Thoughts after 2 years and 59,000kms owning an early build Refreshed (Highland) Model 3.
I remember when looking for reviews and insight into any EV and the Model 3 in particular in my case I found a lot of posts after a few days or weeks of ownership and less on a more extended period of time. Given that I have racked up a fair amount of kms on an early build Highland model and I have some spare time I figured I'd try and give a fairly detailed view into how the experience has been so that anyone looking into the model 3 can see what things might look like a couple of years down the line. I'm Australian so I'll include both normal human metric units and freedom units in brackets. **Some key details about the car** **Build Date:** It is a 2024 but is technically a December 2023 build date out of the Shanghai Factory delivered to Australia in early 2024. It came on one of the first few ships to Aus and we were one of the first markets to get the refresh so it's fair to say it represents the earlier examples of the refreshed model. **Variant:** RWD single motor with standard wheels, and 60kwh LFP (57.5 usable) battery pack. **Distance Driven:** 58,800 ish kilometres (36,500 miles) **Tyres:** This car was delivered on the Michelin e-primacy and I am still on the original set after 58k kms, I anticipate requiring a new set at the 65,000km mark. I run the standard 42 PSI religiously. **Efficiency:** 125wh/km / 8km/kwh (201wh/mi / 5mi/kwh) **Usage:** This is my daily driver with a highway-heavy commute at 110kph (70mph), quite a few interstate road trips a year, at a guess 70% highway and 30% urban driving total. I intend to drive this thing into the ground so circa 350,000kms and ten years is my minimum hope and expectation. **Charging:** Free charging off solar at work. Very minimal charging at home, supercharger network on road trips. As a result I have gone from a $6,000 annual fuel bill to $109 this year in electricity. Obviously if I was to replace the work charging with home charging I would be looking at closer to $1200 in electricity for this amount of mileage. With all that down, for some context I am a car person, I love petrol motors, I own two other turbo cars and do all my own work so hopefully this will present as an honest look at an EV from someone who absolutely adores petrol engines but who also feels the pain of having to maintain them themselves and who is fairly open-minded when it comes to cars in general. I typically cover about 500km a week, 400km of that is commute and the other 100km on the weekend, the rest is road tripping taking me to a total of about 30,000kms (18,600 miles) per year. I live in South Australia so a very mild and EV-friendly climate when it comes to both winter and summer efficiency, hence what seems like a very tidy overall efficiency of 125wh/km. **Battery Degradation:** So far I have been really happy with the LFP pack and I preach a lot about the benefits of this particular chemistry (especially a CATL built pack) to others. Tessie is so far showing around 1.8% degradation. It moved to the 1%ish mark fairly quickly (first 6 months) and has tapered since. I know the Tessie estimate is not fully dependable but even with an error of a whole percentage point for example I am still extremely happy with the state of the pack and haven't noticed any material difference in driving range, road trip time, etc. Current estimated range sits at approx 420kms (260 miles) and my biggest single drive was quite recent: 341kms in 3hr52min and consumed 80% of the pack, extrapolating this would give me 341kms/80 x 100 = 426kms so I feel as though the estimate from the car is basically bang on. Note this was achieved at highway speeds. **Charging Habits:** I have been able to plug in at work on an 11kW level 2 charger for the life of the car so far which has been really convenient, I used to be quite precious about keeping the pack between 30% and 70% partly because it was easy to achieve with a fortnightly charge to 100% for BMS calibration. I have since gotten way less precious about it and have Tessie set to automate my charge limits to 100% on Mondays and Fridays before the weekend to ensure I get through the weekend without needing to charge at home. I have noticed absolutely no difference in rate of deg by making this change but the BMS is definitely happier and more well calibrated. I think anyone with LFP chemistry should be able to comfortably charge to 100% frequently without overthinking it too much, I do make sure the pack doesn't sit overnight at 100%. **Road Trippability:** This is a really big one for me as I do travel interstate approx 800kms each way quite regularly. I cannot stress enough just how easy this has been in the RWD model and I think it is something that particularly in Australia we get really caught up on (range anxiety, single charge range numbers etc.) My first couple of trips I over-planned and over-calculated and this perhaps relieved some of the anxiety I had about range, I would stress out if the pack got below 20% 20kms out from a charger and I'd spend way longer at the charger than I needed to at each stop. With experience and admittedly a few more Tesla (and other bailout options) popping up along the route it has become ridiculously easy and I feel no need or envy for the Long Range model especially when weighing up the overall pros and cons of NMC/LFP. I stop twice on the 800km stretch for less than 10 mins each stop and the car is always ready before I am. This works out to be a stop every 2.5hrs or so to make the 8hr drive. My total trip time is barely any different to when I drove this route in my ICE car (usually also a two stopper). **RWD vs LR Thoughts:** I see a lot of people who are weighing up their first EV nearly default to the Long Range option purely out of anxiety or concern that the standard range variant would be limited to a city commute. I even know of people who hold onto an ICE car for road trips. I understand that when a caravan or camper trailer comes into the equation. After two years and probably 10 trips interstate I can confidently say that if you gave me the option to trade for a Long Range model for free I'd pass it up. The flexibility and robustness of the LFP chemistry is just too fit for purpose for me, plenty of range for daily use, much better degradation numbers than I have seen on LR models of similar age and mileage, much lower failure rate, and single digit differences in charging times for an 800km road trip. The utility of the LFP outweighs any slight charging performance gains from the LR chemistry in my opinion and this is before we get to the efficiency of the RWD model which is saving you on overall power cost. The remaining big difference is performance and perhaps I would care more about this if I didn't own performance turbo cars for the weekend but from a daily driver perspective, 200rwkw and 420nm of torque is absolutely plenty of fun in a RWD 1750kg package. I have driven a LR model through the hills and the RWD is a far more enjoyable and dynamic car to drive in that environment. **Servicing and Maintenance:** I'll try and not be hyperbolic because I know people HATE when people call EVs maintenance-free and I get that but this has been huge for someone who services their own car. I would have had to have done 6 minor services by now if this was an ICE car, at a cost of I guess $100ish per service done by me and well into the thousands if done by a dealership. In comparison so far I have changed washer fluid, and I wash it fortnightly. I have a $20 cabin filter change coming up in the new year and I might throw some new wipers on before winter. I have rotated my tyres myself every 10-15,000kms. That. is. it. That's the entire list. Tesla has no service schedule so I haven't had to take it in for a look over and I am comfortable checking suspension and other components myself (as well as the occasional check in service mode for any errors). **Software:** I'm a fairly tech-enthusiastic person so the whole touchscreen thing just doesn't bother me. I can see how some people may really hate the lack of a cluster but moving my eyeballs to the top right of the screen instead of down through the wheel has not been a noticeable issue for me. I won't go into every little feature tesla offers but I think it's fair to say that the software, UI, and integration with Phone key and the tesla app (along with the Tessie app) is market-leading and currently unmatched. BYD and Zeekr seem to be getting there but there is a real Apple vs early model Android type feel to Tesla's competition in the software space, particularly UI. I do not miss Android Auto (or the Apple equivalent) in the slightest but each to their own. **Interior:** The interior has held up well but I am also pretty meticulous with cleaning it and ensuring it gets protection every few months. Early on I would have said the seats are super comfortable but after driving a polestar on another interstate road trip I did get out of that after a 3hr stint in a more comfortable state (that was about the only plus on that trip). I would now class them as perfectly acceptable, not luxurious by any means, the side bolsters and material has held up great though. Cabin noise is as silent as day one with no rattles, the acoustic glass works wonders and the cabin in general seems a touch less boomy than the Model Y. It seems as though the Shanghai build is fantastic from a fit and finish perspective including panel gaps, interior panels lining up, etc. **FSD/Safety Tech:** Watching this evolve via over the air updates over the two years has been amazing. Really to be able to purchase a vehicle in 2024 and see new features drop almost monthly is just incredible and makes the car feel brand new at times depending on the magnitude of the update (for example the UI refresh and the addition of FSD). I won't get too far into FSD other than to say it is objectively incredible and makes the daily commute such a relaxing experience. I haven't found any other elements of the safety package to be intrusive or overbearing unlike what I have read about some other manufacturers (e.g. beeps for speed signs and lane departure, etc). **Final Thoughts / Major Pros & Cons** I think I've covered most of the major upsides above; quiet, easy, low-maintenance, fast, reliable (so far), great on long trips. Trying to think of downsides is genuinely difficult. Driving through the hills it is quick but it does lack the character of a performance ICE car with traction control off. Being a sedan (I'm used to hatches) the boot holds a tonne but you'll never get anything with any height through to the cabin as the tunnel for the boot is always height restricted, this obviously applies to any sedan though. Easily the biggest downside of owning it has been the commentary from others, everything from people worried that the battery will explode, that I have to charge for 4hrs every 30km, and that my car has no 'soul' (coming from people who drive the least inspiring ICE cars I could conceive of and wouldn't know a 10mm socket from a spark plug). Overall two years down the line I would say that I was excited to get into an EV and not have to worry about maintaining a daily ICE vehicle, but I wasn't prepared to love the drive, the technology, and the utility of the car as much as I have. For the cost of a Mazda 6 or a Camry, to get this amount of car, with a feature set as big as this has, with the longevity and cost of ownership as low as this, I can't see myself ever wanting to jump into an ICE daily ever again and it will be a while before I consider something other than Tesla. Happy to answer any questions, I am sure I've missed some things, this is really just a brain dump as I type and hopefully it helps answer any questions for those considering an EV of any make, or for those who perhaps own a new one and are not sure what to expect after the initial gloss wears off and the miles start to pile up.
