Happy Mother’s Day - Here is a Tesla

My Dad and I drove to Ohio to pick up the Tesla Model 3, which I had traded for my beloved BMW Z4MC. At the time, buying a Tesla in Michigan was illegal due to the franchise rules. It was bittersweet as we took the road trip to, sight unseen, pick up the vehicle I had purchased online. Alicia and I knew with the impending arrival of our child, the 2 seater would only get a little use in our household. We had batted around getting another BMW, Audi, or Volvo. Still, in the end, I did the math and figured an electric car would be suitable. My transition from aerospace & defence to renewable energy sealed the deal. I already took the risk of changing career fields, so why not take another and switch to an EV in rural Michigan?

I told Alicia it was her Mother’s Day gift, and with that, we started our EV journey.

We are now five years into ownership and have driven nearly 100,000 miles. We have made 10-plus-hour road trips across the US but mainly driven around Michigan. It is hard to do the exact math, but if we use round numbers, we have saved 10k USD on fuel over the past five years. Those numbers are skewed, given that three years ago, we installed Solar and batteries at the house. That, plus switching to a Time-of-Use rate, means our electricity rate is much lower; thus, the numbers are better.

In the past five years, we have done little more than put wipers and tyres on the car. I regret picking the model we did, though—performance tires and rims are less than ideal on a dirt road. I wish we had the Model Y as an option at the time, but all-in-all, we will never go back to a traditional ICE Vehicle.

It is the only car I have owned that has gotten better with time. Software updates are nifty. That said, Tesla has a ton of work to do. Build quality is not great, and the maintenance and dealer network near us is meh at best. Looking back, I think it was the right call.

Alicia named the car Ada’s Chariot. I wonder if the vehicle will be around in another 10 years when Ada is old enough to drive and can inherit her “Chariot.” Part of me wonders if, 10 years on, we will even be driving our cars anymore. With the FSD beta last month, I grew more & more reluctant to believe this isn’t us in the previous stages of the modern horse and buggy.