Tesla Model 3 becomes best-selling car in Switzerland • Hacker News Board

Re: Tesla Model 3 becomes best-selling car in Switzerland

#61

Post by sailfast » Wed, Apr 10, 2019, 2:42 PM UTC

Reason077 wrote: post #34

leejo wrote: post #19

Anecdata from someone living in a small Swiss village (c. 1,500 residents outside the ski season): - I see a handful of Teslas around the village. I would guesstimate 5 local residents own them. - The local taxi firm has a couple even. - Filling stations on the autoroutes have the charging points (at least in Romandy) - The country is small so, hey, it seems ideal I'd like to get one but it doesn't fit my use case (n…

The Tesla Model 3 is very capable of long road trips, especially in the summer, with a range of 500km or more. The only exception would be if you’re driving in very remote areas with no charging infrastructure, but that almost doesn’t exist any more in Western Europe. The Tesla Supercharger network, combined with its ability to charge on CCS charging networks like Ionity, make it uniquely suited to long distance trav…

For a Model 3 even with readily available charging that still means ~1 hour waiting on a supercharger per charge, and you've gotta do that 2-3x to get from, say, Amsterdam to Kitzbuhel for a skiing road trip. Figure 15 Euro minimum to use the charger during that time? (I'm using range numbers and charging costs available on the web to run this calculation)

I know it's _possible_ to get somewhere without range anxiety but 20% added time plus 30-45 Euro for the privilege to do that is a serious downside.

If you only do this a couple times a year and the rest of your driving is local then this makes sense, but I don't know that for regular long-range drivers this argument works.

Re: Tesla Model 3 becomes best-selling car in Switzerland

#62

Post by mrweasel » Wed, Apr 10, 2019, 2:42 PM UTC

sorenjan wrote: post #57

leejo wrote: post #19

Anecdata from someone living in a small Swiss village (c. 1,500 residents outside the ski season): - I see a handful of Teslas around the village. I would guesstimate 5 local residents own them. - The local taxi firm has a couple even. - Filling stations on the autoroutes have the charging points (at least in Romandy) - The country is small so, hey, it seems ideal I'd like to get one but it doesn't fit my use case (n…

Why buy a car you'll own and pay for the whole year based on the usage for a few weeks? Wouldn't it make more sense to rent a road trip car when you need it?

I don't know about Switzerland, but renting a car is pretty expensive in some countries. So buying something like a Tesla, or another car, with high resale value may be the better deal, even if you only need it for a month or two a year.

Re: Tesla Model 3 becomes best-selling car in Switzerland

#63

Post by trca » Wed, Apr 10, 2019, 2:43 PM UTC

leejo wrote: post #19

Anecdata from someone living in a small Swiss village (c. 1,500 residents outside the ski season): - I see a handful of Teslas around the village. I would guesstimate 5 local residents own them. - The local taxi firm has a couple even. - Filling stations on the autoroutes have the charging points (at least in Romandy) - The country is small so, hey, it seems ideal I'd like to get one but it doesn't fit my use case (n…

I have a Model 3 and have gone on multiple long-distance road trips (>1,000 mile) with it. It's an absolute pleasure to drive with AutoPilot. Plus, most people already stop every 3-4 hours for bathroom/food breaks anyway, so if you use the in-car nav system (Google Maps), it will make it so those stops are at superchargers. The supercharger stops are almost always in high-density places with plenty of restaurants and usually are ~30minutes which I've found is the perfect time to do all the bathroom/food purchases you would need for the next leg of the trip. Plus with Supercharger V3 rolling out in the next few months, those stops will shrink to just 15 minutes for 80% battery.

Re: Tesla Model 3 becomes best-selling car in Switzerland

#64

Post by addflip » Wed, Apr 10, 2019, 2:43 PM UTC

js2 wrote: post #21

leejo wrote: post #19

Anecdata from someone living in a small Swiss village (c. 1,500 residents outside the ski season): - I see a handful of Teslas around the village. I would guesstimate 5 local residents own them. - The local taxi firm has a couple even. - Filling stations on the autoroutes have the charging points (at least in Romandy) - The country is small so, hey, it seems ideal I'd like to get one but it doesn't fit my use case (n…

A Chevy Volt would be perfect for your use case. Disclosure: happy Volt owner that my wife drives 95% around town with the occasional 120-300 mi road trip.

Unfortunately GM has decided to discontinue the Volt. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chevy-volt-discontinued-chevrol...

Re: Tesla Model 3 becomes best-selling car in Switzerland

#65

Post by lazyjones » Wed, Apr 10, 2019, 2:43 PM UTC

sschueller wrote: post #7

Out of those 1,094, 9 are already on AutoScout24 for sale starting at CHF 64k. [1] https://www.autoscout24.ch/de/autos/tesla--model-3?make=391&...

For comparison, 186 Audi e-tron are listed there: https://www.autoscout24.de/lst/audi/e-tron?sort=standard&des... - with total sales in Germany being 571 in March.

Audi, just like other german car makers are well known for making their dealers purchase cars for inflated statistics ( https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tageszulassung ).

Re: Tesla Model 3 becomes best-selling car in Switzerland

#66

Post by Ma8ee » Wed, Apr 10, 2019, 2:44 PM UTC

sorenjan wrote: post #57

leejo wrote: post #19

Anecdata from someone living in a small Swiss village (c. 1,500 residents outside the ski season): - I see a handful of Teslas around the village. I would guesstimate 5 local residents own them. - The local taxi firm has a couple even. - Filling stations on the autoroutes have the charging points (at least in Romandy) - The country is small so, hey, it seems ideal I'd like to get one but it doesn't fit my use case (n…

Why buy a car you'll own and pay for the whole year based on the usage for a few weeks? Wouldn't it make more sense to rent a road trip car when you need it?

Yes! This is something that I have wondered for a long time. Why do people buy a car that covers all possible usecases for all year around instead of buying one that is ideal for daily use and then rent a bigger car for the week or two when you need it? It would be better for the wallet and for the environment.

Re: Tesla Model 3 becomes best-selling car in Switzerland

#67

Post by Ntrails » Wed, Apr 10, 2019, 2:45 PM UTC

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #42

Reason077 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Tesla Model 3 is very capable of long road trips, especially in the summer, with a range of 500km or more. The only exception would be if you’re driving in very remote areas with no charging infrastructure, but that almost doesn’t exist any more in Western Europe. The Tesla Supercharger network, combined with its ability to charge on CCS charging networks like Ionity, make it uniquely suited to long distance trav…

You can drive a manual in stop and go traffic (and I don't mean that suburban sprawl "run through the gears between each stop light" type of stop and go you get in some places, I mean like going 10-30ft at a time between stops). That doesn't make it not obviously worse for the task than an automatic. The extra cognitive load of having to worry about range and where you're going to charge is a pain in the butt that mo…

> You can drive a manual in stop and go traffic. That doesn't make it not obviously worse for the task than an automatic.

It's weird, I've never actually thought of changing gear as a hassle or something that makes driving un-fun. Stop and go traffic is a game, where the goal is to not brake. Gears give me an additional way to achieve that goal. For me it's way more engaging and helps me pay more attention to the road...

Re: Tesla Model 3 becomes best-selling car in Switzerland

#68

Post by leejo » Wed, Apr 10, 2019, 2:47 PM UTC

sorenjan wrote: post #57

leejo wrote: post #19

Anecdata from someone living in a small Swiss village (c. 1,500 residents outside the ski season): - I see a handful of Teslas around the village. I would guesstimate 5 local residents own them. - The local taxi firm has a couple even. - Filling stations on the autoroutes have the charging points (at least in Romandy) - The country is small so, hey, it seems ideal I'd like to get one but it doesn't fit my use case (n…

Why buy a car you'll own and pay for the whole year based on the usage for a few weeks? Wouldn't it make more sense to rent a road trip car when you need it?

I do use the car outside the long trips. Looking at my mileage graph over the past 5 years[1] my usage is short trips in the winter/spring then much longer road trips in the summer/autumn. The spikes you see on it (2,000km plus) are generally single road trips.

[1] https://imgur.com/a/35POl8r

Re: Tesla Model 3 becomes best-selling car in Switzerland

#69

Post by wil421 » Wed, Apr 10, 2019, 2:47 PM UTC

Ma8ee wrote: post #66

sorenjan wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why buy a car you'll own and pay for the whole year based on the usage for a few weeks? Wouldn't it make more sense to rent a road trip car when you need it?

Yes! This is something that I have wondered for a long time. Why do people buy a car that covers all possible usecases for all year around instead of buying one that is ideal for daily use and then rent a bigger car for the week or two when you need it? It would be better for the wallet and for the environment.

I have a car payment, pay to maintain my car, and fees to drive it. Why would I buy a car knowing I would have to rent a car several times a year to go on vacation?

Re: Tesla Model 3 becomes best-selling car in Switzerland

#70

Post by leesec » Wed, Apr 10, 2019, 2:49 PM UTC

coding123 wrote: post #58

leesec wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pleasure of driving for me does not come from making thousands of micro-adjustments constantly, in fact that's what makes a road trip exhausting. Autopilot reduces the stress and decision fatigue.

I don't get this. Isn't it nightmarish since no one has any idea when it will veer into some random object?

I'm not closing my eyes and going to sleep. I'm paying attention I just don't have to gas/break/adjust steering wheel every single second.

MIT just did a study and found the warnings and driver vigilance in Autopilot was sufficient enough to maintain safe driving.

https://hcai.mit.edu/human-side-of-tesla-autopilot/