After nearly 3 years of owning a Model S (Long range, RHD) and a Renault Zoe (LHD) the future is definitely electric. The S is the long range cruiser and the Zoe (which I got at a fantastic covid discount) is the daily runabout. The S and Zoe are both charged directly off solar or overnight rates and the S on Tesla superchargers or Ionity (subscription) when out and about. Service costs for both of them are pretty much close to zero – limited to 50 euros for the cabin air filter on the Zoe. The S had had to go back twice as the onboard 3 phase inverter failed twice (unusually I have a 3 phase connection at home) which Tesla fixed under warranty.
Sadly in early 2023 a cat running across the road in front of the Zoe required a choice between the cat or a head on with a car coming the other way. The cat used one of it’s nine lives and the Zoe used all of them. An interesting discovery as a result of an accident in a BEV is that Renault terminate the entire battery pack on the Zoe in the event of an accident making it a certain write off. No serious injuries though but left us with a car short. Insurance stepped up and paid up what the car cost 3 years earlier – kudos to them but probably reflective of the crazy pricing on cars over and just after covid.
In looking for a replacement I noticed the Model 3 was coming up for a refresh and may be a viable replacement for the S at some point albeit somewhat more expensive than a Zoe which was coming to end of life. Ideally would have liked a R5 as it also offers V2G saving the cost of batteries to backup my solar but the release date is too far out. The highland reviews in October were glowing. None of the other manufacturers have the combination of range, cost and charging infrastructure, so despite Tesla becoming a somewhat of a mark of shame, I put in an order for a long range and 4 weeks later I had a delivery pick up date in Lyon. As usual, the Tesla delivery process left something to be desired - with the S it was “find your key in that bucket, the car is in the temporary car park”, this time it was “the car is still in Barcelona” an hour before pickup meaning an additional 4 hour round trip.
So, now I had the car a week later a good test was a 4000km road trip going from central France to Cape Wrath in Scotland for a long booked family Xmas taking both the S and the new M3. Lots of miles, chargers, road types and weather to test the limits.
The Good
I have had a few rental M3’s and the Highland has some great improvements. The seats are way more comfortable making long distance trips much easier on the body. Range seems to be much better, although not quite what Tesla’s somewhat optimistic claims are. Getting 400km is perfectly possible as long as you don’t drive crazy. Double glazing all round makes it noticeably quieter.
The boot seems to swallow more luggage than I thought was possible easily taking enough for 4 people and a dog for a week. I think the headlights are also somewhat better than before leaving better visibility on full beam. While no different to the previous M3, compared to the S not needing the CCS adapter is great and although it only hits the 250kw charging speed briefly, it does mean quicker charging. The phone charger is pretty good – finally a car where the phone charges, doesn’t fall on to the floor and is (largely) visible.
The heater is incredibly powerful as well and does not seem to have too much effect on battery life. When it starts preconditioning for a supercharge the car starts baking inside even when it’s close to zero outside.
The Bad
The steering wheel controls without a shadow of a doubt
These are simply a driving hazard – I am struggling understand how they are even legal and I can’t imagine Tesla not ending up in court at some point. There is no issue with them being on the steering wheel rather than stalks – simply Tesla’s implementation is terrible. The buttons are flat with no relief markings. Every time you need to indicate you have to take the eyes off the road and look for the correct indicator button – a nightmare on roundabouts, or in the dark on a raining motorway.
To make it even worse the buttons do not click well – they have a very small sweet spot which on a turning wheel means you are scrabbling to get the right one pressed.
Furthermore the auto cancel doesn’t always work meaning that you need to have a second scrabble to cancel. In one instance, someone thought I was turning left after a roundabout and pulled out, leaving me to slam on the brakes and getting the evil eye.
In 4000km I have had more close calls and pissed off drivers than in the last 30 years of driving. It’s frustrating that a simple change to the injection moulding for the buttons would solve one issue, changing the button mechanism would be a little more work but would make a huge difference and would not cost any where close to putting stalks back on. I am definitely in the market for a third party steering wheel, meanwhile it’s the 3d printer and some super glue before an accident.
The Ugly
There are a few annoyances that stand out (apart from the shitshow on the steering wheel).
Firstly the navigation screen switching between modes (Trip, route etc) – the button on the screen is small and tricky to find when you are planning charging (and eating) stops on the move – ideally should be bigger and a different colour. In a LHD car it’s reach all the way over and you can easily hit some other control like SoS.
The ETA for arrival charge and time at the bottom of the screen blends into the background and is on the small side for a quick glance – I found myself struggling to make a quick glance work. Bigger and different colour would be great.
I found the navigation had an odd bug I have not noticed on the S and I assumed they use the same maps. There were numerous times when the next turn label on the screen did not match the road signs which, when navigating the Paris périphérique can be high stress. I have not verified this against the S to see if it’s a common navigation issue.
The lane change on the autosteer doesn’t work – just switches the autosteer off. To be fair, I did not spend much time exploring this – a lot of driving in the dark and the rain made it difficult to get a chance to play with it.
The windscreen wiper auto mode is just bizarre – in pouring rain it doesn’t work, and then on a dry sunny road it activates. There no logic to how it works (or rather doesn’t). Most of the time I gave up waiting for it to clear the screen and manually activated it. Presumably a software update in the future will fix it.
The display, in my case anyway, hides the top of my phone (Pixel 7 pro) which is minor – might just need to get a smaller phone as I can’t get the seat to a position that lets me see the top inch of the phone screen.
S or M3
A bit unfair, but compared to the S the suspension is not as smooth but thats entirely to be expected and even on extremely bumpy single lane highland roads the M3 handled it fine and was comfortable. The clearance is something to be watched though – it grounded badly pulling out of the Parly 2 supercharger in Paris, something the adjustable suspension on the S can handle easily. It’s definitely more comfortable than the previous M3 but it’s not as good as the S – on long driving sections I found myself getting a dead right leg and getting out was a relief. Tesla are no longer making RHD Model S’s (AFAIK) so I will probably be holding on to this one which was one of the last RHD Long Range ones. It’s definitely a more comfortable long drive although it’s clearly a lot more expensive than a M3.
Costs
The total costs for charging were pretty reasonable for such a long trip despite not driving for efficiency. One charge was just a mains socket on the wall which charged it overnight (with the owners permission). There was only one issue with the Superchargers at Adderstone (really bad location) where there was a bay limited to 34kw otherwise there were no issues. The number of new supercharger locations across UK and France is exploding at the moment – Tesla are clearly putting a massive investment in these and it makes long distance trips like this a breeze.
| Country | SiteLocationName | QuantityBase kwh | UnitCostBase | Cost (GBP) |
| FR | Parly 2 | 45.00 | 0.42/kwh € | 16.43 |
| FR | Aire de la Baie de Somme | 37.00 | 0.40/kwh € | 12.87 |
| GB | London, UK – Sidcup | 30.00 | 0.41/kwh £ | 12.30 |
| GB | Rugby, UK | 55.00 | 0.41/kwh £ | 22.55 |
| GB | Tebay, UK – Southbound | 64.00 | 0.40/kwh £ | 25.60 |
| GB | Heartlands, UK | 34.00 | 0.46/kwh £ | 15.64 |
| GB | Perth, UK | 36.00 | 0.46/kwh £ | 16.56 |
| GB | Inverness, UK | 24.00 | 0.41/kwh £ | 9.84 |
| GB | Inverness, UK | 47.00 | 0.41/kwh £ | 19.27 |
| GB | Perth, UK | 53.00 | 0.40/kwh £ | 21.20 |
| GB | Adderstone, UK | 31.00 | 0.41/kwh £ | 12.71 |
| GB | Adderstone, UK | 6.00 | 0.41/kwh £ | 2.46 |
| GB | Ferrybridge, UK | 49.00 | 0.41/kwh £ | 20.09 |
| GB | London, UK – Sidcup | 39.00 | 0.47/kwh £ | 18.33 |
| FR | Velizy 2, France | 65.00 | 0.27/kwh € | 15.26 |
| Total | 615.00 | 241.12 |
Tech and real life 