Australia’s first-in-line for the Tesla Model 3 finally gets his car

Andreas Stephens sat outside Tesla’s Sydney showroom for 48 hours to place his order for a Model 3 on the first possible day – now, after 1,277 days waiting – he has taken delivery of his car.

At the time Andreas didn’t have a garage, his trusty Corolla Seca didn’t quite need it’s own home – but in the extreme amount of time he had to wait, he constructed his garage and earlier this year was finally able to place his order.

As seems to be common among those waiting for their Model 3, the delivery process didn’t go quite as planned.

Originally, with a 9am appointment on Friday the plan was to get up and get the car! Sadly, an overnight email noted that the appointment had been cancelled.

After a bit of online research among Tesla owners, Mr Stephens discovered that you could track your cars status via the Service NSW website assuming you knew the number plate.

By the time he checked, his rego had shown up, and with his trusty Toyota’s rego expiring this weekend he headed to the delivery centre.

On arrival, he found the car would be ready within hours.

Mr Stephens tells us his “old Toyota ended up sending next to the new Model 3s coming out for delivery. I thought that this was an interesting juxtaposition…”

What he witnessed then was the “all hands on deck for Tesla Staff, with the reception being attended by two staff from the Energy Business, who were assisting with car deliveries for a change”.

Despite the many customers present – mostly anxiously waiting for the cars – “All Tesla Staff were very friendly and professional and understanding” said Mr Stephens.

It certainly was busy – Mr Stephens estimating “that there were around 50 cars in the delivery centre on Friday with trucks dropping more off during the day”

But then it was time, time to drive his very own car and Mr Stephens tells EFTM about the experience as a new Telsa owner:

“Driving home was a pretty surreal experience. Most importantly, Elon has been true to his word, and the car feels “woody” rather than “tinny”. The silent driving to me is one of the most exciting things about driving an electric vehicle. I could not detect any annoying squeaks or rattling sounds, which I had feared would be the case.“

“Like many others have noted before me, the strong regenerative breaking is something I still have to get used to. I do not want to reduce it to the other setting, since I like to maximise my energy efficiency while driving.
The only other worry is that the indicators are on the other side of the steering wheel to what I have been used to, but that change comes fairly intuitive.“

“Shadowfax” then made its way snug into the brand new garage purpose built for the car.

All that’s left is to extend the WiFi out the the garage for those all important software updates.

With his dream now a reality, “Andreas – First in Line – Stephens” says “The EV revolution has well and truly begun!”