My EV Experience

[AeroTech]

Any of you folks with EV's had to replace the brake pads on your EV yet? Just wondering how often that is needed. Regenerating should make the interval less... except the EV is heavier... so is it a wash?

We have never had to replace the brake pads on our EVs in over 8 years, driving a combined 300,000+ miles.

 

[rocket_troy]

We have never had to replace the brake pads on our EVs in over 8 years, driving a combined 300,000+ miles.

I had to replace both pads and discs (both worn down next to nothing) in my Volvo XC60 at 36,000 km!

Not sure that's a reflection of a heavy car + non EV + heavy traffic, or that of my driving style

TP

 

[jqavins]

I've owned cars with knobs, buttons and so forth and I could operate the radio and the heater without taking my eyes off of the road. I don't like touchscreens because they take too long to operate- you have to find the menu item, push it, wait for it to respond, etc. In my car I could reach out with my eyes closed, find the knob that controlled heater fan speed, and turn it.

Yes, this. A thousand times, this. The heater fan control, temperature control, the radio buttons, and more. Give me back my knobs and buttons!

 

[Tyeeking]

My Ford F-250 has both knobs and a touch screen for things like climate control, music, phone and navigation. As a driver I prefer the knobs since I don’t have to take my eyes off the road. As a passenger my wife prefers the touch screen. Having both makes a lot of sense.

 

[cwbullet]

Thanks for the review. I have been contemplating an EV. You just wrote one model off my list. I am 6’3” 240 and I am sure I would have trouble sitting in the vehicle!

 

[jderimig]

My Ford F-250 has both knobs and a touch screen for things like climate control, music, phone and navigation. As a driver I prefer the knobs since I don’t have to take my eyes off the road. As a passenger my wife prefers the touch screen. Having both makes a lot of sense.

Touch screens are a cost saving feature for the manufacturers. In our new truck we can do almost all the console controls with driving wheel controls and voice recognition, except climate control it seems. Ram 1500 rocks.

 

[Raythain]

Yes, this. A thousand times, this. The heater fan control, temperature control, the radio buttons, and more. Give me back my knobs and buttons!

Seconded. If I need to take my eyes off the road to find a control the second time, someone has failed at their job.

And don’t even get me started about using sound effects to tell me I hit a soft button

 

[Simon Auty]

Any of you folks with EV's had to replace the brake pads on your EV yet? Just wondering how often that is needed. Regenerating should make the interval less... except the EV is heavier... so is it a wash?

Not often was the quote I got from Tesla.
They will look at them in 2 years when it comes up for its first scheduled service, but they don’t often need to replace them then

 

[Simon Auty]

I don't feel up to reading 2000+ posts in this thread to see if my thoughts would be better there, so please forgive me if they would.

Last weekend, I rented a Tesla 3 for a trip to Union Beach, NJ (600 miles or so round trip). We intended to rent a car, and were surprised to find that Hertz's best price for the weekend was for the Tesla ($80/day base rate but $270+ all in for the weekend). So I thought I'd share my experience.

First, please do not think that I think I'm talking about EVs in general. Tesla is not the only maker, and the Model 3 is not their only model. I know.

It's small. Too damn small for me. Yes, I'm obese which has a lot to do with it. I'm also on the short end of normal height, and oddly proportioned with short legs and a tall torso. I found the car a little uncomfortable sitting in the driver's seat and very uncomfortable getting into and out of. If I get an EV, which I hope and expect to do, it will not be a Model 3.

Range: we had to stop to charge up once on the way down and twice on the way back, not counting the top off before returning it. In my Ford Escape, we would have filled up when we left and only once during the round trip. The charging stops take the better part of an hour, though we did manage to combine two of the three with meal stops. (On the other hand, when filling up takes five minutes I often don't make a meal stop except to hit up a drive through.) The range on EVs in general is ever improving, but if anyone tells you it's just not an issue anymore, don't you believe it.

Driving experience: The first thing you notice, after figuring out how to start going, is that this car doesn't coast. If you take your foot off the accelerator it starts braking, and not just a little. To slow down slowly you have to feather off the accelerator. There's a good reason it's made that way - coasting your speed down doesn't allow for regeneration - but it takes a good deal of getting used to. You do get used to it. The next thing to get used to would be feathering off less, learning to brake later and faster than you might be used to in order to increase regeneration and extend the range.

The second thing you'll notice is that it's just a car. Push the right pedal it goes, push the left pedal it stops, rotate the steering wheel and it turns. After getting used to the accelerator behavior, you just drive it.

The third thing is that there are too few controls. Placing this feature, and that feature, and then the next one, and the next one all on that touch screen might seem cool, but it means taking your eyes off the road further and longer than I want to, further and longer than I do in my Escape, and even the Escape makes me look at the screen more than I'd like. I feel like I need a copilot in order to drive safely while changing the radio station. I expect that's the same on all of the Tesla models, but I don't know about any other company's EVs.

The side mirrors are too small. The left side mirror especially leaves a HUGE blind spot that nearly got me into side swipes twice. There are three camera views - one straight back and two side-back - which give a much better view, and there's even a schematic view of you're surroundings forward and back in your lane and one lane to each side. Well, great, but just like so many of the controls I have to take my eyes off the road by too much and for too long in order to use them.

Enough complaining. That famous acceleration is not only fun, but occasionally useful for merges and entering roadways. Finally (and again) it's a car; it stops and goes, it gets you from here to there, and you probably already know how to drive it. I want one, but make mine the next bigger model up, or a different make with more traditional controls.

I get you about the size that’s why I got a Model Y
Essentially I (and the wife) found the 3 too low

This is not true for my 2023 Model Y. It is true for my wife’s 2022 Chevy Bolt.

The Tesla does a lot of things differently, but the Chevy looks and operates like an ICE car, so the Bolt is a much easier transition.

I love my Tesla, and my wife loves her Bolt.

My new (Shanghai built) Model Y the one pedal driving is programmable

 

[Simon Auty]

Seconded. If I need to take my eyes off the road to find a control the second time, someone has failed at their job.

And don’t even get me started about using sound effects to tell me I hit a soft button

Shouldn’t need to take your eyes off road apart from reading the Speedo (but just set your cruise control and you won’t be speeding)
Use the left hand button on the steering wheel and tell the car what you want it to do- change the Temperature, radio station, where’s the nearest charger etc
Anything you want from the screen the voice control can do