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1400 MILE Road Trip in the Tesla Model 3

2020-12-06 · Tech review, setup or bag tour · Ali · recording, 24:26 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Tools, apps and tech · mode: Review and recommendation · tags: His own numbers

Ali reviews what it is like to take his Tesla Model 3 Long Range on a 1,400-mile road trip to the Scottish Highlands with friends: a comfortable driver's seat, fierce acceleration and an Autopilot that is a game changer on motorways, but range far below the advertised 329 miles in cold rain, few Superchargers north of Inverness, slow third-party charging, a cramped back row and loud motorway noise; he finds it fun but not stress-free.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The video he wished he had seen before buying the car

  • ★★ Ali took his Tesla Model 3 on a 1,400-mile road trip to the Scottish Highlands in torrential rain and freezing weather with a car full of people, and made the video he wished he had seen before buying it. — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Comfort

  • ★★ Ali finds the Tesla Model 3 really comfortable for the driver: the seat feels like sitting in a sofa, with electronic height controls and lumbar support. — 00:00:29
  • ★ After about two hours of driving the Tesla Model 3, Ali gets consistent lower back pain, as he did in his old car; he thinks that may just be him. (hedged) — 00:00:58
  • ★★ The Tesla Model 3 saves driver profiles, so when Ali's mum drives, she selects hers and the seat moves to her position. — 00:00:58 · Ali Abdaal's mother
  • ★★ Ali genuinely enjoys driving the Tesla Model 3 and calls it a joy to drive, partly because of its comfort. — 00:01:39

00:01:57 — Acceleration

  • ★★ Ali's Tesla Model 3 Long Range, with no performance version or paid upgrades, goes from 0 to 60 in 3.4 seconds, which can feel sickening to passengers. — 00:02:09
  • ★ Of the Tesla Model 3's two acceleration modes, Standard and Chill, Ali prefers Chill for a smoother drive, switching to Standard to race away from traffic lights. — 00:02:09
  • ★★ Tesla sells an over-the-air software upgrade for £1,500 (he thinks $1,500 in America) that takes the Model 3's 0 to 60 down to 2.9 seconds. — 00:02:45
  • ★★ Ali will not pay £1,500 for the Tesla Model 3's 2.9-second acceleration upgrade: 3.4 seconds is already too fast for him, he is not much of a car guy, and the upgrade is completely unnecessary. — 00:03:15
  • ★★ Tesla's Autopilot is technically traffic-aware cruise control: it accelerates up to the speed limit, keeps a safe distance behind the car in front and follows the road markings. — 00:03:15

00:03:27 — Autopilot

  • ★★ Ali turns on the Tesla Autopilot whenever he has to drive more than two miles on one stretch of road and lets the car do the work. — 00:03:44
  • ★★ Tesla's Autopilot asks the driver to touch the steering wheel; if the hands stay off too long, the car flashes, sounds and then disables Autopilot for the rest of the drive. — 00:04:13
  • ★★★ Three months in, Ali loves the Tesla Autopilot and calls it a total game changer both for long road trips, since it drives for ages at a time, and in traffic. — 00:05:39
  • ★★ Ali sees little difference in the UK for now between Tesla's standard Autopilot and Full Self-Driving apart from Full Self-Driving's £7,000 price, which he is not prepared to pay yet. — 00:06:09
  • ★★ On rainy, winding mountain roads in the Scottish Highlands, Ali found the Tesla Autopilot's push to 60 mph terrifying, so they mostly drove themselves there; on the motorway it was fantastic. — 00:07:00

00:07:29 — Range anxiety

  • ★★ Ali found range anxiety in his Tesla Model 3 a very real thing: he had seen videos about it but had not believed how big a deal it is. — 00:07:29
  • ★★★ Ali's Tesla Model 3 Long Range, advertised at 329 miles, gets about 300 miles a charge in the south of England, but in windy, freezing, rainy Scotland its range was closer to 200 miles. — 00:07:58
  • ★★ On the Scotland trip Ali often could not trust the Tesla's projected battery at the destination: it would project 8% left, then they would reach 8% with another 15 minutes still to drive. — 00:08:27
  • ★★ To save battery on the cold trip they used the Tesla's heated seats instead of the heating, since the heating apparently uses more battery. (hedged) — 00:09:04
  • ★★ Watching range and speed to reach the next charger is, Ali says, stuff you have to think about with a Tesla that you do not with a petrol or diesel car. — 00:09:43

00:10:00 — Charging woes in Scotland and the trip's charging costs

  • ★★ Within the Tesla Supercharger network, in most of England and the south of Scotland, charging is fine: a service-station Supercharger takes the Model 3 from zero to 100% in about an hour. — 00:10:07
  • ★★ Scotland has very few Tesla Superchargers; they charged at Edinburgh, Perth, Aviemore and Inverness, and there was not a single one north and west of Inverness, where they were exploring. — 00:11:03
  • ★★★ Scotland's third-party charging points in the north must be registered for in advance with a physical card plugged into the charger; without it the app allowed only slow charging. — 00:11:03
  • ★★ The slow third-party chargers in Scotland gave them about six kilowatt hours (as heard), taking about six hours to add 30% to the Tesla's battery. — 00:11:50
  • ★★ At the Edinburgh Airport Supercharger, which has only two spaces, both were taken by Teslas and another Model 3 was already waiting, so they had to decide whether to queue or drive on. — 00:12:27
  • ★★ None of the fast chargers in Scotland worked for them; a Nissan Leaf driver told them they needed to apply for an EV charging card to unlock fast charging. — 00:13:52
  • ★★ Ali calls it stupid that Scotland's chargers need a physical card to unlock fast charging in 2020, and wants it made available in the app. — 00:14:21
  • ★★ For most of the rest of the trip they relied on slow charging from Scotland's third-party network, changed their route a lot and missed much of the sightseeing they had planned, including around Skye. — 00:14:21
  • ★★ In the trip's grimmest moment, wet and freezing, they waited about six hours in a coffee shop in a Scottish town until the car had about 40% battery, enough to reach their Airbnb by nightfall. — 00:15:31 · Airbnb
  • ★★ Overall they were never stranded by charging, but range anxiety made them massively change their entire trip. — 00:16:59
  • ★★★ Next time Ali will carry a long extension cable, since a Tesla can be plugged into a normal wall outlet and charged overnight at the Airbnb. — 00:16:59 · Airbnb
  • ★★ A normal wall outlet charges the Tesla Model 3 at about six to eight miles of range per hour, about 100 miles over a 12-hour night. — 00:17:35
  • ★★ At home Ali has no wall charger: he charges the Tesla from the mains through a long extension cable run outside. — 00:17:35
  • ★★★ Charging for the 1,400-mile trip cost £126.39 in all: £21.90 for one overnight full charge at a service station, £84.49 at Superchargers and about £20 at third-party stations. — 00:18:18
  • ★★★ The same trip in Ali's 2011 diesel Nissan Note, at about 55 miles per gallon and diesel at 117p a litre, would have cost £135.40, so the Tesla saved only about £10 (about $13). — 00:18:47

00:19:05 — Passenger experience

  • ★★ The Tesla Model 3's back seat is comfortable for one or two passengers but quite uncomfortable for three, especially tall ones. — 00:19:16
  • ★★ The Tesla Model 3 has little rear leg room because the battery at the bottom takes up space, so back-seat knees sit higher, which over 12-hour days brought hip-flexor and lower back pain. — 00:19:41
  • ★ Each night of the road trip they did a mobility and stretching routine to get the pain out of their backs. — 00:20:13
  • ★ The Tesla Model 3's back seats are heated too. — 00:20:13

00:20:43 — Entertainment and road noise

  • ★★ On long motorway drives the Tesla Model 3 is really loud, and Ali had hoped it would be a lot quieter; it is very quiet only below 30 mph. — 00:20:43
  • ★★ Ali notices little subjective difference between the road noise in the Tesla Model 3 and in his Nissan Note, so audio on the motorway needs about 80% volume. — 00:21:12
  • ★★ The Tesla's big screen with YouTube and Netflix made charging stops pleasant: instead of getting out, they watched clips and even a Netflix show in the car. — 00:22:16 · YouTube, Netflix
  • ★ Tesla's in-car connectivity comes free at first with the car; after that Ali thinks it costs about £10 a month for unlimited internet in the car. (hedged) — 00:22:16

00:22:36 — Comparison with a normal car and overall verdict

  • ★★★ Ali thinks the road trip would have been less hassle in a petrol or diesel car, with no charging to worry about, but also less fun. — 00:22:45
  • ★★★ For Ali the shared adversity of the charging struggles made the Scotland trip a good bonding experience with his friends, so in a way it was good they took the Tesla Model 3. — 00:23:26
  • ★★ Ali and his friends are planning another road trip in a few months; Ali is all for taking the Tesla again because its driver's seat is really comfortable. — 00:23:26
  • ★★ Ali suspects that for their next road trip he and his friends will hire a big comfortable four-by-four, such as a Land Rover, instead of taking his Tesla. (hedged) — 00:23:55
  • ★★★ Ali's overall verdict on the 1,400-mile road trip in his Tesla Model 3: he enjoyed it and found it fun, but certainly not stress-free. — 00:23:55

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: range anxiety · Scotland · Scottish Highlands · Tesla Model 3 · Tesla Supercharger

Also: People: Ali Abdaal's mother

Works: Would I Lie to You

Organizations: Airbnb · Netflix · YouTube

Places: Aviemore · Edinburgh Airport · England · Inverness · Isle of Skye · Perth

Products: Full Self-Driving · Google Maps · Nissan Note · Tesla Autopilot

Also centred on Tesla Model 3: Collecting My Tesla Model 3 - Day In The Life · How I Bought a Brand New Tesla Half Price

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