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All the usual EV caveats apply though. Being able to charge at home is a must. Living in a cold weather state is probably not advised. Multi-state road trips are doable but not recommended; it's just too much of a hassle. Keep a gas car for that. And I still don't trust any driving assist more advanced than enhanced cruise control.
I have no emotional response to Musk so that doesn't color my opinion of the car.
That's going to be true for many car sales. People don't usually downgrade on cars, and there is real progress on car features over a typical period between buying cars. It'll be especially true if a brand like Tesla where most if their sales are coming from people who previously owned significantly cheaper cars.
I'll never buy a Tesla. A decade ago I was a huge fan.
Most likely option at the moment is the Hyundai ioniq 5 N ... not only a better drivers car than anything Tesla have ever put out, but I don't have to swallow the Musk emotional tax or have his smell lingering over the purchase ...
I'll ... never ... buy ... a ... Tesla.
The brand is over.
But every online comment and guide telling people to simply install a charger in their driveway assumes a certain amount of privilege, and I feel a lot of this discussion just assumes everyone has that privilege. I'm currently living in an apartment, my underground car park has no power runs anywhere near my car. Before that I lived in a rented house, and getting permission to install anything that required drilling a single hole would have been a non starter.
also, i drove in a tesla, and the number of cameras doing weird and confusing things with bad perspectives weirded me out. i don't know why, but it just felt wrong, and too much information on the screen too. like they tried to do every technical thing just because.
and if you don't think musk is a danger, idk what to tell you. either you support him or you just don't care about human life.
North America is .... Big. Like really big. So discussions around vehicle range might be dramatically differently depending on location.
Not saying you are wrong though just something to consider
What other cars you had before?
I have zero regrets about picking the EV at the last minute, and would 100% make this choice again. I assumed, like I imagine most people do, that having to wait while charging would be a deal breaker. I quickly learned to love the wait though. It makes long road trips so much more comfortable when you take a break every 6 hours that's long enough to go for a walk or take a nap.
I could employ that strategy with an ICE car, sure, but if I compare my ICE to my EV, the differences between the two in terms of comfort, functionality, and cost of operating put the EV way out ahead of the ICE.
Forget about Elon being and the company culture, there's practical reasons for me not wanting to own one of these even though I could afford one.
Living in cold Canadian province, there would be no upside to owning one of these. Just more hassle. If given one I'd sell it probably for less than the market value just so I can get a more practical hybrid or gas guzzler car.
That's not to say that there aren't other Teslas around here, but for me it just would not be worth the hassle.
Heck even the RAV-4 is a problem because it uses a heat pump instead of resistance heating, which means it can't heat the cabin in full EV mode when the temp is < 20F, so I force it into gas mode to stay warm on those days.
Not sure how you fix this problem, other than just continuing to improve energy density in batteries to where you don't think about it anymore.
It's like a bunch of people who are a fan of the color yellow got mad when you said you're not a fan of yellow.
Each has taken, uh, far more aggressive actions in their respective pasts.