Model 3 at 2!

It is six years since I took delivery of a brand new Nissan Leaf, four years since I replaced it with a used Nissan Leaf, and two years since I passed that car onto my son so I could take ownership of a new Tesla Model 3. My 100-per-cent electric driving experience is becoming very long term. In fact, it comprises ten per cent of my life. Any regrets? None. Driving is a pleasure. It is relaxing, smooth, controlled, precise, often semi-autonomous; and when I can justify the dropping of my right foot, exhilarating.

For this, my fifth essay on owning the Model 3, there isn't a huge amount to report. The car is consistent and reliable. Nothing has broken. Everything works as it should. The software continues to be improved gradually and the car's efficiency is also getting better. To use a wonderful South Carolina phrase, I'm as happy as a clam!

Phantom braking

I will relate the handful of stories that I have about the car, the first of which concerns a phenomenon many Tesla owners get annoyed about - phantom braking. This is when one is going along the motorway at 70mph and the car is doing the work because Autopilot is engaged. Autopilot is Tesla's traffic-aware cruise control with excellent lane keeping capability. It is both steering and controlling the speed, slowing for a vehicle if front if needs be. My job during this time is to pay attention and keep a slight torque on the steering wheel so it knows I haven't fallen asleep or died. It is truly excellent. But when phantom braking occurs, it does so suddenly and for no apparent reason. The car will heavily apply the brakes by itself.

It seems that this unpleasant action by the car is due to some mismatch between the information coming from its radar and its vision system. The car has eight cameras that look all around. Three face forward. Maybe a reflection from an overhead gantry has caused it, or perhaps a lorry is a little too far to the right side of its lane. There are many suggestions in the forums as to what might cause it. I've certainly been able to pin some instances to occasions when going around a right-hand band on a 2-lane 'A' road, and a large vehicle has come the other way. As it drives under Autopilot, the car is constantly looking ahead, determining the shape of the bends so it can keep to the centre of the lane. It therefore seems to me that one cause of phantom braking is uncertainty about the lanes sufficient that it couldn't be sure that my lane was clear, hence the braking.

Recently, it seems that when phantom braking does occur, it is much less brutal than before and I feel Tesla must have wound this property back via an over-the-air software update. In future, Tesla intend to no longer use the radar as part of its sensor suite and rely instead on its vision system to determine what's ahead. The cars being built now do not have a radar unit installed.

Gleaming Falcon

I've related before about how I had intended to get the car ceramic coated as soon as I bought it and how circumstances thwarted me. At last, it is done and I did it myself. A tiny bottle of Shelby ceramic cost me £35, about a tenth of the cost of hiring a professional, and the car now looks great. When washed, it gleams. It's easier to wash because the hydrophobic surface shrugs off the water, taking dirt with it. I love the effect when it rains, covering the car with shimmering droplets.

I actually bought the coating as part of a kit and I now wash the car with ceramic-infused car shampoo that I think helps to maintain the coat. The kit also included two microfibre cloths, a small supply of make-up pads to apply the coating and a detailing spray that I've no idea how I'm supposed to use. I've probably only used about a third of the ceramic coating bottle for a single coat. I ought to emphasise that I am not one of those OCD car-detailing types who fret over every tiny scratch or other blemish. My standards are far lower, but I am delighted with how good the car looks, even with my meagre care.

Thunk!

Speaking of blemishes, the rash of damage from the reality of existing in Scotland continues to be added to the surface. Only a few weeks ago, I parked at the busy Green Welly Stop in Tyndrum. Another car pulled in beside me and a woman got out. She appeared to be fussing about around the driver's seat with the door at its first detent position. As she continued to bustle about, I watched as her door began to move to its second detent. I knew instinctively that the final position for that detent would be within the mold line of my car. Thunk! I felt my car rock slightly as the door hit the front nearside wheel arch and I immediately launched out of my seat to inspect the damage.

Bless her, she was so sorry and gave me honest contact details. There was a slight deformation of my car's aluminium skin but later, I was able to remove the traces of her car's paint from the panel and decided not to pursue it. Not worth the hassle. 

Efficiency

Using the car's trip recorders, I keep note of the miles travelled and the energy used. The car returns a figure for the overall watt-hours required to travel each mile. I reset one of these recorders every six months. The latest result is very encouraging. My first winter required 270 Wh/mile. The second winter saw this figure drop to 262 Wh/mile. The summer of 2020 required 238 Wh/mile while summer 2021 saw the figure drop to 226 Wh/mile.

Possible reasons for the improvement might be tweaks by Tesla as they regularly update the vehicle's software. Certainly when I first acquired the car, I was demonstrating its  impressive acceleration to folk on a regular basis, a notoriously inefficient use of the available power. That rarely occurs now. Perhaps I'm unconciously becoming more efficient when driving the car; lighter on the pedal and becoming more adept at one-pedal control. Whatever the cause, it is pleasing to see, especially given that conventional cars are reputed to lose their efficiency over time.

Charging issues.

I buy my electricity from a company called Octopus. They have an off-peak rate called Octopus Go which costs only 5 pence/kWh between 00:30 and 04:30. If the car gives 4 miles/kWh (and it can), means that my 'fuel' cost is only 1.25 pence/mile, a remarkably low rate. I used this for a while before trying a variable rate that changed every half hour based on the wholesale cost of power. This scheme didn't prove to be particularly cost effective so I have returned to Octopus Go. Funny thing is that it took me a ridiculously long time to work out how to have the car start charging automatically at 00:30. All sorted now.

The rise of the EV

Two years ago, when I got the Model 3, they were rare. Other 3 drivers would occasionally wave. Now they are very common. It's not unusual to see a few out on a typical journey around town. So are EVs from other manufacturers and often there is little to distinguish many of the current models from conventional cars without close inspection.

I see many attempts in social media to discredit EVs. Folk will claim that they are worse for the environment than what they replace. That the batteries take so much power to make, to then be thrown away after only a few years. Such claims cherry pick information or are just plain wrong and I don't give them much time. It is clear that very few people who move to an EV have any desire to go back. The few downsides of EVs (initial cost and inadequate range) are being addressed by a relentless march to drive down costs and improve battery technology. We're in the middle of a disruptive change not dissimilar to the rise of the smartphone, and one that is probably far more significant.

Tesla - the 18-month catch-up

It was - and is - far more car than I ever imagined owning but after 18 months, I've settled into driving a Tesla Model 3 SR+. Having started a regular blog about acquiring and owning it, I'll endeavour to keep up with the writing.

The SR+ is, at the time of writing, the cheapest Tesla that can be bought new. The price has risen slightly since I got mine and it has crossed the £40k mark. It is still an expensive vehicle in the eyes of most folk. It was a stretch for me. This should be about to change.

The Model 2?

The conventional way to build a car is to stamp a large number of panels out of steel or aluminium and then fasten them together with lines of robotic welding robots. Both the stamping machines and the robots take up much space in a factory floor and a large amount of capital. They add considerably to the expense of a car.

But look at how a toy car is made, the type we used to get as kids from Dinky or Corgi. Squirt some molten aluminium into a mould and out comes a little die-cast car, instantly! Okay, it's a bit small for our needs but why can't that process be brought to the manufacture of full-size cars? Technology and manufacturing consultant Sandy Munro spent years suggesting it to the car companies who failed to pick up the idea. Until Tesla came along.

Tesla's biggest selling car is the Model 3 and its close sibling, the Model Y. The Y is now produced with a large single-piece casting that forms the whole back-end of the car, replacing around 70 stamped pieces that no longer need to be welded together. This represents a huge cost saving in manufacturing which will be important for the next car to come under the Tesla brand.

Within two years, Tesla will introduce a low-cost, true mass market compact electric car, often called the Model 2 by Tesla watchers. It will consist of three main parts; die-cast front and rear sections connected by a structural battery pack. It will be very simple to build. The expected cost of this car is to be around $25k which, based on past experience, will translate to about £25k, putting it right in the middle of the most competitive part of the car market.

I think this small Tesla will be the car to define the industry in the second quarter of the century. Cheap to produce, to run and maintain. And if Tesla's push towards autonomous driving and a robotaxi network continues at the pace I'm seeing just now, it will be this little car that many of us will use to get around in, whether or not we actually own it.

Efficiency

Back to my vehicle, which I affectionately named The Falcon, after the Apollo 15 lunar module that landed in a spectacular bay on the Moon half a century ago. I got the car on 22 August 2019 and my plan is to use the trip counters to aggregate the car's electricity consumption across six-month periods to encompass the winter and summer seasons. I've now got data for two winters and a summer.

The six-monthly figures are on the right and the drop in mileage caused by the Covid pandemic is clear. I have two ways of expressing efficiency. The first, watt-hours per mile, gives the amount of stored energy it took to travel a mile. A small number is good. The second, miles per kilowatt-hour, tells me how far the car travelled on one unit (kWh) of power. A bigger number is better. Based on my experience with the Nissan Leaf, 4 miles/kWh is a good figure and I'm glad to see that, over a summer, the Model 3 can beat that.

The car's greater average efficiency in the warmer summer weather is clear but I'm pleased that the its second winter was actually more efficient than its first. This might be due to the lack of long drives through the Scottish Highlands to Skye. Or maybe its because of Covid. When I first got the car, folk were keen for current-sapping demonstration drives where I would show how quickly and responsively the car accelerates. During those first six months, colleagues and friends were eager to see the car put through its paces. The pandemic has put a stop to that. And the Model 3 is becoming a common sight on the Scottish roads as sales soar. They are no longer a rarity. 

Wear and tear

I wrote previously about how the car's first winter on the Scottish roads proved to be hard on its soft Californian paintwork. In particular, the flared areas just forward of the rear wheels got thoroughly sandblasted. During the summer, I dealt with the issue by having mudguards fitted at the front and applying black glossy vinyl over the damaged areas. This has proven to be a successful fix, at least for now.

In general, day to day, the car just works. It is very firmly at the bottom of the bathtub curve of reliability (a very good place to be). It has had its rash of small initial issues but now it gets on with the job of taking us where we want to go. As happens with nearly all Teslas, the car's software is updated remotely but there have been no eye-popping changes like I had in the first few months of ownership. The balance of the screen layout was altered, making the map slightly smaller and the driving visualisation area slightly larger. Folk on the internet forums who instinctively hate change moaned and groaned. To be honest, it hasn't bothered me.

There is one little issue that I'm thinking of bringing to Tesla's attention and that is an occasional groaning noise that I hear from the steering column during manoeuvres to get in and out of my driveway. The plan would be to go onto the app on my phone and create a service appointment.

Powering the car.

The car is reputed to have a battery capacity of 50kWh and I find this is easily adequate for my needs. If I drive long distance, the Tesla Supercharger network has me covered. Typically, when my daily driving brings my battery down to around 40 per cent, I'll plug in overnight and leave it to charge to 90 per cent.

My current supplier is Octopus Energy and when I first started with them, I used their 'Go' tariff. This worked with my smart meter to let me charge at a cheap rate of only 5 pence/kWh between 00:30 and 04:30. I was typically still awake at half past midnight so an alarm on my phone would remind me to start charging then. I'm learning that the car can be programmed to start the charge using a timer. At about 4 miles per kWh, Octopus Go was giving a cost-per-mile in the order of 1.3 pence; about one tenth of what a frugal driver pays for petrol or diesel. 

More recently, I've moved over to Octopus's 'Agile' tariff. This changes the cost on a half-hourly basis so that it follows more closely the actual wholesale price of electricity. 

This graph is typical in that it shows that at night, the cost is lower, there is a morning rise and an early evening peak which is capped at 35p per kWh. This graph changes every day but it always shows the 4pm to 7pm peak and I try to run high consumption items like washers, dryers and irons outside those hours. If circumstances line up, there are occasions where the price goes negative – Octopus pay me to consume energy. I've only seen this happen once.

I don't think that overall, Agile is working out cheaper than Go but I'm aware that this winter, which has been notable for low-wind conditions, maybe hasn't suited the tariff. I'm keen to let it run into the summer to see how it fares.

To coat or not to coat

When I first took delivery of Falcon, I intended to have it ceramic coated. It didn't happen. The point of ceramic coating is that it has the effect of a wax polish but it lasts for much longer. The car's surface becomes hydrophobic and water does not want to stay put. This helps keep dirt off too and keeps the car looking good for longer. It has no protective effect against stone chips and sandblasting.

However, the timing of the car's delivery, my son's Munro challenge and the Covid pandemic got in the way. I found it difficult to get small businesses to engage with the job of coating the car. A local guy was going to do it then stopped responding. Another broke a limb. Yet another took my number but never got back. As a result, I've decided to take matters into my own hands and do it myself.

AutoExpress magazine did a review of DIY ceramic coatings and the winner was one from the US, distributed by a Glasgow company, Clansman Scotland. A bottle of Shelby Ceramic Coating is £50, a small fraction of the £300 to £500 I was being quoted.

What I save on money, I'll lose in time and effort. However, I figure that at least the job will get done. Once the warmer weather arrives, I'll give it a go. I've bought their care bundle that includes shampoo, spray and cloths as well as the coating, all for £70.

Fanboy?

I am very, very happy with the car. For me, with my driving background of slow, small frugal Toyotas, it is a beast of a machine. It feels well planted on the road, is very responsive and still induces a grin when circumstances allow me to floor the accelerator (e.g. motorway slip roads). I love the subtle controllability it allows via my right foot - and at any speed. And now that Tesla have installed a Supercharger in Fort William, the car's range is a non issue. 

I think the car looks fantastic. I love the clean, unfussy interior. I adore the wee things it allows – like watching YouTube when waiting for someone. For long journeys, Autopilot is astonishing. It takes so much brain load off the driver that the longest journeys don't leave me tired. 

Although my experience has been enormously positive, there have been occasional minuses. The saloon format with the fixed parcel shelf limits the utility of the car more than I would have liked. The lack of a heated steering wheel has become more of an issue than I would have imagined. This is because I have become more susceptible to Raynaud's syndrome. When I get slightly cold, my blood decides that my fingers are not a place it wishes to bother visiting, My digits then turn greenish-white and go numb. This is often triggered by trying to steer a car via a cold steering wheel.

Both of these rather minor issues could be addressed by trading up to a Model Y. Would I do that? The Model Y also offers a powered rear hatch, a larger battery and it has the large die-cast chassis parts mentioned earlier in this essay. Its thermal control is centred around heat pump technology which helps to maintain it overall efficiency. As a higher, larger car than my Model 3, it is also easier for old folk to get in and out of. If I wait for the Model Y cars that are to be produced at Tesla's new German factory, the paint quality is likely to be superior. It's a thought.

In the meantime, I thoroughly enjoy the car and, Covid notwithstanding, am happy to offer sample rides to folk any time. Hopefully soon the pandemic will be history and a fun, electric future will be with us.