Thanks for the response. Any comment on what I wrote above (LR vs SR)? AWD vs RWD I've already decided snow tires are enough
I did a LOT of calculations on my own driving habits, and here is some insight into myself. Your mileage may very.
It's a long reasoning, by the way, but I hope it can help. It took me a lot of time to figure this out, so if it helps you that's awesome.
By the way, this started because we bought a Leaf sort of on a whim last April (it was really cheap and both our cars were in rough shape but not dead so we figured we would try it for a bit and then either sell it or sell a car in the future... We fell in love and are now replacing my Sentra that remains and is completely falling apart now with the 3 to be done with gas forever... Anyway...)
I found that in a year, based on my driving habits, we only went beyond the Leaf's 80ish mile range about 10 times. Of those 10 times, either a SR or LR 3 would have met my needs with only one exception. For that one exception, the only problem was that I stayed at a location that would have had to be a slow charger, and I wouldn't have re-got enough juice to make it all the way home. Where I was, there were some fast chargers in parking lots, but no superchargers. Total charge time I would have needed would have been an hour to make it home, so not a huge deal.
I then looked at the last road trip I did. It was a 1770 mile trip over five days total. Even two years ago, most hotels we stayed at had Tesla fast chargers, so I would get "topped up" at night theoretically each night. The LR car would need to be supercharged for a total of about 1:30 to get through each location. The SR version would have needed to be charged for 3 hours. I was honestly surprised by how little the difference was. An average of 18 minute difference a day.
By the way, I assumed my gas car would need a 10 minute refueling every 300 miles which was pretty accurate for it. That means the LR version will only "cost" me 30 minutes of time if I make the exact same trip. On top of that, on each of the longer days we stopped for at least a 30 minute food / break for driving outside of the gas stop, so I really look at the Super Chargers as time saved not screwing around at gas stations and nothing more. Based on that, the SR version would only cost me 30 minutes of charging time, essentially once a year. I had *almost* figured it was worth it for that to just go SR.
I ended up with a few things though that made me opt for LR. First, I won't have as easy of a time charging this car unless we run a service into the garage, which I'll probably do (bonus my father-in-law is an electrician so we can get stuff done correctly!), but for now I'll need to charge it on the Leaf charger. The Leaf needs to be charged pretty much every day. I do drive about 50 miles a day during the week, although that ranges from 10 miles one day to 100 the next. Regardless, at 250 miles a week of driving, I can charge the 3 once a week and then leave it go. That makes that a lot easier.
Secondly, we have timed electric rate options here. I intend to move to the cheaper overnight rates for charging both cars when we get the 3 - we aren't like that now because we both fight to do all our driving on the not-falling-apart Leaf, so it gets about 90 a day on average meaning it needs to be charged at all hours. Charging 125 KWH or so / week for both cars at a nickel off should save me about $325 per year, which isn't a ton but over 10 years would be $3250...
$3250 rate savings + $3750 tax savings = $2000 "actual" LR battery cost over the life of the car made it an absolute no brainer for me, even though I won't use it tons. It gives me a lot more flexibility. Oh, and my Sentra guaranteed won't make it until the SR would be delivered, so I'd probably spend that $2000 on either keeping it going or getting something to use for a few months, which would be crazy.
If you don't take many road trips or if you wouldn't road trip in the 3 anyway, if you don't need it now and if you have a way to charge every night anyway, SR may be the the better option. To me, the differences were worth it.
Oh, and finally, it's probably also worth asking if you want the premium upgrades package. For me, the answer was absolutely yes I do. I have wanted a car with a sun roof for ages, never getting one because when I bought my Sentra the upgrade to sun roof was absolutely crazy different in pricing. I like the glass of the 3 better anyway - I don't want to open the sun roof, just look up and see not a ceiling - and I figure this will probably be the brand new car we purchase. (I'm not that old, just banking on autonomy becoming a real think in the next 12 or so years.) I've saved for my dream car for nearly 20 years, and it just so happens that it changed to a 3 right after we got the Leaf (goodbye, DeLorean of my dreams
). I'm good with making it nice.
If you would rather save the money on the upgrade package, the $2,000 difference I mentioned above becomes a $7,000 difference for me and then it's a bit harder to justify.
Hope that helps!
