I bought a Tesla to drive long distances… but nobody told me about a problem I’m constantly suffering
A TESLA owner loves his Model 3 but says driving his EV causes a very unexpected problem.
Co-founder of PerfectRec Wally Nowinksi, 38, paid £47,600 ($58,790) for the flash electric motor in July 2020, wanting to be able to drive car long distances.
He was living in San Francisco, California, at the time and the ability to get out of the city became more pressing as the Covid-19 pandemic hit and he wanted to get to Michigan to visit his parents.
While he says his Model 3 has been ideal for driving long-distances, he does say there is a downside to owning a Tesla.
Wally told Business Insider: “The only downside I’ve found to owning a Tesla is that people occasionally want to talk to you about the latest Elon Musk controversy.”
One aspect he loved about Tesla was that it was so easy to buy the car.
While usually getting a new motor can be a painful and drawn-out experience Wally says dealing with Tesla was simple.
He said: “With Tesla, you just buy it on the internet. You don’t have to be worried that the guy next to you got a better deal – everyone pays the same price.”
As Wally does a lot of long-distance driving, going back and forth across the United States, one thing he did notice was that it took around 20 per cent longer to make those big journeys.
But he added: “Once you factor in stopping to charge… that doesn’t bother me.”
Despite the added time needed to make those big trips, Wally said that driving a Tesla actually made the long journeys less stressful.
Wally said: “The autopilot is good — the car doesn’t drive itself, but it does give you the feeling of being a driving instructor and watching a kid who’s really good at driving.
“With other cars I’ve owned, after driving three to four hours by myself on the highway, I’d start to get fatigued, but with the Tesla, I’ve done 12-hour days by myself and felt fine.
“It doesn’t drive me to a restaurant without me paying attention, but it does decrease the cognitive load of driving on the highway.”
Due to having a Tesla, he can take advantage of the company’s charging network which he says is far better than its rivals.
He said: “I’ll go months at a time without ever using a third-party charger because I charge at home, and I know where the Tesla charging stations are near me.
“I’ve only used a non-Tesla station about six times successfully because they’re not reliable.”
He did admit that living in an apartment could be an issue if you had an electric car due to a lack of charging point at the home but said that when he lived in Seattle often landlords would be willing to install one because they knew there would be a high demand for it from other tenants.
Wally said: “People think if you don’t own a house, it’s hard to charge, but I lived in places where I didn’t have a garage and was able to figure it out.”
While Wally said there were savings to be made with an EV compared to a combustion-engine motor, he did advise people needed to be aware of the cost of electricity.
He said: “It was interesting moving from the San Francisco area, where electricity is ludicrously expensive – up to 55 cents per kilowatt-hour – to Seattle, which has cheap electricity by coastal standards, averaging just about 12 cents per kilowatt-hour for me.
“Moving increased how much I was saving by not buying gas, but my costs are back up now that I’m back in California. It’s still worth it to me.”
Wally said that he had also saved money on maintaining his vehicle, saying he had spent just over £1,000 ($1,300) on maintenance in three years – and that was a set of tyres.
He said: “There are no tune-ups or oil changes, and you rarely have to replace the brakes.”
Now that his Model 3 is coming to the end of its warranty, Wally is now considering getting a Model Y as now they are “more accessible” although he hasn’t ruled out going with an electric car from another manufacturer.
Elsewhere, an EV driver put a rival to Tesla through its paces it’s sporty and well-built but has two irritating features.
It comes after a major brand announced plans to launch an “affordable EV” as many customers are priced out of the electric market.
Meanwhile, Google unveiled the world’s first AI car – and it has no steering wheel.