I Rented A Tesla For A Week And Am Totally Sold On Gas-Powered Cars | After test-driving one for an entire week, we learned we will never buy a Tesla or any electric vehicle as long as we have the option of gas-powered cars or even hybrids.
Good points for discussing with your local EV fanatic.
TL;DR version:
- batteries drain too quickly / range is considerably less than advertised
- length of time needed to charge is very long
- availability of charging stations not good
- some charging stations are in rather sketchy parts of town; personal safety may be an issue when you're stranded there for an hour waiting for your vehicle to charge up
- dependence on complex touch screen and non-intuitive interface seems as dangerous as texting while driving (and the autopilot is too unpredictable to use safely)
- even simple things like locking the door or turning on the windshield wipers is complicated
- no hardcopy manual to consult when you are out of range of a cell signal
- cost of charging with electricity is pretty comparible to what you would pay for gas, so no cost savings
... But pigs will fly before I buy an EV based on my Tesla experience/experiment. This conclusion is not based on a one-hour test drive but on an entire week of driving in an EV-friendly part of the country. ...
Thanks for the review.
I will stick with my Roush Mustang.
We drive from Ohio to Florida every year. No way will I ever get an EV unless they release the real deal (zero point energy) that would last indefinitely.
The Flux Capacitor has entered the chat
"Mr Fusion"
Actually, wife and I often have said... how nice it would be to portal jump through a Stargate from home to our place in the tropical peninsula, likity-split. Maybe more abra-cadabra. Trust the science! LOL
The only thing worse than driving to the vacation / other / hunting club house.. is having to drive back...
You know... that is so true. We have always said the drive down was actually relaxing. Leaving the job behind... ect. Anticipating 2 weeks on the beach with no interruptions... The drive back was like the "Sunday blues".
Tesla isn’t stainless steel, won’t work.
"No way will I ever get an EV unless they release the real deal (zero point energy) that would last indefinitely."
That's what I've been saying for years -- electric cars will never grow beyond the urban niche market until there's something better than batteries under the hood.
Yep, and they currently can’t produce enough batteries to replace all our cars with EV ones. After the DS is stopped, we will have all the things released to store and generate energy in ways we would think are magical
Ford is building a MASSIVE!!! battery factory in Glendale Kentucky. Nobody wants them.
I'm waiting on Musk to switch gears and come out with a Gas powered vehicle that gets 75 miles to the gallon
This
Additionally...
Its a race to the bottom in hot weather as well. The battery charge degrades faster in temps over 85F.
The ev scam is balls deep
Scotty has been talking about it for years
EVs have some benefits, but are largely outweighed by the negatives.
I have a Tesla, so I feel I can provide input.
Pros: The car is maintenance free in terms of the drivetrain, for daily commuting paired with daily charging, there’s no concern of waiting around for hours in a sketchy part of town, some businesses even offer chargers at work for reduced prices. They do get really good “fuel mileage” (~45 mpg) when compared to a gas car, plus the instant torque gives them a performance edge.
Cons: It’s a sham held up by taxpayers, because of the subsidization process, it is “affordable” whereas gas cars are actually affordable. Long range driving is possible but annoying (I calculated my costs, and saved twice the money compared to driving my wife’s Durango ~1,000 miles). But never again. Slave labor and child slave labor used to produce the batteries. Car is controlled remotely, as are most new cars, which is concerning when you consider government overreach.
I don’t hate my Tesla, but I definitely won’t buy another.
Fair assessment thank you
Also battery disposal is a real problem.
That's no problem. We'll just ship them back to the same third-world crap-holes that we use slave labor to get the raw materials from. Circle of life, or profit, or something.
That’s what they issued to say about paper ‘recycling’...and then China said fuck you and stopped taking it. We’re not even recycling most things here in the USA. Those recycle bins are loaded straight into the landfill.
For me, it’s a G80 Genesis with a twin turbo engine that runs on regular gas. Best car I ever owned!
I loved my stick shift 6 cylinder mustang more than any I’ve ever owned but close 2nd was my cj5 Jeep — drove it all over big bend tx — between my horse and keep there was nowhere I couldn’t go ( everybody always said -I bet you hike everyday— I always answered “ no that’s why God made horses and Jeeps)..
Thank you for making the effort for one week to be able to share all that. That's good information!
Oil is a natural resource and we did not come from monkeys.
I was taught this my whole childhood and even in elementary I was questioning the teacher and was censored. The teach in fourth grade put in the desk next to that picture of monkeys transforming into a man. Also a dinosaur picture.
I would ask how many dinosaurs were there? She would say something.. I was like were you there? …
Batteries are cool stuff though for yard tools.
Exactly. These aren’t ‘electric’ cars. They’re battery powered cars. An electric car would have a really long cord to power it from an outlet. Like drills, saws, etc.
Lol. In the world of telecom. The physical layer the cell phone has to the tower is over the air.
The OSI models says physical is wireless.
Physical = Virtual
Yet if we do not see see it we can not believe it.
Imagine there is an extension cord on everything that is wireless with a chip inside it. Because there factually is according to the OSI model.
If man puts a chip in their body they are then physically connected to a host.
I believe God created this physical connection and gave us clues with the rainbow.
We do not need to go far to see what a dope smoking woke would consider a conspiracy theory while they zombie around on their cell phones mocking. Lol
Ummm..what do batteries produce?
LI batteries produce open pit mines, heavy metal waste, child labor slavery, EMF pollution and cancer, among many other less than ideal issues. Battery cars produce more pollution over their lifespan than petrol powered vehicles.
CO2 is dwindling. Plant life depends on CO2. Global warming is bullshit.
Simple.
A battery does not produce anything. It does store and deliver electrical energy though.
The electrical energy it stores was produced by many things including, fossil fuels, coal, solar and wind. All being wildly different from each other when it comes to efficiency and cost.
What Henry is saying is that you don't generally call a cordless or battery powered drill an "electric" drill. Anything that gets its power from a battery will always be limited to the batteries storage and transfer limitations.
A corded drill would generally be called an "electric" drill and will be considerably more powerfully because it doesn't have to work within the batteries limitations.
TLDR If someone told me to grab them the electric drill, I would bring them back the one with the cord on it.
I live in an assigned parking complex and I was astounded to see a Tesla parked in an assigned spot. Get this: no charging station from the condo to the car... I DID see a tesla service van there the other day. What the "techie" was doing I couldn't figure out... 🤣
I recently also had a Tesla rental car for a week. I have a slightly different perspective.
Biggest problem was lack of instruction before sending us off to our destination.
Next was delivering a car without a full (80%) charge. (80% is for battery life considerations.) Our destinations were always 40 miles from the nearest supercharger.
We were not instructed on how to lock or unlock the car. Discovered that by accident.
Range anxiety is real, but we managed, and I would be willing to try it again after some of the things that i learned.
What we liked:
Tesla Model 3thh was quiet, smooth and handled very well (My personal car was a Mercedes E class) .
When visiting one of the other owners at a supercharger, they claimed to get by on about $15 of electricity per month, charging at home. At the Supercharger is was about $7 for "half a tank".
After returning I made my way to the nearest Tesla service center/delivery/showroom and asked questions about the car I had driven.
There is range after the car says 0%, kind of like a fuel warning light. That would have lessened my anxiety to know that.
Maintenance is mostly tires. No tune-ups, oil and filter changes and other such normal maintenance. Brakes can last along time with regenerating braking.
With the Connection package (about $10 month) you can watch Youtube or other subscription services (Netflix/Hulu etc.) that you have during charging. Oh and the Ac or heat will run while you wait.
Charging at a Supercharger was surprisingly quick. 18% to 80% was about 15ish minutes.
If you have more than one vehicle It is worth looking at making one of them electric. Running around town would be a particularly good case. Ucoming batteries are addressing the fires issue. Even without the Deep state agenda, I feel like electric cars are here to stay.
I have a Tesla and it’s the best vehicle I’ve ever owned. I don’t own one for environmental reasons, but because it’s a blast to drive, and is constantly improving. On well marked highways, Full self driving (FSD) drives safer than I would and has made my 40 mile commute considerably less stressful. Also, 0-60 in 3.8 is amazing. I live in the NW so charging stations are everywhere. Your state may vary.
"On well marked highways". My Hondas have various features that rely on well marked highways. After a month I gave up and turned them off because most roads aren't well marked. Usually the paint fades or is worn off in spots before the road needs repaving. Or the road is damaged in spots, or paved over from some repair, etc.
I hate how the FSD experience keeps changing. I hardly use it anymore.
The dash board has games showing when you drive. Yet those are not accessible. 2 modes would be good. Charge:stopped or drive.
Tesla had a good UI to start, everything seems a bit worse now.
I rented a Model 3 for a week.
It was an ok experience. The car itself drove pretty well. There are plenty of POS cars out there that are worse.
But despite being in one of Americas largest cities super chargers were like 15-20 minutes away. So that 20 minute charge really took about an hour. The closest one to the airport left me with exactly 80% charge on return. That was stressful.
Non super chargers are slow as balls. Only worth using one if you were like shopping at a mall (lol) or at work.
People develop a lifestyle around charging. You see people bringing lunch, doing makeup, watching pr0n, etc. that is lame and gay.
As a 2nd city car with a charger at home they seem ok if you’re into leasing (make the inevitable battery replacement somebody else’s issue). While I know people who have done road trips on electric no way would I want to do so.
i'd say accurate assessment.
My 1999 Chevy Blazer is still going strong! Of course, I have a 'first cousin' mechanic that keeps it that way too;)
Always fun to walk and find cell service to call and see if a service truck will bring a can of electricity when the heat or cold kills the battery...
Well Tesla's are natural gas/coal powered.
One of my sons rented a Tesla while on a business trip. He came to the same exact conclusions. Bottom line with him: No way he'd ever buy an electric!
Give me a 83 Toyota 4x4 with crank down windows and I’m good.
I agree with your conclusion but the non-intuitive controls and no manual isn’t inherent to EVs. You can have an EV with a standard control layout and paper manual. Everything else you mentioned generally applies across the board to all EVs though.
That is the thing.....you know the thing...
You were wise to do a trial rental..
people buy on emotion and idealize how things will go.. Then once they have bought in (and are unhappy) either they take a huge financial hit or they live with their choice, refuse to admit that they were wrong and tell people how much they love their growing financial burden that has them trapped...
Sound like anyone we know???
Hydrogen would be best. You would have your own hydrogen generator at home filling a cartridge that you could change out. And a spare in the trunk for longer trips. No more gas station stops
They don't suit your needs. They don't suit my needs either. People don't buy them for environmental reasons, they buy them because they're the fastest production sedan for the money and they have heaps of disposable income.
i honestly could care less about the "environment" in regard to car purchase. What I can say is that I care about my wallet, and I'm saving a shit ton of money on gas and I LOVE blowing the doors off anything on the road without even trying.. To each their own.
There is no "saving a shit ton" with an EV. In 10 years the batteries will have to be replaced regardless of how well it was maintained or how little it was driven. That's a 20+ thousand dollar expense on a tesla. I don't spend that much on gas let alone on a 10 year old used car.
nah, people buy new cars all the time regardless of EV or ICE. "so bruh, you just spent $50k on the gas powered SUV to save money on gas?"
I cannot see how the resale market will exist for a 12-15 year old Tesla. The buyers of old cars do not have money for home chargers. Looks like a huge depreciation cliff is coming.
I was just telling my husband anyone who wants to buy an electric vehicle should do exactly what you did so they can figure out that electric cars are inconvenient and impractical! Glad you did this and wrote about it!
My favorite aspect of owning a car are road trips, and I just can't imagine the fear of driving through a state like Nevada on a battery. Even lived / worked in major cities, one of them being the biggest adopters of the EV trend in America. And even still there's virtually no chargers anywhere, and where they do exist there's like two of them in a lot for 50+ cars. It just seems so unreasonable to even consider it as a possibility
Not a climate change believer but I love my Tesla. I bought it because I'm a techy and love how flipping cool this car is. I can see when you are renting and don't have access to a home charger that it may be a PITA. The rest of the issues you state have been non-issues for me. Drove it from Colorado to Arizona when we moved expecting to dread it and loved every minute of it. Even the charging was no big deal.
Once you know how to manage the windshield wipers it is one click. My doors lock automatically - I've never had to lock them. If you charge at home charging costs are negligible.
Autopilot is definitely sketchy so I'll give you that one.
you're not wrong on your some of your assessment, however, I have to say it's worked very well for me. I'd like to give my 2c on each of your points:
batteries drain too quickly / range is considerably less than advertised true. same goes for my ICE vehicles. I have a Sprinter that advertises 21city/22mpg that I actually only get about 13/15 unless you drive it like a grandpa.
length of time needed to charge is very long true. fwiw, I use mine simply for commute or anything that is less than my max distance (advertised 400mile r/t, real world is 270mile r/t). Any time that I do have to charge,past 270 miles I usually need a break anyway and it'll charge me up 300miles per hour for about ~3/4 of a tank (it ramps up and down depending on the State of Charge). So basically I get about 175 miles in 30 minutes which gave me enough time to get to the restroom, grab a snack. It's really not that big a deal. if you find yourself driving more than 270miles round trip THAT often, EV is def not the right car for you.
availability of charging stations not good Not sure where you live, but i agree depends on which state. In Socal they. are. everywhere. again, depends on why you even need to supercharge to begin with. most people charge at home as they use evs for daily commute. for it to make sense, most people utilize the whole ecosystem, solar + ev == zero gas or home electricity. My previous daily driving suv (landcruise) got ~15 mpg best case scenario and I'd easily spend $500/month gas and I work from home. I'm easily saving at least 6k a year on just gas alone.
some charging stations are in rather sketchy parts of town; personal safety may be an issue when you're stranded there for an hour waiting for your vehicle to charge up.
maybe live in a better area? i haven't had any issues but I dont drive long distance with it. I have ICE cars for that. from my experience, most tesla supercharging locations are in large complex shopping centers where it's typically safe relative to other parts of each town. If you look in bodunk, I can't speak for that.
dependence on complex touch screen and non-intuitive interface seems as dangerous as texting while driving (and the autopilot is too unpredictable to use safely) it has voice assist, anything you can do by touch, you can do by voice.
even simple things like locking the door or turning on the windshield wipers is complicated ok boomer. I disagree on this one.
no hardcopy manual to consult when you are out of range of a cell signal cost of charging with electricity is pretty comparible to what you would pay for gas, so no cost savings ok definitely boomer.
that said, I have so many great things that I love about mine. I have falcon doors. I have free cellular smart data, my car can blow the doors off 99% of anything on the road. My car drives itself. The benefits just go on and on. I have ICE sports cars and a sprinter on the side, but this car is by far my fav.
All the more reason there will be zero market for old Teslas. Imagine being poor and charging your 15 year old Tesla in the hood. If you buy a Tesla, better trade it in before it gets too old.
While the charging cord is stolen for scrap every night and the charger is vandalized. Bummers.
Man! 13-15 mpg for your Sprinter? I got 22mpg driving across country at 70-75 mph. I get 18-20mpg in town. It is a 2012. When I first got it, it was filled with racks and shelving. Now it has a jackknife sofa, wetbath, 600 watts of solar on the roof, two 400amp hour LiFePo batteries, fridge. I am still working on it, need to put the kitchen cabinets and the sink in and black/gray water tanks underneath, but I am almost done. Not sure why yours is so bad on diesel, but sounds like something is wrong.