Flying the Falcon

For a long time, I've been interested in sustainable power. In 2001, I installed a small solar panel onto our shed to power a light within. It has a small lead-acid battery and a charge controller, and it still works after nearly 20 years. In 2010, just as the UK introduced feed-in tariffs for domestically generated solar power, I had a 3.5kW-p solar array installed on the rear roof of our house. Nine years on, it has produced over 23MWh of electricity.
Around 2013, I became aware that an American startup company, Tesla, were making a car with unbelievable specs. The company's CEO, a tech entrepreneur called Elon Musk, was already on my radar thanks to a rocketry company he had set up, Space Exploration Technologies or SpaceX (and, yes, that is a puerile play on words). Both companies were on a path to disrupting large, well established industries and I found both to be very exciting because of that.

Tesla Model S, 2014. (Woods)

In 2014, a year after I first learned of the Tesla Model S, I got to test drive one around Glasgow. This car had a battery that weighed half a ton, was composed of over 7,000 laptop cells which stored 85kWh of electricity, enough to run most households for a week. The car was sleek, very attractive to look at and its instantaneous torque and stepless acceleration were utterly compelling as it smoothly and almost silently brought us up to a blistering speed. Zero to 60mph for this car was a little over 5 seconds, performance that put it very firmly in the fast sportscar class despite being a 2-ton large saloon. What's more, it could keep running for well over 200 miles on a single charge. I was smitten.
I'm not a petrolhead and have always preferred small cars that were as efficient as possible. The Toyota Yaris had been my car of choice, usually with a 3-cylinder, 1-litre engine. Massage it carefully and I could get 50 to 70 miles per gallon out of it. In my view, a high figure for mpg was a great achievement. The last of my Yaris cars was a hybrid, a concept that at one time excited me. The hybrid Yaris was perhaps a little bit of a let-down as its battery was tiny and was rarely used, being there only to cover for the brief moments when an internal combustion engine (ICE) is particularly inefficient.

Enter the EV

Then in 2015, an unbelievably generous PCP offer came from Nissan. By bringing out the Leaf in 2011, they had been early to the electric vehicle (EV) game. Strangely enough, this car had gone under my radar. However, this is not surprising when one realises that ICE car companies are not keen to sell EVs because these vehicles undermine many of their core profit sources. The deal I was being offered was much better than the one for my hybrid Yaris and it included a £5K incentive from the UK government. More importantly, acquiring a Leaf would take me completely away from burning petrol and the resultant savings would further add to the financial case. Grants were even available for the installation of a charging point capable of providing up to 7kW to an electric car while it sat in my driveway.

Nissan Leaf, 24kWh. (Woods)

The Leaf had a range of about 80 miles and was almost exclusively powered by electricity from my house at a cost that was about a quarter of what petrol would have been. I did take it on some long distance trips and used rapid chargers along the way, but it was not really suited for that purpose. For me, it was an excellent city car; quite luxurious (in my terms), well appointed, very comfortable and easy to drive. In winter, I could even pre-heat the interior before heading out. But all the time, I was keeping a firm eye on Tesla.

The Tesla Model 3 (The Verge)

In the spring of 2016, Tesla announced the Model 3. This was to be their 'affordable' car, starting at $35,000 and with a range of at least 200 miles. I naively factored in the then exchange rate of 1.5 dollars to the pound and decided that this could be less than £30K, maybe even £25K. Give me time and I could maybe stretch to that. The day after the announcement, I put down a £1K refundable reservation for a Model 3 and wondered (a) If I was being silly, and (b) when would it be ready? At this point, they hadn't even built a production line in their factory in San Francisco.
Tesla were caught out by the enormously positive reaction they got to the launch of the Model 3 with nearly half a billion dollars in reservation payments suddenly filling their account. Production plans were brought forward but I knew that Tesla would initially concentrate on supplying the US and then other left-hand drive markets. The wait would be a long one and I imagined two years or so.
Then the dollar/pound exchange rate slumped and the Model 3 concept was beginning to look a little shaky for me as its apparent, guessed-at price rose. There would be three models; standard range (the base), long range and performance. At 220 miles range, the standard would be enough for my needs. They spoke of it having a metal roof and basic cloth seats. The others would have a 'premium interior' with a glass roof, vegan leather powered seats and a ton of other goodies. I didn't need them anyway.
2017 and my Leaf's PCP deal expired. I could either buy the car outright or return it and walk away. It so happened that I was able to privately purchase a near identical Leaf for £2K less than the figure that would have been required to settle up for the first one, so I switched cars. I quietly hoped that my second Leaf would only be needed for a year before the Model 3 arrived. I was wrong.

My second Leaf at Shiel Bridge on the road to Skye. (Woods)

Meanwhile, I took on a work gig on the Isle of Skye that lasted the whole of the autumn. Trying to go back and forth to Skye in an EV through increasingly poor Scottish weather was extremely inconvenient when two or three charging stops were required to make the trip. I swapped cars with my son and held my nose while I poured £40 of petrol into his car each week. He, on the other hand, was delighted. He loved the Leaf's nippy acceleration around town and he appreciated the savings from not buying petrol. Further, by transferring ownership to him for six months, he was able to have a charge point installed on his house for free thanks to UK and Scottish government incentives.
As I sat on Skye during late 2017, I watched as the first Model 3s became available in the USA. Most new owners adored them with the usual fervour of the early adopter. Critics pounced on them and poured scorn over them in bucketfuls, pointing out the shoddy, limited state of the car's software, the inconsistency in the headliner material and the wide variations in the gaps between panels. But these were early cars and issues with the new production lines were being worked out.

Changing minds

About this time, two things happened that really made me sit up. The first was when EV expert, Jack Rickard, a grouchy old engineer who converted ICE cars to EVs, managed to procure a crashed Model 3 and proceeded to take apart the battery on his YouTube channel.

Jack Rickard (right) and the Model 3 battery. (YouTube)

Rickard was sceptical about the Model 3 as a car for his daily use but what he found within astonished him. In one of his odd, extremely long, techically rich videos, he pronounced the Model 3's battery "a work of art," and "the best battery in the world, of any kind, anywhere."

Sandy Munro and the 'Superbottle'. (Autoline/YouTube)

The second occurrence was in Detroit, the capital of the US car industry. Engineering consultant Sandy Munro had his firm purchase a Model 3 to take to bits. His company, Munro & Associates Inc., creates enormous reports that detail every last part of a particular car; down to each screw, nut and washer; to reveal what it took to build it and whether it was therefore profitable. Competitors pay very good money for these reports and the new Tesla was eagerly awaited. He was scathing about the Model 3 when he looked at it prior to disassembly. The critics gleefully lapped up his words of poor panel gaps and below par fit and finish. Then he and his engineers got to work pulling it apart to understand how it functioned.

Having dribbled caustic criticism over the car in his first pronouncement, Munro returned with a different story and he manfully admitted that he had to "eat crow". His revised opinion of the Model 3 marvelled at the tightly integrated design and execution of its battery, drive train and associated electronics. To illustrate his amazement, he showed off a part of the car's cooling system, the so-called 'superbottle' which was central to the way that the Model 3 integrated the thermal control of its various systems; the cabin, the motors, the battery and the electronics. The engineers were so proud of their creation, they included a little cartoon of a 'Superbottle' superhero on its surface.

The Tesla Model 3 'Superbottle'. (HyperchangeTV/YouTube)

Munro's point was that legacy car manufacturers could not do this. They are intrinsically limited in their ability to innovate. Their design houses are fractured, each dealing with separate narrow functions and each often unwilling to step outside their own fiefdom and collaborate. The majority of parts are bought in which further inhibits flexibility. Even car assembly is often outsourced with the major contribution of a particular legacy company being the engine itself. Factories for ICE production were their biggest investment. Tesla, on the other hand, are vertically integrated to an extent barely heard of in the car industry. They design and produce 80 per cent of each car and they are deeply focussed on innovation, easily capable of making changes as engineering experience teaches them better ways to proceed.

Creating EVs

As I watched Tesla ramp up production levels of the Model 3 in the face of an overly sceptical business media (that's another story), I became convinced that something very special was happening, and by giving Tesla an interest-free loan, I was a part of making it happen. However, the effect of UK politics on the exchange rate was sobering and I was also waking up to the fact that a car imported from the US would have 10 per cent duty added, then 20 per cent VAT. Add the effects of inflation and this $35K car was getting very expensive.

At one point, I looked at the Hyundai Kona Electric. This was a very attractive package for me and would be a good bit cheaper while still having a 200-plus-mile range. One problem though. They couldn't deliver for over a year and by this time, the Model 3 was on track to be a lot sooner than that.
Hyundai have a problem shared by a lot of legacy car companies. They simply don't want to make EVs. The electric car utterly undermines their vast investment in ICE manufacture as well as the huge dealership networks that make a huge profit from keeping internal combustion engines burning petrol and diesel - fossil fuels. The EVs they do build, they do so in very small quantities, either to comply with regulations or they are too scared to commit while excusing themselves by saying that the EV market is too small to justify high numbers. They even design their EVs around conventions of ICE design, placing the electric 'engine' under the bonnet so that the same production line can be used for the manufacture of all variants; ICE, hybrid or pure electric.
Further, they maintain their habit of outsourcing and choose to buy in batteries rather than making them in house. Yet that is exactly what every other legacy marque is doing; all scrabbling over a very limited supply of batteries from a very few companies like LG Chem, CATL and Samsung.
Tesla has gone for a very different approach from the outset. For batteries, they partnered with Panasonic to produce their own packs in house, part of their vertical integration approach. But more than that, they don't build compliance vehicles. They choose to make products that are utterly compelling, designed to destroy myths that surround electric vehicles, showing them to be anything but milk floats and golf carts. Further, they design from the ground up, having realised that there are huge advantages to this approach.

The Tesla model 3 'skateboard'. The electronics penthouse sits at one end of the structurally strong battery pack. (Tesla via Electrek)

A Tesla Model 3 has a large rectangular battery that forms the floor of the car with all its attendant electronics mounted at one end in a 'penthouse'. A wheel at each corner forms a large skateboard arrangement that keeps the great weight of a lithium-ion battery very low for excellent stability. The drive train (motor and single-gear transmission) are also tucked down low between the wheels so that the space above is free for the designers to do with what they wish.

The 'frunk', or is it the 'froot'? (Woods)

With no engine under the bonnet, a cavity is opened up that can carry luggage. This also allows a well-designed crumple zone to be formed where it is needed most. In a head-on crash, there is no danger of that non-existent engine being pushed into the cabin. The inherent structural strength of the battery pack acts as further protection for passengers, strongly resisting penetration by side impacts. On top of all these hardware innovations is the competence that Tesla have in the computer realm that comes from their Silicon Valley mind set. They integrate all the car's systems into one in much the same way that a modern smartphone does, finishing off the presentation with a large touchscreen that dominates the cabin. The Model 3 is therefore often described as a smartphone on wheels, and rightly so.

Where's my car?

Three years or more to wait for a car is a long time but in May 2019, Tesla finally announced that the Model 3 would be available in right-hand drive and sold in the UK. The next day, I put in my order and began the final stage of my wait. Over the years, I had been canny enough to build up the funds for the base version. However, since the Model 3 had first come out, things had changed.
With sales and manufacture experience behind them, Tesla had decided that the cheapest model would be somewhat more refined than originally suggested. The glass roof would be standard, as would be the vegan leather power seats. The official range of the battery would be a little improved at 240 miles. These were among a suite of upgrades that took the sting out of the fact that the car would cost in the range of £38K (after a UK government incentive). Nevertheless, this was a huge leap for me.
More used to driving small, under-powered hatchbacks, I found myself on social media following the chat of people for whom Audi and BMW were the norm. Not for them my measly 235-horsepower, 5.6-second 0-60 time. They wanted the Performance model that offered 456 horsepower and an acceleration of 3.4 seconds 0-60. I had been pulled into a different world of car ownership; one that wasn't concerned with efficiency or just having a vehicle to commute to work and get to the shops in. These folk wanted to show off. It was all about smart-looking wheels, perfect polished paintwork, and the bragging rights of as much speed as possible. Yet I wasn't the only one being pulled into the luxury car market. It seems I was part of a phenomenon called the Tesla Stretch.
Let me explain. When Models 3s began to ship in large numbers, it was remarkable that an unexpectedly large percentage of the trade-ins were not similar luxury cars. Rather, buyers were trading in more mass market, lower cost vehicles like the Honda Civic, Honda Accord and the Toyota Prius – and the Nissan Leaf. People were stretching themselves to get this car, all without any conventional advertising. Although the cheapest Model 3 is considered a luxury car, many of its buyers were like me, entering this market for the first time.
Waiting was a slightly unnerving affair. Across nearly 4 months after I ordered, I heard from Tesla exactly twice; once near the start to confirm the order and again two days before pickup to inform me of the delivery date. But in between, I learned that there were unusual ways to keep track of progress through the internet.

The online purchase

Tesla does not work through dealers. Customers buy online, direct from the company and there is no haggling. If a test drive is desired, then an arrangement can be made through one of their High Street stores, though in this case, it was a moot point as there were no Model 3s in the country at that time. I was aware that there would be a sudden flood of 3s into the UK and that Tesla staff here would be stretched. While others fulminated on social media about very long wait times on phone lines and Tesla's lack of contact, I decided to just wait. It wouldn't come any faster.
I did learn that if I went to my car's page within my Tesla web account, I could look at the source code, the script that forms the page, and learn a bit more than what the page appeared to be telling me. By that method, I got a pleasant surprise; a vehicle identification number, or VIN. That made the car seem more real. Then when the final invoice appeared and I began to pay for the car, rather than waiting on phone lines or firing off emails, I could confirm receipt of the cash by looking within the source code.
My big fear was that the car would not arrive before I headed to Skye for my annual autumn gig and I strongly felt that it would be excellent for the long drives back and forth. Further, it would be hard to pick the car up once I get onto the island. I needn't have worried. The phone call came and a most suitable date was suggested. Time for a bit of fist pumping and smiles.

The Falcon arrives

When it came to delivery of my Model 3, all went smoothly. Three owners were picking up their cars in the same slot and the Tesla employee spoke to all three of us at the same time. Then having introduced us to our respective cars, he gave us time to pore over them and made himself available to answer queries.

My first reaction was that it's a heck of a big car for me. Americans think of the Model 3 as a small car. I think it is huge! But I'm the guy who is used to a succession of small Toyotas. What also struck me was the sheer power and beauty of its styling. The largish wheels and the way the car's shape forms around them gives the impression of a machine made for speed and aerodynamic flow. The nose has a Porsche-like duck-bill effect and the rear is gently bulbous with a sharp cut-off. The glass roof is a gorgeous curve that accentuates the sleek, futuristic lines of the 3. I can see why, at 0.23, the car has the lowest coefficient of drag of any mass production car. Despite its size, this looks like it is going to live up to its efficiency expectations.

It has often been said that the Tesla Model 3 is a much more impressive vehicle in the flesh than in photos. I can completely agree with that. It's stunning. The interior is minimalist perfection in my opinion. Uncluttered and stylish, dominated by the great 38cm screen through which the vast majority of the car's functions are operated. The power seats with vegan leather are extremely comfortable and the glass roof gives the interior a very pleasant airiness.

There were a few minor details to deal with. I have a personal registration number which I wanted to put on the car, but given the huge numbers of deliveries Tesla were trying to manage, they were refusing to carry out the necessary bureaucracy. However, they did agree to make a set of plates up for me, an arrangement I was happy with. Also, the representative informed me that it came with a 2-metre charging cable. I was aghast! It would be very difficult to position the car in my driveway for such a short cable. Happily, he was wrong. it is a 4-metre cable and I can just make it work.
In the initial set up of the car, I was asked to give it a name. I chose Falcon. This was the name of the Apollo 15 Lunar Module and I had worked with that mission's commander, David Scott, who drove the first car on the Moon, appropriately enough, a small electric car called the Lunar Roving Vehicle or LRV. My personal registration number is a nod to Apollo 15 and labels my car as the Scottish Roving Vehicle or SRV. Also, the workhorse of the SpaceX rockets is called the Falcon 9.

Fun with the Falcon

So began a week of delightful driving and giving folk demonstrations of this amazing car. I can't make comparisons with other cars in the mid-size entry-level luxury sector but even compared to the excellence of the Leaf, this was very special. Acceleration is astounding, sweet and smile inducing. It is always a great party trick for passengers, especially when going up a large hill at the same time.
As I continue to drive it and get used to it, I hope to find it to be as efficient as I hoped. The first indications are good. I felt that the Leaf was doing well if I got 4 miles per kilowatt-hour (kWh). That's 250 watt-hours per mile. The Model 3 offers multiple trip meters that not only give distance, but also time and power use. I have one of these set to record the Falcon's performance from new. So far, its overall consumption of electricity, including demonstrations of acceleration, is 225 watt-hours per mile. That's for a car that is half a ton heavier than a Leaf.
The car's ride is a little hard but its handling is excellent, well planted on the road and precise. The navigation is based on Google Maps and along with the large screen, is a vast improvement on what I'm used to. Tesla is not a company that takes life too seriously when it comes to the customer's experience and so we find a range of amusing diversions in the vehicle's software. Always a laugh is 'Emissions Testing Mode', a play on the fact that the car has no exhaust pipe. Instead we get a virtual whoopee cushion, able to place a fart in any position in the car and with a range of emissions like the 'Ludicrous Fart', the 'Falcon Heavy' and the 'Short Shorts Ripper'. These are all Elon Musk's in jokes.

Emissions Testing Mode. (Woods)

I'm getting used to the car's limited autonomous abilities. I haven't bought the full autonomous package that is intended to take the car to full autonomy one day, but the basic 'Autopilot' software is fascinating. Once on the open road, one press on a lever and cruise control is enabled. But it is traffic aware and will keep a distance from the car in front, even to the point of stopping if necessary. Two presses on the lever, and if the car is happy with conditions, it will also autosteer. This is freaky the first time one tries it. As I hold the steering wheel, which I am required to do, I feel the car steer itself around the bends. I could come to like this a lot on long drives along the UK's motorways.
I have come across a couple of small characteristics that are worth mentioning. On one occasion on the motorway at night, it thought the lane was continuing up a slip road due to the worn out dashes that mark its threshold. The car tried to follow the solid white line up the slip road and I had to wrest it back into its proper lane. Also, its speed control is rather jittery when it is having to slow for a vehicle in front. My wife pointed out that my driving was much smoother and so she could tell when cruise control was on.

Travelling the distance

To me, range anxiety, the last great excuse of those who resist electric cars, is dead and gone. Tesla refuse to state its battery capacity but people seem to have settled on this car having a usable 50kWh. If I achieve 4 miles per kWh, that will mean 200 miles. I look to be getting better than that (about 4.4) so I ought to expect about 220 miles. In day to day driving, this makes range a non issue. I never do that distance going about my normal activities and the battery will be brought up to 90 per cent overnight.
It doesn't matter how long our journey, we never drive further than about 150 miles before taking a break. The roads south of us are well served by Tesla superchargers as well as the more universal rapid chargers. The routes north have a few superchargers to the north east but I am awaiting one being built in Fort William on my route to Skye. I have 5,000 free miles of supercharging to use up and it would be great to do so going back and forth to Skye. Even without this facility, there are plenty of other rapid chargers I can use on the way, many of them still free; Balloch, Arrochar, Crianlarich, GlenCoe, Fort William and Broadford. Those at Tyndrum and Shiel Bridge charge 18p per kWh.
I am delighted that I ought to be able to take the long route to Skye (195 miles) on a single charge in decent weather. But having a good infrastructure will become more important as winter sets in. Wet roads reduce range. So does cold air, high winds, demands on heating systems within a car. This happens in both ICE cars and EVs, but the effect is much more profound in an EV.
When one fills a tank with fossil fuel, there is a certain quantity of energy available in that liquid. Unfortunately, in an ICE car, 75 to 80 per cent of that energy is lost as waste heat, with a little being scavenged to warm the cabin. Compared to that massive loss, the other losses that kick in when conditions are poor are negligible and consequently, people tend not to notice them too much.
EVs are so efficient and so little waste heat is generated that active heaters have to be installed to warm the cabin, further reducing range. All the other extra losses now become very apparent. Having a car that can achieve over two hundred miles in summer gives me a lot of room to manage my charging options on a long trip.

The charging infrastructure

The Model 3's charge port in Europe. (CCS or Combined Charging System)

If I charge at home, the power flows in at 7kW. It adds about 30 miles of range in an hour and costs 12.5p per kWh. This is where the vast majority of my charging takes place. (Update Summer 2020: Having changed my energy supplier to Octopus, I can now take advantage of nighttime charging at only 5p per kWh. Since in summer I can easily achieve 5 miles per kWh, this means I'm driving at a 'fuel' cost of only about 1 pence per mile.)

All Scottish chargers, 3.3kW, 7kW, 50kW and Tesla. Purple indicates the rapid chargers.

The rapid chargers out and about work at a rate of 50kW though in practice, I never see above 40kW. In Scotland, many of these chargers are free, a situation that is expected to change. As the battery approaches full, the charge rate drops so it is better not to try to charge to the top. It only slows progress on a journey. To use the rapids, I carry a card that I have to show to the unit. Any costs due are automatically put onto the account I have with this card. There is talk about making these use contactless payment.

Tesla superchargers in Scotland. Six are active with five to come online soon.

I have just had my first shot on a Tesla supercharger. The two nearest are about 45 miles away. I'm led to understand that my shorter-range Model 3 will charge at levels greater than 100kW. This will add distance at a rate of  over 400 miles an hour. I arrived with a half depleted battery and in 15 minutes, it went from 70kW to 48kW, adding 80 miles of range. Had I been nearer empty, the car would have reached the 100kW figure.

The Falcon at the Abington supercharger. (Woods)

The current cost of supercharging is 24p per kWh but owing to me buying my car with a referral, they are free. I do not need to wave any cards at them. I just plug my car in and Tesla know the car and charges me on the account I have with them.
Having come to the end of my first week as a Model 3 owner, I am elated with the thing. Thanks to Tesla's ability to remotely update the car's software, it will continue to improve through ownership, something that no other make can achieve. It looks stunning, feels great and has a long future ahead without an engine to wear out. There are no service intervals. If something goes wrong, take it to get it fixed. In some cases, they come out to me. Experience is showing that battery health is a non-issue with multi six-figure mileages being the norm.
I strongly suspect that I have bought my last car.