A drive to the dairy in Tesla Model 3

Friday, 2 August 2019

The Model 3 is finally on NZ roads. And all roads lead to the local dairy of course.

As the sleek black nose of the Tesla Model 3 rolled out of the Tesla Store on Auckland's K-road the heavy clouds rolled across the sky, jostling for position.

Were they about to part dramatically to allow the beams of golden light bathe the car in an ethereal glow and a choir of angels serenade us as we drove a right-hand drive example on local roads for the very first time?

It seemed possible, after all we have waited for this moment for quite some time - surely our first brief drive of a long-awaited game-changer that is the brain-child of a meta-human genius with a god-like benevolence and a slight Twitter-based impulse control problem should be accompanied by such divine intervention, shouldn't it?

Nah, it just started to rain instead.

No time for a full-blown road trip, so we just popped down to the dairy instead.

* A Tesla Model 3 will cost Kiwis about $75,000

* Kiwis, the smaller, cheaper Tesla Model 3 is here. Sort of**

The pristine black Model 3 didn't stay pristine for long as we rushed to get photos and video of it during our single hour with it at the press reveal of the RHD model, as well as actually try and get some idea of what it is like to actually drive the thing.

A Tesla Model 3 here in NZ? In RHD? Yep. But was it worth the wait?

So what do you do when you only have a limited time with a car that some claim will revolutionise EV ownership in New Zealand? Well, we headed to the dairy.

After all, the vast majority of trips most Kiwis do in a day are such mundane things as the morning commute, dropping the kids at school or picking up some milk.

The top Performance model gets Tesla's dual motor AWD set up.

Our Model 3 was a top spec Performance model with the dual motor set up and an NEDC-measured 560km range. It will set you back a not-inconsiderable $101,100 (or $102,300 for a black one like ours), but can belt to 100kmh in a claimed 3.4 seconds, so a quick trip to the dairy then?

Well, while it certainly is capable of that, the major initial impression the Model 3 first makes is the sheer comfort and usability of the thing.

Minimalist interior looks cool and generally works well - but you do have to shuffle through screens sometimes.

Because it reverts to a coil suspension set up, as opposed the the air suspension of the S and X, the 3 immediately feels tighter, while simultaneously lacking the brittleness of air suspension over rougher surfaces at low speeds.

In English, this means it feels tightly controlled and slickly responsive, yet superbly supple and compliant at town speeds, even on the massive 20-inch alloys that come standard with the Performance.

The tall glasshouse does make the Model 3 impressively roomy, but a touch awkward from some angles.

Yes, the acceleration in Sport mode is suitably savage and instantaneous, but left in the awfully-named 'Chill' acceleration mode, it becomes more graduated and nicely linear, and is far better suited to town driving.

Like the vast majority of EVs and all other Teslas, the is no steering feel whatsoever, but the weight is well judged and it is impressively direct, responsive and accurate.

At town speeds the Model 3 promises impressive things out on the open road - the excellent ride, responsive chassis and accurate steering all suggest very good things indeed and are actually almost downright un-American. Quite European, actually.

But because of our short time with the car I didn't get the chance to find out. That is to come - we have a car for the weekend, so look out for a full road test next week - but for now, the signs are very positive indeed.

So as it stands, the Model 3 is a deeply impressive thing around town - comfortable, roomy and possessing an impressively tight turning circle

Inside, the Model 3 is a mixed bag of impressively high-tech minimalism and some jarringly cheap plastics that are well out of place on a $100K car, but the general impression is good, with build quality being generally impressive as well.

Of course you can't get away from the utterly massive screen that dominates the interior, and while it provides enough screen real estate to keep the majority of the functions you use regularly relatively close to hand, the minimalism for the sake of it that makes the Model 3's interior look so cool does mean quite a bit of shuffling through screens to do a lot of other things.

On the outside, it's pretty much Tesla-business-as-usual styling, with a somewhat scaled-down Model S look that will appeal massively to some. Mainly the Tesla faithful, that is. Looks are deeply subjective however, and to my eyes the Model 3 can look a little awkward from some angles thanks to the tall glasshouse, and the receeding hairline look of the massive windscreen is a bit dorky directly head on, particularly in the black of our test car.

However, it is sleek, distinctive and nicely restrained in its overall look, if a bit dated in some regards. Oh, and those pop-out door handles might look cool, but they are irritatingly awkward to actually use.

While the Model S and Model X are both deeply impressive technological showpieces, they aren't exactly properly good cars to drive. After all, that wasn't even the company's intention in the first place - Tesla is a tech company that produces excellent devices, much like Apple.

But after an hour of frantically dodging the rain to get photos and video two things were front and centre in my mind - firstly, the Model 3 is a properly good car, at least around town.

Entirely ignoring all the Tesla Fanboy cheerleading and EVangelist smug superiority - and equally the anti-EV scaremongering (no, the battery won't die in five years time…) and rabidly pro-petrol future-fearers - the Tesla Model 3 simply feels good to drive.

Comfortable, fast and responsive, it is satisfying and extremely capable at town speeds, but it also feels impressively nimble and extremely European in the immediacy of its responses to inputs from the driver, which promises very good things for open-road enjoyment.

The other thing that was stuck in my mind? We didn't actually buy anything from the dairy…