Cost of Owning

[Chronic]

Hi all,

Looking to buy a Model 3 outright.

Live in London and have never owned a car.

What are the costs of owning / is there a place with an overview of the cost of owning?

I've gathered:
- Insurance
- Maintenance costs
- Charging costs
- Tax (VAT on the purchase price, any other tax?)

Please let me know if I am missing anything.

Thank you.

 

[ewoodrick]

parking
charging option at home installation
car washes
tags or equivalent yearly costs
Maintenance is pretty small for Tesla, unless something breaks, then as many cars, can be exorbitant.

 

[gangzoom]

Our X is the cheapest car we have owned ever, in 37k our costs have been:

• £500 for insurance- this will vary from person to person.
• 2.5p per mile for 'fuel' - Model 3 closer to 1.5p due to been more efficient.
• £0 VED on old system- now its £310 per year for 5 years.
• £450 in tyres every 20k miles so 2.25p per mile.
• £0 in servicing so far- I plan to book into Tesla just before 50k, estimated cost £500 so 1p per mile.

Thats the actual daily costs, we are doing 15k a year so all in costs is about £1670 a year or 11p per mile - including VED, 9p per mile for us as we don't pay the VED.

If you do 5k per year, thats £1100 per year or 22p per mile. The more miles you do per year the cheaper the car is!! The more other static costs like parking you add on the more expensive it becomes to do 5k a year versus 15k.

The cost I haven't included is deprecation, but that only counts if you sell the car. With a on going cost of only 9p per mile (excluding VED) we aren't selling our car till the battery warranty ends in 2025 .

If you work out the cost of tube travel, its substantially more than 9p per mile!! But sadly actually driving in London is madness.

Though if you believe this article, short zone 1 trips cost upto £14 per mile!!

What Are London's Best And Worst Value Public Transport Journeys?

 

[pdk42]

Biggest cost (by far) with the Model 3, as any car, is depreciation. Tesla's own estimates, based on residuals for PCPs, show that it's slightly worse than current comparable ICE cars.

 

[WannabeOwner]

- Tax (VAT on the purchase price, any other tax?)

Road Tax from 1st renewal (at end of first year, unless the car V5 changes - e.g. when selling the car)
MOT from Year 3

No congestion charge (in London) (you may have to pay £10 p.a. to get exemption)

Electricity - if you have Off Peak electricity tariff then maybe 2p per mile.

£450 in tyres every 20k miles so 2.25p per mile

That's probably a variable cost depending on driving style. I don't hang about but got 40,000 miles out of first set of tires ... but majority of my driving is cruising on dual carriageway.

 

[MrBadger]

I think when things go wrong, out or warranty repairs will be expensive. Limited places have experience of EV's so you may be subject to dealer repair costs. Plus some spares are subject to long waiting times - also affects accident damage where an insurer may supply a courtesy/hire car for a limited period of time but repair may take much longer by which time you are on your own.

Have you got an insurance quote yet - no previous record of car ownership may significantly impact you unless you are already a named driver on another policy.

 

[rubberfish]

If you switch with Octopus Energy and sign up for Octopus Go, the rate between 12:30am and 4:30 is 5p per KWh so that’s 0.96 pence per mile (SR+). Obviously not enough time to fully charge at home each night, but enough for a top up for average daily use.

Currently, for me, commuting by train into central London costs me £3059 a year – that’s based on 3 days a week, as I work from home 2 days a week. While driving a Tesla M3 SR+ – based on the charging rates above – will cost only £69 per year (or £210 if I include parking at my company shared car park at £1 per day).

 

[m3gt2]

Road Tax from 1st renewal (at end of first year, unless the car V5 changes - e.g. when selling the car)
MOT from Year 3

No congestion charge (in London) (you may have to pay £10 p.a. to get exemption)

Electricity - if you have Off Peak electricity tariff then maybe 2p per mile.



That's probably a variable cost depending on driving style. I don't hang about but got 40,000 miles out of first set of tires ... but majority of my driving is cruising on dual carriageway.

That's good, I was expecting less than 40k even on motorways. Which model do you run and which tyres (size and brand/model). Do you change to winter tyres?

 

[Tony Hoyle]

I would have thought that insurance with no NCB in London was going to be your biggest hurdle.. try putting your details through comparethemarket to see what you get.

 

[Chronic]

parking
charging option at home installation
car washes
tags or equivalent yearly costs
Maintenance is pretty small for Tesla, unless something breaks, then as many cars, can be exorbitant.

What do you mean by tags or equivalent?

 

[Chronic]

Our X is the cheapest car we have owned ever, in 37k our costs have been:

• £500 for insurance- this will vary from person to person.
• 2.5p per mile for 'fuel' - Model 3 closer to 1.5p due to been more efficient.
• £0 VED on old system- now its £310 per year for 5 years.
• £450 in tyres every 20k miles so 2.25p per mile.
• £0 in servicing so far- I plan to book into Tesla just before 50k, estimated cost £500 so 1p per mile.

Thats the actual daily costs, we are doing 15k a year so all in costs is about £1670 a year or 11p per mile - including VED, 9p per mile for us as we don't pay the VED.

If you do 5k per year, thats £1100 per year or 22p per mile. The more miles you do per year the cheaper the car is!! The more other static costs like parking you add on the more expensive it becomes to do 5k a year versus 15k.

The cost I haven't included is deprecation, but that only counts if you sell the car. With a on going cost of only 9p per mile (excluding VED) we aren't selling our car till the battery warranty ends in 2025 .

If you work out the cost of tube travel, its substantially more than 9p per mile!! But sadly actually driving in London is madness.

Though if you believe this article, short zone 1 trips cost upto £14 per mile!!

What Are London's Best And Worst Value Public Transport Journeys?

What is VED?

 

[Chronic]

W

I would have thought that insurance with no NCB in London was going to be your biggest hurdle.. try putting your details through comparethemarket to see what you get.

What is NCB?

 

[ajp558]

No Claims Bonus - discount for not having made any previous claims against your insurance for a number of years.

 

[Chronic]

No Claims Bonus - discount for not having made any previous claims against your insurance for a number of years.

Cool, thank you.

 

[MrBadger]

You have to earn NCB by being claim free whilst having a motor insurance policy in your own name. Some may give an introductory bonus or allow you to take on some from having been a named or company driver, but that often is for a very limited period of time and often is non transferable. Full NCB may be a 60% discount or there abouts.

Also, many current incentives may disappear with time as EVs become more common. So say 0 rate part of VED may change or even go to time and use pricing in some form.

I think lots of change to what we are use to with car ownership will come over time. So don’t max yourself out just for a car. Sounds like you may have done OK for yourself without a car up until now.

 

[WannabeOwner]

That's good, I was expecting less than 40k even on motorways. Which model do you run and which tyres (size and brand/model).

Model-S, 18" wheels, standard tyres that came with the vehicle (Michelin Pilots I think)

Do you change to winter tyres?

Yes (but 40K mileage was for the initial set of Summer Tyres, I used them the first Winter, I drive 30K miles a year)

 

[gangzoom]

What is VED?

Road tax/luxury car tax.

But if you have never owned a car before get an insurance quote first. A Performance Model 3 is an expensive car to insure anyways, been in London makes it worse, having no discounts via NCB even more so, and if your under the age of 30 I reckon might be looking a near 5 figure sum just for insurance!!

 

[Compuguide]

What is VED?

VED = Vehicle Excise Duty

 

[Chronic]

Road tax/luxury car tax.

But if you have never owned a car before get an insurance quote first. A Performance Model 3 is an expensive car to insure anyways, been in London makes it worse, having no discounts via NCB even more so, and if your under the age of 30 I reckon might be looking a near 5 figure sum just for insurance!!

OK all makes sense - all true except I'm going for the cheapest Model 3 "Standard Range Plus".

 

[Tony Hoyle]

It's still a fairly performant car. And 5 figure sum isn't impossible. Definately check insurance before considering the car.