Hello and welcome to the Electric Vehicle Experience, this is the fourth episode.
If you remember the last episode, there I was, Saturday morning in the 2nd half of June 2021 and the order for my Model 3 was finally placed.
No more decisions to make. No turning back. I had just to wait now.
About that…
I was very excited, of course. After all the time it took from the first test drive to order, 1-2 months didn’t seem that long… and yet, it seemed a very, very long time.
I had been dreaming of this car for long, long months and really enjoyed every second of the test drives.
You might be wondering why I was expecting such a short period until the delivery day…
Going back a bit… Just a few weeks earlier, during May, the estimated delivery was between June and July.
But now (and I noticed this before this test drive) the prediction was pointing to November. It seemed strange and at first, I thought maybe there was some mistake.
While ordering, the sales advisor told me that it was the prediction he was getting and he didn’t know why it was like that but that was the information he had.
Unfortunately, time would show that the estimated delivery date was actually spot on.
This was by the 2nd half of June and I tried to wait patiently. I waited. Not sure if I was very patient. I do remember I checked my account frequently.
Time passed and somewhere during September, my phone started ringing. I took a glance at it and saw the sales advisor’s name on the screen.
Because I was checking the delivery date for possible changes on my Tesla account, I wasn’t expecting the car to be ready for delivery yet. So what could it be?
I answered the call and he had news.
By the time I ordered my Model 3, SR+ units with the 50kWh battery pack were coming to Europe from the Shangai factory. The Long Range and Performance models with the larger 82-kWh battery pack were being produced in Fremont, in the USA.
The Long Range with that 82kWh battery pack featured a WLTP range of 614 kms.
What he told me was that I was going to get a Made in China unit. I could get a car pretty soon if I opted for the 75kWh pack with a WLTP range of 580 kms. The price would be reduced by 2.000 euros.
Shangaii was now producing Long Range and Performance models but with the previous 75kWh battery pack, which had been replaced a few months ago (at least in the US factory).
He wasn’t sure about the specifications of the car I would get if I waited until November.
I really wasn’t expecting this and I had to make a decision in the next few hours otherwise the cars in stock could be assigned to other customers, so we agreed we would talk the next day.
During that afternoon I was thinking about this. I was expecting a “614 kms” range car and I decided that it would pay off, in the long run, to wait a bit more and get the bigger battery. Tesla is always improving and I was expecting this battery not only to have a bigger capacity but also to feature some kind of improvements, although I couldn’t be sure.
The decision was made and I went back to waiting mode.
In November we got in contact again and I had already read about it online – the Long Range version for the European market was now coming from Shangai.
I also came across news that the cars being produced had just started getting updated 82kWh instead of 75kWh battery packs. That was great!
Was it?
By the time I heard this, my car was probably not only produced but most likely on its way to Europe. I was not sure if I was getting the so recently introduced 82kWh battery pack.
The sales advisor also wasn’t sure but he did say that the car’s technical data was a 614 kms WLTP car. This information was unchanged until I took delivery of the car.
Later, while replying to a video of mine, Volodymyr (from the Youtube channel VS EV studies), told me that the 82kWh battery pack would be identified as E5LD. I went to check the car’s technical sheet and… awesome news! Indeed, this was it, I had really gotten the 82kWh battery pack.
In the next episode, I’ll tell you about the delivery day and the trip coming back home, the first trip. And range… I was nowhere near of running out of energy but it didn’t look good at first.
If you’ve enjoyed this episode please hit the subscribe button and check out the links in the description for my social media links where you can also follow me.
Thank you for listening and I’ll talk to you soon
Complete podcast episode list: https://gustavofalmeida.com/podcast/
— Social Media links —
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/gustavofalmeida/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gustavofalmeida83/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gustavofalmeida83/