10,000 Miles in the electric space car

Today we crossed the 10,000 mile mark on the odometer of the electric space car. My friends convinced me that buying a Tesla Model S would be OK because it would enable great experiences, and thus skirt around our "experiences not stuff" philosophy. I hate admitting that they were right.

Not much has changed about my opinions and experience with electric vehicles. I still believe that the only real barrier to long-distance EV driving is the cost of the car. Public charging infrastructure is mostly irrelevant, since you leave the house every day with 200+ miles of range. If you have a Model S, the distance thing is covered by the supercharging network. In these first 10k miles, we've only needed the network on our drive to NC, and just for a little extra comfort coming back from Clearwater once.

The car seems to draw more attention now that the Model 3 has been announced. Folks ask the usual questions about charging and such. It also seems like a lot of the online communities are being permeated by the people who crave status, which is unfortunate because for the first few years it seems like Tesla customers were all about EV's and science and the technology. I think the dirty little secret about how much fun EV's can be is out, too.

I'm still not much of a car guy, and I still feel a sort of guilt over having an expensive car because it isn't necessary. I don't enjoy the cost. I also wish it was smaller. Rear seat cup holders and some door pockets wouldn't hurt either. That's about as critical as I can be. The flip side is that I very much appreciate the precision and performance of the engineering. You really can feel it at highway speed and in slowly pulling in the garage. Regenerative braking completely changes the way you approach slowing down. The crazy and instant torque, launching off the line at a green light, does not get old, because it's like having your own launched roller coaster. It's super comfortable, especially when you go for those longer trips.

Last month we had the Autopilot trial, and that was neat. That enables the features for auto-steering, stop-and-go cruise, automatic lane changing, etc. It's a $2,500 option, or $3k to enable after the fact. I don't think it's worth the money, but it is cool.

The technology and the smooth driving experience of an EV makes you never want to go back. I look forward to the day when this is the normal thing for everyone. Next year it gets a little closer with the Chevy Bolt and the Model 3 (and presumably an updated Nissan Leaf). I rented a gas car a few weeks ago on a quick trip and it just felt prehistoric. It's not even the environmental thing, it just feels inefficient and silly to burn something that makes thousands of tiny explosions over and over again to move.

I don't know how long we'll have this car, but I don't imagine that expensive cars will be in our garage five years down the road. Cheaper EV's are coming. For now, I'm just thrilled to be a part of the transition with a car that happens to be the only fun I've ever had owning a car.