Jack has been fascinated with technology for most of his life. After working as an electrician, he earned a degree in computer science and introduced his students to the brave new world of the Internet and digital networking. Although he currently drives a Hyundai Accent, he would like to get into an affordable electric car. He has a BYD Atto 3 in mind. He recently got the chance to spend 30 days with a Tesla Model 3 SR. He attended our coffee, cake and EV morning at Bracken Ridge Tavern last month (the next one is April 18 if you want to stop by) and introduced himself to me as someone who had driven a Tesla Model 3 for a month and then went back to a gas car. I was intrigued and my mind played with all sorts of reasons. So this morning we met again at the BRT and he told me the whole story.
It turned out to be a lot less mysterious than it sounded. Jack’s daughter had bought a white Tesla Model 3 SR, but the car had arrived early and she still lived in an apartment building with no garage or charging facility. Not wanting to leave the car on the street and risk vandalism, she borrowed the Accent and Dad drove the Model 3. For 30 days, he enjoyed the minimalist interior. He still has the app on his phone and looked it up to tell me where the car was parked and that it had driven 2,000 miles since it was brand new in December.
While it was in his care, Jack charged the Model 3 from its rooftop solar using a 10 amp outlet. He has a 15 amp outlet available, but chose to use the slower charger because he had so much reserve power from the solar. “30 days without having to pay for gas.” He sighed.
Jack is an ‘auto man’. In his collection he has a Land Cruiser that runs on LPG (it has increased in price but is still cheaper than petrol), a Trans Am and a classic mini minor. As an electrician, he sees his interest in electric cars as a natural development. He just doesn’t have the vehicle yet (unless you count the electric ride-on mower he uses). He would have liked a Chevy Bolt when it first came out. Then he looked at the Nissan LEAF.
Now he is interested in the new generation of EVs. He came to the coffee morning at the BRT to see the cars and get honest answers to his questions. Unfortunately, this month we only had Model 3s, Model Ys and the BYD Atto 3 to show it off. We advised him to join some Facebook owner groups – people are quite helpful and open-hearted online. There’s even a Facebook Chevy Bolt group.
Cars on our coffee morning. Photo by Majella Waterworth.
Jack wants a cost-effective electric car. We discussed the BYD Dolphin, the Ora Cat and the MG 4 all of which will soon be available for sale in Australia at a reasonable price. But he also wants something he can take down a 300m gravel driveway to get to his property in the Sunshine Coast hinterland – so we went back to the BYD Atto 3, as it has more ground clearance.
Jack’s retreat into the backwoods. Photo by Jack.
“The Bracken Ridge Tavern Coffee, Cake and EVs morning tea is a relaxed way to learn about EVs,” he tells me, “and the owners were very helpful.”
He has brought along friends and other relatives and they have all been impressed with the vehicle. His wife liked not having to make a special trip to get gas for the 2-hour drive from their home to their holiday home, as well as the obvious cost savings of not having to pay for fuel every week.
Jack’s EV will have to drive down this dirt driveway. Photo by Jack.
Other family members really liked the convenience of turning on the air conditioning and cooling the car down before heading out in a Queensland summer. However, no one liked the sunroof and a few struggled to find the door release to get out of the car, which was pretty much the only criticism.
It took some getting used to how different the controls were from his run-of-the-mill cars, but there’s plenty of help available. The staff were very helpful with the delivery and are used to people not being familiar with the transition. They helped them set up the phone apps so that each person who would be driving the car – ranging from just five feet tall to well over six feet tall – would have their own seating preference. He suspects this level of service is unique to Tesla rather than just getting the keys and driving off, which was his normal experience.
One-pedal driving was the most drastic change, with him being caught out a few times while driving in town when the car slowed down a little too quickly for the traffic lights and roundabouts, requiring him to use the accelerator to slow the vehicle down instead from coasting to standstill as he is used to. He got used to the change in driving style quite quickly and it became normal.
He was really impressed with how effortlessly the Tesla went up and down the Great Dividing range, simply using cruise control instead of having to use engine braking as it normally does on descents.
He experienced some “range anxiety” and frequently checked the state of charge settings when he first drove the car out of the metro area and main highways where there is no shortage of charging options, and drove the car into the bush where there are less frequent chargers. It didn’t take him long to realize that he would still have more than 50% left when he reached his destination after 2 hours of night driving on the highway with a 500m elevation gain (which has the reputation of being the battery). Once he figured that out and got used to it, he could just relax and enjoy the ride.
Overall, he was happy to return the car to his daughter and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Jack saw the whole swap as an experiment to see if he would enjoy driving an electric vehicle. He described it as “an extensive test drive under real conditions with no sales pitch.” He’s decided that their replacement daily driver will definitely be a full electric car rather than a hybrid, which was a consideration at one point.
The right time for Jack to buy an electric car keeps coming closer.
Photo by Zach Shahan, CleanTechnica
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