The long-term model Tesla, model 2018, is the perfect blend of the ordinary and the revolutionary

The ultimate test would be to find out how it is possible to live with, especially in a city that has little or no access to domestic charging stations.

So, Tesla lent us the long-range model 3, which meant that she had a long-range battery of $ 9,000, which allowed her to recover 310 miles. This also had the configuration of the rear-wheel drive, not the dual engine that offers all-wheel drive. Zero to 60 mph happens in a very respectable 5.1 seconds, which makes it slightly faster than a four-cylinder turbo BMW 330i, and it has a top speed of 140 mph.

Beyond the obvious notoriety of the car, I was eager to try it because it is in many ways the kind of car that suits me. Of the three current Tesla offerings, Model 3 is the smallest and most compact. It's not the Model X giant, nor the long Model S, which can accommodate seven passengers if you reach it with the third row of seats.

The model 3 can accommodate five passengers and its breakdown is similar to that of a Mercedes C-Class or a BMW 3 Series – a size I much prefer to the S model. I almost never have need to drive my boyfriend Add friends or family. I do not need trucks that the other two models offer. It's so much less car to assume.

It's very fast and a material handler. I will never say no to that.

What is good

More and more EVs are coming onto the market every year and 2018 has been a record year for them in general, but we are still used to testing internal combustion cars. As such, there were things that I had to readjust, like regenerative braking.

The first hour or so, I had the car, I released the accelerator pedal as soon as I needed to get on the brake and the whole car advanced uncomfortably.

But as soon as I trained to modulate the pedal, stopping slowly became second nature. You can apparently drive electric cars with a single pedal. I would not recommend doing it all the time, because security and everything, but it's possible.

It is extremely well insulated from the noise of the road. Of course, it's not completely silent, you can still hear other cars driving you and the sound of your own tires on the road. But even knowing that I lived with the absence of engine noise, it was much quieter than expected.

The driving quality is a little harder than I thought. This is not a bad thing, as the soft suspension tends to make you sleepy. The model 3 suspension absorbs shocks but never lets you forget that they are there. Since it is designed to compete with the sport sedans of BMW and Mercedes and more, it seems that this suspension is more synonymous with agility in turns than cruising.

And you can see everything! As we have already mentioned, the visibility forward is incredible. The car's short, short hood – you can do a lot with packaging when you do not need an engine – does not stop your vision, which has always been a problem for me. I've always needed to look over the hoods of most cars, but not the model 3. My sitting position allowed me to see the hood perfectly.

And since my driver profile had been registered on the car, I could move the seat, the steering wheel and the mirrors return to my position with a simple touch on the touch screen.

But maybe the best thing about the inside is knowing how many compartments there are to store your stuff. The piano-black center console (ough) separates to reveal a place to place your phone, then another deeper basement, perfect for a wallet, bag or tokens or a camera. Behind the cupholders, the armrest also opens to reveal another medium sized storage compartment. These, added to the door compartments, create an extremely utilitarian interior.

Contrarian deliberately

As you all know, Model 3 has a controversial interior. It does not have a dial, switch, lever or gauge, making it look more like a trendy and minimalist workspace than a car. There is a large, square-shaped touch screen, two buttons on the steering wheel, two rods for windshield wipers and gear selection, and not much else.

The air vents are seamlessly integrated into the dashboard, almost invisible, because Elon Musk did not want holes in the dashboard. One of the great things about Tesla is that it's a company that thinks differently from the competition, and nowhere is it more obvious than in Model 3 itself.

And instead of traditional controls, the car has a giant touch screen mounted in the center of the dashboard, where you control most of its functions.

Even the glove box does not have a physical lock. You must use the screen to open it, an extra step boring and useless. I did not know how much I would miss a glove box latch until it was taken away from me.

The two small scroll buttons on the wheel allow you to navigate through certain menu items on the screen. These sliders are not marked because their functions may vary. It's almost like a video game controller. The button layout never changes, but depending on the game you play, the buttons and joysticks act differently. If the company decides to send updates over the air, it can simply assign new tasks to these buttons. These buttons were easy to understand because I could use them without looking at them.

But I'm still not sold on the screen. I do not have the habit of looking down and right to see my speed. I still needed to leave the road eyes to adjust the climate rather than just pressing a button or turning a dial. And it was a bit frustrating to find that when using the car's navigation system, the instruction pop-up window on the right-most side of the screen could not be moved closer together so I could do it better. read it. I asked Tesla if it was possible to move this window and the spokesman said that it was not the case. However, it is feedback they have received from other homeowners.

My other main complaint with the car was its lack of key or keychain. I downloaded the Tesla app, connected my phone to the car via Bluextooth and I was able to access information like where the car was parked and unlock it remotely. It was great, but I still wanted a damn key, or a fob like just about every new car.

I'm already uncomfortable with our excessive trust in smartphones and now that I'm responsible for my car, it was pushing too hard. Phones can be compromised, lost or stolen. And not everyone has a smartphone. Then what?

Well, Tesla will also give you two key cards that you can use to lock and unlock the car. You only have to press them on the B pillar of the car to do it. Explaining how it all worked for a valet was not always easy. I left the car at night to load it and they returned the next morning to another person who worked in the morning and they could not look for a small black card instead of a car key. And then I should explain everything again. It's unnecessarily complicated.

I've also noticed a detail regarding the unlocking mechanisms of the car. To open one of the four doors of the model 3, you press a button and the mechanism of the door is released electronically. On both front doors, there is also another latch under the armrest that acts as a manual unlock. There is no such option for both rear doors.

I asked Tesla why he had chosen to omit the latches. A spokesman explained that in the event of a collision, the 12-volt battery that powers the doors will remain active and occupants will still be able to use the power door switches to open their doors. They also linked to this Reddit publication about a crash where Model 3 rolled over but the woman was fortunately still able to operate the doors without the manual release to escape.

It is difficult to consider each scenario when designing the safety features of a car. I think the logic would be to try to plan every conceivable situation to maximize the protection of the passengers. Tesla says the Model 3 glass roof is extremely safe; I have little doubt that this has been long enough to do it. However, if it was necessary to deploy extra efforts to make the roof safe, why not simply install the manual locks in the back doors for emergency situations? I do not see any problem in doing so.

Small details like these make me think that model 3 is deliberately against the current, the fault. There are things that make a lot of sense, and other things that leave your head rough. There are endless conversations about form versus function and pattern 3 definitely has the locked form because the inside is extremely pretty. But in doing so, he sacrificed some features.

Do this driving thing

Once I repressed my accusations inside the car and I went to what the car is actually – driving – I found that it was a wonderful everyday life. I spent all weekend in Brooklyn, Manhattan and outside the city. I had it in traffic, on bumpy roads and highways.

The steering is perfectly balanced – not too heavy and not too light. Surprisingly better than many competitors who make cars much longer, to be honest. It does not feel at all artificial and gives the car an energetic and energetic feeling. And it was really nice to be sitting in a traffic jam and knowing that your car is not producing unnecessary exhaust.

I must admit that it was also the first time I tested Autopilot, Tesla's semi-autonomous driver assistance system. On sections of highways, I found that it was extremely convenient. The system "sees" many more cars than the other systems I tested. Whenever someone cut me off, the car did not brake at the very last moment.

It still does not completely involve human behavior. Normally, when you approach a turn, you release a little accelerator. The system did not do that; he pushed in the bend at full speed, which I was not comfortable with the car. I've taken over

Do not get me wrong, the system is very good, but not so although I am completely delivered. We are not there yet, and Tesla admits that's why there are so many warnings to keep your hands on the wheel, your eyes on the road and the brain on autopilot behavior.

Enter this accelerator, and the speed at which the car speeds up will surely make you smile. It's not a fast like the last BMW M5 I've driven, but it's easy to get cars around and lets you merge with confidence. However, on more winding roads, you can definitely feel the car's weight of 3,805 pounds. This is certainly not too heavy thanks to the battery placed in the ground, but you can still feel a little roll.

For comparison purposes, Tesla was kind enough to let me try a Model 3 performance after testing the Long Range. His a lot faster. Like a lot, a lot. He had the acceleration that I can only describe as a numbness. Previously, I had thought that the RWD Long Range car was fast. Drive performance right after completely redefined what it is exactly to be fast. The acceleration was so instant and furious that I had the impression of exceeding my own thoughts. It is almost two seconds faster at 60 mph.

Normally, when I accelerate as fast, I'm used to some kind of engine noise or turbine. All I had with Model 3 was an increased and acute moan. It's scary and cool.

The steering was significantly heavier on the fastest car, probably because there was an extra engine in the nose of the car. Tesla said the double engine performance weighs 267 pounds more than the RWD Long Range. Also, strangely, the performance lets in a greater amount of wind noise. I could not understand why.

And as it was nice when I pulled out the show, I noticed that the glass roof was trapping a lot of heat. I had to keep the cabin air conditioned even if the day was not very hot.

But the hottest version or not, model 3 is an incredibly fun car to stomp. The acceleration may be old for some after a while, but it's not for me. That being said, I can not deny that his silence and transmission to a single report sometimes give him a feeling of appearance, as if he were in a position to do so. a dish that lacked a crucial spice that would have given him the final coup de grace.

Adventures in charge

The last test through which Model 3 went through was the load test. With the car screen, you can locate the registered charging stations, as well as the Tesla Boost Stations.

The biggest challenge in having a car in New York City is knowing where to take it when you're not driving it. Your two options, really, are to park it on the street or find a public garage. A private garage is an extravagant luxury. It is therefore particularly difficult to own an electric car, because you can not just park your car in your own garage and recharge it during the night. To pass the extension cord of 100 feet at night seems to be frowned upon.

Currently in New York, there is only a handful of Tesla Superchargers. There is one in Manhattan, one at JFK Airport and one in Brooklyn, at William Vale Hotel in Williamsburg, which is not near my home. I had reduced the range of the car to about 130 miles when I parked in the hotel car park.

(Oh, and that's the other thing with the possession of electric cars in this city: since most charging stations are located in public land, electricity may or may not be charged, but you still pay less for the space.)

We made sure the car was plugged and charged before going upstairs to eat a bite. From there, I watched the progress of the car load with the application.

I think a typical Model 3 owner charging at a place that is not his house would not need to fully charge his car because he would have a place to charge at home. They would only need to charge it enough to get there. I did not have such luxury, so I sat down and waited for the car to take over completely because I did not know when I would have another opportunity.

At about 130 miles remaining, it took about 45 minutes to recharge the 310 miles. Not bad for a dinner break. It's hard for me to say how these load times would affect the length of a long car trip, so you can expect a road test soon.

Anxiety of the range?

While I had model 3, I thought a lot about the range. I did not care exactly, but I watched the distance indicator a lot closer than I would with a gas tank needle. It was a little disconcerting to park at night and go out to see the range fall a few miles the next morning. But that may have been only because it was written in the first place.

I am not entirely convinced that range anxiety is a matter of scope. I think basically we recognize that the charging infrastructure is not there yet. The range of 300 miles of gold has become a kind of reference, but it's an arbitrary figure, when you really think about it – a psychologically sound but not realistic reference.

In fact, most of us rarely drive 300 miles a day. But electric cars are still married to charging stations so that petrol cars are not really. If you run out of fuel, you can go to the nearest gas station, fill a gas can with a gallon of gas and restart your car. You can even carry a can of fuel with you in your car if you go to a remote location. You can not do that with an electric car.

It is true that the loading infrastructure is growing and that Tesla deserves a lot to invest in one of them for its vehicles, but the EV network in general has much more to cover before it can be considered a alternative for all. When you get in your car, you can drive with confidence to virtually any place where civilization is, because it is likely that there will also be a gas station. You can not make such assumptions with the charging stations. In addition, it takes much longer to recharge a battery at usable levels than to simply fill a gas tank.

I suspect that range anxiety will disappear when two things happen: charging stations become as common as gas stations and batteries can charge as quickly as it takes to pump gasoline.

Value

At $ 57,500, thanks to options such as improved autopilot, long-range battery and other improvements, the Model 3 is not a cheap car. As stated above, the price tag of $ 35,000 was the main selling point of the car for a while, and it has not yet materialized.

Still, he certainly feels luxurious. The materials used inside have a feeling of quality and they behave smoothly. I did not notice obvious manufacturing problems on the two models I drove, but since they were press cars, extra efforts were probably made to make sure they were perfect. .

Verdict

It is difficult to judge model 3 over other cars because there are simply no comparable direct competitors in the US market. The Jaguar I-Pace is more expensive and it's a little crossover thing, not a sports sedan. The Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Bolt do not have the sporty qualities of the Model 3. I guess you can judge it against a BMW 3 Series or a Mercedes C-Class and the like, but even that comparison seems incongruous because they're not electric vehicles.

Tesla has taken a considerable lead over the old automakers in terms of introducing electric vehicles to buyers. Meanwhile, he managed to secure a terribly loyal fan base, something that is not so easily broken by the mere introduction of a competing car. But because Tesla's cars were so good at being electric cars, he managed to inject the idea of ​​electric cars usable in the mainstream. No amount of production mishaps or bad tweets can change that fact.

Of course, as the public is now more open to the idea of ​​an electric car, competitors will not have as much difficulty selling this idea. With Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen, Mercedes and more, Tesla will have to fight to keep its lead.

I am not sure of having the model 3 as the only car. I think I would miss too many things like engine noise and gears. But for a car to commute, to go shopping and to make occasional trips, it's a good deal. It's an electric car that you can, for the most part, use as a normal car, if you live in the right place.

And for some people, this big, conditional if-which determines whether they can confidently take it on trips by car and load it conveniently – will make all the difference. Nothing is easy in New York, and that doubles the fact of owning an electric car.