I have been involved in somewhat of a love affair with electric vehicles for some time now, so when my generous and thoughtful sibling-in-laws gifted me a
Tesla
Experience
So
Long
As you return it…
for my 30th birthday, I was pretty ecstatic, to say the least.
They coordinated the rental over the long, memorial day weekend which coincided with a family road trip out to Eastern Oregon, 300 miles away.
Friday, after work, we piled into a black, mid-range model 3 and set off for the town of La Grande.
Giddiness was the primary feeling in those hours blazing East on I-84. Caroline (wife), Peter (brother-in-law) and I quickly found playful “Easter Eggs” which are hidden software features embedded on the large touchscreen. The silliness enabled us to explore Mars, pretend to be Santa’s sleigh, and create fart noises over the car’s stereo system. Our fun and lightness was reinforced when Peter let the autopilot system navigate the Pendleton curves almost exclusively by itself, which was convenient as we’d used a need for supercharging as an excuse to have a beer and share excitement for our weekend away from the city and into the Wilderness.
Beer chug complete, and 25 minutes elapsed, our electronic horse was saddled with 200 miles of range. I knew Teslas charged quickly; I was still impressed.
A year and half ago, Caroline and I purchased a 2014 Nissan Leaf, which we love. Besides a $20 tire rotation and a topping off of windshield wiper fluid, we have had no maintenance expenses and have used it for thousands of miles of commuting and regional trips for a flat rate of $30 a month in electricity to our landlord. However, we have been a bit too ambitious at times with how far the car can venture and how long it takes to replenish the energy reserves. This is why our “Tesla Experience So Long As you return it…”, was a whole ‘nother animal.
With all of these factors, it’s easy to understand why many are ensconced by Tesla. The software is futuristic and while autopilot was evidently not complete, you could still imagine the car someday chauffeuring you around. Glass on all sides encouraged us to look out, directly above at clouds and stars, sideways at mountains and rivers, and ahead because, well, you still have to drive the thing. Layer on the impish quirks, the seamless charging, and the quiet, smooth ride with luxury touches and it is hard not to like.
Needless to say, I was somewhat sad to return it at the end of the weekend.
However, I was not sad about parting ways with certain aspects, considering my sheepishness around conspicuous consumption. The longing instead was created by looking out at all the other cars on the road and realizing how many vehicles remain to improve. I had stepped into a possible future for the world and was quickly returned to reality.
We traveled over 600 miles without a drop of petroleum to power our journey. Meanwhile, we paralleled the mighty Columbia River, the region’s largest source of electricity, passed wind farms and large scale solar arrays. You did not have to imagine a future of renewable power and efficient, electric mobility. It was right in front of our eyes, but I couldn’t rid myself of the feeling that the change is not happening quickly enough.
The most compelling reason for electric vehicles is not the fact that they run on electricity, but rather that they are 3 times as efficient as our 2004 Prius and almost 6 times as efficient as the average vehicle in the U.S.
The potential savings from bringing all vehicles up to snuff is enormous.
24.7 MPG is the current fleet wide average. This means that a Model 3 will require only 17% of the energy to get you to the same place as the average vehicle does. If we were agnostic to whether the source of the energy was electricity or petroleum, we could cut the energy demand for moving people 5X just by bringing the average efficiency to parity. That is a whole lot of energy resource we will not have to go find, because the need was eliminated.
In all sectors, particularly transportation, efficiency is the largest untapped resource that we have, and our weekend T.E.S.L.A. was a luxurious reminder of the end goal.