Why I went Back To ICE
It’s been a min or two since I’ve written something here, but it feels good to write again. I didn’t make it to 500,000 miles, but I did trade in my Tesla Model 3 for a 2023 Hyundai Tucson. I really did like the Model 3, but here are a few reasons why I made the switch:
Long journeys
I have been taking road trips that are over 1,300 miles long. While the Model 3 is one of the most comfortable vehicles I have ever driven, charging my Tesla Model 3 added a couple of hours to these trips. I really want to try and complete these journeys in one day, and while they are still long, an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) car makes that possible. Along the route I’ve been driving, mostly highways 15 and 70, the chargers are mostly 150 kW. Often that meant 20–45 minutes to charge at a stop. Electric car journeys will be better when you can stop anywhere you can for gas today to charge, and all chargers are higher output capable.
With the Hyundai Tucson, even with taking care of my dog, using the restroom, and getting something to eat, I was back on the road in 20 minutes or less.
Cargo space
The Tesla Model 3 is a great car, and while it has lots of places to store items, it’s limited on the size of items we could fit into the vehicle. In fact, we even had to return an item once that we just couldn’t fit into the car. A Model Y would make that better, but we’d get even less miles per charge. The Hyundai Tucson has easily fit all of the items I’ve needed to pack so far and made a recent IKEA trip very easy.
CarPlay and Android Auto
I have always loved using CarPlay and Android Auto in my car. They make it easy to use my phone’s features while I’m driving. The Tesla Model 3 obviously doesn’t have CarPlay or Android Auto, and while the nav system is excellent, finding and playing music or audio books, searching along my route, or understanding what is happening with traffic without paying a subscription were all a pain. CarPlay and Android Auto are much more user-friendly and convenient, and I’m glad that the Tucson has them.
Ground Clearance
We’re going to be spending more time hiking and camping in more remote places, and one issue with either the Model 3 or Y is ground clearance. I have scraped the Model 3 a few times, and I didn’t want to keep worrying about that. Beyond that, some of the trails we’d like to hike are on slightly rougher roads that require a bit more clearance. Obviously, the Tucson is not an overlander, but it’s definitely more capable.
Why a Tucson?
I really wanted to get a plug-in hybrid vehicle to replace our Tesla Model 3, but two factors prevented me from being able to do that.
At the time, the dealers were marking up hybrids by $5000+ dollars. Admittedly, all car dealerships were marking up cars, including Tesla. However, at least with Tesla I knew what I was going to pay and didn’t have to try and go back and forth with some GM at a dealership.
The second issue was Tesla values have been dropping. Had I traded it just a couple of months earlier, I would have gotten a ton of more. Trade-in prices have dropped even more since then. Even the regular hybrids ended up being out of the range we were willing to pay on a vehicle.
We chose the Tucson because they had both hybrids and plug-in hybrids along with all of the other features we were looking for, including:
- Comfort
- Safety tech
- Solid infotainment system with Android Auto and Carplay
- High ground clearance
- Great cargo capacity
It’s not perfect and I may do a review of the Tucson at some point as well, but it’s been an overall great vehicle so far.
I would still recommend a Tesla for anyone looking for an electric car, especially with the prices you can get for them in June of 2023. You can definitely roadtrip in an electric car, but until chargers are as ubiquitous as gas stations, I think plug-in hybrids are a great option right now. I might post some thoughts on that in the future.
