Reflections on 3 years of running a Tesla

My Tesla Model S finally went back to the lease company at the end of last week, which makes this a good time to reflect on what I learned from running this car for 3½ years and 80,000 km.  I had some experience of electric motoring from having a GM Ampera for over 30,000 km and short periods in the original Tesla Roadster and some other BEVs, so I knew that I enjoyed the electric driving experience, despite being a petrolhead.  But for most of my time with the Model S, this was the main car in the household, used for long trips for business and pleasure.

The car itself was great.  You can pick fault with panel gaps, but the basic construction was solid and nothing fell off or rattled at any stage.  Compared to the Roadster which had a silent powertrain, but a cacophony of panel and trim rattles, the progress from their first model to the second was impressive.  Cruising in the Model S at 130 kph, the loudest noise was the other traffic on the road around you.  On air suspension, the ride quality was exceptional, allowing you to tackle speed bumps and broken surfaces without discomfort at noticeably higher speeds than other cars.  Not unique to Tesla, but still not universal, I also liked the way that the car remembered where you had chosen to raise the ride height, so that when the GPS sensed that you were at that location again, it would adjust the suspension without any intervention.  Even in my derated entry level P60D model, the performance was enough to see off many would-be competitors in the traffic lights Grand Prix – how often would you ever use the ‘Ludicrous’ mode of the top models in the range?

One of the stand-out features for me was the autonomous driving capabilities – originally called Autopilot, now officially Autosteer.  In my car it had some capabilities that would be considered Level 3 under the SAE definitions such as being able to drive itself in a traffic jam, stopping and accelerating as needed whilst staying in lane.  On motorways it would also follow a chosen route at intersections, and would change lanes when safe after you indicated that you would like to do so.  Although like all current systems it was prone to picking up false signals occasionally, I found the difference it made on motorway journeys, particularly in congested stop-start traffic, was huge.  I felt much more relaxed at the end of such a journey than if I had to make every start/slow/accelerate/stop decision myself.  On these occasions I never had it drop out, but at higher speeds when it did drop out it was immediate – with current technology, we are a long way from it being viable to move to Level 4 where the driver would theoretically be “hands and brain off”.  Self-parking was reliable and accurate, the ability to move the car backwards and forwards from outside using your phone was more temperamental, such that you would never want to rely on it to get your car out of a tight spot.

With the inclusion of the Tesla Supercharger network, range, even with my entry level specification, was rarely a huge issue, but it depends very much on having a good home charging point and the area where you are typically driving.  A friend with a Model X who regularly drives to the north of Scotland has had many more nail-biting experiences, where he has had to depend on slower commercial charging networks or crept along in the scary “0 miles remaining” range to get to the next Supercharger.  (At least 20 miles beyond zero in my personal experience by the way).

The other distinctive part of the Tesla offer is obviously the direct sales and aftersales model.  My sales experience was consistently poor, both on the initial lease of the Model S and a more recent enquiry for a Model 3.  The staff do not seem particularly motivated, and there appear to be communications issues between different functions, including with the external finance companies they work with.  Although Tesla do not discount in theory, my PCP deal was based on a residual value which was over-stated by around one third compared to the true value, which is reflected in the rumours that float around about high numbers of buybacks sitting in the Tesla network.  As my car approached the end of the PCP term, I did not receive any communication from either Tesla or the finance company trying to sell me another car – fundamental failures in lead management.

My experience of aftersales was generally better.  I chose not to have the car serviced as such, and during the period I had the car, only replaced the tyres.  I did need repairs on three occasions, all under warranty – once for a failed front boot (‘frunk’) latch, once for the 12 volt auxiliary battery that powers the door locks and communications when the car is off, and the third (and more significant) requirement being when the rear drive motor failed just as the car was due to go back.  (The car remained fully usable by the way, in front wheel drive only.)  Booking service appointments through the app is the easiest experience I have had with any car, providing the opportunity to select mobile service depending on the job type.  Getting help on a couple other occasions by phone with software glitches that were fixed by the equivalent of a ‘Ctrl-Alt-Delete’ reset was very straightforward, and the car also had probably twenty or more over-the-air overnight software updates whilst I was fast asleep.  The main issue with aftersales appears to relate to parts availability – the frunk latch and the parts for the body repair I referred to back in August took months to come through – though ironically the replacement remanufactured drive unit came through in two working days.

My overall assessment?  You have to give the car 10/10 as the first ever mainstream product of a new company – I have been disappointed by the fact that BEVs from other OEMs have not been noticeably better than the Tesla, and in some cases worse, despite all their experience.  On the innovative distribution model, I would struggle to award better than 5/10.  Direct ownership of the channel has not created the seamless process that you might imagine, and in reality I suspect the variable marketing spend remains high, even with ‘no haggle’ pricing.  Service provision is better than I have experienced elsewhere, but if your car is off the road for parts, you may be in a courtesy car for a long time.  As other new entrants come to market with direct sales models like Aiways, we have decided to include a deep dive in our research programme for next year – is the model itself flawed, or just the execution?