Tesla and its challenges

Recently I became a happy new Tesla owner. If you are thinking or planning to buy Tesla in near future I think it will be helpful for your to read this post. There are many gotchas on the way and I would like to highlight the most important ones.

As probably most of you already know, you have to order Tesla online. And the price is the same for everyone. There could be some difference in price between different states or countries due to local regulations, but the core price is the same. It is not possible to reduce the price as you can do with most other car vendors. The price is fixed and you can buy it or leave. And to be honest I like it very much. When I was buying my previous cars, I didn’t feel happy, and I felt quite exhausted and being used. Moreover, I was constantly thinking that I could do better and get a better price.

And as a result, there is our first gotcha. When I saw recommended car price of $40 000, I know out of the door price will be $44000 in my region. It includes taxes, registration, destination fee, etc. But I also know that it is possible to negotiate the price and I usually pay less than $40 000 in the end. But as I wrote above, it is not the case with Tesla. If you see the price as $60 000, it means you will have to pay way more. It will be close to 70 000. More about that later. Just keep this in mind.

Getting trade-in quotes and financing is also much easier and they are quite competitive. For example, all interest rates I found were much higher than what I got via the Tesla app. The same with insurance. Tesla insurance was about 50% cheaper.

I think now, you see a second gotcha: everything is done online, and you should be ready for this. Moreover, most things are done via the Tesla application. There is no phone number to call and if you come to the showroom, they will do exactly the same: go online and start ordering or ask you to open Tesla app.

A third gotcha is that after your Tesla is delivered to you, you will have to do a thorough inspection. And trust me, you will find issues. I found some clean plastic stuck between panels and some sticky sticker stuck between the glass roof and panel. One minor scratch on the glass and looks like the trunk button does not work. Also, my car was a bit dirty. And it was consistent with what other people found. They can fix all of that, but you just need to prepare for all of that. If you are not ready to deal with that, then better to avoid Tesla.

A fourth gotcha is that most people think about Tesla as just another car. You had Toyota or Ford and surely you can use Tesla. And it is wrong. Tesla is quite different. There are not many physical buttons that most of us got used. Most actions happened on the touch screen and even though I was reading a lot about that, I wasn’t fully ready for the simple fact that almost all actions require a touch screen.

It is good and bad. It is bad because you cannot press it blindly recognizing the shape of the button with your fingers. But on the good side, Tesla can add functions that are not possible to add traditional way because they can add as many buttons on the screen as they want.

Just as an example: you drove somewhere to pick up someone. As that person closes in, I would press the button on my door to unlock all doors and that person can enter my car. Now I must press something on the screen to unlock it. It is not worse, just different from what I was used to.

Moreover, there are some questionable design decisions. For example, there is no frame around side windows and when you close the door, you should not push the door by the glass and have to use the bottom metallic part of the door.

I’m not trying to say, that all these changes are bad. It is just quite different from other cars and that will require a lot of adjusting and learning. As result, you should be ready for that before you buy Tesla. Otherwise, you will be disappointed.

Driving an electric vehicle is another challenge. One of the best features is that you can drive an EV with a single pedal most of the time. If you press acceleration, your car will start moving. When you slowly release it, the wheels will spin the electric motor, the car will slow down and energy will go back to the battery. An EV can slow down to almost a complete stop using this technique. And the computer will apply breaks to ensure a full stop.

As a result, you can drive on city streets using almost as much electricity as on the highway. Moreover, your car will rarely use breaks and they will last for much longer. When I drive to school there are 5 stop signs. When I drove the traditional car, at every stop I physically feel how all that energy I spent accelerating is going to waste. Now I just release the pedal and the car come to a complete stop and most of that energy went back to the battery. No need to switch from one pedal to another.

But all of that requires adjusting. Sure, you can change settings and Tesla will behave the same way as a traditional car, but you will waste a lot of electricity. And I have to note, that all EVs are like that, so it is better to get used to it.

And a final gotcha, that you have to prepare to pay a lot of money. The beauty of having an EV is that you can charge it at home. But in most cases, it will require installing some charging solutions. Tesla can change from a regular power socket but it is very slow charging.

So, you need to install a different power socket that can provide much more power or install Tesla Wall Connector. And in any case, you will have to pay an electrician for installation. And it also costs money. In my case, I paid $1300 because my power panel was on another side of the garage.

And just in case, if you don’t have a house and don’t have any means to charge your car while parking at home or work, then I would not recommend you buy an EV. It will create a lot of inconvenience for you because charging is not fast and going somewhere to change your Tesla and wait for 20-30 minutes is not fun. I had a friend who did it and I know what I’m talking about.

Next, if you would like to buy some Tesla accessories, they all will include “Tesla tax” and as a result, they cost a lot of money, even simple ones. Just be prepared for it. But I would like to state that I saw a lot of “must-have accessories for your Tesla” videos and so far I don’t feel that I need to buy any of them.

And lastly, you will probably have to change your electricity plan. EV consumes a lot of electricity and the consumption of your household will increase by a lot. Do your research ahead of time and switch in time to avoid higher charges.

As you can see, there are a lot of hassles. But if when you overcome it, you will join the wonderful world of electric vehicles and I would say, it was worth it. My Tesla is quiet and fast, and the music quality is much better than the “premium sound” in my Honda. Driving with one pedal is fun as well.

And there are many other benefits. EVs do not require service. Well, they do but it is much rarer and cheaper. There are a lot of petrol savings. According to my calculations, I will pay $55 instead of $300 per month to drive the same distance.

Of course, I will not able to make it cheaper than a traditional petrol vehicle. Right now, Tesla is a premium vehicle. But according to my calculations and after watching many videos online, I think it will be much cheaper than another premium vehicle of a similar price.

I hope it helps someone.