Tesla Model 3 - V3.0

but all 4 are showing the valid to September date so not been updated.

if you apply for finance now, but car not delivered until Jan/feb I assume they can change terms as they wish then the ball is back to you to accept or let the car go.

might ring them direct and ask when get a chance.

I am flip flopping between the the SR and the LR rwd. SR is stonking good value. But the LR woukd eliminate range anxiety fully.

Also worth remembering that your CU loan is insured so if you die while still owing money on the car then the loan is cleared and your family will have the car to keep or sell whereas with normal finance your family will need to keep up payments or the finance company with take the car back.

Up to the individual to decide what's best for their circumstances.

+1

I have a M3 SR since April and travel for work between Louth, Meath and Dublin.

The only non-home charging that I had to do was a trip in August from Co Louth to West Cork and back. Two stops down for fifteen minutes each (Ballacolla and Mahon Point to have a "full tank" for the weekend) and one stop on the way back in Ballacolla.

By the time coffee was bought, I was charged. My previous car was a BMW diesel and I'd stop anyway to re-fuel and get a coffee.

Unless you are driving 500km every day, range anxiety is a nonsense.

I've confirmed directly with finance Ireland that Tesla will honour the rates at order date, so nothing to worry about if the car is not delivered until Feb / Mar 2025

The WLTP for the LR RWD is 703km which in reality means it's more like 600km when charged to 100%. If you can only use 80% of that then the useful range drops to 480km, let's say 500km for arguments sake.

I don't know too many people who need to drive 500km in a day nevermind 500km without needing to stop for a break.

Also you're paying a sizeable premium for what is in essence an additional 100km over the SR RWD...granted I know the LR RWD can do 600km if you're really pushed but come on for every day use I don't see the value in the LR RWD.

I have a SR and would drive from Waterford to Louth fairly frequently. With a fully charged LFP battery I get there with about 42% battery remaining generally. I literally need to charge for about 7 mins at the ionity to get home. I always have to stop in my diesel for dinner anyway and the car has more than enough charge in it well before I finish my sandwich.

Range anxiety is total BS driven by the media and people without EVs that don't know what they are talking about. Yeah im sure it existed back in the day in old leafs etc but not with any modern EV. The RWD LR would mean in theory I wouldn't have to stop at all on that regular ling return trip. If it was around at the time I bought a couple of months ago I'd probably get it as its great value but in reality the SR is more than enough in a very small country like Ireland.

I don’t know why people get so stressed about only charging to 80% when they’re going to be trading the car back in in 3 years time. I charge mine to 100% all the time and will continue to do so for the foreseeable

Did you read any misinformation on boards recently?

I don't think anyone has mentioned that you can't charge the NCM batteries to 100%. In fact you should, if you plan to drive a longer journey.

When I first had my MY LR, it suggested to charge to 90% for the 'daily' journey. A couple of updates later, it had dropped to 80% for the daily charge suggested level. So Tesla explicitly reduced it for some reason.

I agree that you won't likely have much degradation on the NCM batteries should you charge to 100% most of the time although regular DC charging to 100% will increase the degradation on the battery. Plenty of videos on this around you tube

Keep the money and get Solar put in if you don't have it already. I drove Cork - Eindhoven - Cork though the UK with a bit of a detour through France in a M3 RWD during the summer, never had a second of range anxiety and drove 3 hr stints between charging mostly on the longer legs.

It's better to charge to 100% from a low SOC than keep it in the 75-100% range all the time.

I've not heard that particular fact previously. I've regularly heard people say the opposite in that deep charge / discharge cycles impact the battery more that shallow cycles and that maintaining the battery between 60% and 80% is optimum long term. Can be difficult to identify misinformation at time goes on.

As for propagating a view that ev drivers can mistreat their EV battery all they like as they'll be getting rid after 3 years anyway seem to justify the increased depn on used ev prices in recent times.

These are the research studies which support my statement

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/1945-7111/ad6cbd/pdf

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9209759

The first study showed that repeatedly cycling between 75-100% SOC leads to faster capacity fade than cycling over the full 0-100% range, or a lower range like 0-25%, 0-60%, or 0-80% which would be better ranges to prevent LFP battery fade.
The researchers recommend operating LFP cells at lower SOC ranges for extended lifespan, charging to 100% only occasionally. They propose 0-80% or 0-60% as reasonable compromise to balance usable capacity with longevity.
Jason from Engineering Explained made a video about it.

Just shows that commonly held beliefs are not necessarily deliberate misinformation. It's a very complex topic even for people who have a keen interest in the area. And we wonder why people who just see a car as a means of getting from A to B have difficulty understanding these complexities and continue to stick with their ICEs.

I wonder how many of these non car anoracks would have an idea of the differences between NMC and LFP batteries. Eyes glazing over time.