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?
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.