Well, we made it! 21,125 kms in 85 days at an average of around 250 kms per day. And we had absolutely no issues with the Tesla Model 3 RWD. The only car-related requirements were occasional tyre pressure top ups and self-operated car washes to keep the insect remains and red dust at bay. Otherwise, faultless.
No servicing was undertaken during the journey. The only servicing specified based on distance for the M3 is tyre rotation at 10,000 km to avoid uneven wear, with the rear tyres likely to wear faster due to enthusiastic acceleration. Tyre rotation was deferred and done soon after our arrival home with wear of 1-1.5mm, indicating that tyre life of at least 50,000 km should be expected. With the special noise-insulated original fitment costing around $380 each, tyre cost would be around $0.03 per kilometre: with the equivalent tyres without noise-insulation at $300 per tyre, around $0.024 per kilometre.
The car is incredibly easy to drive, as I assume most modern cars are. The instant torque available from the electric motor and the low centre of gravity from the battery beneath the floor give the M3 sports car performance, even on our base model. We were slow to use the speed control and lane-keeping features of the car, enjoying instead the manual driving experience. But, by the time we hit the long straight roads in SA and WA, these features were in regular use.
The touchscreen gives access to a LOT of functionality but does require setting up to match your needs. There are many YouTube videos on Teslas but I particularly like those of Ryan Shaw and one devoted to screen setup. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypE5p_Saznk)
The biggest difference compared to an ICE car is, of course, range. EV battery technology does not yet provide a driving range comparable to many ICE cars. For anything further than the practical driving range of the car the EV experience does require a different approach on a road trip.
EV energy efficiency is commonly reported in Watts per kilometre – the lower the number the better. Our M3 touchscreen shows a 100% (60 kWh) charge as equivalent to a range of between 435 and 440 kms, equating to an efficiency of 137W/km (60,000W/438km). Unlike ICE cars, EVs achieve best range around town and suffer at highway speeds when aerodynamic drag dominates.The touchscreen displays this measure for both the day’s driving and since delivery. At the end of our road trip our average efficiency since purchase was showing just slightly worse at 139W/km, and this was with most driving days spent at highway speeds and only a couple “hypermiling” (speed reduction) when necessary to extend range.
Before we left home, we planned on a usable range of around 400kms, allowing arrival at destination with 10% battery charge remaining. However, we had not allowed for the varying effects of driving speed, wind, temperature and road surface. On only one sector (across the Nullarbor) did we accept a lower figure (6%).
Once underway, the only option to extend range is speed reduction. As mentioned previously, a speed reduction of 10% equates to a drag reduction of 19% equivalent to a range increase of 14% since aerodynamic drag is not the only range reducing impact. That range effect ignores the effect of wind, with a headwind component needing to be overcome before any range improvement can be realised by speed reduction. For that reason, the Big Lap can be more efficiently driven anti-clockwise, taking advantage of prevailing south-east winds along the Queensland coast and westerlies across the Nullarbor. The road surface not only impacts cabin noise but range as well, with the noisiest roads affecting range the most. Range is also degraded in cold weather, but Teslas have a nice feature where charging completion can be programmed to coincide with the planned departure time so that the battery is pre-conditioned to minimise the temperature effect.
Out of the 85 days we had three when range anxiety was a concern – one with an unplanned hospital pickup well off track, one with a lack of our understanding of the arrival range displayed and one when fast charging en route was no longer available. All were resolved with available charging options taking longer but none requiring us to overnight in an unplanned location.
Charging does require additional planning, but the Big Lap is very do-able with existing charging options. That does rely on the goodwill of, for example, roadhouse operators allowing access to their three phase charging points used for other purposes. And the PlugShare app is indispensable to not only check availability but location in some rather out-of-the-way spots and recent user experience. Tesla owners are fortunate in that many hospitality operators have Tesla chargers installed and offer overnight charging at no cost.
A couple of our charging options were expensive but were the only options available; conversely many were offered at no cost. While cost was not our consideration, the navigator estimated that we spent around $400 on charging ($0.02 per kilometre), including a couple where we insisted that we should pay. An equivalent ICE vehicle would probably incur more than 10 times that cost in fuel (21,125 km @ 10 km/litre x $2.00 per litre). The going rate on fast charging (not supercharging) seems to be around $0.30 per kWh. If we had paid for all our charging at that rate our cost would have instead been around $880 (21,150 km @ 0.139 kWh/km x $0.30), or around $0.04 per kilometre.
We encountered many Teslas and other electric vehicles in and near the big cities but surprisingly few on the highways, including six Teslas with half of those at our charging locations. Away from the cities there seemed to be few sedans of any propulsion – this is the territory of diesel four-wheel-drivesOne surprising encounter was Bill Gresham’s Hyundai Ioniq which flashed passed us in the opposite direction in the NT. Bill and are friend were on a Big Lap in an anti-clockwise direction in a vehicle with only a 270km range. More overnights were obviously required but apparently very do-able. Now that is impressive!
If you are thinking of a Tesla purchase, we can certainly commend the M3. If you are thinking of a Big Lap by EV, our experience suggests that it should be a lot of fun.
Thank you for your interest in our journey. Happy to take any queries on jefwicks@gmail.com
