Tesla Model 3 review: Watt’s not to like with the leading electric
It’s good certainly, but it will be interesting to see how it compares to cars from traditional manufacturers as they begin to come on stream.
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Tesla Model 3 |
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★★★★☆ |
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€49,990 OTR |
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495km of range |
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The Spec |
Seems minimalist, but is actually comprehensive |
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Good, but not likely ever to be the ast work in electric motoring |
For anyone with even just a hint of an interest in things motoring, the name Tesla has become a touchstone as an automobile company focused firmly on a cleaner, less CO2-producing and greener world.
That the company is headed by the ever-attention seeking Elon Musk is possibly irrelevant in the greater scheme of things, but it has certainly made Tesla a talking point even in circles where cars and the automotive trade in general are rarely topics of conversation.
The reason for this is two-fold: firstly, Musk, by virtue of his dope-smoking, child-naming and space race antics, has generated more publicity for the company than could have been achieved by any A-lister; secondly, the company actually makes cars which have become the envy of an industry desperately trying to reinvent itself as a clean environmental player.
Indeed to have achieved the success it has in such a short period of time (it was founded in 2003 by the rarely mentioned Martin Eberhard and Marc Terpenning and only joined by Musk in 2004), Tesla has had to be bold, both in terms of its mission aims and its delivery of product. And it has.
Sure, the company has had a lot of controversial moments, with a lot of issues regarding autonomous motoring and unexplained accidents, cars suddenly bursting into flames, a history of environmental violations, questionable business practices and attempts to silence whistleblowers, journalists and other critics.
It has been a hell of a ride, all told, but the successes Tesla has been ticking off have been impressive and a look at the latest Irish car sales figures confirms just how much ground the company has made since being a start-up not twenty years ago.
Through to the end of November Tesla was the 21st bestselling marque in Ireland (ahead of such as Mini, Lexus, Mitsubishi, Alfa Romeo and Subaru, to name a few) with cumulative sales of 776 units. On top of that the Tesla Model 3 was by far its’ best-selling product with 771 units clocked up.
For the record in the same period it sold four versions of the Model S and one Model X; its’ newest machine, the Model Y, has only just hit the streets, but will undoubtedly start to impact on sales in the coming months.
The fact of the matter is that Tesla has hit such a chord with sections of the buying public and that sales are only going to go one way – up.
Whether it has been good in tickling the extreme end of the ‘Green’ movement is one issue it may have to address in due course, but what it has very obviously done is tickle the crowd who have plenty of shekels and are only too keen to publicly demonstrate their love of the planet – via a fancy-dan car.
Tesla has never done anything by the conventional automotive industry play-book – be that by the way clientele access and purchase their products, or by the manner in which it has gone about its explosive growth.
And, I believe that sort of ornery-ness has resonated with a lot of people who like the anti-authoritarian cut of Musk’s jib.
But what of their products? Aside from their quirky naming process, which has allowed them to utilise the names of their cars – S, 3, X, Y (Sexy, geddit?) – to make a catchy acronym, there is no doubting that Tesla has hit the ground running and their cars have certainly put to shame pretty much everyone else in the industry. That’s not to say the machines are the embodiment of perfection, but they are undoubtedly bloody good.
The best-selling case in point is the 3, which we get to test this week and which has not only been a huge draw with punters, but is also now regarded as being as easy gold medal winner in the electric compact saloon segment, even when put up against models coming from industry giants like Mercedes, Peugeot, BMW, Toyota and the rest.
In fairness the initial offerings from Mercedes have been very promising, while Peugeot is also getting its’ act together in very short order.
BMW is only beginning its electric journey and Toyota has just revealed its’ first BEV (battery electric vehicle) having focused for so long on its’ hybrid products.
The Tesla 3 has become the yardstick by which all others are judged and that in itself is an indication of its’ worth. And I have to say I liked it in pretty much every way, apart from one or two quibbles about its look, some of the technology and the whole interior concept.
The look, while very smart from a side profile and rear end view, tended I felt to lose its modern impact when looked at from the front. I thought it was a somewhat compromised look which was more 1980’s than 2020’s. Indeed, it remined me of the awful Chrysler Neon from the mid-‘90’s, which was not a good memory.
With regard to the tech end of things, well, I hated that the key was nothing more than a credit card which was swiped along the B-pillar to gain access – not always with immediate success. I felt certain I would lose the key somewhere along the line, but it is possible to get an actual key fob for about €30 extra.
When the car did open, the handles have to be pushed inwards to make them pop out and when you’re not used to it, this means having to use both hands to open the door.
Once inside though, you are confronted by a vast area of nothingness in front of you, where you normally expect to see an instrumentation binnacle.
Instead you get a centre mounted 15” screen which controls pretty much everything the car does. This is good…and bad. The screen takes a little getting used to in order to master all is functions. It is quite logical, but you will also find it quizzical too. Try finding the function to adjust the door mirrors, for example.
But, I must say I found the screen to be a little distracting when driving. All the info you need on a minute-by-minute basis is there, but assimilating it all while glancing away from the road constantly was unnecessarily befuddling.
On the other hand the comfort levels were excellent and the seats very snug. The large windscreen and low scuttle made for an excellent forward view, while the panoramic roof made the cabin very airy. The rear seats are also comfortable and commodious and the clever hinged boot lid allows for a deep opening to a very spacious boot.
On the road the two things that immediately stood out were the 0-100 km/h time of 6.1 (of which Musk is particularly proud) which was OK, but not astonishing and the handling, which was among the most impressive I’ve come across in a while.
With regard to the range, Tesla don’t bother claiming specific ranges for any of their models anymore because this can vary quite a bit in hot and cold conditions. In the tester with the ‘standard range’ I never got it to charge any further than a range of 495, but that was pretty sufficient.
That said a trip to Dublin ate 400 km of range for a journey which is only 260 km so, like a lot of other electrics, it tends to use juice a lot quicker when pounding the highways, but is actually a lot better in this regard than most.
I enjoyed my time with the car and enjoyed driving it – albeit with some minor reservations. But is it the be-all-and-end-all of electric motoring? I doubt it. It’s good certainly, but it will be interesting to see how it compares to cars from traditional manufacturers as they begin to come on stream.
