Unhappy Tesla Owner!
By Paul Homewood
This letter to the editor was printed in the Inverness Oran in Feb 2024. (Given the detail, I have no reason to believe it is not genuine):
February 28, 2024
Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to a letter in the February 14th publication entitled, “Benefits of Electric Vehicles.” My husband and I drive a 2021 Long Range Tesla Model 3. My hope is to shed some light on what it is like living in Inverness County with an electric vehicle.
For a bit of context, I am not your run-of-the-mill naysayer. We’ve been driving an EV for the last three years, we are organic farmers, we lived in a fully off-grid, solar powered home for eight years, and we attended that big Greta Thunberg inspired climate change march in Halifax back in 2019. I feel slightly embarrassed about sharing this so publicly because I truly feel that we got duped by clever and persuasive EV/doomsday marketing. After reading Paul Strome’s letter, featuring all those key marketing points, I felt compelled to write in. Here is our electric car experience:
2021 – Rosy new car: Wow! This is great!
– The car was more expensive up front, but it only costs about $14 to “fill the tank” and we can conveniently charge with our Level 2 charger at home whenever we want. That will more than make up for the initial cost over time, considering the price of gas!
– No pesky oil changes and Tesla’s titanium shield under the car means no repairs due to rust! Great – more savings!
– When going to Halifax, we need to recharge at the Enfield Supercharger. Recharging takes 18 minutes, but no big deal: bathroom break, stretch your legs, get a coffee; just minor adjustments to how we drove with a gas car.
Not-so-nice realizations from year one:
– The undulating, electric hum while the car charges for seven hours permeates our entire home and yard. Is that healthy?
– Needing to exit the vehicle for 20 minutes at the Supercharger because it feels very unhealthy to be in such a high voltage environment while it’s charging. Rain, shine, snow or sleet – Everybody out!
– Learning that every time you recharge the battery, the battery life decreases. It actually can damage the battery to charge to 100 per cent and it is advised that you don’t charge more than 80 per cent for day-to-day use.
2022 – One-year-old car:
– Can still make it to Sydney and back, but we shouldn’t make many detours if we want to make it home again. Having to stop in Baddeck for two hours to “juice up” just to make the 40-minute journey home doesn’t make much sense…
– Can still make it to the Enfield Supercharger when going to Halifax, but no detours. Stick to the highway or else.
Christmas 2023 – 2.5-year-old car:
Heading to the Valley Christmas Eve (outside temperature is -5oC).
– “I don’t think we’re going to make it to the Supercharger…” “What the heck! We’re definitely not going to make it!” The whole family, plus two dogs, wandered around Truro for 1.5 hours, in the cold twilight while charging just enough to make it to the Enfield Supercharger.
– With everyone’s spirits low, we wander around the Enfield Big Stop parking lot in the cold while the car charges for 35 minutes. Can’t bring the dogs into Timmy’s and staying in the car while it’s charging feels like every hair on your body is getting charged up too.
– Charge up again at the New Minas Supercharger, just in case, because the wall plug at Grandma’s takes days to charge the car and we can’t believe how poorly the car is performing.
Coming home after Christmas:
– Leave Middleton. Stop at the Supercharger in New Minas for 10 minutes to add some charge. Everyone out into the cold!
– Leave New Minas. Stop in Enfield to fully recharge for 35 minutes. Everybody out into the cold: Kids, dogs; everyone. It’s windy and half raining/half snowing. How wonderfully modern and convenient it is to drive an EV!
– Make it back home with six per cent. Phew!
January 2024 – 2.5-year-old car:
– 10oC, but dropping, so range is dropping too.
– Husband arrives at Enfield Supercharger. Relief!
– Enfield supercharger is down. Neither the car nor Telsa phone app notified him; 9:00 p.m. on a Sunday. No indication of when/if the charger will turn on again. Car is at three per cent. Not enough power to keep the heat on, let alone drive to a motel. Other EV drivers there are all cursing their cars and their decisions…
– After an hour of being stranded, the chargers come online again.
– 60 minutes to recharge after going so low and it being so cold out. Two hours, stuck at the Enfield Big Stop!
February 2024 (last week) – 2.5-year-old car
– We are driving home from the airport. I’m driving my 2012 Toyota Matrix (680 km/tank). I have to go pick up the dogs from the boarder, just outside Antigonish. It’s too big of a detour for the “Long Range” Tesla to handle.
– Even with that detour, I make it home first. The Tesla took 60 minutes to charge in Enfield. It takes longer to charge a cold battery, but surely they should be home by now…
– My husband finally made it home. He crawled home, with the heat turned off, because he was trying to conserve power. Made it home with six per cent.
We’ve looked into it: There is nothing wrong with our car. This is just the natural diminishing of an EV battery over time, combined with fairly mild NS winter driving.
This is what range anxiety looks like! It is not, as Paul Strome so kindly put it, “for those drivers who have trouble paying attention to their fuel gauge.” Range anxiety means constantly paying attention to your fuel gauge and crossing your fingers and toes, hoping you’re going to make it! It’s leaving home with a “full tank” to go 290 km and worrying about not arriving!
The February 14th letter features all of the dealership, government, and activist talking points. None of it is based on the real life experience of a rural EV owner. The “official range” of EVs is not based in reality. Only on the first day out of the factory (if it’s sunny, with no wind, temps between 15-20oC, on a straight stretch road with no hills) would our car ever live up to its range expectations.
Speaking as a former climate change activist and current EV driver, I can only see EVs working if you live in a big city and never plan on leaving that big city. The last thing we should be pushing for is to phase out internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035 in Canada. Yes, we absolutely have to take better care of our planet, but EVs make zero sense in the real world.
Hilary Mueller
Mabou
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Paul – you might explain that this is not in the UK but in Canada. She is referring to Halifax Nova Scotia (see one reference to NS). No-one in Scotland refers to Inverness County. While Scotland sometimes gets cold the temperature never gets down to -50C. None of that changes the core points that she is making.
I went Scotland*, a non-Scot writing, Australia (Solar PV) and finally Canada.
*Òran = song
As they are off grid and charging takes 7 hours I am guessing they have a fairly large capacity battery enough to cover charging, domestic and farm demand.
A hefty investment to save the planet.
It’s revealed at the end. Perhaps it was a test!
I too was left a little confused about Inverness:-) We have a huge controversy unfolding up here in the frozen N. Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks have launched a consultation to build a 5 GW power line from Kintore (Aberdeenshire) to Tealing – just N of Dundee. The pylons are twice the height of normal. There is widespread anxiety about the impacts on health of a 400kV / 5 GW line. Any infos?
Since January, I have been writing a paper on the impossibility of net zero. Local politicians have been strenuously opposing the scheme that is phase 1 of a line that will eventually begin in Beauly and terminate somewhere in the Midlands of England – bonkers. I sent an email to a small group of Tory politicians pointing out that they are responsible for this creating the need for grid everywhere. The result was indignation – they simply don’t understand that creating a policy for 50 GW offshore wind has created the need for grid and pumped hydro storage everywhere.
@ Gordon, I don’t think we know each other but I gather you have done quite a bit of work on the feasibility of net zero. If you could please send me what you have published. My co-author will be Didier Sornette. Our last paper on the Swiss energy plan was accepted at Energy Policy after two weeks.
blimey I’d love to see it too. Fresh from a ‘discussion’ on decarbonising aviation with a neighbour. He was quite offended at my description of his intellectual capacity when he suggested biofuels.
Euan – I can provide quite a lot of information relevant to the proposed grid extension but it is best to correspond separately about that.
I know that your Energy Matters website is no longer active so please send your contact details to my public University email address which is: gordon.hughes@ed.ac.uk . All my students and many others have it, which is why I don’t use a pseudonym in these posts.
I’ve observed the wind turbine array through off Aberdeen, occasionally one or two them aren’t spinning whilst the rest are. At the same time Gridwatch doesn’t show particularly high wind power. Ot could be a maintenence issue but I wonder if they’re curtailing output because the existing lines physically can’t get enough power over the border?
If it’s of any help, I did a little back of an envelope calculation on how long it would take mankind’s CO2 emissions to double pre industrial levels of 280ppm to 560ppm, being that we only have 140ppm left to go.
It’s based on factual numbers accepted by both sides of the debate which assumes that mankind’s emissions are 100% responsible for warming.
It was criticised because it averaged out mankind’s CO2 emissions from 1850 until today because CO2 rise is not linear (apparently every scientists is allowed to do that but I’m not) however, adjust the figures to use the date from which CO2 was first recorded around 1960 at Mauna Loa and the number is still silly.
Assuming anthropogenic CO2 is 100% responsible for warming, how long before mankind’s emissions double from 280ppm in 1850 to 560ppm at which point global temperatures are predicted to reach a catastrophic 2ºC above preindustrial?
The accepted numbers (largely):
1850 atmospheric CO2 levels: 280ppm (parts per million) (Vostok Ice Core).
2024 atmospheric CO2 levels: 420ppm. (Mauna Loa observatory)
3% being mankind’s contribution to the Carbon Cycle (IPCC)
How much CO2 has mankind emitted since 1850:
Subtract 280ppm from 420ppm = 140ppm divided by 174 years (2024 – 1850) = average of 0.8046ppm annual total increase of CO2.
Mankind is responsible for 3% of that CO2: 0.8046ppm x 3% = 0.0241ppm.
How long before mankind’s CO2 contributions take to raise CO2 levels from 420ppm (today) to 560ppm:
560ppm – 420ppm = 140ppm ÷ 0.0241ppm = 5,809 years
That was easy. But there’s more:
To establish how much we would alleviate warming by 2050 (26 years’ time) if we eliminate 100% of mankind’s CO2 emissions today:
2ºC ÷ 5,809 years x 26 years = 0.009ºC.
What is that per annum?
0.009 ÷ 26 = 0.0003ºC per annum.
Remember, these are not my numbers, they are the numbers climate alarmists are evangelical about.
Nor am I attempting to prove whether CO2 causes warming or not, I’m accepting what the extreme alarmists contend, that anthropogenic CO2 is 100% responsible for warming. I don’t believe it, but they do.
Looking at the other temperature numbers I think that -50C and -100C are misprints for -5 oC and -10 oC . A temperature of -50 Celsius for Nova Scotia is unlikely surely given its maritime , rather than continental, location. Possibly Inverness -Scotland experiences temperatures of -5 , so perhaps a word of caution to would be Tesla owners there.
You are very clearly correct Mike. The lowest ever temperature recorded in Nova Scotia is nowhere near as low as “-50C” so clearly something ain’t right. It looks like Inverness NS and Inverness, Scotland have very similar climates.
p.s.” -50C” is seriously life threateningly cold in minutes.
Also the battery fire risks, the exorbitant cost of insurance, plummeting resale values and the fact that it takes tens of thousands of miles of driving to “recoup” the CO2 emissions that go into the manufacture of the vehicle (depending on the local grid “greenness”).
the exorbitant cost of insurance
I’ve not seen an actual comparison of this. That is, several similar vehicles, similar drivers, and so on, using a couple of insurance company’s rates. I only know what it costs me for my standard gas vehicle.
Not a rigorous comparison, I know, but I’ve seen many anecdotal stories of sky-high insurance premiums for EV cars. Here is a fun piece by Katie Hopkins: https://x.com/wideawake_media/status/1738247676016079034?s=20
We knew all this without offering our real greens to the FAKE greens!
El-cars only make sense without huge batteries on a road with induction lanes powering the car, or batteries that doesn’t need materials dug out of the ground by slaves, children and women.
Also, el-cars only make sense if there’s an abundance of cheap reliable electricity (nuclear!), and finally, el-cars only make sense if there’s no more oil left ..
So, not this week!!
Joining a Climate March with Greta tells us a lot about why this family was easily duped into buying an EV
Yep, not a sympathetic character.
Interesting article….
Tim McCoy 07940 888109Sent from my iPhone
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Just how much longer are the PTB going to cling to the concept of Net Zero with intermittent wind and solar generation, as the replacement for hydrocarbons.
It is not going to work in the time scale proposed, there is a severe risk of blackouts and then what happens to heat pumps and BEVs.
Although the latest investment in gas fired generation is welcome, it comes at a cost which has to be paid by all industry and consumers. UK electricity is some of the most expensive in the world, not helped by OFGEM keeping the cap higher than necessary.
https://open.substack.com/pub/davidturver/p/why-is-my-energy-bill-so-high-comrade?r=8t75y&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
EV’s have a role to play, but it is limited to city driving only, range alone dictates that it is just not possible to travel any distance over 100miles ( 50 out, 50 back), there are too many variables involved- heater on/off, a/c on/off, lights on/off, hills, temperature- considerations you never even thought about when driving an ICE.
Just refuelled my petrol Skoda ‘23 plate, 6mins to fill, total time 11mins due to the queue.
Oh well……
if you can carefully plan your route, well in advance, you can probably easily enough travel six or seven hundred miles a day in a long range Tesla. And you can find a fair number of YouTube videos where people do exactly that, e car enthusiasts see this and loudly declare “range anxiety is for idiots!”. The thing is, most people don’t use a car that way, the whole point of a car is the flexibility, if you have to rigidly stick to a plan you might as well take the train or plane. And if you’ve got a family… or indeed, friends(!), anything that might complicate your best laid plans, don’t get an ecar!
Strikes me as being wholly counterproductive if you have to ‘use’ an EV a certain way, e.g. just for town driving, necessitating a 2nd, normal, car for everything else. That’s 2 lots of VED, 2 lots of insurance, 2 lots of parking space, 2 lots of servicing, 2 lots of tyres, brake pads, lubrication, etc.
My friend took the bait, drove his Tesla to Atlanta.
Nightmare. Driving around strange places looking for chargers, one that was actually working. Strictly local use, charge at home for him now.
Ilma, in US, most people have two cars, or a car and a pickup truck.
“A tender-hearted woman saw a poor half-frozen snake . . . .”
Al Wilson….I claim my £5
You gonna split it with Google?
Hilary Mueller should be commended for writing this letter. Less robust individuals might just go quietly into the mist. The “rest of the story” will be what is to be done with the 3-year-old Tesla, including its resale or trade-in value.
Oh, my!
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/03/hertz-ceo-resigns-blowing-big-gamble-evs/
Who is the unhappiest Tesla owner?
Not Mr Scherr. Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr’s total compensation of $182 million made him the third highest–paid chief executive in the U.S. $178 million of that is stock options ‘structured to vest through 2026’ which may explain why he took prompt action.
https://www.gulfshorebusiness.com/gb_daily/hertzs-stephen-scherr-among-highest-paid-ceos-in-u-s/
Mr Scherr can now afford a Tesla.
I see he was really a merchant banker (how appropriate!) with 30 years at the Vampire Squid.
A lesson in CEO recruitment.
I’ve not heard the noise I made as I sniggered since Mutley and Dick Dastardly and the wacky races.
Needing to exit the vehicle for 20 minutes at the Supercharger because it feels very unhealthy to be in such a high voltage environment while it’s charging. Rain, shine, snow or sleet – Everybody out!
These greens are so sophisticated. Should you stay in the car, high voltage would slowly creep into your body, and kill you over next week 🙂
It’s absolutely ridiculous to stay out of the car when it’s charging. Inside, it’s part of a Faraday cage (look it up!) so no electrical field will be present. And even if there was a field, no current can flow unless you get out of the car and stuff wires into the connectors – outside!
Perhaps she hates her family as much as she hates everyone else.
Might catch fire – would help ward off the cold I’spose.
Somebody is going to take a bath when the cost accountants come to look at the residuals for contract leased vehicles. That might gratify some who have no interest in promoting EVs .
If the numbers are large the banking sector is going to suffer the sort of damage that was done done in 2008 when the domestic mortgage market collapsed and govts. had to bail out the banks.
WOW Here in Australia, with lots of distances to travel, our silly govt is pushing for EV’s to be the principle mode of transport in personal, trade and freight vehicles. I Wish mor people could tead this