Comparison of the Practical EV: Tesla Model 3, Chevy Bolt, Nissan Leaf
motortrend.com
motortrend.com
Early in the article:
>As if there weren’t enough built-in tension already in this test, Hong rolls a grenade into the big picture takeaway from the comparison: “Comparing this Model 3 to the Bolt and Leaf isn’t fair—like comparing a BMW 3 Series with a Camry or Accord.”
Because they're comparing off the shelf standard equipped Bolt and Leaf with the top of the line Tesla with extended battery and advanced features.
Sure it's because that's all they had but then they should have waited to do a review. But like tech journalism, auto journalist is all about the reads and clicks in the 21st century.
Th big difference to me is that Tesla is the only one so far offering a larger battery and Autopilot/FSD, which add $17k to the price of the 3.
Hopefully Tesla will make the base 3 available early next year so the base version of each car can be compared.
I’ve tried to remember that any time I’ve read a Motor Trend article and asked, “WTF?”
For me, Car and Driver is equally laughable.
The only one who chose the Tesla talks about how sub-par it is overall, with "infotainment and autonomous systems are still a work in progress", but "new software features are being beamed in seemingly every night" and then magically the Tesla comes out on top?
That's before we go into "our finishing order in this first-ever comparison test of affordable long-range electric vehicles".
"affordable".
$60,500.
These are still quite expensive cars.
The 2018s are more (larger battery), but the net price will still be significantly cheaper than the average new car transaction price which is just a few dollars shy of $35K. (I tried to find the median; it was not easy and I gave up and took the average. I would bet that the median is still well over $27K.)