Are we Really Really Saving Money owning a Tesla?

[North75]

Your answer: Mommy is going to commandeer the car once she gets to drive it

I never thought this would happen to me. My wife never gave a @#($ about cars before. Now she takes my model 3 to work everyday. (I work from home) She's even gone as far to say she now understands why I actually enjoy driving.
(I had the other M3 (E36) prior to this, but it was a manual, so she never drove it.)

 

[groovidad]

It costs me less than $10/wk to charge at home. That is a $20-25 savings/wk. Now that I have my Tesla PW, my charging is $0/wk. I park for free, downtown Honolulu for up to 2hrs at any meter AND I park for free at the airport for as long as my trip is. Ain't life grand!?

 

[ArcticStation]

In my case, and IRT fuel only and in light of our painfully expensive $0.20 plus/KWH electricity, yes I save money compared to my fifteen year old V8 pickup. However, my eight year old hybrid is very efficient and fuel costs are slightly less than the Tesla. But let's be honest (and to echo what others have said), we didn't buy these cars to save money.

 

[jdcollins5]

I have kept a spreadsheet of my charging costs from my kWH meter. This includes all of the charging losses, vampire losses, accessory losses when not in gear, pre-cooling losses, pre-heating losses, etc.

My previous car was a 2010 Prius that averaged 45 mpg over 9 years. After 1 year of ownership the cost to charge my car is 1/3 of the cost of gas for the Prius. This does not even include the savings from maintenance cost of oil and filter changes, transmission flushes, etc.

So yes I am saving money with this car.

 

[SomeJoe7777]

What wh/mi are you using. Are you factoring I’m charging losses and phantom losses. It adds up. And if you have to much fun you’ll pay a fortune in tires.

So if you drive conservatively and have cheap electricity you can save money.

I was using 320 Wh/mi for the Performance, and 240 Wh/mi for the RWD. I did not add in charging losses or phantom drain, but I have never had much problem with phantom drain, especially on the Model 3. (Model S was a little higher). Charging losses can be 5%+, so the costs could be proportionally 5%+ higher to account for that.

 

[mswlogo]

It costs me less than $10/wk to charge at home. That is a $20-25 savings/wk. Now that I have my Tesla PW, my charging is $0/wk. I park for free, downtown Honolulu for up to 2hrs at any meter AND I park for free at the airport for as long as my trip is. Ain't life grand!?

So your PW was Free?

 

[FurryOne]

Here's a chart I made for a handout during our local Drive Electric event.

 

[Bill Foster]

No vehicle is ever going to save you money.
If you really want to save money on transportation, buying a new vehicle is possibly the worst way.

Exactly. I could have bought a 2000 Honda Civic for 3k and ran it for years.


but that’s not what I wanted or want to be seen in

 

[mswlogo]

I was using 320 Wh/mi for the Performance, and 240 Wh/mi for the RWD. I did not add in charging losses or phantom drain, but I have never had much problem with phantom drain, especially on the Model 3. (Model S was a little higher). Charging losses can be 5%+, so the costs could be proportionally 5%+ higher to account for that.

Charging losses are WAY more than 5%

Supposedly this article (reference elsewhere on this forum) says they measured 83.3% efficient. They might be factoring in REAL kWh used vs miles driven which would include everything (pre heat, phantom, charging efficiency etc.)

Monthly Update for January 2018 - 2017 Tesla Model 3 Long-Term Road Test

It all depends on what you pay for electricity and how long you keep it.

Most nice midsize sedan's are well into high 30's today. And they have many features Model 3 lacks (Rear Cross Path, CarPlay, etc.)

And if you take advantage of that acceleration regularly you will pay dearly in tires. Not easy to compare.

In the long run, I say for many folks, it will NOT save. When you factor in EVERYTHING in. But for some with really cheap electricity the numbers are much better.

But you can throw in the green card any time you want and price doesn't matter. But if you want to be green, take the Bus.

 

[mswlogo]

Here's a chart I made for a handout during our local Drive Electric event.View attachment 453924

For 250K miles in MA at $2.30 / gallon in MA Gas is $23K and Electricty at $0.26 kWh Electric goes to $40K

And for the Record

The average price of electricity in N.Y. is $.21 / kWh
The average price of a gallon of gas is $3.00

So Gas is $30,000 and Electric is $32,125 you lose on Average in N.Y.

I used my own rates above for MA, the averages are:

The average price of electricity in MA is $.225 / kWh
The average price of a gallon of gas is $2.35

You can cherry pick expensive gas and cheap electricity and bend the truth.

 

[T3SLAROD]

From $600 a month in gas to about $150 in electricity..... yes Im good.

 

[mswlogo]

From $600 a month in gas to about $150 in electricity..... yes Im good.

Not meaningful unless you share what you went from, cost of fuel and cost of electricity.

What were you driving before, a Suburban?

 

[Johnny Mac]

Yes

 

[KenC]

Hello,

I have had my Model-3 past one year and enjoying every single time I sit in it (at times I just try to "find" reasons just so I can drive it).

But, every time I plug it to charge, this question comes in to my mind, in the long run "Are we REALLY REALLY SAVING MONEY owning a Tesla??"

Because, between Sentry mode, cabin temperature maintenance... and other miles-sapping activities that we might just not be aware of, my Model-3 tends to lose around 3-5 miles per 24 hours... give or take a couple of miles... WHETHER I DRIVE MY CAR OR NOT. That's serious loss of miles/charge, just with the car sitting out there in my garage.

What are your (unbiased) thoughts?

So, let's take the average drain, 4 miles, a day, 1460 miles a year. Take your average 12,000 miles a year driven, and add 12% to your energy cost to account for the 1460 miles. And add your AC to DC conversion efficiency loss, about 10%. So, my 4 cents a mile becomes 5 cents. My BMW is 14 cents a mile, and that's just for the fuel. So, yes, even with your phantom drain, etc., yes, you really are saving money.

And my phantom drain is only 1 mile a day.

 

[justsomeguy]

So, let's take the average drain, 4 miles, a day, 1460 miles a year. Take your average 12,000 miles a year driven, and add 12% to your energy cost to account for the 1460 miles. And add your AC to DC conversion efficiency loss, about 10%. So, my 4 cents a mile becomes 5 cents. My BMW is 14 cents a mile, and that's just for the fuel. So, yes, even with your phantom drain, etc., yes, you really are saving money.

And my phantom drain is only 1 mile a day.

My phantom drain is great... if I never touch the car. The reality is if I go for a 2km drive, it's energy inefficient maybe because of cold soak and uses 3-4km of range.. I park it and the next time I get back to the car, I lose another 5-6km because the sleep behaviour of the car is completely unpredictable.

Today I took 4 trips totalling 8km over 6 hours (each drive was 10 minutes or so), and my car lost 27km of range, who knows how much more it will lose before it decides to sleep for the night. Then starts the 'good' phantom drain rate.

 

[mswlogo]

My phantom drain is great... if I never touch the car. The reality is if I go for a 2km drive, it's energy inefficient maybe because of cold soak and uses 3-4km of range.. I park it and the next time I get back to the car, I lose another 5-6km because the sleep behaviour of the car is completely unpredictable.

Today I took 4 trips totalling 8km over 6 hours (each drive was 10 minutes or so), and my car lost 27km of range, who knows how much more it will lose before it decides to sleep for the night. Then starts the 'good' phantom drain rate.

Try turning off HVAC Every time you leave the car. Just hold Fan Icon. I usually don't start it until AFTER I get going. If it's comfy out I might never even start the HVAC. If it's hot I might open the windows for a bit. I find this saves a lot of that waste. I wish there was an option to only run HVAC when in Drive (on when wh/mi meter is running).

 

[KenC]

My phantom drain is great... if I never touch the car. The reality is if I go for a 2km drive, it's energy inefficient maybe because of cold soak and uses 3-4km of range.. I park it and the next time I get back to the car, I lose another 5-6km because the sleep behaviour of the car is completely unpredictable.

Today I took 4 trips totalling 8km over 6 hours (each drive was 10 minutes or so), and my car lost 27km of range, who knows how much more it will lose before it decides to sleep for the night. Then starts the 'good' phantom drain rate.

Yeah, for some reason my phantom drain is on the low side. According to Stats, my drain rate 0.13m/hr is lower than 92% of Model 3 drivers, in its data pool.

4 one-mile trips could be even more inefficient in an ICE. Not sure why it'd be so inefficient in your Tesla.

 

[justsomeguy]

Yeah, for some reason my phantom drain is on the low side. According to Stats, my drain rate 0.13m/hr is lower than 92% of Model 3 drivers, in its data pool.

Even at the rate I get, the electricity cost of operation is significantly cheaper than operating even my old honda civic.

Problem is my insurance increase completely negates all fuel savings.

But as we say... I didn't buy this car to save on gas.

 

[animorph]

TeslaFi says I've added 8827 kWh to my X while traveling 21241 miles over about 26 months, for a long term consumption of 415.6 Wh/mile. That includes vampire losses, but still doesn't include external losses that you would also be paying for. That compares to 14 MPG I averaged with my comparably fast but much smaller Porsche Carrera 4. I'm saving money.

 

[ElectricEel]

Mathematically helll nooo. There will always be a cheaper hybrid of some sort used that one could argue. But we didn't get the car because it would save us money just like people don't buy iPhones to save money, we wanted that juicy Tech.

Cheapest Tesla no AP, 100k miles, around $25,000: the maintenance on it will destroy any savings.

Cheapest used hybrid $7500, cuz it's a Toyota it's maintenance isn't as bad.