Driving a Tesla for 6 Years
By: Sean Zhou
Tags: Electric Vehicles, Range Anxiety, Electric Car, Tesla

I am one of the early Tesla owners. I bought my Model S in September 2014. Nowadays, it is happy to electric cars started becoming mainstream and you would see more and more Teslas on road. I thought I would share my experience of a little more than 6 years of ownership and hopefully you can find some useful information here.

Decision to Buy

It was definitely a more risky decision to buy a Tesla 6 years ago as there were so many uncertainties about electric cars. How long does it take to charge? What if you run out of battery? How will it manage the Canadian winter? How much the battery will degrade after 5 years? Lots and lots of questions …

The decision turned out to be relatively easy for me. First, I went to Tesla Service Center at Lawrence East at Toronto to look at the car. Model S looks great. Elegant exterior and spacious interior. You may expect more sophisticated interior details at its price level but that was not something I cared too much about. Then I went for a test drive. I would say the moment I stepped on the acceleration I fell in love with the car. The acceleration was instant. It felt like the car is like part of your body. Go or stop, there is no delay. The car is heavy but most of its mass is the battery at the bottom center, making the car very steady and handling curvy roads a pleasure.

Model S was expensive. I had Model S 85 with the tech package. After the government rebate ($8,500), it was around $100K after tax. I had to make a business case for owning it for 8 years to myself and my wife :-). My BMW 328xi lease was ending and that's why I was shopping for the next car. 328xi costs about $50K with everything included. For a 4 year lease, its residue value is $20K. Therefore my TCO is $30K. For 8 years, that's two leases and TCO will be $60K. It's a pleasure to drive 328xi but it also consumes quite some gas. I drive about 20,000km per year. Let's still estimate an average $200 monthly gas savings compared to Tesla. That's about $20K for 8 years. That means owning a Model S for 8 years is only $20K more than leasing 328xi for 8 years. And I believed my Model S would be able to sell for more than $20K after 8 years. That means the owing Model S is the same as leasing 328xi! Same cost, between Model S and 328xi. Which one would you choose? :-)

The Pride of Ownership

From day one I had my Tesla, the car gets a lot of attention from my friends and even strangers. Many friends would want a ride. Lots of questions about electric and unique features Tesla had. And unexpectedly, you would have pedestrians waving at you and your peer Tesla drivers would blink their lights to salute each other. When you get to your car at the Walmart parking lot, people will ask you a whole bunch of questions about the car.

Range Anxiety

I believe everyone will have some range anxiety if you own an electric car the first time. The car tells you it has enough battery to drive another 100km. Can you trust it? I know I can get to a charging station 50km away but what if the station doesn’t work?

As a matter of fact, in the first couple of years owning Tesla, I never drained the battery below 50km otherwise I probably would start panicking. This really depends on the individual. I met many Tesla drivers whose risk tolerance was so much higher. They would drive to the supercharging stations with a few kilometer range left.

Moreover, I stored a 100ft extension cable in my trunk. In case the car’s battery is too low and I couldn’t find a charging station, my emergency plan was to find a house or gas station and ask for help. I would plug in the extension cable and charge my car. It will take a day to get some substantial range (110v plug will charge the car at the 6km/hour speed) but at least the car will not die. I never had to use the extension cable and I removed it from my trunk after a couple of years.

Finally, I took my family to also drive from Toronto to Orlando during the first march break after I had the car. In 2015 Spring, superchargers are still sparse. The shortest route to Orlando would be to go south to the US via Niagara Falls but there were no superchargers in that area. I had to drive east to Kingston supercharger as our first stop, and then to the next stop at Utica (Watertown supercharger was not built yet.) Most superchargers are located at shopping malls or close to restaurants. We would take our time to enjoy some nice food or do some outlet shopping so half an hour or so charging time didn’t feel like a long waiting time. The beginning part of our trip gave us quite a bit range anxiety. From Kingston, Ontario to Utica, New York, the distance is 227km/141miles. We took plenty of time at Kingston to charge the car up to a more than sufficient range as we stopped for lunch. However, soon after we left Kingston, the car started alerting us that we wouldn’t be able to make to Utica and we should find a place to charge. My wife started searching the PlugShare for places in the US. This turned out to be a false alarm. Tesla’s range alerts are pretty conservative and more importantly, the range projection is impacted by temperature significantly. After we crossed Canada/US border and started driving south, the temperature got higher and higher and the car range projection increases. Eventually the alerts were gone and we arrive at Utica with some comfortable range left.

In summary, range anxiety is really a matter of confidence level on the car’s range projection. Once you build your trust in your car, you can plan your trips with confidence, and range anxiety can be easily managed.

Gas Becomes Irrelevant in Your Life

Before I bought my Tesla, I would check the gas price every day when driving by gas stations. That habit will fade away gradually. After a couple of years of Telsa ownership, I would found I had no ideas about the recent gas prices when friends were talking about it. Even worse, once in a year or so, I might have to drive my wife’s car and refill gas for her. I would found I was clumsy at the pump, fumbling with the gas nozzle due to lack of practice! Anyway, I don’t think I miss those visits to the gas station.

Charging

Unlike driving a gas car, you will need to develop a charging habit that fits your life. For example, if you have a long commute to work, you will probably have to charge your car every evening. My commute was pretty short, so I only charge my Tesla every 3 or 4 days.

For your charging convenience, you will need to install a 220v plug that recharges the car with a 37km range every hour charging. If you only have a 110v plug, then you can recharge with only 6km range every hour charging. In situations of drained batteries, you wouldn’t be able to recharge your car to a meaningful range with a full night of charging.

Maintenance

All cars will have problems and my model S is no exception. In my 6 years, I had quite a list of issues:

real wheel axle clicking noise (twice) (solution: take apart the axle and lubricate, seal, and reassemble)

dashboard died (solution: replaced the dashboard)

a worn internal wire which caused false alerts (solution: replaced the broken wire)

motor humming noise (solution: replaced the motor)

battery coolant low (replaced the Battery Thermo Management Systems)

The first 4 issues happened with the first 4 years so they were covered by Tesla warranty and I didn’t have to pay anything. The last issue happened in the 5th year so I had to pay about $800 dollars.

Other than this, I purchased a 4-year service plan from Tesla for $2000. The plan gives my model S an annual check-up. Although this service plan did give me peace of mind and I am sure the service center did tune-ups that kept the car in its best shape, I think it is debatable if it is necessary. All the issues I had with my car were found outside of the check-ups and I just need to drive my car to the service center for repair. After my 4 years of service plan, I didn’t have any issues except the battery coolant low issue.

Tires

One surprise to me was how fast the model S would wear the tires out. In 6 years and 3 months, the car has gone through 5 sets of tires (2 sets of winter tires and 3 sets of all summer tires). Tesla knows this and it is expected. This is mainly due to two factors: car weight and acceleration speed. When I wrapped around tight corners, the car can turn effortless and pick up speed so fast. While I was enjoying the satisfaction, I probably didn’t pay attention to how much tires those tight turns and fast accelerations would consume :-)

Conclusion

Many friends would ask me what I would buy as my next car. My answer is my Model S is still running strong and the battery capacity has only degraded 8% (current range at 396km vs original range 430km) so I don’t need to change my car yet. However, if I would change my car anyway, I would stick to Tesla and get a Model Y. I told my friends I don’t miss going back to gas cars. And after you get used to the Tesla acceleration, it is really not fun to drive a gas car anymore.