My thoughts after 10,000KM

As there are already numerous rave reviews about the car since its debut in 2017, I still think each Model 3 owner will have their own thoughts about the car based on the cars they’ve driven before, how they use the car and in which country they drive the car in. See About Me section on my driving history.

In 4 month since delivery, I’ve driven about 10,000KM which is roughly 80KM a day. Being in Hong Kong as a city driver, this is well above average I would say. If you want to stop reading any further, the conclusion after 10,000KM is that I would buy this car again in a heartbeat. However, I believe other car manufacturers could catch up in terms of pricing and styles. I would prefer a even slightly smaller car or a hatchback as I am just driving in the city and without kids.

A brief summary of the PROs and CONs so far for me after 10,000KM.

PROs

• Power – Available immediately at any speeds.
• Range – My Performance Model with 75 kWh battery, realistically charging at 95% capacity gives me roughly 500KM. (Regenerative braking set to low and Air Conditioning on all the time.
• Charging – The Tesla Supercharging network which at this time is still only available for Tesla cars only. At a V2 station, I am getting close to 150kW depending on my battery level and slower as it reaches full. At a V3 station, I am getting close to 200kW at the beginning of the charge with maybe around 20% and gradually drops back to V2 speeds. The power supply with my Tesla Wall Connector at home only gives me 32A at 220V which is roughly 7kW.
• EV Savings – Tesla Destination charging in Hong Kong is free which is the standard Tesla Wall Connector giving 7kW to 10kW depending on location. There are also other public chargers available around the city for electric vehicles and not only Tesla. As of 2021, the government of Hong Kong is still granting free charging for all Electric Vehicles in Hong Kong using these public chargers. Therefore, except for Supercharging or your own Wall Connector at home, all public charging is for free until further notice from the Hong Kong Government.
• Well handling/driving – With the battery pack located at the whole bottom of the vehicle, the car have a great low center of gravity which gives it surprisingly good handling.
• Regenerative Braking – This is common across all the EVs but I think one of the best driving experience for driving an electric vehicle is you can literally drive with one pedal and never need the brakes. Also, the Model 3 allows you to set regenerative braking to normal or low which is great. I’ve driven first generations Model S before and the regenerative braking is quite aggressive as when you put your foot off the “gas”, the car almost stops abruptly.
• Stop modes – This is again a great feature. You can set the car to creep meaning like in a normal automatic gear box combustion engine car, the car will “creep” or move forward in “D” even if your foot is off the gas. You will need to hold the car still with applying the brakes constantly. With the customized stop modes, you could still set the car to “creep” normally or set the car to stop completely and hold. This truly allows you to have one pedal driving as the car will stop and hold even on a hill without you having to apply any brakes. When you are ready to go, you just step on the “gas” pedals again.
• Driving Profiles – You can set all the car options in the control panel and saves them to your own driving profiles. This includes not only your seat position but the stop modes and regenerative braking preference as well. Moreover, you can link the profiles to your key card. If you use the specific key card to enter the car, the car will automatically set to your driving profile. This is fabulous for cars driven by different family members.
• Control Panel – There is only one control panel in the car which is the main touch screen in the middle. Everything is controlled here.
• OTA Updates – Tesla is the only car manufacturer that constantly update their car’s software through over the air updates. When an update is available, your car with internet connection will inform you to download the update just like a smartphone. Since the delivery of my Model 3, I’ve been getting updates almost once a month. The updates could be minor and changes for specific countries only or it can be major like the recent one with changes to the whole look of the control panel.
• Smartphone App Control – The Tesla app on both iOS and Android is fairly good. It gives you control to most of the functions in the car and can act as a keycard. You can remotely turn on the air-conditioning or heating in the car or even remotely lock and unlock the car via the internet as your Tesla is always connected to the Tesla network via the internet.
• Autopilot – In Hong Kong, we only get the basic Autopilot for Tesla. This is basically the enhanced cruised control and autosteer. There is no summon mode or automatic lane changes available most likely due to the local transportation authority not allowing them to be used on the roads. Also, there is no Full Self Driving. Hopefully this will change but I doubt it.
• Netflix/Games – In Hong Kong, we do not get any games or Netflix. Again, this is due to the authorities not allowing them to be in cars. Although, is great that it is available just that not in Hong Kong. I doubt this will change as well.
• Sentry Mode – With the the cameras around the car for autopilot, it great that Tesla could use them as security cameras as well while the car is parked.
• Voice Command – Most of the car functions can be activated via voice command like controlling the HVAC but there is a slight delay.

CONs

Weight – The lithium-ion battery contributes to the bulk of the car weight. My Performance version with the bigger 74kWH battery gives the car 4000 pounds. Even the smaller 50kWH battery gives the car 3500 pounds. Even with all the power, you feel you are driving a heavy car.

Quiet – Yes, this is the idea of driving a electric vehicle and one of the beauty of it but in it takes time for one to transition in driving a completely silent car. You sometimes do not realize how fast you are going without the engine reving up.

Seat – The seat is too soft for my liking. It is borderline being uncomfortable. This is something very personal but the seat being too soft is not giving enough back support. I am getting back pains ever since driving the car 80KMs a day.

Range – I need to do further research and testing but it seems like the car is using up quite a bit of range with Air-conditioning turned on. Also, the car does drain battery especially with Sentry mode on.

Autopilot – The autopilot is great but still with its limitations. With autosteer, the car cannot autosteer at tight bends on high speeds. I do not have the exact number but on the highway I drive on everyday, the autosteer sometimes disengages above 100KM/H on a tighter curve.

Phantom Braking – This is related to Autopilot but is the worst of the issues for Tesla Autopilot. The car will sometimes brake itself with no immediate threats around. There are a lot of double decker buses in Hong Kong and also on highways. The Model 3 will sometimes autobrake for no reason even when you are just passing by a double decker bus on another lane. This is quite dangerous as the car behind you might rear end you as they will be surprised you are braking out of nothing. I hope Autopilot will improve through more OTA updates.

Emergency Braking – This is part of many safety features built into the car. You can set the car to auto brake if it senses you can going to hit another car in front of you. The sensitivity could be set in the car or it could be turned off as well. There was an instance where the car activated emergency braking during a traffic jam with ample space between me and the car in front of me. Subsequently, the car behind me gave me a fender bender.

Control Panel – It takes some time to get used to the main control panel touch screen. It can be difficult to work the HVAC (e.g. changing temperature) while driving as some of the buttons are quite small on the touch screen. Tesla is constantly thinking of ways to better the car via an OTA update and hopefully this will be one of them.

Windshield Wipers – There is no physical windshield wiper control. It is all controlled on the control panel. It is difficult to fiddle around with it when there is a downpour. When set to AUTO, there seems to be a delay when the wipers will deploy especially in and out of tunnel during downpours. Hopefully an OTA update can make this better.

Turn Signal Stock – The turn signal stock doesn’t hold into position like many cars. You press down on the stock quickly and the light will blink 5 seconds and stop. You press down on the stock longer say 2 seconds and it will blink until yo stop it by pressing down again on the stock. For some reason I still couldn’t get a hang of this after 10,000KM…

Door Handles – I understand the design for hiding the door handles in all the Tesla which is mainly for aerodynamics. I think. I still find the Model 3 door handles a bit difficult to use especially when you are holding a lot of stuff.

Phone Key – This is more of an iOS or Android thing. Most of the time the Phone Key doesn’t work even after you unlock the phone. You need to open the App or wait for the connection between the phone and the car. The key uses your phone’s bluetooth connection.

Is everywhere – I guess this depends where you live but in many countries the Model 3 is the best selling EV car. This is of course by design as the Model 3 is aimed at the mass market relatively speaking. This is great for Tesla and the EV world in general but be prepared to see everyone driving the same car as you are.