Can Tesla 3 Deliver? A Mobile Test

In Mobile Testing by Dan Engel

What do you look for in the latest tech solutions? Speed, elegance, simplicity, and a fundamental resolution to the world’s problems, right? No, I am not talking about our own sleek mobile testing lab, which delivers fast visibility into your mobile performance so you can save … your company.

I am talking about the just-announced release of the Tesla model 3. Until now, Tesla has been known for its very high-end fully electric cars and its inflated stock value. But now with the Tesla 3, Elon Musk and crew promise the same ground-breaking, mile-chewing next-gen technology and sleekness but at a consumer affordable base price of $27,500 (after government tax credit.) And best of all, the automotive sensation cuts carbon dioxide emissions right when the world is lurching toward disastrous climate change. Like I said, sleek beauty, while saving the world.

But the devil is always in the details. How will the Tesla 3 perform on a good stretch of asphalt? Will it deliver on its promises? A lot of people are assuming it will deliver quite well, as evidenced by the nearly 250,000 pre-orders placed (as of the time of this writing) in less than two days (including one reservation by Mobile1st team members so far!).

We decided to a test drive the Tesla 3. No, not the car, but the Tesla 3 mobile web page, to see if Tesla – beyond all the hype – can really deliver a superior customer experience on the latest tech.

Load Time

tesla mobile load time
Tesla 3 promises a zero to 60 mph acceleration under six seconds. And we all know an accelerated load time is critical to the mobile experience. Radware says, if your website requires more than four seconds to load, “you risk serious customer dissatisfaction and abandonment, never to return.”

How fast does Tesla get up to speed? According to our online testing lab, on smartphones Tesla ranges from an 2.06 to 3.72 seconds. That’s putting the pedal to the metal! But when carrying a bigger load – on tablets ‒ the Tesla page puts on the brakes and slows to an 8.97 second load time on the Galaxy Pro Tab 8.4 and 5.64 seconds on the iPad Mini. Those speeds are sure to disappoint. Worse: KissMetrics estimates for every additional second of waiting beyond the initial three, you lose 7% of your possible conversions. On the Galaxy tablet, that adds up to a 40% loss.

Fold Lines

tesla mobile fold lines First impressions matter. The Tesla 3 has drawn rave reviews for its styling, but what about on mobile, where consumers spend 59 percent of their online shopping time? Here the Tesla 3 fails to impress — its first page repeatedly crops words, with part of the text falling out of sight below the fold line.


Missing Images?

You wouldn’t dream of exiting your garage with your gleaming new Tesla if somehow the numbers were missing from your speedometer or if the battery light failed to indicate its remaining charge? But somehow the Tesla mobile site left the testing stage missing key icons on its iPhone 6, 6 plus and 5s displays.

tesla mobile icon missing

Tesla 3 Videos: MIA

What’s a car display without silky smooth images of the machine gliding across a road or zooming through the green woods of desolate nature? Sadly, if you are viewing the Tesla 3 page on an iPad Mini or a Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4, you will find out. But when you pay big bucks for a video, you want it to show. Unfortunately, the Tesla 3 video simply fails on these two tested tablets.

Missing tesla video

OK, OK, I confess. Assessing the Tesla 3 on the basis of its mobile page performance may not be the most critical of auto evaluation tests available by a long stretch. Nonetheless, when you have a major product rollout and are creating buzz like no one’s business, why damage your delivery with a less than perfect mobile display? When you want clear, fast, easy insight into your mobile performance, it’s best to turn to the 100% accurate online mobile testing solution: Mobilizer.

Mobile1st is a leader in marketing technology and site optimization solutions. More than prioritizing and executing industry leading CRO practices, we do what makes the money; optimizing our Client’s digital commerce product toward consistent financial growth and ROI. All achieved through excellence in Lean UX, Analytics, Research, Experimentation and Development.
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