Tesla Model 3 and Model Y Waiting Room and Delivery Queries (No referral links)

Think the delivery charges are saucy enough, so the Model Y is in the middle between the two EV6 prices. It's much bigger though, e.g. boot space of 854L vs 490L, nearly twice as big

@blobert - "Even though the Model Y should be quite a bit more efficient than the Kia I can't see it making up for 22kw more battery."

Yes it can. Not so much in the WLTP figures - though these are a good indicator for efficiency in general. The party trick the Teslas have is not just having very good efficiency, but it is their aerodynamics. The Model Y has a Cd of 0.23 (extremely good) where most of the competition has a Cd of around 0.28 (poor), even the slick looking Kia EV6

This makes a huge difference in range at motorway speeds. The WLTP cycle goes up to 120km/h, but only once and only briefly. So it is a poor measure for real life motorway range. And let's be honest, the only time that range counts is on longer motorway trips, like your holiday in France

Also the car will tell you at what Superchargers to stop along your route and how long these stops will take and it will prepare the battery en route to the superchargers, so it can charge in the fastest possible way. Tesla superchargers are also very reliable, you don't need a dongle, a phone app or a payment method and most have plenty of charging bays so zero or very little waiting time

A Tesla, even one with the smallest battery of them all, can easily do a long distance trip quicker than other EVs with much bigger batteries for above reasons

Thanks for that.

I ran the figures through ABRP, they don't seem to have the RWD Model Y as it's new so I used a SR Model 3 with bigger wheels, even still it's got about 490km in range vs 455 of the Model Y so the Model Y will be worse in real life.

ABRP says it will take 23hr 45min in the Tesla with 11 stops, with about 3hrs 30 of charging. Tesla route planner has about the same amount of charging but spread over 6 very long stops of 50 to 70 mins a go.

ABRP says it will take 22hr 10mins in the Kia EV6 (using all Ionity chargers) with 8 stops and 2hrs 40 of charging in total.

Now when I did this trip from Dublin to Nice in real life this summer as I say I drove faster 140kmph as I believe with the Kias really fast charging it made sense to do so. And again here I think this would give the Kia the edge in terms of total charge time vs the above. The SR Teslas seem to only charge up to 170kw where the Kia will do up to 235kw (I saw it hit up to 225kw on the Ionity chargers). I'm only doing this in the summer time and so the Kia really did hit advertised charging speeds this summer on the trip.

I'm also going to be doing this trip with a dog so the Kia route with Ionity fits the bill better in that it's stopping every 2-3 hrs for 20 mins which is good for a quick walk/wee for the dog. The Tesla very long stops or loads of brief stops don't seem ideal.

That said as you mentioned the Supercharging might swing it a bit. On the trip over we had some faffing about with non Ionity chargers that delayed us by an hour+ We also had to wait at a busy Ionity charger for a while. That said on the way back we used just Ionity and there were no hitches/delays.

I've booked a test drive of the Model Y to see in any case. As I say I prefer it's bigger space to the EV6, especially boot though I can't help but feel it is a slight downgrade in terms of range and this might matter on my big road trips (it wont matter at all going around Ireland)

@unkel How do you see Tesla resale values holding up? What does appeal is that I could probably sell my EV6 now for quite a bit more than I paid for it due to price increases/lack of demand this one is €57,000 and mine has half the mileage at only 6,000km

So if I could pocket about 4-5k difference here, buy the Model Y and either keep it for a while if I like it or later sell it trade up to the Kia EV9 if I need more space/range, it is appealing. You had mentioned the grant might be on the way out which would probably help the Tesla's resale value and the EV9 will be over the grant limit so that won't affect its price. So it might be worth doing on that basis. I also like swapping cars/trying new ones out!

Is the Tesla deposit in any way refundable? Just thinking if I put the Kia EV6 up for sale and can't sell it at the higher price I'd probably want to pull out of the Tesla plan!

Thanks again

@blobert - a few things I'd like to comment on:

• you already had some issues. And no doubt some stress and waiting with Ionity and other chargers. No need for that with Teslas. And next year it will likely be busier, the number of EVs being sold is going up very quickly now. That said, you know your own car well and you were able to get the most out of its very fast charging. Fair play on that!
• As for price, yeah try and sell your current car for more than you paid for it (before it will hit some depreciation), take the €5k subsidy and the Model Y is fairly shielded from inflation. I'm doing the same myself.
• Tesla deposit is refundable under EU distance selling laws. @Gumbo has commented on it here in detail and has got other people to get their refunds back, sometimes after many months

Thanks again,

Doing test drive tmw and if I like it I'll place an order.

If nothing else I'd be curious to see how much quicker/slower the same trip would be next summer with the Tesla. They have opened up their network to other cars in France, I meant to use one of their Superchargers on the route back with the EV6 but didn't in the end, so I'm not sure if that will mean they get a lot busier.

Certainly I did find the Ionity and more so non Ionity experience a bit stressful so there would be a plus to having a more straightforward charging network on the way. That's one aspect of long range driving with an EV that's still a fair bit worse than ICE cars, you generally don't have to worry about whether the petrol pump will work when you get there!

Thanks again for the input and if anyone is looking for a very low mileage EV6 let me know:)

Take what you are offered. Year is no longer as important as it once was..condition, demand milage (not sure what right word in Km's is) are more important in determining resale and as @Gumbo has said you may not be able to determine when you might get offered another .

At the end of the day only you can decide

For some, bigger might not appeal but nobody in their right mind would buy the current Model 3 considering how you get so much more spec on the Model Y. Model 3 should have better range but the difference is probably negligible.

Only colour red pushes Model 3 RWD above SEAI grant, all other colours qualify unless you add upgraded features

Aside from being bigger and having a rear hatch, what are the other spec differences with RWD 3 vs Y?

To further add, MY also has a bioweapon hepa filter, footwell lights and internal door pocket lights and rear passenger door emergency release latch which the M3 RWD doesn't have. On the pros of M3 RWD - better handling, more efficient, longer range, nicer AERO wheel covers and I do think it looks better. Otherwise very similar - I think size and the range/efficiency are the main considerations between the two. Both are amazing cars.

Constant changes and improvements are part & parcel of Tesla. It's frustrating and hard to keep up, but surely it's the best way? Rather than the incumbent way, find something that's bad and say, ah well shure we will fix that for the facelift version in 3-4 years time?

I'm sure some people test drove the early RHD Model 3 from Sandyford on the 20" wheels and thought it was too harsh. Like every single motoring journo in Europe test drove the Dutch reg one (is it still parked round the back in Sandyford?) and all came to the same conclusion. It's a pity we can't test drive the same setup car as the one we ordering now, but it will be very different and much improved.