We’re EV experts – 10 things we hate about Tesla and why Elon’s electric car firm needs to do better
EV experts have revealed the ten things they hate about Tesla and why Elon’s electric car firm needs to improve and do better for its customers.
The electric car specialists claim that the worst aspect of owning a Tesla is the poor build quality, with stories still appearing of wonky panels, patchy paintwork and dodgy welding.
Mike Askew and his colleagues at electrifying.com also explained other reasons why they don’t feel the U.S. firm is perhaps quite as good as it would have you believe.
Limited choice
They explained: “Despite us living in a world where we can choose between four different milks for our take away coffee, Tesla only allows you to choose from five colours: white, grey, black, blue and red. Which is hardly the broadest palette in the world.
“If you do want to go for the red, Tesla will add £2,100 to the price, which is £500 more than even Porsche charges for its fancy paint shades. “
Full self driving
They added: “As you probably know, Tesla is obsessed with the idea of self-driving and is sinking billions of dollars into turning you, the driver, into a passenger.
“Current European law means that fully self-driving systems can’t be used on public roads, but you can order what Tesla calls Enhanced Autopilot or the misleadingly titled Full Self-Driving capability. Which will set you back nearly £7,000. “
Insurance
They explained: “If you own a Tesla, you’ll know already that the cost of insuring it can be eye-wateringly high.
“The Model Y sits in Group 50 – which is the highest possible. To put that into perspective, a Porsche 911 sits in Group 46 while a Hyundai IONIQ 5 Ultimate with roughly the same performance as this Model Y sits in Group 39.”
Everything on screen
The experts continued: “If you’ve never been in a Tesla before, you’ll notice that there’s a distinct lack of buttons. Where a normal car will have switches for the heating and the air-con, Tesla does everything via a touchscreen.
“Now that’s fine for most things that you adjust once and leave – like the mirrors for example.
“But for other functions that you use regularly, it’s not so great. There’s no wiper stalk, for example. Instead of being a normal switch where you can change the speed of the wipers, it’s just a push button that basically gives you a one-off wash and wipe.
“If you want to adjust speed, you need to go into the touchscreen. That’s two locations just to change the wipers, which is nuts.”
Weight Watcher
They said: “This is quite cheeky and something Tesla has got away with for years. If you look at the vehicle’s info plate on the door frame, it tells you that the maximum payload of the car. In the case of the Model 3 we had recently, that means if you put any more than 433kg into the car, you’ll be exceeding its legal maximum weight.
“The average adult man in the UK is 84kg. So if you had five blokes in the car, you’d only be able to take 13 kilos of luggage, before you were breaking the law.”
Other problems that the electrifying.com team found is that Tesla chargers are not always long enough to reach the charging ports, while the interior design of the car will be too simple for some tastes.
Also, there are too many Teslas on the roads and most are white with the same wheels.
Lastly, Mike and his team think that there are too many Tesla fanatics and revealed that every time they write about a car, people make a comment about how Tesla has done it better.
And, no-one likes a show off.