[Cinematic Build-up Music]
i've owned this beautiful car for almost a year now
i'm not a journalist and this isn't a top-of-the-range press model
this is the Tesla Model 3 standard range plus and it's the car most people are
going to be able to afford so i thought it was about time that
people gave it review this is my Tesla Model 3
standard range plus review.
The first thing a lot of people ask me about this car is the cost, and yes it's
expensive, it's the most expensive car i've ever bought.
Before this i had a 9 year old Fiesta, to say this is an upgrade is an
understatement. In some parts of the UK you can buy a
two-bedroom house for the cost of this car.
Yes £40,000 is a lot to spend, but bear with me i'm in it for the long game
here, and this car probably works out cheaper
for the lifetime of the ownership than a lot of combustion models that are £5000 cheaper.
When was the last time you filled up with fuel, I haven't put petrol in this
for almost a year, admittedly it's because it's not got a
petrol tank, but seriously the electricity has cost me £25 to do
5,000 miles, those that are quick at maths between
you will work out that's less than half a penny a mile,
most new combustion engines will cost you between i don't know 10 or 20 pence
per mile, so take whatever you spend currently a
year on fuel divide it by 10 or 20 and that's your running costs,
but this is where you can be a savvy electric car owner, i've got solar panels
on my roof, i get free charging at work, and i know
where all the free spots are to charge around town,
and if you refer a friend you get a thousand free supercharger miles so even
long distances don't cost you any money, worst case scenario i charge overnight
on my 5p per kilowatt rate which works at one and a quarter
per mile so you could drive 10,000 miles and it cost you £125
then there's other savings like there's no tax on this vehicle servicing costs
are minimal there's not an engine, there's no oil filters or spark plugs to
change, even brake pads are meant to last 40,000 miles because of regen breaking
you barely touch the brake pedal, but i can't remember the last time i did,
actually i can it was this morning because that's the only way you can
start the car. Most cars in their first year will depreciate by about 20%
but tesla model 3s are expected to depreciate between 5% and 10%
and that's because slowly people are catching on that combustion engines are
yesterdays technology and no one would want them.
Why would you, running costs or more taxes are set to increase and more and
more cities are likely to introduce congestion charges to combat higher and
higher CO2 emission targets. You can probably tell i've had that
conversation a lot and tried to justify my expenditures quite often
but the point i'm trying to make is if you're buying a new car this car is
within your reach and will probably work out cheaper for you in the long run.
But it's not like you're not getting much for your money this car is packed
full of tech, and the spec is on par with most cars in
this price range and it's definitely not too bad to look
at either
i knew i'd spend my money well when i first parked it it's the only car i've
ever looked back on and smiled i wasn't that sold on the looks though
when i saw it on the website whether the number plate has made it better or not i
don't know i thought it looked like a fat sad frog
this is definitely a car you want to see in person the front end looks stunning
it has hints it's the future of the automobile without being too
concept and also screaming look at me i'm electric
and the back end well the back end just looks like a normal saloon which is
great because i wanted this car to fit in
i was too worried that vandals or jealous types might damage the vehicle
while i parked it and got away park this car front end in and i think
it looks like any other saloon the aero wheels are a little
controversial and they're a bit like marmite you either hate them or love
them if you take these off because they are
only plastic hubcaps you reveal black alloys underneath
but you do sacrifice about 10 of range so for that reason i've left them on
personally i don't mind the appearance too much and this is the only bit that
kind of shouts out i'm a bit of a concept electric car
the tyres are going to be a bit more expensive to replace because they're
mitchell in sport but they've also got special foam inside
that tries to reduce the road noise which means punctual repair kits don't
work i'm in the process of buying a space saver tire for that reason and i'm
going to keep it in the boot on long journeys
if you haven't already go into a showroom because i think this is a car
you need to appreciate in person i've captured a lot of people looking at
this car curiously on one of the features known as sentry mode
which uses the autopilot cameras to record suspicious activity all around
your car it also uses those four cameras to
record dash cam footage while you're driving on an sd card
so in the event of an accident you have everything recorded which is highly
likely considering how fast this car goes
this has a naught to 60 of around five seconds top speed of 120 mile an hour
and at no point have i ever felt like it's struggling to get there
not that i've done 120 mile an hour but at the top speed on motorways at 70
miles an hour it feels like it's got a lot more to give
the range on the car is rated at around 260 miles
but the faster and more erratic you drive the lower range you're gonna get
in winter you can expect around 200 miles what they don't tell you though is
ideally you should keep your electric car charged between 20 and 80 to keep
longevity in the battery so in real terms that means you're going
to go about 120 to 140 miles without a charge
which on long journeys is absolutely
fine it's the shorter journeys around town
that you eat into charge because you'll use all that energy to heat the cabin up
for only to be lost 15 minutes later the best way to keep warm in winter is
actually use the heated seats rather than the air heater but in the
tesla model 3 standard range plus you don't get reheat seats as standard
so to keep passengers warm in the winter you're going to have to use the air
heater but that's the great thing about tesla
they've already built the reheat seats into the car because it saves on
production costs so for 300 pounds i could click on my
app and have reheated seats in a matter of minutes
the rule of thumb i've come to use when it comes to energy is for every two
miles you use about one percent charge so if you're doing a journey of 10 miles
there and back you're going to use 10 remember that's in winter though and in
summer when using the air conditioning which is far less energy intensive
you'll get better range the other issue i've got with driving around town is the
size it's just a bit too big for what i need
long runs to the beach or trips to the airport this car has been great for five
mates but i don't do that very often so a
smaller car would suit me if you do have a large family lots of
friends say there's plenty of leg room here in the back
and because there's no drive shaft the middle person can actually sit with
their feet flat on the floor there's also plenty of headroom thanks
to the panoramic roof which comes as standard
i'm five foot ten and even with this cliff i'm not touching the ceiling
me and two mate's been snowboarding recently and we had a lot of luggage and
it all fitted in the boot i missed the hatchback a little because
the access to the boot is a bit easier but the seats fold down and there's
plenty of boot space i can't talk about the boot space
without talking about the front but i feel it's a little bit gimmicky
it keeps your boot tidy by putting all your rarely used items in here but other
than that i don't really use it in winter you could put beers in it to
chill on the way to a party or maybe keep your groceries cool on the way home
the other thing is the bonnet is very flimsy and tesla gave you very strict
instructions to place two hands here and gently press
which makes me think tesla hq have put their hands through the bonnet in the
past i've talked a lot so far but haven't
mentioned what it's like to drive as i said i'm not a car journalist but
to me it's absolutely fine i've driven a variety of other
combustion models similar to this and maybe their handling is slightly
better but then they were four wheel drive versions
and the standard range plus is only a rear wheel drive if you were to get the
long range of performance they come as four wheel drive as standard
i just don't feel as confident with this car throwing it into difficult
situations having said that i haven't really had any difficult situations for
it to handle i just anticipate it might be a bit more
twitchy in the rain and snow i've done a few long journeys in this
car it's got comfortable seats and lumber support a relaxed driving
position and with the autopilot features it makes
driving a breeze with electric cars the talk is instant
and i don't get bored of leaving combustion cars behind at the line
because they're just not expecting it if i touch the accelerator it just flies
away and to be honest i drive most of the
time in chill mode because if i forget i'm in an electric car and accidentally
touch the pedal i almost break my neck
i've now got quite a headache because i redid that shot too many times just
because it was fun
and that's what i'd say about electric cars they're just quite fun to drive
whenever you want you can just put your foot down
and they just fly away and it's not like you're going to be using loads of fuel
doing it it's electricity which is cheap remember this is the slow version and
it's not that far behind the racy combustion models that use a letter from
the latter part of the alphabet try saying that when you've had a few
beverages but seriously when you need not to 60 in five seconds anyway i
barely use it i drive around in chill mode all the time
this car is plenty fast enough for the average person
i love the fact there's no dashboard and all i have is the open mode ahead of me
the center console has all the information you need and you can clearly
see the speed limit when you need to yes there's no buttons around the car
but again i like that it keeps the car really clean
it's got an improved voice control so you can generally tell the car to do
whatever you want anyway and yes you have to go into the settings
to change the air vents but how often do you change your events anyway
don't forget this car has been built to be a robo taxi so by removing all the
buttons they have complete control about what potential customers might use in
the future through the console if you hadn't
already guessed it is a very tech driven car
and that's why legacy automakers are struggling to catch up
tesla are doing to car manufacturers what apple did to nokia and if you don't
know who nokia is my point exactly if you like tech though just stop
watching this video go and put on your futuristic ar glasses and order this car
right now because you're going to love it
since buying this car i've had several improvements none of which i've had to
pay for like a phone you get over-the-air
software updates so since i've bought this car i've had netflix added
youtube improved auto wipers lane markings added to driver visualization
stop signs traffic lights improve cruise control and more games added did i
mention it plays games you can plug your playstation 4 or xbox
controller in it's even got its own version of mario kart
but this can sometimes lead to you charging longer than you have to if your
latest netflix series ends on a massive hook you're going to watch the next
episode and if it doesn't have something it
probably will have in the future or tweet elon musk and he'll add it for you
that's why we've got a joe mode joe didn't like the bings and the bongs
waking his kids up in the back tweeted elon musk he turned the volume
down or at least gave you the option to through joe mode
name another car manufacturer you can tweet the ceo and they'll add features
to your car for free it all sounds too good to be true right
there are a few quality issues with the paint like for example
when i got it there was lots of scratches around but in tesla's defense
they did actually rectify them about four weeks later and i got a courtesy
car while they did it i have also got a paint issue with the
bumper which i'm hoping tesla are going to sort out for me next week
so the paint issues do leave me with a bit of anxiety but equally i could pump
my car in a car park and someone could run their door into it at any time
i think if i was to do it again i would get the tesla model 3 long range which
does around 350 miles but this isn't for the long journeys
this is for the shorter trip so i charge less in winter
because as i said you use a lot more energy when you're just turning the
heater on for a quick 15 minute drive with the long range
version you get four wheel drive as standard as well
and i just think that will give you a little bit more confidence in the
tougher weather conditions i'm also not a big fan of the door
handles not from my point of view because i got used to them very quickly
it's more for telling your passengers you find they can't get into your car
and when they come to get out they don't know what button to press and quite
often end up winding the window down but these are the only things and as i
said i'm more than happy with this car so what the best bit is about owning a
tesla model 3. well one of the things i really like is the fact that i can walk
out my house without a key my phone is the key and it's a seamless
experience i walk up to the car it unlocks i walk away it locks itself
again and i know some people are going to say
what if you lose your phone when i say what if you lose your car key
and you do get a car key anyway it's in the form of like a credit card that just
fits in your wallet i do take it with me on long journeys
but in the whole year i've had this car i've not had any issues with my phone
there's also the tranquil driving it gives you
to pull away in silence is brilliant and doesn't get old
i've started to listen to classical music just because it makes it all more
majestic
i'm a complete electric convert and not had any regrets about spending 40 000
pounds on this car and it continues to exceed expectations
with more and more software updates if i have convinced you to get one don't
forget to use my referral code to get 1000 free supercharger miles
and i get them as well so we can be supercharger friends
this review really doesn't do this card justice it's got loads of features but
i've had to cut them out to keep the video short
and that's one of the main reasons i've started this channel to go in depth with
all the different features this car has and the new ones it gets in the future
so if there's anything you'd like me to look at or do write in the comments
below and i'll take the most popular and start making those videos similarly if
i've not answered something and you've got a question
ask me and i'll try my best to answer it for you but mainly don't forget to
subscribe otherwise you're going to miss all those fantastic videos that i'm
going to produce and if you like this review give it a
thumbs up because it's always nice to know what content you like
and what you don't whether you buy a tesla model 3 or not what i would say is
switch to electric as soon as possible it's not been any inconvenience to my
life at all and actually made driving more pleasurable
hopefully see you in the electric future