The TRUE Cost of My Tesla Ownership

Channel Art: Wouter-vA19 from our Discord

[donharris]

The key is to calculate the TOTAL cost of ownership. The monthly payment and fuel costs arent the only variables. I am a numbers guy so I definitely wanted to know what I was jumping into with a Tesla. My savings on electricity vs. gas would've been about $130/month based on current gas prices in NY and miles driven. Even with home charger installation, this would have been an awesome savings, considering an even higher monthly car payment, BUT, my insurance quote tripled from my 2020 Jeep to a 2023 Model 3. $55 to $149 per month for was a little too high to compensate for the additional monthly car payment. Basically, DO NOT ignore the cost of insurance when moving to electric because they are more expensive to repair and insurance companies do consider that. You may end up with no savings or it may even cost you more.

[J..E.]

You shouldn’t have that GEICO 15/30 policy. If you get in a car crash, you’ll need to pay the difference if the other side does not want to settle for policy limits. Then they will go after your assets.

[Terrillthegreat]

I was spending over $600/month in gas before I got my Tesla and charged for free at work. I started saving money per month immediately after driving the Tesla. Now that I’m working from home, not saving so much anymore 😅

[keco]

I'm at 40, 000 miles in my Model 3 and the tires still have plenty of tread left.

[johnpoldo]

The average time to trade in a new car is 6 years. Sure, some people hold onto a car for 10-15 years, but a large number of people trade in within 3 years. While cost of vehicle ownership is important, there are factors equally important such as safety improvements, reliability, and technology. Everyone’s value system is different and we should respect that. But to me, cost is the least important. There is far too much focus on cost.

I want to survive an accident, not break down on a road trip, and enjoy the latest high tech. If that costs me $100 more a month, I’ll simply have to work smarter to earn enough money.

[TeslaTimATL]

Great video. Comparing to an ancient car might be apples to oranges . Better worth comparing an equivalent ICE car 2022 model like a 3 series. Also what is the price for all the safety features? I always emphasize what is the price of your family’s safety when someone starts nickel and diming on price.

[jandraelune]

Here in Mich, the registration fee is WAY cheaper, only like $150 with the avg gas car being $96 ($8/mo for gas, $13/mo for ev). Insurance is about the same, $110/mo. Charging rates are about half, $0.16/kWh. So in the end its WAY cheaper to operate and own an EV in Michigan, but don't have the double $7, 500 tax credits that Cali does to effectively buy an EV at 50% off if getting a $30-40k one.

[fearsomebeard]

California does charge you for an electric vehicle, but that road use tax is a flat $100 per year at present. The rest of your registration fee is based on 0.65% of the purchase price/future value. The registration will then decrease with its value. Therefore a new gas powered vehicle of the exact same price will have the same registration fee minus the $100 for the electric vehicle. That makes the registration fee playing field much more comparable than a comparison to an older fully depreciated car.
Having said that we love our 2022 model X so much, we just traded our other car, a 2018 Lexus RX, in for a brand new 2023 model Y LR thanks to the $7, 500 credit for buying before December 31. I will now cancel that Lucid Air Touring order I have as our Tesla experience has been so wonderful we decided to be a two Tesla family.

[slyguyaction]

We have a 2021 VW ID.4 and just added 2022 Tesla Model 3. I also live in CA and you're correct on the cost of insurance and registration fees. Owning a Tesla (any model) can be really expensive. We're not in it necessarily for the cost savings or the environment tho. We bought our EVs because we love the high tech and the convenience of "fueling up" from home. Great video...

[dougholmes]

You are correct hard to compare. I have a 2022 Y Performance took delivery in February. The car I sold was a 2017 Infiniti QX80. Loved that SUV but only took Premium Gas and got about 17 miles per gallon. The price of my Tesla was about the same for the Infiniti. I am definitely seeing a big cost savings. 10 months with my Tesla and I have just shy of 25K miles on her.

[DblOSmith]

I may have missed it, but the only maintenance you calculated was oil changes? Not tune ups, not fluid services? Belts and spark plugs? Timing belt service can be $1, 500 by itself and you don't want to neglect with an interference engine.

[arpitchaudhary]

Another consideration would be energy cost of running sentry mode. In my experience it depletes battery equivalent to 15-20 miles per day. Not huge costs but still adds up especially if your electricity price is much higher. For me it’s around 0.60-0.70$ per day at 0.11$/kw.

[Ed-jgud]

$500 is pretty good for my state- NE- new my car was like $800 a year to register, now 5 years old it’s about $500 per year.

[daltonknox]

Note California superchargers are 58cents/kWh. It's cheaper to put gas in a RAV4 hybrid.

[aann]

Good video. How is the ride/noise compared to ICE?

[baldisaerodynamic]

as an owner of a hybrid suv 2022, that cost 31k new, and considering a tesla model 3 standard range, im failing to see the value...

this isnt a EV hater debate, these are my findings with actual consideration for a tesla model 3. im not going into the range, or chargers working or not working, waiting time, or anything along those lines at all. this is comparing local daily use which is for most folks.

For starters, my insurance quote went up $1038 for 6 months over my current brand new car. thats $173 a month MORE for the same coverage. that alone made me close the order page. this was with progressive. others may charge less, I do not know if tesla insurance is in nevada, and they use your driving scores so this is a huge unknown at this point. it is possible, that if it is available here, my insurance MIGHT be comparable. i only have info that i can see here.
I currently get 400-420 miles range, costs me $35-40 to fuel each week.
standard range RWD model 3 that i wanted is 267 miles....in ideal conditions so ill assume 230 between charges(just over half my current vehicles range), with the upgraded wheels i chose, and its about $20 to supercharge if needed which i will need once a week, while doing some charging at home as well. i would save maybe $20 a week or about $1100 a year by doing one SC a week and rest of the time at home. currently, i cannot preddict if i will need to SC 2x a week....but im not going to factor that in, but I do know i would need to use it once a week for sure based on my habits.

oil changes for me are $80 5x a year $400 annual or $33 per month averaged out.
the payment for my car is $565 + 33 avg per month for oil changes is $598. a new model 3 would be $700 a month plus $173 a month higher on insurnace, or a higher expense of $275 a month, take away the gas savings of $80 a month $195 higher than my current car.

if the insurance difference wasnt the issue i would break pretty close to even out of pocket ($600 current payment and oil changes vs $700 tesla payment and no insurance change) considering both cars would be new, warranty would prevail for repairs, and the $80 saved on gas on average would really come close enough)
I did for the hell of it check insurance cost for a base kia EV6 with 310 miles rated range, which is a comparable vehicle to mine and the insurance was $308 more for the 6 months ($52 a month) over my current vehicle, but the vehicle is also more than the tesla.
in nevada, vehicle registration is based on base model MSRP when new, so my reg would increase with any EV by at about $200 annually, but thats barely $10 a month and im not going to factor that in.
people talk about tires, I currently have a wheel and tire package and have extensively used this. if tesla offered this I would use it as well. if not, then tesla would cost me more in tires

im failing to see where any savings will come from....thats insane the insurance difference alone is the real deterrent for me in regards to a tesla. I was shocked at how expensive it was to insure a tesla model 3....and it wasnt the performance either. I was actually considering making the switch, until i saw the insurance expense being the biggest and instant NO.

i think ill get the 2023 prius plug in when it comes out $40k fully or near loaded estimated price and AWD (current nearly loaded or fully loaded with paint options for the non plug in for 23 MY is about $37-39k), and 45-50mpg, which will only give me 30-40 miles of EV range (rumored), but if i charge it daily at home ill prob use a tank of gas every 2 weeks vs 1 week. 9 gallon tank is my guess on the plug in vs non plug in being 11gal. usually fill with 1/4 left as habit, so $20-30 to fill bi-weekly. tesla would be $20 a week....refueling/charging is compared to this example, 2x as much.
tesla is 5.8 for a model 3 0-60, the new prius AWD is being tested at 6.8 for the AWD non plug in. the plug in is rumored to have 220hp over the 196, and may do 6.5-6.8....slower, but not that much slower for the cost factors involved.
I would suspect the insurance for the new prius would be within that $0-308 increase seen in the EV6 i had quoted considering the cost of parts, speed, safety, history etc. the gas savings alone would cover a good chunk of that possible increase.
a base prius MSRP is similar to my SUV, so registration would be equal or within a $30 annually.

im sorry, but no matter how i keep looking at these EVs, and appreciate how silent they are, i love how silent my hybrid is in EV mode and the smoothness of it and the feeling of the TQ driving it etc its a seamless feel and i do appreciate cost and convenience factors just dont add up at all.

Automakers really dropped the ball when they ignored the real benefits and convenience of plug in hybrids. if many folks drive 50 miles a day average, an plug in for most cars would cover about 2/3 of that mileage if it was fully charged daily (most plug ins get 30-40 EV range). the average person may only fill up once per month in this scenario. (1500 miles a month at 50 miles a day 30 days. EV range of 35 miles 30 days 1050 electric miles. 450 gas miles used, assuming 38mpg for small SUV, is nearly 12 gallons and thats draining the tank pretty close to empty, at $3.50 a gallon thats about $40 a month, or $10 a week....$10 a week is cheaper than using a super charger once a week)

these comparisons are what i have seen, used, looked at. im not including other services as where one does this the other does that. all cars have alignments, tires, wipers, and other basic needs. im merely looking at new car vs new car, and oil changes being the most obvious and frequent service needed compared to an EV and under 100k miles....most cars have 100k spark plugs, transmission fluid, and coolant, and if many people trade in their cars in 5 years, thats usually 75-90k miles at trade in time.

[tariq]

I was caught off guard when I got a payment for GasTax. Definitely wasn’t expecting it. But tires and charging accessories were easy to know and learn about

[robvandenassum]

Forgetting one really big one but as you said you don't have all the information yet. Personal property tax adds about $800 a year when compared to a comparable ICE car.

[pman]

We are looking at Tesla to replace our car. Combined between our truck and car we drove around 45k miles last year. The truck average is around 22 and the car is around 26 mpg average. A Tesla would save us massively, I will say about 8k of the miles on the truck is with towing a trailer so mpg goes way down. We would end up not using the truck unless it was for the trailer or for heavy or large items. So we would cut a lot of gas out for our driving.

[mikaxms]

The insurance of a similar priced gas car would be higher.