Not that anyone cares, but here's been my experience with my Tesla Model 3 Long Range so far:

First off, my use case was that, normally, I drive like maybe 30 miles or so a day when I do need to drive. However, occasionally, I would need to drive 350+ miles to visit family in nearby Iowa. And I didn't really "need" the performance version, so I got the LR. There's a supercharger station exactly half way along the trip, so a stop for about 30 minutes along the route next to a grocery store allows for bathroom breaks, pick up some snacks and any groceries (liquor?) I'd like to pickup for my stay with family. Or watch an episode of Seinfeld while I wait.

On my trips back to Iowa, which, if anyone didn't know, is a very "pickup truck" centric state, I get lots of questions from the locals. I even got approached once while I was sitting at a super charger. I get approached so often now that I've almost gotten it down to a science. The question that bugs me most is "How long does it take to charge?". Like anything, how long it takes to fill something depends on how empty it is. Honestly, I rarely let me vehicle get very empty so it's hard to say, but I've spent 45 minutes at a super charger before, but that's getting it to 100% full, which is not normally required. If people don't know, it takes almost as much time to charge the last 20% as it does the first 80%, in my experience.

Obviously, anything over 5 minutes is probably going to sound rough to ICE owners, as, let's admit, they're used to the instant gratification that gasoline provides. However, when they bring that up, I state something they might not realize; I *never* have to make that 5 minute stop if I maintain a proper charge using my home charging infrastructure, which is 99% of my daily driving around town use case. If people can manage their cell phone charging, they can manage an electric car.

However, I am typically respond with "EVs are not for everyone" when they ask about my Tesla. I mean, everyone's use case is different. I'm not going to convince you to buy an EV if I don't know what works for you; that's on you to make that decision. So, when they ask questions about maintenance, cost, etc, I don't try to sugar coat anything, just give the facts.

However, when it comes to the "Do you like your car?" question, then I can inject my opinion. Yes, I love it! So much fun to drive! The instant torque is insane! The entertainment center is entertaining, the audio system is top notch. But the stuff that I really love is the stuff I didn't even know about the car when I purchased it. Like regenerative breaking...I think I drove back from Iowa once without ever using the brake! One pedal driving is so satisfying. The "hold" feature at stops is cool (no need to sit there with your foot on the break pedal). And the autopilot comes in handy (for all the wrong reasons). Not to mention all the cool things you can do with your car from the app...like, never carry a key or fob for your car again (your cellphone is your "FOB"), preheating/cooling the car before I get up from a table at a restaurant, scheduling my car to be ready and warm at a certain time, in a closed garage. Even the goofy easter eggs that Tesla software has keeps me entertained.

At the time I bought it, I also owned a Chevy Traverse. I was letting my 16 year old daughter drive it. Unfortunately, about 6 month later, she was hit from behind at a stop light, totaling the car. With used car prices being crazy, we shopped around quite a bit. At a KIA dealer ship, they actually had a car within the budget, but it was...an EV! At the time, I didn't even know KIA made EVs, but it was a little KIA Soul EV. It only had a range of about 110 miles, but that was fine for my daughter's use case, as she only needed it for school and sports activities. And it's much more like a "normal car" (vs the jarring differences of a Telsa Model 3). She's been driving it for almost a year now with no problems. And now that gas prices have spiked, I feel that this, too, was a good decision. I haven't tried to fit a pin in the Kia Soul yet, so, that might be the one drawback .

Sadly, I will say that driving around my local area, where there are quite a few Teslas around, occasionally I get some "odd behavior" from ICE drivers. Usually pickups or other sports cars. With trucks, usually some form of "rolling coal" or else very close tail-gating so their lights come right through the back window. With ICE sports cars, usually an attempt to show their cars are faster off the line at stop lights. I never try to antagonize or play into any of it. I just let them go by. I don't have anything to prove; I've made my decision and I'm happy with it.

I don't know about other states, but in Illinois, EV drivers pay an extra $100 registration fee each year to help offset the loss of gas taxes. Which, I'd guess, is about half of what ICE drivers are paying in gas taxes each year.

Personally, I think Tesla's branding of it as "autopilot" creates a sense of capabilities it doesn't really have.

Had they called it "co-pilot" or "driver assist", I think it would better suggest that the driver is still the one who needs to be in charge at all times.

There's too much EV defense here for a thread called "I hate EVs" thread! Let's get back to complaining about them!

Things I hate about EVs:
- charging stations are unmanned; if you have a charger issue, there's no one to turn to
- that time you *did* forget to plug in your car for your big trip the next day
- the fact that EV remaining millage estimation behavior is very unpredictable, vs the very linear behavior of an ICE fuel indicator
- that the tires don't last as long
- that you can get widely different millage based on the temperature
- that the one time you do run out of charge (the one charging station you were counting on is out of service), you're kind of screwed; limited ways to get non-charging station power to your car vs someone bringing a stranded ICE car a gas can.
- that a lot of apps, estimates, companies, etc still aren't set up electric car information.
- all the threads talking about how they hate your car

What I mean by that is, I get in an EV car and it typically shows your range by miles vs a typical ICE car which shows how far you can go based on a gas gauge, which somehow translates to your range, and that gauge moves very slowly, such that it appears to move linearly. However, I never get the miles my EV car displays. I should probably change the view over to the battery view, which is essentially the gas gauge version.

My daughter had an issue the other day whereby she was like "it said 40 miles left, but then next thing I knew it dropped to 20". I've witnessed that sort of unexpected drop before, which can exacerbate range anxiety.

As for the company comment: when we bought my daughter's EV from a traditional dealer that mostly dealt with ICE cars, they included a fee for their "Care Service Plan"...discounts on oil changes, belt changes, radiator flushes...all stuff that didn't apply to the EV car we just purchased. I was like "uh, thanks for nothing".

So you're saying the bar was low.

Interesting article about how EVs have changed the conversation about horsepower and speed:

https://www.mensjournal.com/gear/horsepower-now-means-nothing

That is definitely a nice feature of ICE cars...but it doesn't come for free.

An EV owner would have to pay an additional $2000 a year on average, and periodically have to drive to some location and wait to have their oil changed, transmission flushed, coolant replaced, belts replaced, brakes replaced more often...

If there was a subscription option for EVs to get "super fast recharge" for the costs above...hard pass. I'd just stick with mindful planning.