You don't really need either of these because if you own this car, you're actually gonna use your cell phone, which I'm filming with uh, as your key. So I have this here and there's some weird things I'm gonna do with rubbing it along the side of the vehicle here. When I do it up here, if I get it in the right spot, I usually have my phone doing this, the mirrors will shut and it will lock and I have to put it in the right place to start the vehicle. But we'll talk about that later on. Right now it's in my pocket. So let's talk about a couple advantages that you get with Tesla that you don't get with every other vehicle. The first cool thing I wanna talk about is the F shrunk on a TR Tesla and that is the Tesla front trunk.

So you have just the trunk that opens here. Now whether you get a model Y or you get a model three, some similarities exist here. First of all, the model Y there is a huge opening, like a typical hatchback, you could have a 40, 20, 40 split full down seat and the floor here is quite low compared to a lot of crossover. So you have a huge space here when you fold everything down. Now one thing that you may not expect is there is also a huge, and I mean huge deep compartment right here because there is no fuel tank because there's no, you know, various things that you would have in a normal gasoline vehicle. You have a massive underfloor storage space right here in the Model Y that you don't have in every other ev. So if you have an EV that is based on a gasoline car, you tend to not have these types of storage spaces.

Teslas of course are based on an entirely electric platform and you do have some storage bases here. Now to be fair, there are many electric vehicles that start from the ground up as only an electric car and they still don't have the space. So that's one of the things that Tesla does. That's a huge advantage over some other brands. So if those two storage compartments don't make you think that Tesla's a little weird and a little different, they should. Tesla does a lot of things differently, but one thing they sort of set the standard for is how most modern electric vehicles are sort of set up on a platform. The reason you can have so much space front and rear is because the platform of this car, or in other words what the whole car is based on is a lot like a skateboard. You have the wheels in here with the motors in behind it.

This one is all wheel drive. So there's a motor in the front and a motor in the rear. So two motors driving this vehicle and then underneath the car is just like a skateboard, a battery pack on the very bottom of the car. Most modern EVs use that formula. Now I drive a Kia Soul Ev and that car has the same formula but they put their motor out front where the gasoline Kia soul has that motor. We did the Hyundai Kona just the other day. It's the exact same way and other vehicles will be similar. So they don't have that front trunk even though they run the battery along the bottom. And it's just something to keep in mind. The battery along the bottom does a couple things for you. Tesla are known as very safe vehicles and even though this model Y is relatively tall, you can see I'm about six feet tall.

It's a typical crossover height. These vehicles are very difficult to roll over because the weight of the vehicle is so down low. Now having that weight, something to keep in mind is that this is also a much heavier vehicle than your typical gasoline vehicle of equal size. So EVs are heavier but the weight is down low. That can make for some pretty fun handling because it has that weight down low. But being heavier can change the way. It's not a lightweight handling car. And it also adds to safety again when you don't have as much engine components up here. Even if you did have engine C or motor components up here, electric motor components, you still have very good crumple zones and that kind of thing, which is very good for keeping you safe. The one thing just about every modern EV does have is a pretty good suite of safety features.

And in the Tesla's case you have to keep in mind that some of those safety features are kind of misnamed. There's things like autopilot, which is not actually an autopilot. There's things like full self-drive which doesn't fully self-drive. So those are things to keep in mind. Although a Tesla can steer for itself, many modern vehicles with something like Lane Keeping assist and smart cruise control have the same thing as early Tesla autopilots full self-drive and a Tesla is absolutely more advanced than in your regular vehicles. And we're gonna talk about those, those safety features moving forward. If you want a different vehicle attest, that's a good way to go. If you want something that is a little more normal, basically one of the major automotive, automotive manufacturers are gonna give you more of the mainstream vehicle. Let's hop inside the vehicle, show you some controls in here, how to adjust some things and then we're gonna talk about range charging and some of the basics with an ev.

One thing to note is jumping into most modern EVs, you tend to have these flush door handles and that's because the enemy of range is aerodynamic resistance, in other words wind resistance. So they always try to have a flush door handle on most modern EVs that can be very kind of cool looking. It can be an issue in some uh, snowy conditions, icy conditions, these ones aren't too bad. You push in here, you can pull that out there and the door opens. Now Teslas again are weird, they're very minimalist, which is a very cool design. But let's show you how some of these things work. So as we hop in this vehicle,

It is off. Now I can adjust my seat because there's regular seat controls on here. Lemme just go wide angle for a second. But there are no other controls in front here as you can see, just by opening the door and getting in the car, it's kind of turned on. The climate system has turned on but it is not ready to drive. The steering wheel is kind of locked. Now because I don't have this hooked up to my phone, it's telling me exactly how to start this. There is no start button in any Tesla. So I'm gonna take this key card here, I'm gonna drop it down to where they're telling me I'm gonna put my foot on the brake and now the car is fully started. So I'm just gonna leave that key card in there. Everything you you do on a Tesla is controlled from this screen or these two little knobs right here.

So as an example, we'll go to the controls here and uh, we'll just sort of show you how things work. So there's pedals and steering, there's controls, there's all kinds of different things. So let's say I want to adjust the steering wheel, right? So the steering will go in there and let's just zoom in for a second. Now it has activated this control on the left side here for the steering wheel. So if I wanna tilt it up, I can bring it up if I wanna bring it in or out, that's coming towards me and now pushing it that way is going away from me. So it is very different in a Tesla to do some of these controls to bring it up or down anywhere you want. Um, like you can sort of see here, let's just go wide angle again here. Rolling up steering wheel is moving up.

If you look sort of compared to the other side rolling down, it's coming a long ways down. So things are different in Teslas. If this isn't your kind of thing where you have to kind of dig through a menu system to do what in many other cards is a basic control system, then a Tesla's probably not for you. A couple things that I really like about the Tesla though, if you just kind of go over here and um, we'll just sort of go back to the home screen here. You have a fantastic navigation system in here. This screen is all nav. This over here, if we put it in drive becomes your speedometer, everything's kind of ready And Teslas have a cool system here which allow you to sort of see vehicles around you. It'll give you sort of like these grayed out vehicles around you in many cases because it can see vehicles around you.

Most other cars can see in some level, but Teslas also see them very well. Your speedometer, if I let off the brake here and touch forward here it is up top there so you can see the speedometer up top. Uh, I just creeped forward for a second now, couple things I wanna talk about. First of all, charging networks on the Tesla. If you buy a Tesla, you're going to have your charge networks shown in here. Your superchargers. If you buy an other manufacturer's brand, let me just look at the camera and tell you what goes on with that. Other manufacturers will have charge stations in their navigation system, but this is the big difference. Most of the other brands at this point, were filming this in January, 2023, their navigation system is not actively connected to the internet or anything else. So when the car was made, if the navigation software had a charge station in there, then it would be there.

But as an example, we are here at Wheels and Deals. They just installed a fast charger level three charger and it is sitting out front, it is not in any of the navigation systems of any of the cars. So what you want to do if you drive a nont Tesla is get a few apps and you can find the apps that work in your area in this area. Something like Flow or ChargePoint are two popular apps to throw on your phone and if you drive a nont Tesla using Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, some of those apps work right there with that system and throw it up on your screen with a Tesla. Most of the software is built in and most of the software updates for you, which is fantastic. One thing you don't get with a Tesla is Android dot or Apple CarPlay. So a little difference there with a screen you use.

Tesla is really a software company so they put all their stuff in there. Um, and you have that in the system. So if something to remember for charge stations, most of they're charging you'll be doing from home. We'll talk a little bit more charging in a second, but let's just look at a few more things in here. Taking a look at our screen here, this is a 15 inch screen in this uh, vehicle here. It's 17 inches in some of the other Teslas, but uh, very, very big screen very close to you and you're gonna hit home screen here. Let's talk about something like for instance autopilot. Autopilot is auto steer beta and there are various things. Now the one thing that about the Tesla is think of your cell phone. How it randomly gets software updates that you have to just perform over wifi network.

This car is the exact same, you can add features to this car. Something like full self-driving though is a decision you're gonna have to make when you get this car new. It's cost a lot more to update. A lot of 'em have the hardware but they cost a lot more to update after the fact than when you buy it. New buying here from Wheels and Dealers, you can see how they're set up and we can uh, sort of show you that this one here has the full self-driving, which again is not full self-driving but it is something to remember in the prices of some of these cards. Even though cards are identical, if it has full self-driving or doesn't have full self-driving, that can explain some of the price difference between these types of things. So let's talk about breaking systems in these cars as well.

So regardless of which EV you buy, there is going to be something called regenerative braking. Now regenerative braking is a little different than regular braking. So these cars have four wheels with a brake in each wheel exactly like your gasoline car. However, when you're on the gas pedal, which we now call the accelerator pedal because no gas, uh, as you release that gas pedal that accelerator pedal, you will at some point in just about every EV find that the vehicle is actively braking. Now in a Tesla your brake lights come on in every uh, ev your brake lights come on in the Tesla you can see in your screen when your brake lights are activated, which is kind of nice to see. What that regenerative braking does is it recaptures energy when you're sort of slowing down and throws it back into the battery. So it basically uses the wheels as generators and slows down the car.

That does two things for you. One, it slows down the car. Two, it preserves your brakes, which means that for most electric vehicles brake jobs like replacement of pads and rotors and that kind of thing is a pretty rare thing. Now many cars still require a good brake service to keep some rust to keep things moving on the actual brakes wheel brakes themselves. Uh, friction brakes sometimes are called but you can generally set how much resistance you want when you let off that pedal. Teslas are gonna do it differently than Hyundais which are gonna do it differently than NI sands which are gonna do differently than everybody else. So everybody has their own way, but every single EV that I've driven has regenerative braking when you release the pedal. Now again, like other things that are misnamed, Tesla calls that one pedal driving or uh, you know one pedal driving, which means in theory you don't have to use the second pedal, right?

Well, wrong Tesla misnamed that Again, most of the time you can get around with just one pedal driving on a Tesla and with some other EVs as well, but you still will sometimes need to use two pedals. So that's just something to keep in mind. What I'm getting at is when you get in these vehicles, the the accelerator pedal will feel different. The other thing to keep in mind with a Tesla, it's a performance vehicle. Even in the most base model, the slowest Tesla zero 60 is on par with most performance cars. So the fastest ones are absolutely insane. Why does that happen? Well, electric motors don't have to rev to make power. So if you think about a sports car, the fun of hearing them rev up, the reason we rev up a sports car is to get it in the power band. So when you say a car has X amount of horsepower, let's say it has 500 horsepower, it usually has to rev from zero RPM or you know, a thousand RPM where idols up to six, 7,000 rpm, that kind of thing to make full power.

While this one has full power instantly, which means you're not waiting for the engine to rev up and switching gears and rev up and switching gears and rev up, you're only at your max power when you're at that higher rev in a gasoline car. These cars have max power from a stop right throughout and that makes them exceptionally fast. Doesn't have to be a Tesla. Other cars have other EVs have as well, but Teslas are both luxury and performance cars. Now the luxury features of some Teslas may not match your, your um, luxury features in your other car. For instance, this car here is probably around a hundred thousand dollars. I haven't checked the exact price of it but it doesn't have ventilated seats. You can get those in other EVs, you can get those in other gas cars. So there are things that you're gonna give up for that luxury but you're still gonna gain in performance and that's something to remember If you want a performance ev generally Tesla's still the leader in that.

There are a few that are out there as well. The Kia EV six certainly has a performing uh, vehicle. Uh, some of those cars. But something like the Nisan leaf is not a performance car. Something like the Hyundai Kona Electric that I just did review of recently. Not a performance car as well. So those are a couple things to keep in mind. Alright, so we're gonna talk about a couple more things outside the car, but we're finished driving the car, right? So foots off the brake. We've pressed in the park button here cuz that's your gear shift and your, let's just zoom in for a second here. That's your gear shift and thing. Mercedes uses a very similar gear shift stock on some of their vehicles. So not that uncommon but we're finished driving, there's no off button. So what happens now? Well I've taken my foot off the brake, the car is kind of where it is and I use the door handle which is this button right here, right there. I'm gonna press that and I just get out. Once I get outta this car, it's off, it's turned off and I can shut the door. I can show you what we're doing right here, shut the door and the car turns itself off so you don't have to worry about turning a Tesla off, which again can be a little different than some of your regular EVs. So one of the final things I wanna talk about with

An EV is range and charging. And here in Canada that is something that you really have to keep in mind. A lot of EVs like these Tesla can get range numbers that are in around that 500 kilometer mark. Now one thing to remember is most EV makers, especially Tesla, the way I drive, they overrate the range. In other words, if this one was rated for 500 show kilometers, I'm not likely to get that the way I drive. So don't sit there and say well my regular commute is 500 kilometers, this car goes 500 kilometers, therefore I'm gonna be fine. That's probably not the case with most people. There are a few cars, Kia and Hyundai in particular in one generation or a couple generations of their EVs that for three months or three seasons of the year in you know, the warmer temperatures, they actually kind of underrate the range for some people.

But it can really depend on the car. So assume that the rated range is driving very gently and I like to say the rated range is a really good estimate. If you're gonna drive at that 50 mile an hour, 80 kilo an hour mark, then you could probably hit that. But for other types of driving you're probably not gonna hit that. So range numbers are going to be probably a little bit less and then they're going to cut out less again in the winter, both because you're using your heater which draws a lot of power and because the electric battery is just not as efficient in the cold weather. So just keep that in mind. Uh, there are all sorts of forums out there. You can sort of see what people are getting on their EVs in the winter and in that type of condition and you can use those as sort of guidelines.

Remember it'll always vary A lot of EVs. I recommend winter tires. Winter tires are not as efficient as the EV tires that come with it. So again, they're good for traction but they'll take some range away. All of this to say that the average person can do just fine in their everyday driving with an ev no matter what the range is, most of us don't drive anywhere near this range and most of us are gonna leave our homes with a full charge. So while you will be charging on the road, one thing to keep in mind is in the cost of electric vehicle, I recommend getting what they used to call or still do call a level two charger in your home. Basically you're gonna wanna run something like a dryer plug to your garage or your home and have a 50 amp service or 50 amp wire and a 40 amp charger to your car.

Whether it's a Tesla or something else. Tesla has a charger that can kind of work on their own with sort of like a dryer plug. Most of the vehicles you're gonna buy a level two uh system and plug it in, which also works on a Tesla that is sort of your standard quick charging. Tesla has supercharging, there is level three charging or DC charging which can charge most EVs up to 80% in about an hour to an hour and a half out on the road if that charger's working full. Now that's another thing to keep in mind if you're doing a trip, Tesla superchargers, most of them pretty reliable, but there is some variance in how quickly they can charge. And the same thing happens with other brands. When you have another brand of an ev the charging network is not tied to the vehicle manufacturer and they can be wildly varying.

We just stuck a a charger in here, we run a wire ourselves and if we didn't choose to run the right wire, just because your car is capable or the charging system outside is capable of a certain charge speed, it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get that. And a lot of 'em have apps where you can connect your car to and see how fast it's charging. Tesla has that. Many other vehicles have that and many charge stations have that to keep in mind. So charging networks, uh, your car condemns absolutely fast charge. Most modern EVs can fast charge usually about an hour. We'll get you most of that charge back, but keep in mind that it can vary and when it varies it's usually due to the charger, not to the vehicle itself. So let's talk a couple things more before we wrap this video up.

If you are looking at an ev, a Tesla is still the gold standard and Jim Gilbert's Wheels and Deals, I, last time I checked, I think we had eight or 10 of these in the lot. We've had 12 or 15 at times. We always have Teslas in stock, but these can be a little bit more expensive. Remember they are performance vehicles, they're kind of in that luxury class. If this appeals to you, you're gonna be spending that 50 ish thousand dollars Canadian and up for a relatively new, uh, model three or above. This is a model Y, so it's gonna be priced a little bit above that. Again, this one again, probably around a hundred thousand dollars as equipped, but it is a very, very quick car. So there's that to remember, you don't have to get a Tesla to get a very good ev.

Nowadays I drive a Kia Soul ev it's been perfect for us. We've been driving that since 2019. It's a 2020 model and a lot of those cars are perfectly capable. There are shorter range and longer range vehicles and those vehicles from other manufacturers are gonna tend to be more normal. They have a start button, just like your push button started on your car. Uh, they have typical controls for your mirrors and your steering wheel and all those kinds of things instead of having a single screen. The one advantage that Tesla has is those over the air updates. This car will continue to improve over time. Very few other manufacturers offer over the air updates on their EVs. Some of 'em are starting to do that, but they don't have quite the control that Tesla does. So you want to keep that in mind as well.