Is The Model 3 AWD Long Range a cheap Car?

[Peter 224]

Moderator comment - references to ER and Extended Range changed to LR and Long Range

I think it is. at least in the UK, it is cheap when compared to ICE Engined sports saloons.
I thought I'd look at the Tesla 3 LR AWD and compare with the Mercedes AMG C43 saloon, similar in size, AWD but a bit down on engine power.

The C43 with Premium Pack brings the specification to a comparable point, at a cost of £55k. So £5k more.
That makes the Tesla seem cheap.

Then there is the fuel cost: based on 5000 miles a year a C43 saloon will consume about £1600 worth of 98 Octane petrol: road tax and service plan will be about £600 a year. So consumables about £2,200 a year.

Fuel for the Tesla will cost, based on home charging at 13p/kwh about £150.00 of electricity for 5000 miles , there is no road tax and no service plan: Tesla estimate £150.00 a year for an annual inspection and brake fluid test. So consumables £300/year.

Conclusion: after saving £5k on buying the car we will save almost £2k a year, over 5 years £10k, and I suspect depreciation will be less than the C43.

My view: Tesla makes very well priced cars that are cheap to run. Until ICE cars and EV cars are priced on parity uptake in the lower segments of the market will be slow, in my opinion. The Tesla 3 sits at the "expensive sports saloon" tier, in absolute terms a small share of the UK market. If the model Y is priced heat to head with mid sized ICE SUVs it will tear the much larger SUV market to shreds.

 

[Dilly]

I think it is. at least in the UK, it is cheap when compared to ICE Engined sports saloons.
I thought I'd look at the Tesla 3 ER AWD and compare with the Mercedes AMG C43 saloon, similar in size, AWD but a bit down on engine power.

The C43 with Premium Pack brings the specification to a comparable point, at a cost of £55k. So £5k more.
That makes the Tesla seem cheap.

Then there is the fuel cost: based on 5000 miles a year a C43 saloon will consume about £1600 worth of 98 Octane petrol: road tax and service plan will be about £600 a year. So consumables about £2,200 a year.

Fuel for the Tesla will cost, based on home charging at 13p/kwh about £150.00 of electricity for 5000 miles , there is no road tax and no service plan: Tesla estimate £150.00 a year for an annual inspection and brake fluid test. So consumables £300/year.

Conclusion: after saving £5k on buying the car we will save almost £2k a year, over 5 years £10k, and I suspect depreciation will be less than the C43.

My view: Tesla makes very well priced cars that are cheap to run. Until ICE cars and EV cars are priced on parity uptake in the lower segments of the market will be slow, in my opinion. The Tesla 3 sits at the "expensive sports saloon" tier, in absolute terms a small share of the UK market. If the model Y is priced heat to head with mid sized ICE SUVs it will tear the much larger SUV market to shreds.

you may or may not have included circa £1K up front for a home charger but if you have a cheap rate night tariff and solar power, the fuel bill plummets dramatically.
I have the luxury of both. 2600 miles from March 2020 have cost just £10.87. However you fuel it, you’re quids in!!

 

[Hurricane]

But you also have to factor in that no one pays list price for a Mercedes. Autoebid are offering a 20% discount on this car, and that £11k saving brings the price down to less than £44k. You will certainly save massively on fuel costs, but the Merc should be considerably cheaper to buy.

 

[Jason71]

What you are missing from your analysis, probably because it may not apply to you, is that compared to an equivalent ICE car currently an M3 will save a higher rate tax payer over £5000 Per year in company car tax. So taking that into account it is an amazing deal for those fortunate enough to be able to take advantage. Over a 4 year company car cycle that's a 20K saving which is insane.
Also if you are home charging a lot then you get an EV charging plan like Ocotopus go. I am charging @4.5p/kwh. but you have to offset against the slightly higher day rate. I am doing very few miles so am averaging about 9.5 p/kwh. If I was doing more miles i.e. charging more in the 4.5p slot then that average would come down further.
I had a look recently and I think My LR has depreciated 10% in 18months 13K that is pretty much unheard of for a production car. May get worse as second hand supply goes up when the early 3 year PCP/leases start to expire next year but at present its crazy good.

 

[Peter 224]

I'm self employed, so the BIK saving doesn't apply. I don't have a limited company, and don't make enough profit to be able to write off the Tesla off in 1 year, but I might get some back, I'll talk to the Accountant.

We have solar panels and a 3kw "power wall".
So once we have a socket installed I think a change to Octapussy, will make sense... on many days the smart meter shows 0 kwh from 9am to 4pm...

The only car I have ever enjoyed Zero depreciation on is the Morgan Aero Plus 8 that I bought in late 2014 for £65,000. It is now worth close to £80,000. I do not want to add up the depreciation I've lost on all the other cars I've purchased over the years.

Tomorrow is collection day!!

 

[AnthonyLR]

I'm self employed, so the BIK saving doesn't apply. I don't have a limited company, and don't make enough profit to be able to write off the Tesla off in 1 year, but I might get some back, I'll talk to the Accountant.

We have solar panels and a 3kw "power wall".
So once we have a socket installed I think a change to Octapussy, will make sense... on many days the smart meter shows 0 kwh from 9am to 4pm...

The only car I have ever enjoyed Zero depreciation on is the Morgan Aero Plus 8 that I bought in late 2014 for £65,000. It is now worth close to £80,000. I do not want to add up the depreciation I've lost on all the other cars I've purchased over the years.

Tomorrow is collection day!!

You will love your Tesla. Now you need to ponder spending some of that saving on the Acceleration Boost.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

I'm self employed, so the BIK saving doesn't apply. I don't have a limited company, and don't make enough profit to be able to write off the Tesla off in 1 year, but I might get some back, I'll talk to the Accountant.

We have solar panels and a 3kw "power wall".
So once we have a socket installed I think a change to Octapussy, will make sense... on many days the smart meter shows 0 kwh from 9am to 4pm...

The only car I have ever enjoyed Zero depreciation on is the Morgan Aero Plus 8 that I bought in late 2014 for £65,000. It is now worth close to £80,000. I do not want to add up the depreciation I've lost on all the other cars I've purchased over the years.

Tomorrow is collection day!!

You can opt for "normal" depreciation which is 18% per year (may be 19%, at least you can with a limited company) and then you balance it up when you sell (ie if it sells for more than the asset price left on your books then you have to pay a bit of the tax savings back, and if its depreciated more then you save a bit extra).

I'd be tempted to keep an eye out on use Tesla inventory - Tesla have just listed a 1 year old LR with enhanced autopilot, acceleration boost and tow bar, it had 15k miles but they add 10k miles of warranty and an extra year so warranty wise its all but like a new car) for 42.5k - list price for a new one is £10k more. It didn't hang around long at that price (somebody I know got it with 30 mins), but I suspect its not going to lose much either over the next 2 years if the mileage is not racked up. You can depreciate a car like that on your company books at the 18% rate.

 

[Dilly]

You will love your Tesla. Now you need to ponder spending some of that saving on the Acceleration Boost.

We spent the money on a deceleration boost - 2 electric bicycles

 

[Neilio]

But you also have to factor in that no one pays list price for a Mercedes. Autoebid are offering a 20% discount on this car, and that £11k saving brings the price down to less than £44k. You will certainly save massively on fuel costs, but the Merc should be considerably cheaper to buy.

I can concur with this. I went to a dealer to renew my c class some years ago and was asked: would you like to buy a CLS? I'm like, yes, and chuck in a Carribbean island whilst you're at it. Anyway a lot of haggling and a fairly desperate regional manager trying to offload stock and I got £19000 off! Which, in a big Mercedes is pretty much 6 months depreciation!

 

[SpareHeadOne]

I can concur with this. I went to a dealer to renew my c class some years ago and was asked: would you like to buy a CLS? I'm like, yes, and chuck in a Carribbean island whilst you're at it. Anyway a lot of haggling and a fairly desperate regional manager trying to offload stock and I got £19000 off! Which, in a big Mercedes is pretty much 6 months depreciation!

Yeah, got £18k off the XJ I just traded in for the Tesla when I bought it. Nothing at all off the Tesla, you pay the list price or go without. That said, I don't know of any significant discounts on any BEVs at the moment so that's not a particularly relevant comparison I don't think.

The M3LR, in my opinion, does not feel like a £50k car in the cabin at least, to me it doesn't compare very well with other cars in the same price bracket. It's not unpleasant, but I think I'm surprised because the MS and MY look so much better (I'll reserve judgement on the refreshed interiors until I see them in the flesh) and it's almost as if they were created by two different companies.

 

[gangzoom]

I think it is. at least in the UK, it is cheap when compared to ICE Engined sports saloons.

This has been ture since the Model S launched in the UK in 2014. If you compared the performance offered by any Tesla to a 'performance' combusting car, any Tesla will win hands down using man maths.

I used SQ7 pricing to justify our X.

 

[Neilio]

Yeah, got £18k off the XJ I just traded in for the Tesla when I bought it. Nothing at all off the Tesla, you pay the list price or go without. That said, I don't know of any significant discounts on any BEVs at the moment so that's not a particularly relevant comparison I don't think.

The M3LR, in my opinion, does not feel like a £50k car in the cabin at least, to me it doesn't compare very well with other cars in the same price bracket. It's not unpleasant, but I think I'm surprised because the MS and MY look so much better (I'll reserve judgement on the refreshed interiors until I see them in the flesh) and it's almost as if they were created by two different companies.

That's some saving! Yeah you can't compare list price to list price because in the Tesla list price = the price. Be interesting to see when BEVs start offering deals. Like you I can't think of any.

Also completely agree with you on the second paragraph. It's the one reason you can't consider the Tesla cheap. Yes, running costs are tiny compared to an ICE but an equivalent priced ICE is made of much more high quality materials

 

[Peter 224]

I've been, up to this point, a loyal Mercedes owner, from a 1991 Mercedes 190 2.6 through to the recently departed C63 AMG. I'm not convinced by the argument that the M3 cabin isn't up to the standard set by the premium Europeans. The wear on our 2017 C43 Coupe interior is noticeable, Mercedes replaced the driver's seat under warranty as the leather on the base started breaking up and peeling around the perforations. The sunroof creaks badly and the glovebox lid doesn't always shut properly, the plastic cover over a fuse box in the passenger footwell has never fitted correctly and the button in the boot to close and lock the car works intermittently.
Yes, the black ash centre console is nice, as are the metal eyeball vents, but overall it isn't as good as they were 20 years ago.

As to the nav system and display, Tesla wins hands down.

We shall see how it looks in 3 years....

 

[Neilio]

As to the nav system and display, Tesla wins hands down.

We shall see how it looks in 3 years....

I guess you're comparing the old last generation display?

MBUK is the best infotainment system I have seen. Infinitely customisable, three ways to interact with it depending on preference. And that augmented reality sat nav is next level.

It's streets ahead of the Tesla system with it's zero customisation options.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

I guess you're comparing the old last generation display?

MBUK is the best infotainment system I have seen. Infinitely customisable, three ways to interact with it depending on preference. And that augmented reality sat nav is next level.

It's streets ahead of the Tesla system with it's zero customisation options.

I agree, it does seem people compare the Tesla system to previous generations of sat nav in other cars. Way points would be a quick one to mention as a weakness on the Tesla system. The overall display is 50/50, compared to others cars I know, the Tesla screen is bigger but taking my wife's car as an example it has a heads up display which projects directions onto the screen which makes like easier, it can do the birds eye view thing, on the screen which isn't that small, and if I wanted to I could ignore it completely and use Waze (which I usually run just for the alerts it provide). .

They all have their strengths and weaknesses.

 

[Hurricane]

That's some saving! Yeah you can't compare list price to list price because in the Tesla list price = the price. Be interesting to see when BEVs start offering deals. Like you I can't think of any.

Also completely agree with you on the second paragraph. It's the one reason you can't consider the Tesla cheap. Yes, running costs are tiny compared to an ICE but an equivalent priced ICE is made of much more high quality materials

It’s possible to negotiate deals on BEVs at dealerships, and there are certainly savings available through brokers. Currently Autoebid (who I’ve used twice) are offering savings on:
Jaguar I-pace 12%
Peugeot 206 10%
Audi e-tron 15%
Nissan Leaf 7%
Renault Zoe 20%

A couple of these deals are dependent on taking out finance, but you can pay the finance off completely after a few days and still keep the saving.

 

[Artiste]

The M3LR, in my opinion, does not feel like a £50k car in the cabin at least, to me it doesn't compare very well with other cars in the same price bracket. It's not unpleasant, but I think I'm surprised because the MS and MY look so much better (I'll reserve judgement on the refreshed interiors until I see them in the flesh) and it's almost as if they were created by two different companies.

This was my biggest initial disappointment when I got my M3. Road noise and wind noise are far too intrusive for a car in this price bracket. The front seats are not supportive enough for a car with this performance. The single screen might be quite big but it can only display a limited amount of information at any one time, and the lack of customisation is frustrating. I won’t even start on crap windscreen wipers, crap auto headlights and phantom braking.

My A6, which I still drive, cost less than my M3 (after a 20% discount) but it’s in a completely different class as far as comfort and refinement goes. And the virtual cockpit and HUD give lots more customisable options than the M3.

 

[Llama.]

Yes the Tesla Model 3 LR is an expensive car.

Regardless of whether it’s worth it or not, or how it compares to other cars, or even how much you really really like it, it’s still an expensive car.

I feel extremely lucky to be able to afford one.