clad" the casting in this car? Where is the casting? Upon further investigation I found that there is no front casting on my car. The front struts all mount into steel....its a Fremont build from April of 2023. And I knew what to look for based on the two tear downs that Sandy Monroe did on his you tube channel.
Sure enough...they have eliminated the front casting on my car. This tells me that Tesla knows about the cracking issue that AlfaMan identified and has moved to correct it by eliminating the casting altogether and using steel. After learning this, I would be concerned about buying a Tesla with the old casting up front....unless your bring a 10mm socket and a small flat blade screwdriver (to release the frunk light harness and the little do-hicky that holds plastic to plastic by the windshield washer fluid tank). Won't take but a few minutes to do the inspection.
I'll work on posting pics of my front end minus the HEPA filter area and frunk next....no doubt AlfaMan will start seeing these at some point. Thanks again AlfaMan, you bring an AMAZING amount of car knowledge to the forum!!!

J

 

[Jeff Allen]

Front pics minus the frunk and HVAC.

J

 

[Southside]

I've not seen them as specifically winter tires myself. I have seen them to be extremely good bad/wet weather tires, so depending on whether you get a lot or snow or not they could be a good choice.
you have a lot of weight so the traction might be enough with these tires.

Tires. Hate to buy them, UNTIL....
General AltiMAX RT43. have had 4 sets. LOVE THEM. Inexpensive, and the 2nd highest rated tire by Consumer Reports, 2022.
Cost anywhere between 100-150 each, total, mounted & balanced. Good in wet weather, really good in snow.

And you can't beat the price.

 

[AlfaMan]

In another thread AlfaMan told of his finding repeated problems with Tesla castings, including late model Y's (which is what I have). So I said I would look at mine the next time I rotated tires, which was Friday and report back on this thread.

AlfaMan was correct (no surprise there!) in that its super easy to get the front "frunk" parts out in just a few minutes with a 10mm socket...like 5ish minutes, its super easy. Then I spent the next 5 minutes scratching my head and wondering....WTF...did they "clad" the casting in this car? Where is the casting? Upon further investigation I found that there is no front casting on my car. The front struts all mount into steel....its a Fremont build from April of 2023. And I knew what to look for based on the two tear downs that Sandy Monroe did on his you tube channel.
Sure enough...they have eliminated the front casting on my car. This tells me that Tesla knows about the cracking issue that AlfaMan identified and has moved to correct it by eliminating the casting altogether and using steel. After learning this, I would be concerned about buying a Tesla with the old casting up front....unless your bring a 10mm socket and a small flat blade screwdriver (to release the frunk light harness and the little do-hicky that holds plastic to plastic by the windshield washer fluid tank). Won't take but a few minutes to do the inspection.
I'll work on posting pics of my front end minus the HEPA filter area and frunk next....no doubt AlfaMan will start seeing these at some point. Thanks again AlfaMan, you bring an AMAZING amount of car knowledge to the forum!!!

J

Mid year model change on the castings, apparently. The rental Tesla Mod 3s I've looked at have the castings, and they're new. And most of them out of China, interestingly enough. The Polecats (Polestars) they're renting come from the same place. Renter beware. The steel your struts mount to should be 14 gauge and covered in a greenish zinc chromate type finish. That green finish should be on the parts you see and underneath where the struts are as well.

I am genuinely happy to see you took my advice and checked your vehicle. 99.9995% of Tesla owners are totally clueless about the situation, and I can guarantee you 100% of owners have absolutely zero clue as to how to check it. It's not hard to check-tedious somewhat but not difficult. And you got the frunk light out and didn't break the tab? Points for style, young man !

Now that you've done a Tesla, your next assignment is a McLaren. Any model will work, pick one. Take the tub out and this time your'e looking for galvanic corrosion between the carbon fiber tub and the alloy stub rails

Or, line up 6 Teslas in a row side by side, make sure it's raining, and perform the inspection you just did on each vehicle. And then do it for the rear tower inspections for each vehicle as well. If you can do all these in 1.5 hours (assembly AND disassembly too) then you now know what some of my days can be like.

We do these type structural inspections on many high end cars for dealers all over the country. Name a wickedly expensive car from any manufacturer sold here in north America and I've inspected it. And we charge hefty prices for doing it; because we certify the results. Easier to spend $1000 on a $ 250,000 car and find damage before signing the dotted line than buying the car and finding it later.
What you did is about half of a $299.00 inspection. God only knows how much a Tesla dealer would charge a customer for something like that.

 

[AlfaMan]

Front pics minus the frunk and HVAC.

J

Oh yeah, its different!!!!!!!

A lot more pinch welds, a strut brace finally! and more stuff bolted to the front aprons.

I wouldn't say night and day difference from other ones I've looked at; but there's definitely been some new engineering in that front compartment.

Which begs the question. Wonder if NHSTA has crash tested these changes?

 

[Jeff Allen]

"young man"...lol, I'm 55, but hey, I'll take it! Yeah, if I would have broken that little lite tab I can imagine the Senior Chief would have just looked at me and shook his head in disappointment as his most competent sailor let him down badly...
And yes, that looks like 14G steel, with the green anti corrosion dip on it. (I just assume the body is dipped in that green compound)....

And yeah, I'll pass on McLaren testing or any other sort of car testing....I do not like cars much...they are tools to me, after over 1.7million miles driven...I'd rather just stay home if its all the same, lol.
Thank you AlfaMan, I'd love to hear if the Texas built Y's have switched out of the front castings or if its only Fremont?? And, there should not be any china made Y's or 3's in 2023 because they would not qualify for the 7500 tax deduction, or am I mistaken???
J

 

[AlfaMan]

"young man"...lol, I'm 55, but hey, I'll take it! Yeah, if I would have broken that little lite tab I can imagine the Senior Chief would have just looked at me and shook his head in disappointment as his most competent sailor let him down badly...
And yes, that looks like 14G steel, with the green anti corrosion dip on it. (I just assume the body is dipped in that green compound)....

And yeah, I'll pass on McLaren testing or any other sort of car testing....I do not like cars much...they are tools to me, after over 1.7million miles driven...I'd rather just stay home if its all the same, lol.
Thank you AlfaMan, I'd love to hear if the Texas built Y's have switched out of the front castings or if its only Fremont?? And, there should not be any china made Y's or 3's in 2023 because they would not qualify for the 7500 tax deduction, or am I mistaken???
J

That's what I bug my "mentorees" with-"young man". Sorry force of habit. I don't think the green anti corrosion dip is actually a dip-too evenly applied for a dip, too consistent a finish when you meter it. Sputtering or electrophoresis is my guess.

You might not want to do a teardown on a McLAren, but it's a grin machine to drive!

If CAMI/Freemont has swapped them out I'd lay money the TX cars have too. But I'll keep my eye out for them-VIN number checking becomes a blur after doing it time after time after time.......

If the cars are being sold for fleet usage, I'm not entirely sure those vehicles would qualify for that tax deduction. Fleet vehicles being operated by a for profit company? Not sure; it's not my area of expertise honestly.

 

[Jeff Allen]

My company is DEFINITELY "for profit"....however we don't run a livery...so, perhaps the tax rules are different? Who knows... My CPA confirmed I would qualify, but we are just a small company, me and my little team...
And, yes, that green stuff does appear to be pretty thin without runs or thicker coating on one side for example, so I'm sure you are correct about it being a sprayed or electro plating type coating. Beats me, I don't know much about coatings!

J

 

[Firebird]

My buddy has a McLaren sitting in his back yard

 

[Jeff Allen]

Ok friends, a year has flown by! The year was 4-29-24 so I'm a couple of days late.
Stats:
Miles driven: 48,577
Charging cost: $2,922
Old Ram 2500 fuel would have been roughly: 2,729 gallons, or, at 3.25 about $8,869 in fuel.
Savings vs RAM: $5,947
Which is not fair. I wouldn't have replaced it with a RAM, I would have most likely chosen a CRV which is different. A CRV would have used about 1,675 gallons for a total of $5,443.75 a REAL DIFFERENCE of about $2,521.
If I didn't have to drive so far some days (300+ miles) the charge number would be way lower. About 1/4 of the energy I used came from superchargers, 3/4 from home. Home is .03, superchargers are .30, or 10x as expensive. If you only commute to a far away job, say 100 miles each way, you would never need an expensive super charger and always be able to charge at home super cheap compared to gas. If you commute only 10 or 20 miles one way, stick with gas, you don't drive enough for it to ever matter. What does gas cost? I have no idea.... I think it might be around 3.89 around here. Doesn't really matter, I don't buy it anyway.

So, in reality I saved 2500 in fuel and a bunch of oil change misery on saturday or sunday mornings here at the shop. I really can't tell you how much I hated that 45 minutes of oil change every month or so after working a 70hr week. Hated changing oil...
I paid about 10k more for the car than a CRV, so, in 4 years I will break even from that stand point.
I'm still on the original tires and will run them for about two to four more months, tire wear seems very normal. I bought a set of winter tires (which I always do) and ran them for two months, or about 10k miles. Car was the most stable vehicle I've ever driven in the snow. Almost magic...the traction control is miles ahead of RAM or Ford.

Do I still like my car? Not really. I LOVE THE DAMN THING. Do I want you to buy one? Hell no, I don't care at all what you do! Why? Because I'm not a control freak government monster, thats why. Why do I love it? Well, its taken so much of my driving work away. I arrive at both ends in a restful relaxed state. I just cannot put into words how good the lane keeping is...its darn near perfect now. When I first got the car it would get a little confused when coming into a small town that has parking along the main road and start centering between the sidewalk and middle...well, thats not good! But, about 6 months ago a software update made that go away.... now it keeps in the lane through small towns perfectly.
The FSD (full self driving) is amazing...I can go hundreds of miles on the highway without touching the car. $99 a month for that luxury.
What don't I like about the car? Government. The nags are all government mandated. I'm pretty good at keeping them at bay, but at least once a day I get the "put pressure on the steering wheel" nag. Bother. Also, charging for long trips sucks. Its a full 20 minute stop, which, almost all the time I'm doing email/texting with people as well as taking a leak, so actual "waiting"....its pretty minimal and I used to have to do the texting and emailing while driving down the highway, so its nice that I almost never have to do that anymore as its quite stressful not dying. These damn customers these days have ZERO patience....make them wait two hours and they are pissed.

I also love zero gas stations during my normal area when I travel less than 125 miles one way. That always just an in and out, no remote charging.

Charging network. The Tesla charging network is awesome. Not once have I had to wait so much as a second to "get gas". I've had exactly one charger not work and I just moved over a bay and notified Tesla through the app. That was in Fort Wayne, IN.
IMO, the charging network in the midwest needs about 10x as many locations before the average idiot can drive a Tesla. IF you always use navigation you will never have a problem, if not, you might end up with low charge and the nearest station is 35 miles out of your way! This has not been a problem for me as I'm not an idiot and I always use nav. Not once have I ran out of charge but one time I wasn't paying attention and missed the turn for the charger and had to turn back or I wouldn't have made it home. Charge times. My average charge time is probably about 7 minutes. It seems I'm either charging for 3 minutes to get home, or somewhere between 15-20 when I'm way out depending on charger locations. Charger locations are sometimes in a Mejier parking lot or some other store, this TOTALLY SUCKS. I HATE THOSE. I want chargers at a gas station right off the highway, I love those, quick in and out.

Range anxiety. I don't know what that is because I'm not an idiot. Not once have I been "worried" about range. Its math. Use the nav and the car does ALL the math for you....its idiot proof IF you aren't an idiot...but, most urbans ARE idiots, so, there's that. They really should stay away from the rural areas. Monsters live out here, stay away, its dangerous!

Maintenance. Well, I did have to put in a gallon of windshield washer fluid to go 48k...so its not exactly "maintenance free".

How much do I love the HEPA filtration? A lot. I haven't smelled a skunk, pesticide spray, cow shit or dead animal decomp since I got the car. Just my farts....

Any questions, feel free to ask. I'll report back if the thing breaks or a year from now.

J

 

[Southside]

Glad you are enjoying your car.

Upsides, downsides. They all have them.

 

[Delta]

I realize I'm a dinosaur, but the things in your review that turn me off are references to "nav" and "aps" and such. I'm not a computer guy, have no computer savvy kids or grand kids, and would likely find myself stuck somewhere with a message that would have nothing to do with the car but would mean absolutely nothing to me.

 

[Dobbin]

0.03 a kwhr for electricity?

Local here is about 0.24 kwhr.

Or maybe his "units" are messed up?

Dobbin

 

[Dennis Olson]

Glad you like it. I’ll never get an EV. Perhaps a hybrid would be okay, but never, ever an EV. It will be interesting to see how much replacement batteries cost.

 

[Jeff Allen]

0.03 a kwhr for electricity?

Local here is about 0.24 kwhr.

Or maybe his "units" are messed up?

Dobbin

Thank you trusty steed for bringing this up....yeah, I misspoke. Its .03 per mile and worse, I conflated the cpm (cost per mile) with kwh. Our kwh is .11 vs the superchargers which range from .28 to .34...so they hover around .30.
TBF I was running around in circles with contract stuff for one of the VA's around here...wonder what I screwed up there...oh, I'm sure it will come back to bite me in the ass though, lol.

J

 

[Jeff Allen]

Glad you like it. I’ll never get an EV. Perhaps a hybrid would be okay, but never, ever an EV. It will be interesting to see how much replacement batteries cost.

When I checked the indy service center, the manager said he thought my battery was around 13k at the time, but he wasn't sure because they had never done a replacement out of warranty, in fact, he said he had not done a replacement on a Model Y at that time. The cost on battery tech continues to fall, even in the face of inflation, so I guess time will tell. There are a bunch of these things with hundreds of thousands of miles, but many of the older units have had battery replacements, some as early as 30k (Model S and X). I did quite a lot of research there and it seemed I was rolling a dice that had a lot fewer chances for misery than my stupid RAM (cost per mile at 206k: .76) seventy six cents per mile...damn that thing was expensive! So, since this is in fact a company car and I could write a check for two brand new ones right now....battery costs really aren't a big deal for my situation. Its a long term test of one vehicle...I'll tell you guys every penny I have to spend fixing it. If it starts hurting me I'll be pissed. If not...ok...

J

 

[SmithJ]

Ok friends, a year has flown by! The year was 4-29-24 so I'm a couple of days late.
Stats:
Miles driven: 48,577
Charging cost: $2,922
Old Ram 2500 fuel would have been roughly: 2,729 gallons, or, at 3.25 about $8,869 in fuel.
Savings vs RAM: $5,947
Which is not fair. I wouldn't have replaced it with a RAM, I would have most likely chosen a CRV which is different. A CRV would have used about 1,675 gallons for a total of $5,443.75 a REAL DIFFERENCE of about $2,521.
If I didn't have to drive so far some days (300+ miles) the charge number would be way lower. About 1/4 of the energy I used came from superchargers, 3/4 from home. Home is .03, superchargers are .30, or 10x as expensive. If you only commute to a far away job, say 100 miles each way, you would never need an expensive super charger and always be able to charge at home super cheap compared to gas. If you commute only 10 or 20 miles one way, stick with gas, you don't drive enough for it to ever matter. What does gas cost? I have no idea.... I think it might be around 3.89 around here. Doesn't really matter, I don't buy it anyway.

So, in reality I saved 2500 in fuel and a bunch of oil change misery on saturday or sunday mornings here at the shop. I really can't tell you how much I hated that 45 minutes of oil change every month or so after working a 70hr week. Hated changing oil...
I paid about 10k more for the car than a CRV, so, in 4 years I will break even from that stand point.
I'm still on the original tires and will run them for about two to four more months, tire wear seems very normal. I bought a set of winter tires (which I always do) and ran them for two months, or about 10k miles. Car was the most stable vehicle I've ever driven in the snow. Almost magic...the traction control is miles ahead of RAM or Ford.

Do I still like my car? Not really. I LOVE THE DAMN THING. Do I want you to buy one? Hell no, I don't care at all what you do! Why? Because I'm not a control freak government monster, thats why. Why do I love it? Well, its taken so much of my driving work away. I arrive at both ends in a restful relaxed state. I just cannot put into words how good the lane keeping is...its darn near perfect now. When I first got the car it would get a little confused when coming into a small town that has parking along the main road and start centering between the sidewalk and middle...well, thats not good! But, about 6 months ago a software update made that go away.... now it keeps in the lane through small towns perfectly.
The FSD (full self driving) is amazing...I can go hundreds of miles on the highway without touching the car. $99 a month for that luxury.
What don't I like about the car? Government. The nags are all government mandated. I'm pretty good at keeping them at bay, but at least once a day I get the "put pressure on the steering wheel" nag. Bother. Also, charging for long trips sucks. Its a full 20 minute stop, which, almost all the time I'm doing email/texting with people as well as taking a leak, so actual "waiting"....its pretty minimal and I used to have to do the texting and emailing while driving down the highway, so its nice that I almost never have to do that anymore as its quite stressful not dying. These damn customers these days have ZERO patience....make them wait two hours and they are pissed.

I also love zero gas stations during my normal area when I travel less than 125 miles one way. That always just an in and out, no remote charging.

Charging network. The Tesla charging network is awesome. Not once have I had to wait so much as a second to "get gas". I've had exactly one charger not work and I just moved over a bay and notified Tesla through the app. That was in Fort Wayne, IN.
IMO, the charging network in the midwest needs about 10x as many locations before the average idiot can drive a Tesla. IF you always use navigation you will never have a problem, if not, you might end up with low charge and the nearest station is 35 miles out of your way! This has not been a problem for me as I'm not an idiot and I always use nav. Not once have I ran out of charge but one time I wasn't paying attention and missed the turn for the charger and had to turn back or I wouldn't have made it home. Charge times. My average charge time is probably about 7 minutes. It seems I'm either charging for 3 minutes to get home, or somewhere between 15-20 when I'm way out depending on charger locations. Charger locations are sometimes in a Mejier parking lot or some other store, this TOTALLY SUCKS. I HATE THOSE. I want chargers at a gas station right off the highway, I love those, quick in and out.

Range anxiety. I don't know what that is because I'm not an idiot. Not once have I been "worried" about range. Its math. Use the nav and the car does ALL the math for you....its idiot proof IF you aren't an idiot...but, most urbans ARE idiots, so, there's that. They really should stay away from the rural areas. Monsters live out here, stay away, its dangerous!

Maintenance. Well, I did have to put in a gallon of windshield washer fluid to go 48k...so its not exactly "maintenance free".

How much do I love the HEPA filtration? A lot. I haven't smelled a skunk, pesticide spray, cow shit or dead animal decomp since I got the car. Just my farts....

Any questions, feel free to ask. I'll report back if the thing breaks or a year from now.

J

Kinda makes me want one

 

[AlfaMan]

Ok friends, a year has flown by! The year was 4-29-24 so I'm a couple of days late.
Stats:
Miles driven: 48,577
Charging cost: $2,922
Old Ram 2500 fuel would have been roughly: 2,729 gallons, or, at 3.25 about $8,869 in fuel.
Savings vs RAM: $5,947
Which is not fair. I wouldn't have replaced it with a RAM, I would have most likely chosen a CRV which is different. A CRV would have used about 1,675 gallons for a total of $5,443.75 a REAL DIFFERENCE of about $2,521.
If I didn't have to drive so far some days (300+ miles) the charge number would be way lower. About 1/4 of the energy I used came from superchargers, 3/4 from home. Home is .03, superchargers are .30, or 10x as expensive. If you only commute to a far away job, say 100 miles each way, you would never need an expensive super charger and always be able to charge at home super cheap compared to gas. If you commute only 10 or 20 miles one way, stick with gas, you don't drive enough for it to ever matter. What does gas cost? I have no idea.... I think it might be around 3.89 around here. Doesn't really matter, I don't buy it anyway.

So, in reality I saved 2500 in fuel and a bunch of oil change misery on saturday or sunday mornings here at the shop. I really can't tell you how much I hated that 45 minutes of oil change every month or so after working a 70hr week. Hated changing oil...
I paid about 10k more for the car than a CRV, so, in 4 years I will break even from that stand point.
I'm still on the original tires and will run them for about two to four more months, tire wear seems very normal. I bought a set of winter tires (which I always do) and ran them for two months, or about 10k miles. Car was the most stable vehicle I've ever driven in the snow. Almost magic...the traction control is miles ahead of RAM or Ford.

Do I still like my car? Not really. I LOVE THE DAMN THING. Do I want you to buy one? Hell no, I don't care at all what you do! Why? Because I'm not a control freak government monster, thats why. Why do I love it? Well, its taken so much of my driving work away. I arrive at both ends in a restful relaxed state. I just cannot put into words how good the lane keeping is...its darn near perfect now. When I first got the car it would get a little confused when coming into a small town that has parking along the main road and start centering between the sidewalk and middle...well, thats not good! But, about 6 months ago a software update made that go away.... now it keeps in the lane through small towns perfectly.
The FSD (full self driving) is amazing...I can go hundreds of miles on the highway without touching the car. $99 a month for that luxury.
What don't I like about the car? Government. The nags are all government mandated. I'm pretty good at keeping them at bay, but at least once a day I get the "put pressure on the steering wheel" nag. Bother. Also, charging for long trips sucks. Its a full 20 minute stop, which, almost all the time I'm doing email/texting with people as well as taking a leak, so actual "waiting"....its pretty minimal and I used to have to do the texting and emailing while driving down the highway, so its nice that I almost never have to do that anymore as its quite stressful not dying. These damn customers these days have ZERO patience....make them wait two hours and they are pissed.

I also love zero gas stations during my normal area when I travel less than 125 miles one way. That always just an in and out, no remote charging.

Charging network. The Tesla charging network is awesome. Not once have I had to wait so much as a second to "get gas". I've had exactly one charger not work and I just moved over a bay and notified Tesla through the app. That was in Fort Wayne, IN.
IMO, the charging network in the midwest needs about 10x as many locations before the average idiot can drive a Tesla. IF you always use navigation you will never have a problem, if not, you might end up with low charge and the nearest station is 35 miles out of your way! This has not been a problem for me as I'm not an idiot and I always use nav. Not once have I ran out of charge but one time I wasn't paying attention and missed the turn for the charger and had to turn back or I wouldn't have made it home. Charge times. My average charge time is probably about 7 minutes. It seems I'm either charging for 3 minutes to get home, or somewhere between 15-20 when I'm way out depending on charger locations. Charger locations are sometimes in a Mejier parking lot or some other store, this TOTALLY SUCKS. I HATE THOSE. I want chargers at a gas station right off the highway, I love those, quick in and out.

Range anxiety. I don't know what that is because I'm not an idiot. Not once have I been "worried" about range. Its math. Use the nav and the car does ALL the math for you....its idiot proof IF you aren't an idiot...but, most urbans ARE idiots, so, there's that. They really should stay away from the rural areas. Monsters live out here, stay away, its dangerous!

Maintenance. Well, I did have to put in a gallon of windshield washer fluid to go 48k...so its not exactly "maintenance free".

How much do I love the HEPA filtration? A lot. I haven't smelled a skunk, pesticide spray, cow shit or dead animal decomp since I got the car. Just my farts....

Any questions, feel free to ask. I'll report back if the thing breaks or a year from now.

J

Thanks for an interesting report. If I could type better (got a RA flareup in my hands tonight, prednisone hasn't kicked in yet) I'd ask you some questions regarding fit and finish issues I'm seeing crop up in some units. We're liquidating a rental company's fleet of EVs, have been for a while now but they just dumped more units nationwide to liquidate.

Also, "something" is going on with Tesla as a company. Can't put my finger on it and can't give details on what I do know. But something is going on with the company as a whole. My gut and a WAG tells me they may not be around in 10 years. Or less.

 

[Jeff Allen]

Kinda makes me want one

I'll happily give you a ride if you live in IN or IL. The acceleration is....well I'll put it like this, my slow grocery getter is faster than every single production corvette until 2007, and for $2k I could take the 0-60 down another 1/2 second. My next one will be a performance version which is a full second quicker. Very, very fun, on occasion of course, lol.
Passing...my entire life passing has been blood pressure raising stressful. Not anymore, now its freaking exciting! Passing someone going 55 in a 55 will have you at 70 by the time you are at their front bumper with zero lead up...just punch it and bam! Smooth as silk...sooo easy to be in the "take your license away" speed zone!!!
Sitting at stoplights....is so crazy. With single pedal driving and the hold setting on, I just sit there. No pushing a brake. This is better than you think before you actually get to do it... Stop and go traffic? LIFE CHANGING...I DO NOTHING....car brakes, accelerates, brakes, stops, steers.... I'm just along for the ride and my stress level goes to zero.....I look around and see all the pissed off stressed people and remember "oh, that used to be me before my robot car changed my life"....and of course I keep an eye behind me in case I get rear ended.
I use the brakes for perhaps 1-2 seconds a week. I consider a drive I have to use the brakes as a "failure", lol. The regenerative braking is quite aggressive. No need for brakes. I'd bet thousands of dollars I could run this car to a million miles on the original brakes. I literally use my brakes for an entire month for less time than others use their brakes on a single stop.
J

 

[Jeff Allen]

Thanks for an interesting report. If I could type better (got a RA flareup in my hands tonight, prednisone hasn't kicked in yet) I'd ask you some questions regarding fit and finish issues I'm seeing crop up in some units. We're liquidating a rental company's fleet of EVs, have been for a while now but they just dumped more units nationwide to liquidate.

Also, "something" is going on with Tesla as a company. Can't put my finger on it and can't give details on what I do know. But something is going on with the company as a whole. My gut and a WAG tells me they may not be around in 10 years. Or less.

They just fired the entire charging team! Tesla had a cash on hand of $26.863 billion as of March 31, 2024. As a shareholder I was reviewing the voting documents an hour ago. I think there is a lot of internal conflict over Musks compensation as well as the corporate move from Delaware to TX.
I'm not noticing any fit/finish issues changing. I suspect a lot of what you are seeing was there from the factory, as you know, Tesla has been notorious for fit/finish issues until the last year or so. Why people paid 80k for my model I just scratch my head. The 47,500 I paid was pretty much tippity top of what I was willing....before I drove it....now I'll gladly pay 60, but probably not much more as I see cars as disposable tools....even a 60k write down in 4 years hurts my soul. 60k. Thats at roughly 60 days of work. Gone. I don't like that. Wealth isn't built pissing money away. I'm full of shit. I'd pay probably double to relax in traffic. You can't take it with you....and its not like I borrow money to buy stupid cars. But I do have my eye on 60 acres next door....I probably wouldn't waste 100k on a car unless that land became unobtanium.

BTW, I REALLY HATE that you are having an RA flare up, you have my deepest empathy. Not fun. I hope you get to feeling better ASAP. I hate how some many members are in constant pain and living through a lot of suffering. Bad. I'm through my first knee surgery and am recovered as much as I'm gonna. Not looking forward to the next round of shots...followed by the eventual replacement. And of course the left side is shit so how long before that leaves me crippled and off to the savages, er, "surgeon" yet again...time will tell. I've got handicap bars on the toilet now, I can tell you that!!!

J

 

[Richard]

The main objection I have to EVs is not the electrification but lithium ion batteries, once safe battery technology is available then I would support the idea of EVs where practical in certain parts of the country/world. The grid and generation capacity will have to be increased/updated and this could take decades.
There are other problems with EVs which will be eventually sorted, in the meantime EVs should be put on hold until safe batteries are commercially available. As far as I'm concerned this is not a political issue.

 

[Millwright]

Implementation of technological advances should be determined by the free market.

It works for the OP, cool beans.

If there are enough customers who can make EVs work for their situation, manufacturers will fill that market segment...at a profit.

When they become a political tool, all bets are off.

Peeps who might benefit from them are already pissed at the .guv (commies) trying to force them into widespread usage...even when they don't work for the application.

I know it will be a cold day in hell before I'd buy one, simply because they're trying to force it on everybody. It don't matter if they would save me some jingle. Just no

 

[Jeff Allen]

The main objection I have to EVs is not the electrification but lithium ion batteries, once safe battery technology is available then I would support the idea of EVs where practical in certain parts of the country/world. The grid and generation capacity will have to be increased/updated and this could take decades.
There are other problems with EVs which will be eventually sorted, in the meantime EVs should be put on hold until safe batteries are commercially available. As far as I'm concerned this is not a political issue.

What do you mean by "safe batteries"? BEV's already catch fire less frequently than ICE vehicles and ICE vehicles catch fire less frequently than hybrids (looking at the snake pit under the hood of my wife's Sienna hybrid, its no surprise!). Tesla did have trouble with the early model X's and S's, but its difficult to get an actual number of fires.
Also, I do not advocate for anyone buying a BEV. Thats totally up to them. If the cost of electricity increases more than the cost of gasoline the economics quickly change and BEV, for all its fun/tech starts to get more expensive which is a key driver for most. I'd view that as self limiting if too many adopt ev's. However...look at california, those idiots were experiencing constant blackouts just a few years ago...fast forward to now and you don't hear about that anymore yet they have ev's coming out of their ears. Since the vast majority of charging happens after peak hours, I suspect there is quite a lot of leeway there, but do not have hard data. But, I'm 100% positive you are correct, the grid as a whole will absolutely need to be upgraded for capacity, however, we are there just on population from when things were originally installed.

J

 

[Richard]

What do you mean by "safe batteries"? BEV's already catch fire less frequently than ICE vehicles and ICE vehicles catch fire less frequently than hybrids (looking at the snake pit under the hood of my wife's Sienna hybrid, its no surprise!). Tesla did have trouble with the early model X's and S's, but its difficult to get an actual number of fires.
Also, I do not advocate for anyone buying a BEV. Thats totally up to them. If the cost of electricity increases more than the cost of gasoline the economics quickly change and BEV, for all its fun/tech starts to get more expensive which is a key driver for most. I'd view that as self limiting if too many adopt ev's. However...look at california, those idiots were experiencing constant blackouts just a few years ago...fast forward to now and you don't hear about that anymore yet they have ev's coming out of their ears. Since the vast majority of charging happens after peak hours, I suspect there is quite a lot of leeway there, but do not have hard data. But, I'm 100% positive you are correct, the grid as a whole will absolutely need to be upgraded for capacity, however, we are there just on population from when things were originally installed.

J

It is true that BEVs catch fire less frequently than ICE and hybrids, hybrids are actually worse than ICE and at the moment with fewer old EVs on the road BEVs have the least number of fires (as % of total). however a BEV fire is catastrophic and difficult to extinguish, so much so that they should be banned from use in vehicles. Also the battery is situated in the floorpan so can easily be damaged by poor road surfaces and speed bumps, once damaged the battery can easily catch fire or need replacement.