I will like to use a Tesla 3 in Lagos, Nigeria. What do you think will be the possible limitation asides servicing? Overall, is this a good idea?

Congratulations on your decision to buy a Tesla Model 3, I admire your boldness — it takes courage to consider using an electric car in Nigeria.

You won’t be the first either, the guys at AutoJosh reportedly spotted a Tesla Model S in Nigeria

Tesla Model S Electric Car Spotted In Nigeria (Photo) - AUTOJOSH

That said, you might enjoy the experience (I will) but I should also warn you that I also think it will be a case of more money more problems — unless of course you are a car/tech enthusiast.

Range Anxiety

If your model 3 runs out of juice in the middle of 3rd mainland bridge, you are stranded and you’ll have to tow it home.

Maybe that was a little dramatic.

The standard Model 3 has a range of 220 miles or 354 kilometers.

Lagos to Ibadan is about 137km, so a full charge should be enough to visit your Inlaws in Ibadan and come back back to Lagos — you’ll need to pray that there’s no traffic congestion in Redemption Camp or Mowe on both legs of your journey.

I think you’ll be able to use it as a daily driver on the island or some parts of the mainland- Google Map will become the most used app on your phone because you have to plot all destinations, know the distance, get an idea of traffic patterns, and leave room for contingencies.

Now to charging the car

I’m afraid there are no charging stations around.

You can charge your car at home — the car is equipped with a 32-amp onboard charger, there’s a 20-foot cable that you can plug into a wall socket using a 120-volt NEMA 5–15 adapter.

The problem however is that you’ll get 8km worth of range for every one hour of charging.

Home charging from 10pm to 6 am will give you 64 kilometers worth of charge. That may or may not be enough for you each day.

Cost of charging

Electricity costs about N35 per kilowatt hour in Nigeria.

Electricity costs about $0.12 or N43 per kilowatt hour in the US.

The Model 3 will go 4 miles or 6.4km on every KwH hour charge

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I will continue this answer with detailed maths later…

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