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Regular readers of Business Insider know that we write rather frequently about Elon Musk and Tesla, his electric car maker. That's because he's a fascinating character, Tesla is a fascinating company — and we know you like reading about both.
I've been a passenger in plenty of Teslas over the years, and have friends who own one — but I'd never been behind the wheel to really get a feel of what it's like to drive one.
I figured there was only one way to resolve this problem: rent a Tesla. As I picked a holiday weekend in the UK last month to do so, none seemed available from rental firms, so I found a shiny grey 2022 Model 3 on Turo (despite imposing a frankly outrageous "service" fee.)
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Gaining access to the Tesla was a clever procedure. I downloaded the Tesla app on my iPhone and the owner added me to his account, meaning no physical key was needed. This was just as well as the owner was away at the time. (I'm not quite sure what would've happened if I'd lost my phone during the rental, though. And the tech has not been faultless either.
So on this sunny Saturday my friend, who was visiting from Atlanta, and I set off from east London for Oxford — a journey of about 80 miles, which nevertheless took well over two hours because British roads are not quite as wide as those in America.
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Connecting my iPhone to the audio system was simple and there are convenient twin cordless charging pads built into the central console. The soundtrack for our trip included Dua Lipa's "Radical Optimism" and the latest Pet Shop Boys album, "Nonetheless." Both sounded great through the car's array of speakers.
What I found incongruous, though, was the fake wood paneling on the dashboard. It feels completely out of place, and I have no idea why it's there. (Tesla wisely got rid of the "wood" in the recent Model 3 refresh.)
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The Tesla's interior is dominated by an enormous touchscreen that controls every function of the car. It serves up a cavalcade of information and I often found it difficult to hit the right bit of the screen without taking my eyes off the road, though I admit it makes navigation easier.
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The lane assist and hazard warning technology can often be too clever for its own good, getting overexcited about supposed dangers that are nothing of the sort.
The trunk is cavernous, and could easily accommodate the luggage of four or even five people.
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The Model 3 is a very quiet drive, as you might expect of any contemporary EV. It handles well and does pretty much everything you might expect such a car to do, but I just couldn't shake off the feeling that something was missing. If I had to sum it up in a sentence, it'd be this: the Tesla was just a bit boring.
Maybe it's comparable to a movie or TV show with a three-star review — I either want it to be really great, or really bad. Being somewhere in the middle is just "meh." And I suspect this is going to be one of Tesla's biggest problems in the coming years.
Back in the day, if you wanted to show you cared to some degree about the environment (and had fairly deep pockets), driving a Tesla was a no-brainer — as long as you had a garage with a Powerwall and didn't make lots of long trips, that is. (I opted to return my Model 3 without recharging it, so I can't comment on the difficulty of finding somewhere to plug in the car — but I'm glad I didn't have to.)
Tesla now has plenty of competition from legacy automakers, its vehicles are still reasonably expensive and some of the people who bought them in the past might not be repeat customers for a variety of reasons (delete Elon Musk's politics, resale values etc etc as appropriate.)
Then there's the realization by some drivers and manufacturers, too, that hybrids might be a better bridge to a greener motoring world than pure electric.
Nevertheless, it's worth noting that Tesla increased its share of the US car market in the first quarter to 51.3%, with Ford a distant second on 7.4%.
I'm grateful I got to take the Model 3 for a spin so I could make up my own mind, but sorry Elon — I'm still no Tesla fanboy.
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