Tesla Model 3

This is everything I would have wanted to know on Day one of owning a Tesla Model 3. It also includes lots of useful information for a Model 3 owner.

On August 25 I embarked on a road trip from the Bay Area to Yellowstone. About 1000 miles, this is my experience with the Model 3:

  1. Supercharger locations are not necessarily where the navigation directs you to. Elko Nevada, Jackson Wyoming are two examples I ran into. If this happens, don’t panic. Just drive or walk around in a 3 block radius. The charger will be in a logical place.
  2. Some superchargers don’t charge that fast, like 100 mph instead of 300-490 mph, so switch to a different charger at the same station. Some are just not working properly and this is independent of how many people are charging.
  3. Some superchargers share their parking spaces with the surrounding businesses but of course this would really suck if you can’t charge.
  4. Some Chargepoint chargers are free. Jackson Wy has free charging at all the Chargepoint chargers. You get 25mph of charge from them. Class 2.
  5. Some Chargepoint chargers do not charge a Tesla though I’ve seen the same one I couldn’t get to work charge a Volt just fine.
  6. RV parks have 30 and 50 amp plugs for an RV. In small cities, they may let you sleep in your car and or pitch a tent and charge in an RV space if they have the space. I slept for $25 in Elko, Nevada and charged up for free from empty! In larger cities, the fee can be $100 or more for an RV spot so it’s really not worth it.
  7. Tesla Customer Support can be absolutely terrible.

Problems

  1. LCD went crazy. The GPS would zoom in and out and wasn’t in the proper location. The buttons wouldn’t respond properly. The way to resolve is to pull over when it is safe and reboot the car. See below for how to reboot.
  2. In 1000 miles of driving, I’ve had a loud alarm sound 3 times while I was driving and I have no idea what it was. One time the car drifted out of my lane but I pulled it back in. Scary. I wonder if this was the LDW, but I had turned it off before it happened so…
  3. The Steering Wheel shakes from 30-40mph for a brief few seconds and then goes away. This is actually Lane Departure Warning. Yes, it will activate even when you use your turn signal though it shouldn’t. Just turn it off and all will be fine.
  4. The Bluetooth connection between my phone and car gets disrupted often so I have to turn it off and on on my iPhone. One time it required doing this 3 times and rebooting the car twice to get it to work. This delayed me leaving for about 5-7 minutes.
  5. The parking brake is automatically engaged when you shift to Park and disengaged when you shift to Drive. Unfortunately, the LCD indicates the parking brake is still engaged for a block or more of driving. Don’t know if the brake is really engaged or the light isn’t working. Happens frequently but intermittently. Will research. Note, I think the light is the problem as the car doesn’t feel as if the brake is engaged.
  6. The glass roof looks very cool, but on long drives the sun can be rather annoying. Get the $75 Front Glass Roof Sunshade. Tesla should have included this as stock, but at least it’s available.
  7. Need to get an anti glare screen for the LCD

Things to know

Rebooting

You’ll want to reboot your car at least once a week. There are two ways to reboot the car.

  1. The first is to step on the brake, then hold both steering wheel knob wheels in until you see the Tesla logo appear on the LCD, then you can let go.
  2. The second is to go through the LCD. Touch the icon of the car in the bottom left corner, then Service and ?,  then Turn Car Off

Charging

  1. You don’t need to spend $500 on a Tesla Wall Charger unless you drive 275 miles a a day. I find that charging with a Class 2 charger at 20mph is plenty fast.
  2. Class 1 chargers use a 120v plug, the standard all over your house, you get 3-5mph.
  3. Class 2 chargers use a 240v plug that your dryer uses, you get 20-25mph. This plug is referred to as a NEMA 10-30 where 30 is the number of amps on that circuit.
  4. Class 3 chargers are 480v and use ChaDEMO or the Tesla interface. The superchargers charge at 300-490mph so super fast. The ChaDEMO standard requires a non existent or available converter that Tesla will need to produce. Tesla makes one for the Model S and Model X for $450 but it is not compatible with the 3 for some reason.

In general, I only use the Superchargers when I’m traveling. A Class 2 charger is plenty fast enough for me to charge from empty to full overnight. You will need to get an adaptor for your portable charger if you want to plug into your dryer plug. It’s a NEMA 10-30 and costs $35 from Tesla. I converted my electric dryer to gas a few years ago planning to use the plug to charge my car. At some point I may install a wall charger but given the number of miles I drive in a week is 25-100, it doesn’t make sense right now.

Software

Make sure you have the latest software installed. The way to check is blah blah

Push the large part of the door handle in with your thumb and pull the handle with the 4 other fingers below with your right or above with your left.

Misc

  1. The doors require a lot more force to close than a regular car. I asked the Tesla service manager about it and he said it was normal for Model 3’s

The App

The app is totally cool. However, it consistently will lose it’s bluetooth connection to the the phone and has to be reset.