Morning good afternoon, good evening. listening to the old top car podcast, special live drive. We're doing a test drive. A listener reached out and that is joining us.
G'day, Nat. Hey, Pete, how's it going? Good. We're at Tesla at Chatswood, and we're taking a model Y for a test drive.
It's Nat's first time in an electric car, and she reached out and asked me whether it's worth going electric. And here we are. So we just got the quick rundown from the dealer, and we're now about to leave the car park. We think, underlay.
Yeah, it's another world, my God. It's, um, yeah. There's definitely things about it that I didn't expect. Like, even having the, you know, even at this point, having the, the gears up here near the, near the steering.
Yeah, so basically the gears are on the right side and the blinkers on the left, like European cars. But you, I mean, you've, I know you've had a hybrid in the past. You had a Corolla. Yeah.
Yeah. So this is your first foray into all electric. Just go anywhere. Wherever you go.
And here we go. So launch. Oh my God. Wow.
Wow. It's just another world. So quiet. It is so quiet.
So we're in a, there's a model Y standard. So it's just the rear wheel drive. Um, it's so responsive actually. As soon as I take my foot off, so what you're experiencing now is called regenerative breaking.
Right. So as you're accelerating, accelerating, there's your bar. So when you look at the accelerator, the brakes come on to slow you down. So you get used to one pedal driving, but that feature also adds a battery power, adds, adds heat from the brakes, adds to the battery to give you extra calipers.
Right. Okay. So you can turn that off if you don't like it, but you get used to it. Yeah.
And it's sort of driving like a Dodge and car. You've got that one pedal for you. Wow. That's so interesting.
It does remind me a bit of the hybrid because I know the way that that was working was when it was breaking. That's where the battery would regen. Yeah. Yeah.
But did it break as well? No, I didn't break that. Yeah. And then you start judging the distance.
Oh, yeah. That is something else. So you just try to change gears there. Oh.
That's why I made the noise. So if you do something wrong, it beeps and makes noises. Oh, that's so funny. And the screen will tell you if you're, if you've been on the aisle.
But there's no gears. So we went into the show in first and had a look around. So you notice you've got your wireless charging to the phone. It's sitting in a good spot.
So you don't really need to touch them. Then at an angle where you can't see someone sends you a message. But if you link your phone to the screen, it all comes up as well. Yeah, that's unreal.
That's unreal. How do you find no dashboard? I actually don't mind it. I actually don't mind it.
Yeah. No, I don't mind it. I guess the only thing is when you're looking for, you know, how much, you know, oh my God. See, look, it's a different world.
How much petrol you've got. The temperature of your motor, all of that. Like you don't even need that anymore, really. There's no, yeah.
There's no, okay. You're looking at range anxiety. That's all about how the range works. It just got to change your mindset.
I mean, it's like similar petrol. If you need all goes to the light on here, you need to change your mind. If you need all goes to the light on here, you need to charge up. Yeah.
Need to fill up with this. If you go down below 20%, the battery meter goes orangey red. So you know you've got to charge up soon enough. Yeah, right.
So if you notice here on the screen, so you've got the batteries at percentage, like your phone, or if you tap it, it tells you how many kilometres you've got left. Okay. So you can pretend it's like a big phone with wheels or you can treat it with. Yeah.
And these things are going to range around 450 kilometres. So you can effectively charge it and have it run all week without recharging it. Yeah, that's unreal. If you're just commuting back and forward to work.
And see, the speedometer is in a good spot because you don't really need to. It's the closest point. It's the closest point. Yeah.
So like you'd kind of look at the same point down on the dashboard if you had that in front of you as well. It's at an all right spot. Yeah. It doesn't detract from the experience.
No. Actually not too bad. How do you find the drive smooth, hard, suspension, a little bit? No, I find the drive is actually quite smooth.
Yeah. It is smooth. It's easy to drive. Yeah.
And it's super quiet. Super quiet. It's really responsive as well. Like if I just put my foot down a little bit.
Like, yeah, it's pretty simple. I did it again. Change gears instead of the blinker. But it won't change.
So it won't change. Another feature it's got. So if you stop now, I see that H. That's a hold feature.
So the car's now. Oh, it doesn't roll. It's not rolling. It's going to break on.
So you don't need to put your foot on the brake at all if you can get away with it. Wow. For me, the drive, the actual drive of the car is really, really nice. It's very smooth, easy.
I'm going to get, I need to get used to the, because the way I drive, usually I'd, you know, accelerate, then let go of the accelerator and just, you know, roll and coast. Whereas in this mode, you can't, I don't know, maybe you can't close. You can change it. So basically you hit the little car and it opens up your menu.
So pedals and steering. So you've got your accelerations in standard. Your steering's in standard. Where's, because I've got it on, on, on full regain because I'm used on it.
I enjoy it. Is it in safety? It's possibly, you know, that's, we'll find it. Yeah.
That's all right. I'm getting, I am getting used to it though. But it's just, even that is different in how you think about driving even a petrol car or a hybrid, because even on a hybrid, you're encouraged to coast to preserve petrol and then drive in eco mode where you're using the battery as opposed to the petrol. And then even in a car, it's a kind of similar thing.
But yeah, this is a, it is a completely different mindset of even how you think about driving and what you need to do. Like, I don't need to do that to preserve, you know, petrol or battery on, you know, hybrid. Like I can coast by keeping my foot in the accelerator. And you can, if you do drive it like a stolen car or a rental, it's like similar to if you've done it every intersection, you do use up a lot of battery a lot quicker.
So you've still got that, if you drive it rough and hard, you will use up more power quicker. So there is, you've still got to drive it efficiently to get the most out of it. Yeah. So seating, how do you find the position?
It's a little bit, it's almost like an SUV height. You're feeling that? Yeah, yeah, definitely. It's, it is higher and it is some, it is a nicer sort of, because I'm used to being in a, you know, a normal sedan.
So it's nice to have that height. It's really driving now. Sometimes a Toyota Corolla. So it's pretty low to the ground.
You know, it's a lot smaller, compact, hatchback. This is definitely a more comfortable drive. It's nice to have a height and there's a really nice aspect. Actually, the windshield is like, sometimes it can feel quite narrow in a tall car, but it's like the aspect is, you get a really good aspect.
The view is pretty good. Yeah. And it's pretty airy light inside, because you've got that panoramic roof and it's, it's an airy feel. It's a little claustrophobic.
Some cars do feel a little claustrophobic. Yeah. But they've done a, they've done a pretty good job. All right.
I'm going to get to a back-end. I'll get you to hand-read off the market. I'm doing it again. I'm just going to put it in.
God. Watch the road aside, because you've got a bike license as well. Yeah. It's different to a bike.
Yeah. Very different to a bike. I've described, I've got the Model 3 performance. And I've been describing almost like a four-wheel motorbike, because you'll see in a minute what I mean when you've got instant power.
You've got a river out to get the maximum wear with electric cars. The power is instantaneous. And in the performance, it's like, you want to get to that little spot? You die.
Yeah, well. All right. It's a tune, right? Okay.
And I'll just pitch it a gun at go. It's like, it just keeps going and going and going. That's, yeah, that's also. So, there's adequate power, even for the base model.
That's the electric car's party trick. It's that driving off the mark, that instant power. And even in the slowest of all electric cars, you have that feeling. So.
Yeah, that's true. And yeah, it's funny that you mentioned that, because it is like riding a motorbike. Well, if you did that in the carol, I don't think it would get it that quick. No.
No. It would take a while to hit that speed. And it'd have to fumble its way through the gears. And then the engine would be like, oh, okay.
Yeah, yeah, okay. Let's revamp. So why electric? What's made you come to electric?
A few different reasons. You know, a few different reasons. You know, firstly, obviously, it's the fact that it's going electric, moving away from petrol-based cars. You know, things are becoming super expensive.
Looking at alternatives. You know, even with petrol being really expensive. So, you know, one reason is looking at a more efficient way of living. And, you know, I had a hybrid before.
So I can kind of see the benefit, even from having a hybrid. So I thought, oh, you know, that was even, that was massively beneficial to having a hybrid. So, you know, is your petrol built just drop immediately with a hybrid? Well, you know, and then the next step is electric.
You're going to notice that it's going to be zero if you put it comes to your fuel. Charging, you know, it's a different mindset. It's you've got to sort of plan ahead and I can help you with some apps and things like that. Where you can plan.
And then the faster the charger, the more you pay is you still pay you. But comparatively, it's not as expensive as fuel. You don't turn up and drop $120 to fill up a tank. You know, your power build may be when you charge from home.
But compare that to the price of fuel. And it's chalk and cheese. There is a big saving. But then you factor in the upfront costs.
Yeah. I mean, what are these retail about 65? I think. I mean, you can get a pretty fully loaded SUV.
I don't know if that much. So I think there's almost a parity and with the performance you get with these cars, it's still pretty quick compared to like a two liter four cylinder. So you can shop around and get almost parry. Everyone says that electric cars are ever more expensive.
They are. But I think if you're going to keep it for a while and look at the benefit of driving, especially around town, you do say, I've noticed that I've had to spend a lot of fuel. Yeah, that's it. I mean, yeah, that's it.
You'll probably end up spending a bit more upfront like you say, but then in a long term, you end up saving a lot more. And the other thing is I've started a new job and they're offering no-vated leasing. So there's also a tax incentive, which is a lot of places. I mean, we're wearing new stuff while in Australia.
And there is a tax benefit from the federal government as well. And there's a lot of countries around the world, wherever you're listening, that there are certain countries give certain benefits. And that's to push people into electric. So, yeah.
Yeah. So that's, you know, if I were to look at any other car on a no-vated leasing, it'd probably be out of reach. But with the tax benefits and there's a rebate currently, then I'm able to do that. Whereas if that wasn't available, I probably wouldn't be able to do it.
So, you know, I also want to take advantage of that. And, you know, we're in a funny time. Like, I think the world is in a really funny time. And I think the petrol prices might respond to that pretty soon.
So that's another reason I'm kind of trying to get in as quick as I can. The Middle East is volatile. I'm going to go under two dollars a liter. It's in Europe recently, and fuel there is double Australia and America as well.
The fuel's at pretty much record highs. So then it ain't going to get any cheaper. And it does, it can fluctuate by up to 50%. The fuel prices can go up and down pretty quickly.
So if you're sort of protecting yourself or gearing away from having that, you know, what's the price today? I'm not going to shoot away yesterday. It's 10 cents more expensive today. You don't have to have that problem.
And having a charger at home, you can always have. It's like plugging in your phone at night. You've got 100% the next morning. You don't have to worry about anything.
You're ready to go. And a lot of people are charged at work. So there's also charges that you work. You can plug it in because if you're not in sales or travelling all day, the cuck is just there charging up, even on a slow charger.
You get the benefit. I mean, slow charges are usually free. But if someone sits in a park or car all day here and I gave you 20 liters of free petrol, you would take a baby job. So, that's been realistic.
You've been a slow. Why not? Yeah, why not? So that's the thing.
Pretty good? Yeah. So we've converted you. All I need to do is get you into the performance.
It's pretty good. It's a good size. They've done a good job. They've done a good job.
They're popular. The third highest selling car in Australia. Yeah, right. So we've done a good job.
We're still driving, so we're not going to get an opportunity to play with all the screens. But I can show you a few little tricks on the screen. While you're charging and things like that, you've got your theater mode. Obviously, the screen's not working.
You've got your Netflix, your YouTube, your Disney channel. So if you are sitting driving a Queensland or doing a long trip, you can sit on the sofa. Like a supercharger and watch a show 20 minutes, half an hour pass pretty quick. Yeah, well.
Yeah, as you said, there's only two buttons on the steering. But those buttons can do different things at different times. So when you got in earlier, you adjust the windows and then your steering wheel, or from the one button. So the screen will tell you what the button will do.
You don't need 75 buttons for each button to do one job. So it really sort of made it simple, but easy to use. It's almost like, if you can use an iPad or a computer, you can drive these pretty easily. It sort of lights up.
You've got your Spotify as well. So you can upload your own music or your playlists, etc. So it's pretty strict. It's fully loaded.
It's got everything that you need. It's pretty smooth. And we had a look at the double layer boot and the front. So there's enough storage for everything.
So there's plenty of room. The storage is insane. It's insane. Talk about being a different world, opening the boot and the front bonnet.
The front? The front. The front. That is just a mind shift and a half.
I can't believe the extra storage at the back and then coming to the front and then seeing that... It's getting down. It's just getting way up. Seeing that extra bit at the front and not having the engine at the front is mind blowing really.
And the batteries are all laid out underneath the car. So it sort of distributes the weight across the whole car. Yeah. Well there you have it.
A unique live drive to live destination. Getting a bit off. Oh shit, this is been up. That's alright.
It's a... It's really like a rental. So basically... So thanks for inviting us to come on your test drive.
Thanks so much for your... It's been awesome fun. And there's a few... I don't know how the party tricks are going through later on.
I think it's snodly one way. Oh no, we are all plucking the nav. And you can see that this camera is lit up everywhere. And you can get another feature.
I think I'll check on it if it's got the hard drive. You can set up a hard drive. So it records everything when you hit the horn and sort of saves it at that spot. Oh wow.
So yeah, it's pretty good. So there's a lot of party tricks on this. So again, thank you Feliz and he rate us reviewers. If you want me to come on our test drive and be a non-salesment.
I'm not giving you all the information. I'm not pressing you to buying the car. Give me a call. So we'll do a unique live drive test drive.
Now thank you for reaching out. And let's see if you sign the contract when we get back into a new... era of car ownership for you or the electric dream. So thank you Feliz and he rate us reviewers.
Send us your questions at autor getoutlook.com.au and bye for now. Thanks, Pete. And it's awesome.