Although Tesla now manufactures and sells cars at a rate of over one million a year, it does not have time to keep up with demand, and some of you will be waiting to take over over a year after buying Tesla.
When my neighbor takes over her Model Y, she makes 6 Tesl on a small street here in the very small Three Lakes of Wisconsin. But is Tesla fair to her? When she ordered her long range Y in October 2021, they were given the delivery date May / June 2022. A little later, the date was moved to January 2022, then it was moved back to July 2022, and later it was still moved back to February / March 2023. right now that I called her, and it was again moved to September 3/15. October 2022. If this applies, it will wait for about a year. What’s happening? Does Tesla place orders for a Model Y with a higher level of equipment in front of it? This might be fair if it was done at the initial delivery schedule, but not if they were given higher level trims in front of her while she waited.
In any case, you need to do or consider various things before you buy your first Tesla. Let’s go through some of these topics.
What do I have to do before delivery?
Tesla no longer supplies EVSE (Electric Vehicle Service Equipment) cables to every car. Be sure to order an EVSE cable from Tesla (or someone else) before you get your car. At one end of the cable is a plug that goes into your car, and at the other end is a replaceable plug. In many cases, you should buy both a 110V adapter and a NEMA 14-50 220V adapter. Almost all RV parks have NEMA 14-50 stores. If you have a 220 V service in your garage, you can have a L2 NEMA 14-50 socket installed for about $ 200. Northern Lights Electric installed one in my garage (where I already had 220V service) in Three Lakes, Wisconsin for just $ 130. An electrician in Saint George, Utah installed one in our garage for $ 250. Again, we already had a 220V service in the garage. It cost about $ 500 for a 220V service to go to my garage in Lindon, Utah. I had an L2 charger installed for the additional $ 700 I needed for my first Nissan LEAF. The L2 charger is not necessary if you have EVSE – you only need the NEMA 14-50 socket.
Charging the L2 gives you approximately 28 miles of travel in one hour. My Tesla has a range of 310 miles – so it would basically charge from empty to full in ~ 11 hours. However, I am seldom discharged and normally only charge to 80%, so I usually only charge for one to five hours. Note: If you want the battery to last you as long as possible, do not charge it to more than 80% or let the charge drop below 20%. This is easier if you have a larger battery.
Charging the L1 gives you a range of only about 4 miles per hour. In principle, if you connect the shaver to a socket in the bathroom, it will take three days to fully charge. However, if you drive less than 100 miles / day, it works. We have friends who would need to upgrade the electrical wiring throughout the house to get 220V service to the garage, and they understood the charging of L1 well. This works especially well because they have a second car. They also have a clothes dryer near the garage. They are able to use the 220V service in the dryer or, if necessary, go to a nearby Supercharger. (Editor’s note: We have one car, model 3 Standard Range and 120V / L1 charging and we have no problem with that. Needs vary from person to person. – Zach)
What if you live in an apartment or other place where you can’t install your own charger? We expect governments to approve regulations soon to facilitate the installation of charging stations in your car park. So far, this can be difficult. With considerable effort, my brother was able to obtain a 220V L2 charging service installed in the garage of his Madison, Wisconsin apartment. If you have an L2 charger at work, this can also solve the problem. There are also many Superchargers in the cities, and if you live near one, you can refuel there just like at a gas station.
How is your 3 / Y model different?
Your Tesla Model 3 / Y is a very different animal than your old gas burner. What do you need to know to get it out of the delivery center? Once the car is unlocked and the seat, mirrors and steering wheel are adjusted, touch the brake to start the car and just drive off. Push the right steering wheel lever down to move forward and up to move backward and you can go. The steering, accelerator and brakes will look like in your old car, so your first ride should be a breeze. The only thing people get used to for a while is regenerative braking – the car starts braking for you when you take your foot off the gas. Over time, almost every EV driver will fall in love, but it takes a day or two to get used to it. When you have finished driving, you can park by pushing the right lever and holding it if you are parking on a steep hill.
Background: I took over my first Nissan LEAF on February 31, 2014, my second LEAF on March 14, 2016, my third LEAF on May 2, 2018 and my first Tesla on October 22, 2019. My current car, Roxanne, is a Tesla Model 3 Long Range with 70,000 miles. So I will try to pass on some of the things I learned while driving Roxanne for two years and seven months. on interstate highways from North Carolina to Southern California, on 12-lane I-15 metropolitan highways and Salt Lake City intersections, as well as on northern Wisconsin country roads.
Riding in the sun. Left: My solar panels. Lindon, Utah. March 12, 2016. Right: My second Nissan LEAF. Lindon, Utah. April 1, 2016. Photo by Fritz Hasler.
What do you need to know?
Let’s now look at a few details in a few bulleted lists.
All right:
- The first thing you need to do is bluetooth pair your smartphone with your car. Install the Tesla application on your phone and follow the pairing instructions. Now your smartphone is your key. You don’t have to do anything to unlock the car. It automatically unlocks when you approach 15 to 20 feet from the car, and the car automatically locks with a small horn beep when you move away from the car. If you can monitor the phone you use all the time for Facetime and phone calls, you will never lose your key. If you have an iPhone, you can find the key using the Find My Phone feature. Conversely, if you drive your car, your phone must be somewhere in the car.
- The Recessed handles are a bit funny. You push the wide part and pull the thin part. It takes a while, but you can learn to do it with both hands.
- Getting out of the car: Above the window controls is a button with a horizontal white line. When you push it, the front door opens a short distance. Note: the rear door is different. You push a button and the door unlocks, but you have to open it completely yourself. In case of emergency: If your car is electrically inoperative, pull the lever in front of the normal opener button. You should practice this in an emergency, but the lever system is not strong enough for normal use.
- Mirror, seat and steering wheel settings: See the controls at the top of the Controls menu. When you’re done editing, save them under your name. Then set the easy entry position. To do this, I put the seat all the way back, the steering wheel all the way forward and the seat all the way up so that I could step on it when getting out of the car, then I would save the settings. You can save settings for several drivers. The car automatically adjusts to easy boarding when you leave the vehicle, and automatically adjusts to the settings for the last driver when you touch the brake pedal. For another driver, click the name in the list of saved settings. If you want to fine-tune the settings later, just adjust the settings and press save at the bottom left of the control screen.
Crucial controls:
Tesla has great voice control if you are in an area with good mobile service. You push the right wheel on the steering wheel and say, for example, “Set the windshield wipers to 3. “
- Windshield wipers: This is one of the few controls you can do without a touch screen. You push the left lever and wipe the wipers once. If you hold the lever, the wipers will still wipe and fluid will leak into the washers. This also displays the windshield wiper controls at the bottom left of the screen. You can set: Off, L1, L2, L3, L4 and Auto. The car relies on a photographic representation of the windshield and is not always accurate. If necessary, adjust the windscreen wiper speed manually.
- Windscreen demisting: This is the worst choice of a new user interface. To display the heater selection, you must touch the lower left corner of the screen, then the front and rear windscreen demisting icons will appear.
- To open the charging port: You can open the charging port in three different ways. 1) There is a button near the charging port to visualize your car. 2) Push just below the charging port. 3) Press the button on the top of the charger plug.
- Blinkry: Left lever, like any other car.
- Engage automatic steering and Smart Cruise: Autosteer and Smart Cruise from Tesla are excellent. Wait for the small gray steering wheel icon to appear, then pull the right lever twice. The icon then turns blue. To disengage, pull the right lever, apply the brakes or pull the steering wheel. Automatic steering is like a stone – it keeps your car in the middle of the lane better than most people. As a result, long rides are much less tiring. In addition to maintaining speed and slowing down due to a slower vehicle in front of you, the Smart Cruise removes a bit of boredom in traffic between bumpers and bumpers.
- Fully self-driving beta: For $ 12,000, you can upgrade to FSD Beta, which allows you to enter any destination into the navigation and the car will take you there. It’s a lot of money for a system that performs very well in low-traffic situations, but fails in congested areas and sometimes performs phantom braking and sometimes sometimes fails to follow a navigation route at an intersection.
There are lots of YouTube videos with tips on how to control your Tesla. Check out a few of them more than once. You will not remember everything, but you can google your specific question when you get a car.
Click here to view all 53 of my articles, including more on how to control your new Tesla.
If you have a question or tips for new owners, leave them in the comments section below.
Check out our brand new one Guide for e-bikes. If you are curious about electric bicycles, this is the best place to start your journey through e-mobility!
Do you appreciate the originality and news of CleanTechnica? Consider becoming a CleanTechnica member, supporter, technician or ambassador – or patron of Patreon.
