Review: Tesla Model 3

A few weeks ago, the Rivian was in the shop for some needed maintenance. Rivian hooked me up with a Model 3 to use as a rental via their Enterprise Rental Car partnership program. While I’ve had a mix of rental cars and Uber credits in the past, this is the first time I’ve been in the driver’s seat of a Tesla for an extended period of time.

Model 3 – the entry to Tesla

For those that don’t know the Model 3 is part of Tesla’s value line. As Tesla was building for a wider audience, the Model 3 reduced the price point from the significantly higher priced Model S and Model X. Think of the Model 3 as the everyday car that’s the easiest to buy into. Because of this price point, I was expecting the car to feel like the Chevrolet Volt. I was pleasantly surprised with the fit and finish of the vehicle likely due to its simplicity in construction.

The interior of the car is decidedly sparse. It’s just the steering wheel, the seats and belts, and the navigation screen. A lot of the controls that show up in a traditional car don’t exist inside of the Tesla. Also, the single display to the right of the steering wheel likely reduces cost as well. I never got used to the single screen to the right of the steering wheel.

I continually wanted to see my speed right behind the steering wheel as I’ve been conditioned to decades of driving. It always felt like effort to turn to the right rather than glancing my eyes down to see speed, and percent charge remaining.

The trunk storage was generous, but surprisingly, the frunk storage was anemic. The frunk storage would barely hold a single person’s groceries, making it feel very much like a marketing feature rather than a regularly used part of the car.

The mobile phone wireless charging underneath the car’s display was fantastic. The indentations in the charging pad kept the phone secure and charging the entire time I used it. I’m surprised they work in the Rivian, but they work every time in the Tesla.

Driving the Model 3

I enjoyed driving the Model 3. Acceleration was fantastic, however it wasn’t quite as quick as the Rivian and far beyond the Chevrolet Volt. What surprised me was how grippy the Model 3 was to the road. It was a fantastic, sporty car in the twisties, freeway onramps, and other tight or high-speed turns. The tires never let out so much as squeal and were not even close to breaking traction. Disclaimer: I only drove the car on warm, dry pavement. I’ve never owned a genuine sports car and while I wouldn’t classify the Model 3 as a sports car, it’s the sportiest thing I’ve ever driven long term, LOL.

Tesla and NACS Charging

Last year, Tesla reclassified their charging infrastructure into two categories: Tesla plugs and NACS plugs. The Tesla plugs are their older chargers that support only Tesla vehicles. The more modern NACS plug supports a wide variety of vehicles as long as they have the NACS adapter. My NACS adapter just shipped, but I didn’t have time to use it before the Rivian went in for service.

While I didn’t use any of the Tesla Superchargers, it was incredible to see how many Level 3 chargers there were in my area, outside of my area, and nationwide. Charging is a whole different ballgame for Tesla.

At home, I have a CCS charger. CCS was the standard every other electric vehicle used (aside from Nissan) before the NACS became standard. When I used the Tesla-provided CCS to Tesla adapter, the home charger was capped at 32 A even though the charger put out 40 A. I would hope the Tesla charger would run at 40 A, but I couldn’t confirm that during the time of my rental.

The Tesla is also significantly more efficient than the Rivian, getting about 3.5 mi/kWh versus the Rivian’s 2.1 mi/kWh. Of course, the Tesla is a significantly smaller and lighter car, which translates to its efficiency on the road. The Tesla gives significantly more information about the use of power (much like the Chevrolet Volt) to help me understand where power is going and how to optimize the efficiency of the vehicle.

Cars as Software

So much of a modern car’s features are controlled by software. UI design makes the difference between a svelte user experience and a lumbering, complicated chore to work through the vehicle’s UI. I give Rivian’s UI design team a lot of credit. Although I miss CarPlay dearly, they did a fantastic job keeping the menu system lean throughout the vehicle. In contrast, the Tesla UI felt clunky, layered, and cumbersome.

Let’s begin with the home screen:

When getting into the car, the home screen is clean and very much looks like a mashup of the Windows and Mac OS operating systems. The Tesla car in the bottom left functions very much like a start menu and all of the icons in the center feel like Mac OS. Media and navigation have their own pods on the home screen, and climate is one click away by pressing the current temperature of the vehicle.

When moving, the screen subdivides into a left pane and a right pane. The left pane contains mostly everything I want to see behind the steering wheel, and the right pane contains all of the vehicle’s app functionality. This combination started to make the UI feel clunky, as you had a single screen doing multiple things.

Yes, I know the Apple iPad works this way when it runs two apps simultaneously. When working on the iPad, that screen has my full attention. When in the Tesla, my eyes are on the road. Every time my eyes glanced at the vehicle’s screen, there was a small but consistent, deciphering tax. This tax felt suboptimal.

Where I begin to draw more issue is when the UI engineers add layering on top of the dual pane UI. This adds another layer of complexity to a glance-centered UI. Rivian got it right by having everything be full-screen without layers and dialog boxes.