Is it really worth it getting a Tesla?

[Lowell]

Is it really worth it getting a Tesla?

 

[ZenRockGarden]

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.

I am not familiar with the local offerings in your particular area, but in general most places allow time-of-use plans where cheap energy is available off-peak and overnight since pretty much every grid in the universe has idle capacity at 2 AM.

The most expensive way to charge at home is to sign up for and pay for the premium flat-rate plan, and then charge at night.

 

[rwiegand]

I am not familiar with the local offerings in your particular area, but in general most places allow time-of-use plans where cheap energy is available off-peak and overnight since pretty much every grid in the universe has idle capacity at 2 AM.

The most expensive way to charge at home is to sign up for and pay for the premium flat-rate plan, and then charge at night.

Nope, no time of use plans here for residential customers. They are talking about implementing it, but it will apparently take years to install the requisite metering capability.

 

[Unobtanium]

Is it really worth it getting a Tesla?

Tesla had the best charging network and routing guidance aside from Volvo, who uses Google and is pretty amazing there, too. So if this is a road trip mostly car, its hard to argue against the advantage of the SC network.

However, for more local use/infrequent road trips, I think a myriad of better options exist. Tesla has some pretty aggressive battery degradation early on, poor build quality, polarizing interior design, low quality materials (hopefully addressed some by Highland), and more performance oriented options exist. This is all at the MY/M3 level. The X and S are different stories, but still with abysmal material and build quality.

Overall, Tesla forced others to improve their powertrain and adopt nacs, and others are forcing Tesla to improve their product.

 

[David_Cary]

I am pretty sure that most of the US does not have TOU electricity rates. I had some a few years back that was mostly for solar customers and now it is gone. In CA, sure - TOU dominates. But not in most of the US.
Mostly we pay under 15 cents so there is not much of a need. But MA and parts of NY pay really high rates. There maybe others like NJ that are also pretty high and probably other NE states.
Here in NC, we pay like 12 cents. When I had TOU, it was 5 cents at night.

Some of the pro-Tesla and anti-Tesla posts are pretty hyperbolic.

Yes - body repair is slow and expensive. Insurance for me is not a big deal and was maybe 15% higher than a comparable car.
As far as handling - having a low COG is really helpful. No one should be taking full throttle off in a traction limiting situation - what do you think any car at a higher RPM would do? And you can turn down the regen. It would be pretty cool if Tesla did that automatically (as an option) during low traction situations.

Yes - communication with SC is terrible. The good news is that you don't need to that often.

I tried not to buy a Tesla because of Elon. But there wasn't a good enough alternative at the proper price point.

 

[bobomatic]

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.

This sounds somewhat bogus. I have Eversource as well and yes they do suck but the rate is not 45 cents. The recent rates in Wayland is:

• January 1, 2023 through June 30, 2023 - $0.25776
• July 1, 2023 through December 31, 2023 - $0.16078

Add on another 10-12 cents for delivery so it's currently probably $0.26-$0.28.

I'm currently paying 24 cents total (supply + delivery) because I get my supply rate from a 3rd party because eversource sucks a big one. New England energy rates really do suck. I don't get why we get screwed so much compared to the rest of the country.

 

[Tronguy]

I am pretty sure that most of the US does not have TOU electricity rates. I had some a few years back that was mostly for solar customers and now it is gone. In CA, sure - TOU dominates. But not in most of the US.
Mostly we pay under 15 cents so there is not much of a need. But MA and parts of NY pay really high rates. There maybe others like NJ that are also pretty high and probably other NE states.
Here in NC, we pay like 12 cents. When I had TOU, it was 5 cents at night.

Some of the pro-Tesla and anti-Tesla posts are pretty hyperbolic.

Yes - body repair is slow and expensive. Insurance for me is not a big deal and was maybe 15% higher than a comparable car.
As far as handling - having a low COG is really helpful. No one should be taking full throttle off in a traction limiting situation - what do you think any car at a higher RPM would do? And you can turn down the regen. It would be pretty cool if Tesla did that automatically (as an option) during low traction situations.

Yes - communication with SC is terrible. The good news is that you don't need to that often.

I tried not to buy a Tesla because of Elon. But there wasn't a good enough alternative at the proper price point.

Actually, being in NJ and Interested In Charging, I know a bit more about NJ's situation.

NJ currently has two setups friendly to EV's when it comes to charging:

1. Time of Use tariffs. If you've got one of those, then you can't do the next:
2. Special reduced rates for charging an EV. To do this, one needs to have a L2 charger that has, and I kid you not, "Energy Star Level II Compliant", and the right kind of car. Having recently gone back-and-forth with PSE&G about this, that Level II Compliant part means that the system can communicate with a Mothership regarding usage. In this case, it would work with a PSE&G subcontractor, work out how many kW-hr's of energy are used in a month by the L2 charger, and one would get reduced rates from that. As it happens, the current Gen III Tesla Wall Connector, along with a plethora of other L2 connectors, are compliant.

In my case, I don't sweat it: I've got solar on the roof. For the last fourteen years I've been getting SREC, mostly in the $180-$240 range for each MW-hr that the panels generate; that runs out next year. But, in any case, I get around 2 MW-hr's extra energy per year, outside of the cars, what with the kids and their usage out the door, so local running around is free, or near-free.

Finally: NJ will subsidize the cost of a Wall Connector and even, if required, an increase in the drop size and breaker panel size to support EV charging. They really like EVs in this state. (Not to mention.. no taxes on BEV sales and, at the moment, a $1500 gratis grant.)

 

[JohnB007]

Are we seriously comparing the ownership experience of M3 vs Prius?

My previous car was a fully decked BMW X3 28d, and kept it for 6 years. I plan to keep the MY for 6 years as well. Total ownership cost of MY is cheaper by a good margin compare to X3, despite higher purchase cost. And we use MY as a small RV as well, which is a huge bonus.

Zero regrets buying a Tesla. In fact, it was the best purchase decision we've made during the last 20 years. And yes, my wife agrees.