My wife's Tesla (Model Y) has poor steering, minor misalignment of weatherstripping on the door, and the interior is austere (to put it politely--it feels like I'm in a cleanroom or some box out of a modern minimalist's wet-dream). Meanwhile the Rivian pick-up I test drove feels like an actual vehicle on the inside and had better handling. Same thing for the all-electric BMW SUV, the Mach-E, and the Mercedes I took for a spin. I won't buy a Tesla electric vehicle.
99% of the controls and information (speed) are on a panel that you have to divert your eyes from the road to view or manipulate while driving. When I'm driving my gas engine car I divert my eyes a fraction of the distance to glance at the speed or other gauges, and it offers analog knobs in addition to the touchscreen interface. Tesla's design isn't just minimalist, it's dangerously poor design.
Also, for the premium price of a Tesla, I expect things like the weather stripping and other basic features to top quality. They aren't--far from it in fact. All of the other EVs I drove had some elements of that same "all digital" poor design, but none of them had any apparent defects in the basic structure of the vehicle, or the poor steering, etc. And they were comparably priced (Rivian) or less expensive (the others, save Mercedes).
The eye deflection required to view the speed on a Tesla is comparable to that required to view it on most cars. You just have to flick right rather than down. And that's an easier, more natural deflection for humans -- there's a reason that TV's and movie screens are wider than they are tall.
Now if you were complaining about Tesla's dearth of physical buttons you wouldn't get any argument from me...
On my Toyota I can adjust the AC witb three knobs without looking.
In fact the Bulbs are burnt out for the backlights and I just never bothered to take the dash apart to fix.
The radio is a little more conplicated since it’s a CarPlay model. But all the functional controls are on the steering wheel (volume, next/last etc). So short of answering a call, or changing from a podcast to Plexamp I rarely have to divert attention.
Minimalist is a matter of taste. But when it's obvious it's done for cost cutting and not even done well it's a problem. Tesla QC and functional design is quite frankly terrible.
> Meanwhile the Rivian pick-up I test drove feels like an actual vehicle on the inside and had better handling
In Model 3 and Model Y, it is clear that Tesla is cutting corners where it can & the gap between those and a Model S Plaid is stunning.
The Rivian, EQS, Mach E and Taycan were head and shoulders above my Model 3, but also in a slightly different price range.
My car feels like a Toyota with a Tesla touchscreen the way it feels inside (at least it understands my accent when I ask it to change the temp on voice). The Kia EV6 GT is probably a close comparison or the new Prius in the way it looks.
Definitely overpaid to get access to the highway Supercharger network. My friends drove from SF to Chicago round-trip in a Model 3 in the winter break and when Tesla starts charging Rivians everywhere, it will be somewhat of a game changer.
Because of that, I think Tesla as sort of a Ford meets Exxon, they make a trickle of money off the chargers, more if they have CCS - I'm actually waiting for them to stab me in the back and ship a Tesla with a standard CCS, making me carry around a "dongle" to charge my old model.
The neat thing is Tesla can and does update their software OTA, even for really old models. So maybe some day you'll be able to drive without any instrumentation to bother you.
No one would argue against the points you have made, but also keep in mind your paying a premium when buying other brands, in some cases a considerable premium.
> No one would argue against the points you have made, but also keep in mind your paying a premium when buying other brands, in some cases a considerable premium.
Tesla is absolutely a premium brand, the cheapest vehicle Tesla offers is a base model 3 for $42,000. Where as a Nissan leaf starts at $28,000. Nissan actually understands how to build a widely affordable consumer model. Tesla only knows how to build “premium” vehicles with poor build quality and an autopilot that can’t stop running into fire trucks.
Doesn't Leaf have some issues due to poor battery cooling? Maybe a better choice for an example of a less expensive EV would be a Chevy Bolt. MSRP $26500 for the EV 1LT model (259 mile range) or $27800 for the EUV LT model (247 mile range). ($17700 and $19000 respectively after incentives).
We own a Model3 (me) and a Leaf (wife). My wife bought the Leaf more recently; she always defaults to the M3 when given the option. In short, Leaf:Flip-Phone and Tesla:Smartphone. The only saving grace for the Leaf is price. We should've bought a ModelY instead of the Leaf.
The Rivian SUV I put a deposit on is comparably priced to the Model X, which is Tesla's nearest similar model. The Rivian pickup exists (as compared to the Cybertruck). Similarly for the Mach-E and the BMW. The Mercedes was ridiculous (over $200k, or maybe almost $200K--I don't remember, just that it was at least 50% more than any of the others).
The Rivian truck cost around 50% more than the Model Y today. I think the Ford e-vehicles were huge loss leaders for Ford to buy some market share. Mercedes is passing along the actual cost I suppose.
I was close to ordering a Rivian until I saw Ford dumped their ownership of the brand a few months back. I highly doubt they have the ability to scale and turn profitable without a major, driven backer like Ford or Elon. Which is a shame because the vehicles look beautiful.
Wait, are you suggesting that Tesla is the better choice because it's cheaper? This is actually the first time I've heard anyone make that argument; is this how fast people move the goalposts?
