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Is it really worth it getting a Tesla?
- Thread starter Lowell
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henderrj
Active Member
The Hybrid was getting about 42 mpg. A 96 mile daily comminute was about 2 1/4 gallons round trip. Figure $4.00 a gallon, $10 a day for fuel. About $9 a night to charge my MY at home. The home charger was $425, in about 2 two years it will pay for itself.
I've heard nothing but complaints on this forum about Tesla insurance from those who filed a claim. The hold time is measured hours.
You hit a puddle at freeway speeds and start to hydroplane. What do you supposed to do? Take your foot off the accelerator, don't touch the brake, everyone learned that. The problem is, the Tesla goes into all wheel drive regen which is the same as heavy braking. The next thing you know you're backing into the k-rail at 40mph. I know two who totaled their Tesla this way last winter. If you could turn off regen on rainy days it would be a lot safer.
Edit: Just found this.
Regenerative Braking May Be Making Teslas More Prone to Aquaplaning
To be fair, the Model Y is the one presenting more cases of aquaplaning caused by the substantial speed reduction from the electric motorswww.autoevolution.com
I don't understand how you could be paying $9 a night to charge at home. What is the rate that you pay per kilowatt hour? Are you not able to charge during off peak times? If you are only going 96 miles, you should be paying about $1.50 for the electricity it takes to charge that. Even in California. Even if you're only getting 3 miles per kilowatt hour, that's only 32 kilowatt hour. How can you possibly be paying that much?!
I owned a 2014 rear wheel drive Model S for 7 years and now I own a model x. They are both dramatically better driving in rain and snow than any other vehicle that I've driven. And I grew up in idaho, where there's a lot of snow. I lived in Washington for most of my adult life, where there's a lot of rain. I don't get how it can possibly be worse to drive an electric car, which has instantaneous response. Yes, you have to be smart with the region. But that's true of any driving feature.
That's my insurance went down from what it was with my mercedes. And the Mercedes was 10 years older. The insurance I have on the model X now seems to be comparable to anybody else's that I've talked to. But it's been a long time since I've owned an ice vehicle, so I couldn't be sure on my own on that.
Overall, yes, any electric car is better than any ice car. Tesla the company is driving me absolutely crazy, but they're really just like every other company now. The cars, are superior to anything else I've driven. And, after 50 years of driving, I've gone through a lot of vehicles. I do love the way these teslas drive!
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That is a very subjective question.
For me, yes it is. I am planning on buying one as soon as the Model 3 Highland is available in the USA.
My wife has owned a few Teslas (as have I).
My mother and father have each bought a Tesla.
My brother wanted a cybertruck, but couldn’t wait so he got a F150 Lightning.
I can’t answer for you, but for me it definitely is.
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johnnycnote
Member
I've owned BMW, Cadillac, Range Rover, Lincolns, and a couple of Lexus. IHMO, my M3 beats them all by miles. Halfway into my 36 mo M3 lease and I'm really enjoying the crap out of it. Can't wait for an S next time around. Not sure what you're looking for in a car, so it's difficult to point you in any direction
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Watts_Up
Well-Known Member
I have a friend who love Tesla, rented the Model Y and want to buy one, but his wife doesn't like Elon Musk.... and don't want a Tesla.
Tesla is the only american made EV and Tesla has a very good supercharger network, but still his wife don't want a Tesla.
What would you do in this case?
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Hm. Tag team. I wonder.The Hybrid was getting about 42 mpg. A 96 mile daily comminute was about 2 1/4 gallons round trip. Figure $4.00 a gallon, $10 a day for fuel. About $9 a night to charge my MY at home. The home charger was $425, in about 2 two years it will pay for itself.
I've heard nothing but complaints on this forum about Tesla insurance from those who filed a claim. The hold time is measured hours.
You hit a puddle at freeway speeds and start to hydroplane. What do you supposed to do? Take your foot off the accelerator, don't touch the brake, everyone learned that. The problem is, the Tesla goes into all wheel drive regen which is the same as heavy braking. The next thing you know you're backing into the k-rail at 40mph. I know two who totaled their Tesla this way last winter. If you could turn off regen on rainy days it would be a lot safer.
Edit: Just found this.
Regenerative Braking May Be Making Teslas More Prone to Aquaplaning
To be fair, the Model Y is the one presenting more cases of aquaplaning caused by the substantial speed reduction from the electric motors
First: Electricity here on the East Coast in NJ is about $0.18/kW-hr. My 2018 M3 LR RWD got, pretty consistently through the non-cold months, about 250 W-hr/mile. (Dead of the winter cold months that was more like 350 W-hr/mile; but newer M3/MY/MX/MS all have heat pumps, so they don't get that.)
And that's with both local and highway driving.
So, cost per mile for that car was (0.35 kW-hr/mile) * ($0.18/kW-hr) = $0.063/mile.
Next: Car before the M3 was a 2010 3rd-gen Prius, very much a hybrid, battery pack and all. I'm the kind of maniac with the Little Black Book, kept in the glove compartment, and Every Blame Gas Fill got written in there, along with the mileage. Periodically, I'd haul out the book, do the math, and there it was: about 48-52 mpg. Let's say 50 mpg. I don't go in gas stations any more, natch, but gas is around $3.50/gal according to Google Maps.
Cost per mile of that bog-standard Prius: ($3.50/gal) * (1 gal/50 miles) = $0.070/mile.
So, the Prius is close. But that's not all: The Prius needed oil changes every 10k miles. The Tesla, not so much. Radiator fluid changes. Spark plugs every 50k miles. Tuning from time to time. Maintenance costs for the Prius are definitely more than that of the Tesla.
Now, that bit about how much a charge at home should cost. Most Tesla's with NIMH batteries are recommended to have a full charge at 80%. For a 300-mile-range Tesla, that's about 240 miles. One doesn't run the car down to empty, but let's say one would do a fill-up at home at, worst case, around 10%, or 24 miles. So, that would result in a charge of 240-24 = 216 miles. 216 miles * $0.063/mile = $13.60.
For the Prius, keeping apples to apples, 216 miles * $0.070/mile = $15.12.
Now, that's that. If one goes to Superchargers, no matter where one lives, generally, the Supercharger cost is about 3X the home electricity cost. (Excluding the night-time odd-hour SC's (there's one near here (checking.. the one in Woodbridge) that's $0.48/kW-hr in the middle of the day and $0.18 during the wee hours), no question, the Prius would win. If one had to use SC's as a regular thing.
Now, if we're not talking about hybrids, but regular cars: Both the Priuses of the world and BEVs in general (but Tesla's in particular - they're cheap on the W-hr/mile range) blow all of those ICEs out of the water.
So, there are specific use cases where a Prius might be a better answer. Got some guy delivering custom trombones across country, all the time? And the apartment dweller who has an unenlightened landlord, well, the Prius might win for that. Maybe. But if you got your usual car owner who does a lot of local driving and the occasional trip, the Tesla wins.
Long term trends? We've passed Peak Oil, in terms of availability. It's getting very close to the point where one expends more oil digging oil out of the ground that one gets oil out of the ground. The easy-to-get stuff is just about gone, so the price of oil (and gas) is going to do nothing but go up over time. In the meantime, economies of scale are kicking in for BEVs: It's not an accident that Tesla has been lowering prices over time. Flat-out, BEVs are simpler to build and less complex than ICEs.
While Tesla's Supercharging network is neato-keeno with its up-time and all that, competition for that network is coming. Right now customers are paying a premium for that service, not to mention doing more and more installs of more SC's; over time, I expect costs to drop somewhat as the competition gets into gear and, well, all those competitors start installing NACS. Which will give the Priuses of the world a much harder time.
And, finally: If you care about the environment and leaving your grandkids breathable air, then, yeah, ditch the Prius and it's CO2 exhaust.
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ZenRockGarden
Active Member
96 miles is like 24 kWh... so you're paying nearly 40 cents per kWh at home? Good lord. And you've got $4 gas? Very weird place. Home electric is like ten cents here overnight and gas is $6.00
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ZenRockGarden
Active Member
The funny thing about these hilariously distorted electric-costs/maintenance-and-insurance claims/hydroplaning-for-morons arguments is that although they're absurd, there ARE other actual use cases where the Tesla is not the right tool.
If you live somewhere really cold, and with large distances between outposts of civilization? Not a good place for a Tesla.
If you love to go camping for many days as far from humanity as possible? Nope. Tesla not the right too=l.
If you live in an apartment and have no way to charge at home, and no access to an affordable charger at work or other location? Nope, that's not a good Tesla setup.
But hydroplaning because you don't know how to do one-foot driving or can't figure out how to get home electric set up for less than 40 cents per kWh? These are NOT reasons.
I eagerly await the pictures of Camry's on fire labelled "Tesla battery explosion nearly killed me"
If you live somewhere really cold, and with large distances between outposts of civilization? Not a good place for a Tesla.
If you love to go camping for many days as far from humanity as possible? Nope. Tesla not the right too=l.
If you live in an apartment and have no way to charge at home, and no access to an affordable charger at work or other location? Nope, that's not a good Tesla setup.
But hydroplaning because you don't know how to do one-foot driving or can't figure out how to get home electric set up for less than 40 cents per kWh? These are NOT reasons.
I eagerly await the pictures of Camry's on fire labelled "Tesla battery explosion nearly killed me"
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Tiger
Active Member
Did you ask Tesla or carfax for price offers on the car? Cars are not investments so they do degrade and your car's price is competing agains Today's new sales prices which are in the $50k range.
The real question is, what car would you get instead of Tesla, if you could exchange it for no additional money (and no money back either), in the same size class (or pay extra for a bigger car)?
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#1 I wouldn’t be caught dead, driving a Sonata!
#2 some of us appreciate higher quality tires that are safer and a better ride!
#3 just had my 12 V battery replaced as preventative maintenance, and mobile tech was here in less than three days after I made the appointment and replaced an o-ring that was upgraded!(FL Panhandle)
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Probably not. I would encourage you to check out the Bolt.
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I can't tell if that's a joke or you're serious.
If you're serious, I think the Bolt is an excellent value for a low-end economy car that will stay close to home.
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File for a divorce or grow some balls?
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It's a really fun car to drive and quite comfortable on the road, so yes, it's worth it.
Our summer electric rate is about 34 cents/kwh. In winter they bump it up, last January it was 45 cents. If you can explain to me how to get home electric for under 40 cents from Neversource, I'll be most appreciative. (yes we have solar, but every kWh that goes directly into the car is still a foregone income of 34-45 cents from the net metering, so the cost to me is the same.) It's ironic that superchargers are often cheaper than charging at home.
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Imma go hug my electricity provider. I pay an annual average of 10.5¢/kWh here in NE Texas. We have no choice of providers, no subsidies for solar, and fixed rates (no off/on-peak).
I avoid using Superchargers because they are 37¢/kWh which would make my EV cost as much per mile as a gas vehicle that averaged 30-something MPG.
If I had to pay 30-something ¢/kWh for electricity, I probably wouldn't have purchased an EV unless gasoline was $10/gal (which it's not - it's about $3.50).
I avoid using Superchargers because they are 37¢/kWh which would make my EV cost as much per mile as a gas vehicle that averaged 30-something MPG.
If I had to pay 30-something ¢/kWh for electricity, I probably wouldn't have purchased an EV unless gasoline was $10/gal (which it's not - it's about $3.50).
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