It’s been a long time since the last update and a lot has happened. However due to the pandemic and lockdown, nothing has also happened….
So where to start ?
Back in June we had to goto France in the Ioniq Electric. I detailed the trip a couple of post ago, so I won’t repeat it all here. It wasn’t funny, and something needed to change. So as mentioned in the last post the Ioniq was going to be sold.
When we returned from France I started to look for alternatives. I booked and had a test drive in a Tesla Model 3. Nice car, but the monthly payment were too much for us. I had a look at the face lift Ioniq as it had a larger battery, but the slower charging was an issue for me. The E-niro was not even available for test drive, and the Leaf I ruled out due to the lack of thermal management on the battery. I really liked the look of the Byton, and had a reservation open but unfortunately Byton has gone into mothballed status. Then there was Polestar. Looks nice, but I didn’t have a feel for it, and the pice was as much as the Tesla. Which left really only the Kona. So after talking to our dealer a non binding order was placed.
But there was still the issue with charging in France, which was the main reason to change. The Kona could go twice the distance compared to the Ioniq, but it wouldn’t make chargers magically appear. My heart wasn’t really beating for the Kona.
I still had the Tesla on my mind. Tesla has the Supercharging network, but could also use CCS. It was just the price holding me back. Tesla unfortunately doesn’t give discounts, and the trade in they offered for the Ioniq can only be described as a joke.
Then a series of events, like a major alignment of the stars happened. The mortgage we had on our house was about to end, so we would be mortgage free, releasing a fair chuck of money every month at the end of August. Then in June it was announced that the German MwSt (VAT) would be reduced from 19% – 16% for 6 months. That made the Model 3 Long Range €1000 cheaper. In addition, the environment bonus for an EV would increase to €9000. So already the cost of the Model 3 was significantly reduced. Then in addition, I received 2 large unexpected lump sums. Whilst not enough to buy a Tesla outright, it was certainly enough to make a very big difference between being able to afford one or not. So, we canceled the Kona.
On the 26th June I place an order for a Tesla Model 3 LR in white with white interior. Delivery was expected early August, but that didn’t happen. I won’t go into the details but I found ordering and purchasing the Tesla a very stressful process. Tesla has terrible communications, the order was canceled and set up again by the sales consultant, and the financing also got cancelled and had to be reapplied for 3 times. All this delayed delivery to 3rd September. At one point I asked for a change of colour and a toe-hook to be added, but this was refused by the same sales consultant that canceled the order. All in all not a positive experience. Then to add insult to injury, after I received the documents and had, at Teslas insistence registered the still unseen car immediately, they delayed delivery by an additional 2 weeks. We eventually took delivery in mid September.
On collection we drove straight to a company to have a ceramic seal applied, which took about 4 days, and on the Saturday set out on a trip to West France.
My referral code is https://ts.la/victor98166 and if you quote this when buying a Tesla both of us will get enough free charging to cover approximately 1500 Km.