Went on business travel to CA this month and decided to try driving a Tesla to see what it was like. Big mistake… coming home to my civic is painful. Coworkers told me a lot of my gripes like lack of buttons wear off after a month or so. I was already all in on electric for when my car eventually died but god, idk how long I will be able to stay ICE. Anyone else have similar experiences on test drives?
I have three electric and one ICE. No one wants to drive the ICE. It’s loud and not near as smooth. I never thought I’d notice so much but here we are.
My co-worker explained how she had to drive her parents BMW SUV when they stayed over to babysit her daughters for the holiday break last year. The family’s Tesla was being used by the husband for a work trip but she figured that her parents BMW would do nicely (plus, it’s a BMW, so it must be fancy!.. Right?..)
Well long story short she told me that driving the car for less than a weekend more or less cemented her position on EVs for the rest of her life.
She had forgotten just how loud ICEs were (despite the BMW being considered quiet by normal ICE standards), and realized just how inefficient they were at driving. She missed regenerative braking, the instant torque, the smoothness of the driving, and the technology even basic EVs have over ICEs. While this BMW had decent software, it didn’t hold a candle compared to what she was now used to. Plus, she had forgotten just how expensive gas was, and ended up spending more money refueling for that week than months worth of charging. Even using a supercharger exclusively would’ve been far cheaper according to her.
She told me that she’ll never go back to an ICE.
three new vehicles and one old
I keep telling people that since I switch to Electric I feel less tired when driving long distances. I never noticed before how much engine noise was so oppressive on my energy levels.
That is true, however not all ICE suffer from this. I’ve got a 2015 Model S and before that a 2006 Lexus LS430.
The Lexus powertrain was 2nd to none in the luxury car world. Dead silent and smooth as butter.
The Japanese Mercedes
Most people who complain about engine noise seem to be coming from broken down old beaters or very cheap economy cars. I mean, even a Toyota Camry from a few years ago is pretty quiet (at least the V6). At highway speed, your engine has to be in pretty bad shape if you can hear it over the wind and road noise.
Autopilot also helps with driving fatigue.
I got an inexpensive old Fiat 500e for my daughter to use and although it’s a really cute little short range EV, I really miss Autopilot when driving it.
The Autopilot is huge help. Even the latest Toyota Safety Sense is pretty darn good. I rented a 2021 Prius for a month and it was excellent on long boring stretches of highway. It was about 80% as good as my 2015 Model S with AP1.
It really is a game changer, much like standard active cruise control was when that became widely introduced. Remember the old days of having to adjust the speed with the button or turning it off every time you came up on another car?
Last long trip was 11 hours and I did it myself and got there with no fatigue. The other times in gas cars I would do 5-6 hours and have to swap with my wife because I was so tired. Even just the micro managing constantly of lane corrections really uses a lot of energy.
Yep I sure do remember those days. Don’t miss them at all!
Last winter I drove my Model S from Boston to Tampa. 90% of the drive was on Autopilot. I arrived in 2 days feeling refreshed. I stopped every 3 hours for 30-40 minutes for charge/rest too.
Even without using AP?
The current gen 500e has really good lane centering/adaptive cruise. In most highway driving situations it’s actually better than my Model Y. You don’t need to manually reactivate lane keep after lane changes in the Fiat.
Sadly not available in the USA yet.
I got rid of my truck for a M3 for this exact reason and driving has become… tolerable.