This appliance provided an extraordinarily mundane experience – which is exactly what we wanted.

This guest editor piece was written by Ben Macdonald, CEO of Nodum, and was written in early January, prior to the US inauguration.

An appliance is a device or piece of equipment designed to perform a specific task. The task I wanted to perform was to get myself and my family from London to Dunfermline during the busy Christmas travel period. To this end, the Model Y and the Supercharger network were seemingly the best possible combination of appliances.

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Tesla Model Y and the Forth Rail Bridge at North Queensferry – I was hoping to bump into Gordon Brown.

The Model Y in question was a 2023 Dual Motor Long Range with about 7,500 miles on the clock. It was first registered in February 2024. This was a Tesla press demo car so you can be assured that it had plenty of journalists giving it a good workout.

Now you may think it a bit daft to write a review of a car that is about to be rendered old news by a major refresh – at the time of writing the Juniper Model Y has just been unveiled in the Chinese and Australian markets. However, I would argue that because the Model Y was one of the best selling cars in the UK for the past few years there will be plenty of availability in the second hand market – and possibly some amazing deals for any of the current (read old?) Model Y that Tesla has in stock. Whether new or second hand, this vehicle is likely to be many drivers’ first experience of EV ownership.

Moreover, this journey was as much about the experience of the charging network and journeying during a busy Christmas holiday period. The trip was completed using the Tesla Supercharger network. Spoiler alert – despite the roads being very busy with holiday traffic I did not have to queue once – nor did I witness anyone else queuing on any other charging network (except once – for less than 90 seconds).

Bank of Tesla Superchargers at Gretna. Shame there weren’t any facilities open – needed a wee!

The value proposition of driving an EV very much depends on your own values (more on this later). The Tesla represents good financial value – especially if you are a high mileage driver that often strays away from home and requires en-route charging. The highest price I paid at a Tesla Supercharger was 51p per kWh; this represents significant savings over many other fast charging CPOs. Imagine a scenario where a petrol station was offering liquid fuel with a third off? There would most definitely be queues.

The journey planning was effortless – I used the car’s onboard navigation system to plan the charging stops. Unfortunately I couldn’t figure out how to narrow down the options to ensure that we stop at the Motorway Service Area with the correct fast food outlet (according to my daughter). I am sure that there is a way to do this! Route planning and charging compared with the BMW i4 I did this trip with two summers ago was an absolute doddle.

Payments were simple and easy. As long as you have registered a card and car with Tesla it is just a case of plugging in, standing back and watching the magic happen. Charging always began within 30 seconds – and very quickly ramped up to over 200kW (if you were starting at a low state of charge).

The car

The night before we set off I said something foolish to my two passengers…”the car has two boots”. This meant by the time I had returned from collecting the car there was a mountain of luggage and various sundries on the living room floor that needed to squeeze into the car. This left me a little grumpy – but that didn’t last long because the car easily managed to pack it all in. We even managed to steal my father-in-laws trouser press for the return journey.

The boot is cavernous – easily managed to squeeze in this bit of loot for the return journey after filling up the frunk and the underfloor section in the back.

The driving experience was just what I wanted from this vehicle. As a man of a certain age I am not looking for drama or excitement. I just like to get to my destination safely, refreshed, and without any niggles in my back. The seats were comfy and thankfully the lumber support was adjustable (and offered as standard – take note BMW).

I certainly tried out all the “self-driving” technology that the car has and I think I arrived more refreshed than I would have had I been without them. However (and it is a big however) I really do not feel confident enough to rely on this technology. I struggle to understand how this has been marketed as “Full Self Driving” and “Autopilot” – it most definitely is not either of these. There was not one time that I had the technology engaged where I didn’t have at least one hand on the wheel, a foot semi-poised over the pedals and both eyes on the road ahead.

On two occasions the car phantom braked. The person following me surely freaked out at least as much as my daughter. She went from a half slumber to a full throated scream in the blink of an eye. The next time I am following a Tesla I will certainly leave a larger following distance! On another occasion the steering tried following some old road markings and – I had to gently nudge it back onto the correct lane.

In terms of overall impressions, I am reminded of that oft mentioned refrain where someone balances a 50p coin on the top of a Rolls Royce engine to highlight its refinement and poise. This combined with the waft-ability of a 12 cylinder engine was the height of British (later German?) engineering. I’d respectfully suggest that the Model Y would far exceed this refinement and power delivery. This is testament to the extraordinary progress that has been made over the last two decades – Henry Royce would have been impressed (with the drivetrain at least).

Ultimately I found this car a little too big for me and my needs. I would be much more inclined to go for a Model 3 sized vehicle as they are cheaper to run and much easier to navigate on British roads and in British carparks. If I was going for a Model Y, I would certainly forgo the optional turbine wheels – I have been told that they make the ride slightly more harsh and I they are easily kerbed. More importantly – they have a detrimental impact on the efficiency – and therefore range.

The infrastructure

We left London about midday with about 70% State Of Charge (SoC). The journey to Dunfermline involved just two stops along the way. The first one was for an early supper at Blyth services where we charged ourselves and the battery for 38 minutes adding 66 kWh of electricity at a cost of £32. Our next stop was at Gretna and lasted 20 minutes. This time we added 41 kWh of electricity for £16 – more than reasonable pricing.

If we work under the assumption that we had charged the car the night before the journey using a cheap overnight tariff, the journey would have set us back £52. Had this been on another CPO that charges 79p per kWh it would have cost closer to £85. The Supercharger network and the relative efficiency of the Model Y represents remarkable value – especially given the size of the vehicle. It is certainly less than what we would have spent on petrol had we taken our little asthmatic 3 pot VW Up!.

The journey on the way back took place during a very cold spell – which is exactly what I was hoping for to make this whole experience worthy of an article. We left with about 85% SoC with the mercury bobbing between -3 and -4 degrees celsius. Pre-conditioning in the morning the car was fantastic – and after saying the goodbyes we got into a warm car and headed south.

It was about half an hour into the journey when the combination of facing south and the salt buildup on the front window required attention. Unfortunately the sub zero conditions and wind chill meant that the windscreen washer nozzles within the wiper blades had frozen over. With the sun directly ahead this resulted in some very challenging driving conditions.

Salty – this impacted many drivers. A lot of vehicles with legacy powertrains were on the hard shoulder busy cleaning their windscreens.

I assumed that this may be just an issue with a vehicle that lacks an internal combustion engine to provide the warmth – but was very quickly made aware that many vehicles with ‘legacy’ power trains were also suffering. A driver who was in the process of passing us around a gentle bend suddenly had the sun in their eyes and could not see out their windscreen. They dangerously crossed in front of me and braked with purpose on the hard shoulder – joining another couple of dozen vehicles that clearly were suffering from the same problem.

After rapidly conducting a risk assessment in my head I continued to drive to the next off-ramp. Over the next 100 miles we drove at about 50 mph and stopped three times to clean the windscreen. Eventually we were far enough south for the windscreen wipers to work (combined with the fact that there was a lot less salt on the road). Obviously there are low temperature screen washes available which would result in this being a non-issue.

The cold did result in longer charging times – although the preconditioning of the battery meant that every time we arrived at a charger we were able to gulp down the electrons very quickly for the first ten minutes or so.

In total 74 minutes were spent charging as opposed to 58 minutes – this would have been partly due to the cold – but also the fact that I set the journey planner up so that I would arrive with 20% SoC. This would ensure that I could return the car to the Tesla Centre on the other side of London in the morning without having to stop to charge (it’s a great feature!). Ultimately, 15 minutes seems like very little difference given we were driving 435 miles.

The value proposition

Now, this leads me onto a point I left hanging in the fifth paragraph. Values.

Tesla is one of those rare multinationals where it is almost impossible to separate the company from the man. This is a very real shame given some of the fantastic and talented employees who have helped Tesla achieve some remarkable feats over the last two decades. Musk’s recent foray into politics in the US and gamesmanship with politics globally is an issue.

The power that exists from his wealth, his media influence and subsequent proximity to lawmakers is something that we have not seen in post World War liberal democracies. There will be reverberations and ramifications that we cannot predict – from my perspective I am not minded to give money to a person that refers to a British lawmaker as a “witch”.

I feel I could write a lot more about this as I am certainly not one that tends to genuflect. However, I will leave it to the reader to decide where they stand on this particular issue as values tend to dance between the broader cultural norms and the personal.

Ultimately this journey served to prove a few of key points:

  1. EVs are more than fit for purpose.
  2. The Tesla Model Y is an exceptional vehicle to journey with.
  3. The infrastructure along some of the major routes in the UK is being built out at speed and scale and is more than keeping up with demand.
  4. Driving an EV has the same issues as any other vehicle – congestion and weather will impact your experience.

Many thanks to Kirsty and Daniel at Tesla for helping with this review of the car and infrastructure.

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