Tesla Model 3 Invaded My Neighborhood – But It’s Bigger Than That (GM Take Note)

I wonder what will happen with the introduction of the VW ID3. The Up! is now electric-only too.

Here in the UK (Midlands) I see a few Teslas, very few Leafs, even fewer Zoes and the odd i3 (which you can spot from the rubberband-width wheels).

I see charging bays (normally 2 bays) in a car park of 100+ spaces, so I do not think the infrastructure is in place to support electric vehicles, nor the mindset that people would be happy to hang around for 1 hour waiting for their car to charge. They/we are too stuck on the immediate nature of the internal combustion engine and fuel refilling.

But the Tesla is still extremely expensive compared to most "little" cars in my UK neighbourhood (VW Up!, Toyota Yaris etc.)

I see many secondhand cars here and can't understand how the 100,000 mile warranty on batteries (eg the 100,000 miles quoted by the VW ID3) will ever compete with secondhand combustion engine vehicles. For a VW Golf, a 200,000+ mile limit is "normal". I can't see how the removal of the floor to replace the batteries will ever work in practice, unless we're making all these cars with a short-sighted view of recycling?

A Tesla Model 3 is a huge car in Europe. In many older cities, it simply won't fit.

We need small electric runabouts. It seems like they only exist in China though.

It's not a Matter of emotions, but where's the infrastructure, outside big cities? If you want to do a trip, you're almost in the pain and stress mode on where you can charge your vehicle. And charges take too much time at the moment.

Imagine going on a EV trip from South of Spain to South of Italy. You are almost doomed

My brother bought a Leaf and loved the thing so much that he drove it over his BMW. He's now getting a Model 3 because Nissan has nothing else in its stable that's above the Leaf.

I drive long distances in my model 3. 1000 mile road trips throughout the Midwest. I have already seen some changes. There are several traditional gas stations that are also installing chargers and superchargers. These tend to have a restaurant attached. Works incredibly well for my needs. These new charging speeds can pretty much fill my battery to 80% in 20-25 minutes. Perfect for a bite to eat and a bathroom break.

I suspect more and more gas stations will switch over when it more vehicles get on the road that need electrons over gas.

Besides Tesla’s network there are quite a few places that have chargers. More and more businesses and hotels are installing them.

What will happen is that all EV manufacturers will move to a common charging standard and that will make more chargers available for EV drivers. CCS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_Charging_System) is the obvious candidate for that.

This was taken at the end of Thanksgiving weekend and isn't representative of typical supercharger stations.

What you are seeing as bad, thousands of business owners are going to see as a huge, huge opportunity to make money.

Except that the Model 3s don't fall out of your ears :)