Wales, here we come. Let's go and find some seals. What's that? I think it's a corn. That's a rock. Seven hours thirty-four. What's the rush? Would you like to listen to the station how to love your body? Go away! Eighty-seven, seven feet for killer water. What a bargain. That's an absolute bargain, that's it. For a long time now, we've said that the Tesla Model 3 is the best electric car that you can buy. And it's just received some major updates to make it even better and cheaper. But wait, because we have two brand new competitors here. We have the BYDC and the Volkswagen ID-7. And we're going to find out if the Tesla Model 3 really is still the best. We're driving from London to Wales and back to find out.
So Doug, where are we going and what are we doing? Well, Neil is in the Model 3. You are in the ID-7 and I am in the seal. And we are driving from Twickenham to St. David's in Pembrokeshire to hopefully see some real life seals. And that will give us a chance to test these cars on a long journey in the real world. Then we're going to pick up some Christmas trees to test their practicality, head back to London, crunch some numbers and do a real world efficiency test. And we're going to explain exactly how these cars compare in every single area. But first, I need a coffee. Let's go on.
Hi there, yeah! I'm going to go on a flat lap. Ha ha ha!
嗨,是的!我要去进行一次平坦的跑步。哈哈哈!
So Neil, can you remind us what exactly is new with the new Model 3? So starting with the exterior, you'll notice that it's got slimmer, headlight and tail lights. And as well as that, it has more aerodynamic front and rear bumpers. All of that means that this car has improved aerodynamics over the last Model 3. So this will now do 318 miles to a charge compared to 305 for the last generation car. Tesla's also worked really hard on improving refinement, which was a weakness of the last generation car. And to do that, it's fitted double glazing all around and it's tweaked the mounting points of the suspension. And Tesla claims that this car is now 30% quieter than the last Model 3.
So, Will, what is the ID7? So this is Volkswagen's brand new flagship electric car, at least if we ignore the more utilitarian ID bars. And it might look like a bit of a mashup between a coupe and a saloon, but it is in fact a hatchback. So really, you can think of it as an electric artyon. And it's a bit bigger than that car, it's almost five metres long, it's the longest car here. It has a drag coefficient of 0.23, which means it's very aerodynamic. And that's one of the reasons it has a long official range of 384 miles and a charge. And because of how much criticism Volkswagen has had about some of its recent infotainment systems, we've got a redesigned operating system for that and some updates for the user interface as well.
Anyway, Doug, what are you driving? Well, I'm in the BYD seal. Now, BYD is a massive Chinese company that make batteries, but not only batteries, they make loads of electric vehicles as well. In the UK, we've only had two of their products come over so far. That's the ATO3 and the Dolphin, and then following the Dolphin, another maritime theme name with this BYD seal. And it's a pretty direct Model 3 competitor, really. The version that we've got on this test is a rear-wheel drive model with one electric motor driving the rear axle. It's also got a very long official range of more than 350 miles, which is pretty impressive. It's got an LFP battery as well, again, similar to a Model 3, so that doesn't use cobalt and is therefore less resource-intensive to produce. And while the ID7's infotainment system might have been massively updated, I bet it can't do this. Whoa!
After making good progress on the M4, we all stopped for a charge in Camarden. Neil, in the Model 3, of course, had the benefit of using the Tesla Supercharger network. So you just get out the car, walk over to the charger, plug it in, and that's it. Look how easy that is. All the payment is done over the air. Buying a Tesla and getting use of Superchargers gives you a huge advantage over other electric cars. Not just because of how easy it is to use, as Neil showed, but because there are loads of Superchargers around, they're all very reliable and they always deliver very fast charging speeds. That is not the case for other public chargers.
But Tesla might not have this advantage for much longer, because some Superchargers in the UK are now accepting non-Tesla EVs, including this one in Wales. The process of charging is a bit more complicated than if you were in a Tesla, but all you need to do is download an app, register, set up some payment details, and from then it's a simple process of selecting the charger you wish to use, and then watching the kilowatts roll in. Twenty-nine hundred and two kilowatts? It's rising. It's a bit more expensive than if you were in a Tesla, but Will and I were paying fifty-one pence per kilowatt hour. A lot cheaper than most other public chargers, and we were getting very fast speeds.
So we've made it to apparently one of the best seal-watching spots in the UK, And I know there's one seal in the car park. Oh, hold on. What's that? It's a duck. Okay. I think it's a corn wound, actually. All right, let's give it five minutes. Yeah, we've got to give a bit of time. They might be shy.
So we did make it and the journey was actually quite simple to be honest. I arrived first. You did it, why was it? Model three wins. It was the quickest to charge. And the easiest to charge by far. There was. Although how did you find actually using a supercharger in a non-tethler? Very impressed by the whole experience, really. Got really pretty quick speeds, not the maximum of my car. You were really quick. Yeah, I think I got up to 190 at one point, which is faster than the car supposed to be able to achieve. The most I got through. The most I got was about 110 kilowatts. Should have got 150, but it's still not bad. It's still not bad. And no connection problems. No connection problems. No waiting. And it's cheaper than if you went to an IONITY or a Shell recharge. Absolutely. That was very good.
OK, so no seals. Should we move on? Oh. No, it's a rock. OK. No. No. Unfortunately, the only seal we saw had a BYD badge on the bonnet. So we left, headed to our hotel, popped up, and got some rest before a big day.
OK, it's day two. We are leaving some David's absolutely stunning morning here. Unfortunately, we didn't see any seals. But let's hope we have some bellaluck hunting out some Christmas trees.
Before we tested the boot, we compared each car up front. Now, the main change for the ID7 is this infotame system. So it has a much bigger screen than we've seen on previous ID models. And it's angled slightly towards the driver. Also, I don't know if it's just me, but it also looks a lot crisper in terms of graphics. So that's all good news. And also, you get more climate control information, always visible at the bottom of the screen.
And while we're on the subject of climate control, these slider pads, which, to be honest, they are still quite annoying. They do seem to react a lot quicker than they did on the ID3, for example. And also, not eat. We can't see that in another Rashi backlit. This has an amazing voice control system.
OK. So let's try that. Yeah. Hey, ID. Please, can you adjust the fan speed to a faster setting? Switching the front left fan to the lowest setting. So it's playing down. That is useful. So that is exactly what I wanted to do. But it has the best it's probably been all day, because it realized I was talking about the fan. If for some reason you didn't want to use that brilliant voice control system, how do you actually adjust the fan speed? So there is a climate control menu there. That's not overwhelming at all when you're going at 70. No, but you don't need to because you've got the voice control. It's brilliant. But no, on a serious note, I would say this infotame system is definitely better. So you've got some shortcut icons at the top here. You've got the home screen still. But as I say, yeah, the voice control system is terrible.
OK, so model three. Yes. So in my opinion, I think this is the best infotainment system here. For this facelifted car, it's a little sharper than it was before. But the layout basically remains the same. But I don't think that's a bad thing, because they nailed it first time out. It's very easy to use. And if you're upgrading from a pre-facelifted car to this one, you're going to get on with it straight away.
One thing you do get, though, is the screen in the back. That wasn't on the pre-facelifted car. And it's amazing, really. You can actually access the heater. You've got heated seats in the back. You can watch Netflix. Your kids can sit in the back here.
So something else that's slightly different from the pre-facelifted car is the driving position or certain elements with the driving position. So what's different? Yeah, so the actual ergonomics have made you take a slight step backward. So Tesla's deleted the stalks from behind the steering wheel and put all of the crucial controls on the steering wheel itself. And we've seen that with the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini. But Tesla's done a little bit different by putting the indicators on the left-hand side of the steering wheel.
Now you've done a lot of miles in this car. How have you found that on this journey? For the first couple of days, I thought, I'm never going to learn this. It's just not very good, and it's not very intuitive. But I have to admit, today, I haven't made a mistake once. So it is going in there. And through right-hand bend, it's not a problem. But certainly, through left, it's a bit trickier. But I am getting used to it. And the haptics on the steering wheel are genuinely good. So you at least know when you've clicked it, you've activated it.
And just like the pre-facelift Model 3, there's still no driver display either, which means that all your speedo and all the information is on the infotainment system. I personally don't find that a problem. And I get on with it perfectly well. But it would be nice. You've got so much real estate up there. I don't know why Tesla hasn't done it. But Elon Musk has said or responded to tweets from customers saying it will never get one. So it's unlikely. It's a shame not to just have a head-up display.
And I say one thing, though. I've noticed there was no gear selector. So how do you engage a gear? Because there's no stalks, you now have to select driver reverse or park from the screen itself. And that's more tricky. What happens if the screen dies? Tesla has thought of that. And it's hidden up here. So you actually have physical buttons up there that you can use in an emergency. Or if you just find that more convenient.
OK, so the seal does have a traditional gear selector, as you can see down here. Very nice. But I do still have some issues with the driving position. I can't have the steering wheel where I want it and still see this driving display for one thing. Then when I can see the driving display, you can see you've got your speedo over here. Very important. This just shows you how much power you're producing or is being used. And it's a number that is constantly jumping around all over the time. It's not moving anywhere, and it's still changing. And it's really distracting, and I don't need to know it. So that's quite annoying.
Also, this screen is so big in landscape mode. Again, where I've got my driving position, quite a big chunk of the bottom right of the screen is actually blocked. And when you're using Waze or Google Maps, that is your destination at the time you're going to get there. So things that you actually want to see. That's not a problem in the Tesla or the Audi 7. But look at this. Whoa. Amazing. Can I do your cars do that? No. So there you go. But your car can't do that when you're using Apple CarPlay. That is true. And that is quite a big drawback, because it just means I would always have it in landscape mode.
The interior quality in the seal is not amazing, I would say. There are aspects of it which are quite nice, like the mix of materials that you have. It's a nice smelling, yeah. It feels OK. That's great. But there is quite a strong smell of plastic in there. There is. Which is not as strong as when I first got in it. But it's not particularly appealing. I mean, all this material on the steel wheel. This feels very much vinyl. The seats. It's just very plush. I would say that certainly this is bottom of the pile when it comes to certainly perceived interior quality. Yeah.
What do you reckon is the best, though? Would it be the Model 3? I think a lot of people would think that looks the nicest inside, because it's got that kind of minimalist thing going on. And it's more visually appealing than the ID7. And the materials are still pretty good. And the actual build quality is decent. It's taken a noticeable step up from a free-faced lifted car to the point that I would say it is just better than the ID7. And even if the ID7 was fractionally better, let's say, it's still a lot more money than the Model 3. So I think that's the surprise. You get the Model 3 and it's the cheapest car here. And yet feels really polished.
All right. Let's put the 3's in. Let's do it. OK, guys, this is one area I think the ID7 might show your cars up. That's because you're cheating. Well, it is a hatchback. Look at that. I think that's cheating. Different class of car. And also, you can fold the seats down really easily. You just pull this handle on the side of the boot there. Look, it drops down. It's not flat. Not completely flat, but pretty good. And obviously, if I put this high-adjustable boot floor up, that'll make it flat up. And then, all I do is grab a Christmas tree. And slos it under that parcel jumper, not the GoPro. And that looked pretty easy to use. I would say that was quite aggressive. Also, that's because I've got a GoPro just stuck on the side of it, just whacked into the. Do be fair, it hasn't even had to go through the front of your seats, which I thought might happen. Someone could still sit on the other side of the bag. Yeah, it will have been more delicate. So there you go, very easy. And I've also got a powered tailgate. It's a close-up again. Very good.
All right, model three. Yeah, let's do it. So this isn't a hatchback, but I don't think you actually need that. Although, I do have to go inside the car to put the rear seats down. But I have an electric tailgate as well. And because I'm much more delicate than will, I don't need all that wasted space of the ID7. So they're quite happily. Easy. That's very elegant. And again, it doesn't need to go through the middle of the front seats. We'll cross it. Pretty simple. Seal. So the seal, similar in size to the model three. You can see the opening is quite a bit smaller than certainly the ID7 and the model three. To put the rear seats down, you've got to go inside here. You can't do it from the boot. And now will the tree fit in? Let's just post it through. Let's actually be very easy. Is that decapitating the passenger set in front? I don't think so. Fine back there. Yep. It's come the furthest forward of all of them. It has, but that's still fine. And someone can still sit in the back. Not bad. OK. ID7 overall the most practical here, isn't it? But you can still fit a Christmas tree in all three. Let's go.
So I've got my Christmas tree, and I'm heading back to London. But I only have 9% remaining. But because Tesla's navigation system is so good, I've just plugged in my final destination. And it's telling me that I need to go in charge at a supercharger in Swansea. Now it's also telling me I'm going to get there with only 1% remaining. But the range reader of this car has been super accurate over the last couple of days. So I'm confident we're not going to run out of juice.
Well, hello. Hello. Are you feeling festive now? Very festive. I have a Christmas tree in tow. OK. So you and I are in a similar position when it comes to charge. I think I've got a little bit less in New York. I currently have 17% and 46 miles remaining. Well, I have got 26% and 85 miles remaining, which is quite a lot better than you, I'd say. But both of us are going to struggle to get to a Tesla supercharger that is open to non-Tesla drives. I think there's one in Cardiff, but that's a bit of a stretch. And the one at Swansea is Tesla only. So I found a charging point. And I've never heard of this brand before. It's called Power Stop. Power Stop Green Flux. But apparently, there are two stalls there. And they're both 175 kilowatts. So do you fancy joining me at those? I do because I am so confident in the range of this car that I do know if they don't work. I'm pretty confident I'll be able to find another one within the area and be fine. Yes. I have a little bit less. I'm not quite so confident. OK. So see you at the charging stop. Good luck.
嗨,你好。你现在感觉到节日气氛了吗?非常有节日气氛。我带了一棵圣诞树。好吧。所以在充电方面,你和我处于类似的境地。我觉得在纽约我还剩下一点点。我现在剩下17%和46英里。哦,我还剩下26%和85英里,比你好得多,我想。但我们两个都很难到达对非特斯拉车辆开放的特斯拉超级充电站。我想卡迪夫有一个,但那有点远。而斯旺西的那个是特斯拉专用的。所以我找到了一个充电点。我以前从未听说过这个品牌,叫做Power Stop。Power Stop Green Flux。但据说那里有两个充电桩,都是175千瓦。你愿意和我一起去吗?是的,因为我对这辆车的续航里程非常有信心,如果它们不工作,我相信我能在周围找到另一个充电点,没问题。是的,我剩下的电量稍微少一些,我不太自信。好的,那我们在充电站见面吧。祝你好运。
OK. So this charging point is actually in a Volvo dealership. So I don't know if it's exclusive to Volvo, but we're going to find out. First thing I need to do is actually plug this cable in. It all looks very modern. So fingers crossed.
Then what do we need to do? Please hold them. Please authenticate. Shall I press that? Select that. 87 kilowatt hour. What a bargain. What an absolute bargain that is. Wow. Service error. Currently unavailable. Service error. OK. So this is. 8 to 7. Do you think Neil's having us? Super unleaded.
OK. So we've just been told by someone who works at the Volvo dealership that you can't actually pay contact with us. You have to download an app. So we've just done that. I'm not going to sign up. I went as a guest and then it told me that actually I have to sign up. I thought this was actually illegal in the UK. I've already confirmed my registration. This is quite annoying, isn't it? Come on. Add card. I'm not actually sure this is charging. Check. Please check the OBC system. Am I going to get a charge first? Charge. Here we go. Right.
Charging finished. What? One available. What? Oh. It's saying charge 2 is faulty. Oh, what's showing? Is yours working though? Because I think it's going to say the same thing. That is such a shame. It's going to say the same thing. Come on. Come on. Is it charging? Is it charging? No. Something happened. Charging? What's this saying? It is charging. Is it working? Yes. I have charged. I have charged going into my battery. Look at that. 99 kilowatts.
OK, that's not as fast as this car can accept. But Doug has plugged in. And that's still way faster than we would have got from a grid surf or any of the other charging points around here. Oh, wait. Most work as well. How many? Will. I'm getting 8.8 kilowatts. So 7 and 1.34. What's the rush? I love whales. Had a lovely time. Eventually my charging speed caught up with Will. We put in enough charge to see us through the final leg of our journey. Neil had done the same at his charging stop. So we all headed off back to London, ready to charge up to full again to help us crunch some numbers. MUSIC
So let's go through the costs now. And the BYD seal and the ID7 both covered about 560 miles over those two days. For me in the seal, I needed 180.5 kilowatt hours to do that journey, which meant I was averaging about 3.1 miles per kilowatt hour. In terms of the actual costs, my fast charging stops on route cost me 72 pounds 78. Then the final home charge, if we're basing that on a price cap of 27 people a kilowatt hour, was 22 pounds 18. So my total cost was 94 pounds 96 for the whole trip.
What about the ID7? Well, I needed a total of 202.8 kilowatt hours. And my efficiency across the trip was 2.8 miles per kilowatt hour. So in terms of fast charging costs, that was 90 pounds and 14p. And then the home charge at the end set me back 21 pounds 25. So total cost of 111.39, quite a bit more than you spent. Quite expensive.
What about the Model 3? Well, I actually covered a few more miles than you guys because I had to divert to a supercharger in Swansea. So I did around 574 miles and used 160.4 kilowatt hours of energy for my journey. So that means my efficiency was 3.6 miles per kilowatt hour. And what about the costs at those superchargers? Well, I think that's the impressive bit, really. My fast charging stops cost me just 43 pounds 96. So when you factor in that my home charging top up was 15 pounds 24, my total cost of the trip was 59 pounds 20, quite a lot less than both of you guys. For loads cheaper. So loads cheaper, even though you actually covered a few more miles as well.
So the quick conclusions to draw from those numbers are that the Model 3 seems to use its energy in an incredibly efficient way. And superchargers seem to be very cheap compared to non-teser superchargers. And the ID7 looks to be at the other end of the scale where it doesn't use its energy particularly efficiently. And the charges that we stopped at were very, very expensive.
That is an important point, actually, because the second fast charging stop we made, it was very, very expensive. I think the most I've ever paid at a public charger, had we done a bit more research. We could have probably found somewhere a little bit cheaper. It wouldn't have made a huge difference, but it would have just reduced that cost slightly. And also, I topped up probably more than I needed to on the way back, because when I got to my final destination, I still had 13% left in my battery. So if I wanted to save some money at that final pit stop on the way home, I could have probably put a bit less in and save some money there.
Another thing to mention is that this test wasn't the most scientific in the world when it comes to measuring efficiency, because obviously, different drivers, and we all took slightly different routes. So what we did the next day was we went to Millbrook Proving Ground, which is where we test cars in a controlled environment. So traffic doesn't influence the results. And we did a second test where we simulated motorway, rural, and town driving. We swapped drivers regularly. And we got some slightly different results, didn't we?
We did. So the seal on that test recorded an average of 3.3 miles per kilowatt hour. And based on its battery size, that gives it a theoretical winter range of around 271 miles, which is pretty far. What did the Model 3 get on the same test? Well, the Model 3 once again was comfortably the most efficient. It did 3.7 miles per kilowatt hour, which gave a theoretical range of 212 miles, which isn't bad considering the conditions. Yeah, it was about three, four degrees while we were doing that test.
So what about the ID7? That wasn't quite so efficient. So that averaged 2.6 miles per kilowatt hour. And that gives it a theoretical range in those conditions at least of just 200 miles, which is pretty disappointing when you consider that officially is supposed to be able to do 384 miles. That is a huge difference, isn't it? Massive. Is that the worst thing about the car? The other slightly disappointing thing I would say is the price. So this is a launch edition car. That's the only version on sale at the moment. That costs around 55,000 pounds. Cheaper versions will be coming. I don't know exactly how much they'll cost, but probably a little bit less than 50,000 pounds. Still a lot more than your cars though.
On the plus side, very comfortable on the motorway. Comfortable ride. The quietest of the cars. And it's also the most practical as well. It's roomy in the back. And it's got a hatchback boot. The seal is quite a bit cheaper than the ID7, isn't it? And actually, it was quite impressive on this trip. The main positive of the car, I think, is the range, certainly compared to what you two are getting. Because 271 miles in the real world, in cold conditions, meant that on this trip, I was always very relaxed. I was never worried if we were going to make it to the next charging stop or not. And also, the car was reasonably comfortable. The handling's quite good as well. The interior is OK. And it's 10,000 pounds cheaper than an ID7. But it is still about 5,000 pounds more expensive than a Model 3. And apart from the range, the Model 3's stronger in every area, isn't it? Yeah, I would say.
So, I mean, the Model 3's always been a very good car. But this facelift means that it's now a great car. And when you factor in the supercharger network that you get when you buy a Tesla, the brand is making every other car manufacturer, I think, look a little bit silly. I'd agree. I think it is.
So there you have it. The Model 3 is still King of Electric Cars. And it really looks like it will take something truly sensational to change that. Thanks for watching this video. If you want to see more, make sure you subscribe and go to whatcar.com to read more about these electric cars and many others. And remember, whatcar.com is also the place to get a great deal on your next car.