Someone Else's Problem: The wait was long enough: leviathan's Tesla Model 3 Performance

This kind of thing is why I don't think electric cars are quite there yet. Either have enough spaces or allow a grace period because nobody is going to stand in the corner of a parking lot for their lunch. Shopping centers, ok fine. I don't think putting chargers in the places they do is a good longterm solution. I think it will become a problem like Waze did for some towns with traffic building up in places people live instead of the main roads that are there for the purpose of getting through, likewise you'll eventually get a bunch of people charging their cars in weird places. I mean, how nice would it be to have people refueling their ICE cars in a park or just around the corner from where you live/eat/work? It just seems bone-headed with how they're being installed.
For Tesla, the "idle fee" only applies if the Supercharger lot is more than 50 % full.
 
I assume this will be the same people that run out of fuel.



This kind of thing is why I don't think electric cars are quite there yet. Either have enough spaces or allow a grace period because nobody is going to stand in the corner of a parking lot for their lunch. Shopping centers, ok fine. I don't think putting chargers in the places they do is a good longterm solution. I think it will become a problem like Waze did for some towns with traffic building up in places people live instead of the main roads that are there for the purpose of getting through, likewise you'll eventually get a bunch of people charging their cars in weird places. I mean, how nice would it be to have people refueling their ICE cars in a park or just around the corner from where you live/eat/work? It just seems bone-headed with how they're being installed.


There are tons of examples of ICE cars being refueled near where people live, eat, and work. I don't know where they put fuel stations where you live, but they tend to be near where people are, and go.
 
There are tons of examples of ICE cars being refueled near where people live, eat, and work. I don't know where they put fuel stations where you live, but they tend to be near where people are, and go.

Yes, but they’re dedicated stations and not just a random parking spot.
 
I see a situation in the future, perhaps 20 years, where literally every parking space has a charging point - work, store, multiplex, bowling alley etc. One integrated or cross-provider network, and each car has a unique serial number - you park, plug in, do what you need/want to do and your bank is billed for the parking time and the charge provided. It's just like minutes and data on a cell phone plan. You might even pay a monthly subscription to cover normal usage with top-ups deducted as required on a pro-rata basis.

That 20 year estimate is also a reasonable time scale for ramping up renewables to cover the extra capacity required in the grid. The sun provides, on a daily basis, more energy than we could possibly ever need; the issue is how to harness enough of it and get it to where it needs to be. The only reason why we've relied on combustible and fossil fuels for so long is because they are, by comparison, convenient and much easier to exploit.
 
Yes, but they’re dedicated stations and not just a random parking spot.
So are the superchargers and other HPCs, where blocking charges apply. They are not intended as parking - only short-term, toilet break or a coffee is ok; full-on lunch with a group is stretching it. If I'm parking for an extended period, I choose a spot with a slower charger without blocking charges where the car can sit as long as necessary.
 
We are still evolving with charging stations and BEVs. Soon there will be stations of various charging capabilities where they are most needed. So Super Chargers will be near heavily traveled areas, there will be more mid level chargers at, or near places where you will tend to be for an hour or more(shopping, food, mvie, etc.).
 
I see a situation in the future, perhaps 20 years, where literally every parking space has a charging point - work, store, multiplex, bowling alley etc. One integrated or cross-provider network, and each car has a unique serial number - you park, plug in, do what you need/want to do and your bank is billed for the parking time and the charge provided. It's just like minutes and data on a cell phone plan. You might even pay a monthly subscription to cover normal usage with top-ups deducted as required on a pro-rata basis.

That 20 year estimate is also a reasonable time scale for ramping up renewables to cover the extra capacity required in the grid. The sun provides, on a daily basis, more energy than we could possibly ever need; the issue is how to harness enough of it and get it to where it needs to be. The only reason why we've relied on combustible and fossil fuels for so long is because they are, by comparison, convenient and much easier to exploit.

It all depends. Let‘s not forget that most parked for 80-90% of the time. We just installed a whole bunch of chargers at work, so I don’t really need to charge at home. As in, ever.

I know, once we have tons more EVs on the road this will become a problem, but for now and the years to come, I don’t see the problem.

Fast chargers are only to be used when doing long journeys, and as such, won’t be used for more than 30 minutes
 
Getting back on topic of the actual car for a moment :) Small update on the current goings on. There's basically two things.


Thing one: been to a driver's safety course organized by a coworker for his Tesla Youtube channel viewers and colleagues. Was quite fun, and an interesting comparison to my previous cars. The guy is going to make a video about the course, which I'll post here in due course.

From all my previous cars, the A5 comes closest in terms of how the felt overall - no surprise here, since it's most similar: rather heavy, AWD, large wheels with low profile sporty tires, electric power steering. Tesla's stability control is less aggressive than most other cars (noted by myself, a bunch of others and the attending instructor), but does the job when it counts. Traction control is very good, as expected from electric motors on both axles. Interesting effects could be seen when attempting consistent repetitions of various exercises using cruise control - the damn thing picked up road markings and water jets as obstacles and reduced speed when going into a corner on the skid pad, and tried to steer itself ("lane departure correction") :D Overall learned a couple things, and feel decently prepared for how it'll handle on snow and ice in the winter.


Thing two: winter tires! This has been a damn long story, mainly because of German TÜV and their insistence on Ordnung. Can be summarized something like this:
  • Tesla only offers 20" wheels for the Performance at a stupid price for an extra set, so I didn't get any winter wheels with the car.
  • Third party 19" and even 18" rims that fit over the Performance brakes exist and people use them all over the place, so I intended to do the same.
  • German TÜV says "NEIN!" because the only factory option is 20", and no other sizes are listed in the COC document.
  • Some manufacturers promise 19" and 18" with an ABE (permit) for the Performance, meaning TÜV would allow to mount them. Info comes direct from the manufacturer that such a permit is "in the works and almost finished", so I ordered a set of nice 19" wheels with Nokian WR A4 tires at a decent(-ish) price point.
  • Wheels are almost shipped when it turns out the TÜV still says "NEIN!" and the ABE is issued in a way that prevents the rims from being used on the Performance variant - which was the whole fucking point.
  • Einzeleintragung (extra examination and addendum to my specific car's papers by a local TÜV service center) remains an option, but costs money and can be made invalid later on. Plus, the leasing company doesn't exactly love the idea of "custom parts" (non-ABE wheels...) being mounted on their vehicle and the papers modified.
  • I gave up, canceled the 19" and bought a set of Conti TS 860S tires in 235/35 R20 to be mounted on the original wheels the car came with. They are way expensive, and swapping the tires on the same rims twice a year will also add up in cost over the car's lifetime - but this seems to be the only sane option right now.
Result: I finally have winter tires, about a week after local temperatures dropped below the "7°C daily average" break point. Already started noticing that the PS4S ride much harder in the cold, and grip is noticeably worse than in the summer. Only had the Contis for a day so far, but they already seem to ride smoother and a little quieter - good signs. I also had good experience with older TS860 Contis on my C-class, so I hope these will do a decent job for the Tesla.

By the way, none of this hubbub would've been necessary, had I not gotten the Performance... Model 3 Long Range can use 19" and 18", and tons of reasonably priced aftermarket wheels with proper ABEs are available for it. But then I wouldn't have had the Performance, so there's that. Eh.
 
The TUV is to extreme. The wheels will either fit or they won't.

 
Wheels seems to be the one area where for whatever reason TÜV engineers are getting super anal - For example, for older wheels bought used (say to fit on your sporty Escort) even if they once fitted to the car, TÜV will want to see the ABE. So if you bought the set without one and the manufacturer is defunct or just and asshole, good luck trawling owner's forums for a copy to get your news wheels legal.
 
Did you provide the drone shots?
No, the video editor had a Mavic of his own, and a couple GoPros that he stuck on various cars. I thought about bringing the racing drone, but it would've been a ton of extra hassle, and the area wasn't really large enough to do any interesting flying in the first place.
 
So, not much happening during the winter. The car's a reliable daily, recharged 1-2 times a week at work and occasionally at random public chargers whenever I get the chance. Consumption is a bit higher in the cold, as expected - the heater is really power hungry, and so is the drivetrain when the battery has been sitting cold for a while. Realistic winter range on a single charge is somewhere around 325-350km, down from ~400 in the summer.

------------------

I've had some downtime during the winter holidays, and sat down for some personal projects. One of them was a smart mirror module for the Tesla, using the tracking/API scraping software that I run as a data source:

IMG_0252.jpg

Closer look at the module with some test data rendered:
graphic_m3.png


The module was already pre-existing, I randomly found it on Github: https://github.com/denverquane/MMM-Teslamate. However, the way they built the data display wasn't what I wanted - a simple table view listing some parameters. So this being open source, I sat down and built my own version, that you can see above.

The design is based on the Tesla phone app, and it's intended to show at a glance the cornerstone info about the car when I look at my mirror, about to leave home. The car picture is taken from the Tesla image compositor service that's used by their website and app, so in theory it could show any Model S/X/3/Y with a color and wheels of the user's choice.

In the end l liked it enough to fiddle with the code to make it decently configurable, and submit a pull request to the original plugin, so anybody out there could use the same thing. Hooray for open source, and people actively maintaining their projects :)
 
The design is based on the Tesla phone app, and it's intended to show at a glance the cornerstone info about the car when I look at my mirror, about to leave home. The car picture is taken from the Tesla image compositor service that's used by their website and app, so in theory it could show any Model S/X/3/Y with a color and wheels of the user's choice.

you spelled sexy wrong :p

but that is one awesome mirror!
you made that from scratch? or did you just buy a tablet with shiny front panel?
 
but that is one awesome mirror!
you made that from scratch? or did you just buy a tablet with shiny front panel?
Thanks! It's all scratch built, with a de-bezeled used 27" screen from eBay with a VESA wall mount, a Raspberry Pi and a custom-cut pane of spy glass (the most expensive part of the project). I'm still planning to make a proper frame for it some time - for now the glass is literally taped onto the screen. Although I don't think it looks half bad :) Software is MagicMirror² with a bunch of modules, most of them customized by myself in some way.
 
Thanks! It's all scratch built, with a de-bezeled used 27" screen from eBay with a VESA wall mount, a Raspberry Pi and a custom-cut pane of spy glass (the most expensive part of the project). I'm still planning to make a proper frame for it some time - for now the glass is literally taped onto the screen. Although I don't think it looks half bad :) Software is MagicMirror² with a bunch of modules, most of them customized by myself in some way.
Duuuude can you make a thread in tech section on how you did it?
 
Top