Model S annual maintenance

[AustinPowers]

On the Model S website Tesla say

Electric vehicle ownership is extremely advantageous compared to traditional vehicle ownership - gasoline is not needed and routine maintenance is minimal.

Then I read in one of the cost-comparison threads that the Model S requires mandatory maintenance once a year, and a price tag of 599 $ was mentioned as well.

Now maybe I am missing the punchline, but if I have to pay around 460 Euro (at current USD/EUR exchange rates) every year for Tesla mandatory maintenance, compared to around 350 Euro every about three years for my ICE BMW, how is Model S maintenance "extremely advantageous"?

Even taking the no-gasoline-needed fact into the equation, one still has to pay for the electricity, which is not cheap either:

Model S:

0.25 Euro / kWh
60 kWh battery
=> 15 €uro / 60 kWh
230 miles = roughly 370 km
=> 0.04 Euro / km

BMW 330 Cd Diesel:

1.45 Euro / litre
55 litre per filling
=> 80 Euro / 55 litre
850 km per filling
=> 0.09 Euro / km

At 15,000 km per year that equates to 610 Euro in electricity vs. 1,410 Euro for Diesel.
In other words, 800 Euro advantage for the Model S in fuel costs, but minus 460 Euro maintenance = 340 Euro advantage per year.
And that is only true if I can squeeze out the whole 370 km out of each and every battery cycle which seems more than optimistic, or rather unrealistic.

In realistic terms of usage, Model S and my current car seem to have very similar running costs - no extreme advantage for the Model S there.
Which makes me a little sad, as I had high hopes that I could replace my car with Model S and at least save some money in running costs, as I already pay quite a premium for the right to drive an otherwise cool and great EV.

 

[Hasse]

On the Model S website Tesla say


In realistic terms of usage, Model S and my current car seem to have very similar running costs - no extreme advantage for the Model S there.
Which makes me a little sad, as I had high hopes that I could replace my car with Model S and at least save some money in running costs, as I already pay quite a premium for the right to drive an otherwise cool and great EV.

In Finland we pay an annual, emissions-based, vehicle tax of between 20€ and 600€. I assume the Model S would be a 20€ taxed car and the BMW perhaps 300 or so.

 

[KBF]

So your diesel fuel is more than double the cost of electricity (out here I'm paying about cdn $.08-.09 /kWh, so you are definitely not seeing quite the same advantages as others). For maintenance, we really don't know what it will be annually; could be more or less, but what I'm thinking is you'd have to do a longer-term comparison. ICE's eventually have failures in their thousands of moving parts.

I you are looking at a short term cost analyses, and your only reason for getting a Tesla is monetary, I don't think it would make sense for you to buy. There is a thread around here in which others talk about good reasons to purchase, and there are many reasons beyond the financial.

 

[AustinPowers]

That's the problem. I was so looking forward to owning and driving this car, that I stopped thinking rationally. Of course I am not just looking at the short term costs. I have had my current car for eight years now and have not yet had any significant or expensive failures. And even in Model S terms, at least as far as the battery is concerned, after eight years might be the time to get a new one (which can be expected to cost another couple of thousand USD/EUR).

As for the other good reasons: true, driving an EV is the best reason there is, but apart from that, there are other drawbacks in the usability department. Granted, storage room is ample, but a lot of little things are missing: no mention of a ski-bag in the foldable rear seats, no signs of luggage fixation point, no really flat-folding rear-seats, no spare tire, no adjustable headrests, and yes, no CD player. And above all, that touchscreen-only nuisance. In my car, and indeed any car on the market, switching the headlights on (or other light functions) means turning one nob, not fiddling many seconds longer with a touchscreen interface - no matter how quick or advanced that thing may be.

I'm just trying to say, even when it comes to non monetary factors, the Model S (at least as far as we know it at the moment) leaves a lot to be desired.
Cool car, yes, EV magic, check, storage space enviable, granted.
But many of the things that make "ordinary" cars so great and simple to use in everyday usage...well, let's wait, hope and see.

 

[Chregu]

@ AustinPowers

I'm fully with you... same opinion here. But let's wait until the details are published (and especially the european ones!)

Cheers from Zurich

chris

 

[loganss]

I created one of those comparison threads and that $599 annual maintenance was a worse case guess based on what annual maintenance costs on the Tesla Roadster.
I doubt the annual maintenance for the Model S will be as high as what is charged for the Roadster. So far there has been no official word on how much Tesla would charge for annual maintenance for the Model S.

You have only included a year snapshot of maintenance and that isn't enough to see the full benefit of an electric car. I'd recommend extending the time you want compare the Model S and BMW and including all of the maintenance along that time for both vehicles. I've never worked on a diesel car but I'm pretty sure they'd have several maintenance items at certain intervals and once you're passed the warranty period of BMW it wouldn't be cheap.

 

[efusco]

Someone at the Priuschat.com forum said he asked about maintenance on the Model S and was told it would also be $600/yr and that they justify part of that higher cost by pulling the battery pack and manually checking each connection and testing it. I can see that that would be important, but still, I'd sure like to see them drop that down to $250-300 or so.

 

[ckessel]

Edmunds TCO shows the total cost of maintenance over 5 years for a BMW 5 series sedan as $3500. 5 years of Model S at $600 is on part with that. The Model S is a regular amount every year, the BMW is heavily back loaded to the last 2 years.

 

[smoothoperator]

Forgot to add in tires, if the Model S goes through tires even half as frequently as the Roadster a new pair of rear tires would be required every 10k miles...Those tires on the Model S cannot be cheap

 

[dsm363]

The 21" tires won't be cheap but I think you can find reasonable 19" tires.

 

[ckessel]

Forgot to add in tires, if the Model S goes through tires even half as frequently as the Roadster a new pair of rear tires would be required every 10k miles...Those tires on the Model S cannot be cheap

It's not really fair to consider tires when comparing maintenance costs. The same tires would wear the same on any car and you're certainly not required to use the super soft/sticky 21" performance tires.

 

[efusco]

The 21" tires won't be cheap but I think you can find reasonable 19" tires.

$1000-1600 per set for all season. But they should last a heck of a lot longer than 10k miles.

 

[smoothoperator]

It's not really fair to consider tires when comparing maintenance costs. The same tires would wear the same on any car and you're certainly not required to use the super soft/sticky 21" performance tires.

I think it is, on my E-class I routinely get 30k miles on the tires (Michelin PS2 19")...I would think that due to regenerative braking that the Model S' tires life expectancy would be closer to the Roadster's than a normal car.

 

[ckessel]

I think it is, on my E-class I routinely get 30k miles on the tires (Michelin PS2 19")...I would think that due to regenerative braking that the Model S' tires life expectancy would be closer to the Roadster's than a normal car.

Why? Tires don't care what's causing the traction required to slow the car. It takes Y amount of force to stop the vehicle applied to X amount of contact patch with the pavement.

Regenerative braking may mean more wear on the rears and less on the fronts, but the overall wear imposed due to braking doesn't change. You'd just be replacing rears more and fronts less than a normal car.

 

[loganss]

Forgot to add in tires, if the Model S goes through tires even half as frequently as the Roadster a new pair of rear tires would be required every 10k miles...Those tires on the Model S cannot be cheap

Are you flooring the roadster at every light and have performance tires installed? That seems like an very low interval for replacing tires.

For comparison purposes, if the ICE vehicle has a similar performance why would the tire replacement costs and intervals be much different?

 

[nhurst]

ckessel - I think you are forgetting that a "normal" car frequently reduces speed by "coasting down". That is, it uses air friction braking which puts no additional wear on the tires.

 

[ElSupreme]

It's not really fair to consider tires when comparing maintenance costs. The same tires would wear the same on any car and you're certainly not required to use the super soft/sticky 21" performance tires.

Except with a RWD EV you are using the rears to stop and go. A traditional RWD car mostly uses the fronts to stop.

 

[smoothoperator]

Why? Tires don't care what's causing the traction required to slow the car. It takes Y amount of force to stop the vehicle applied to X amount of contact patch with the pavement.

Regenerative braking may mean more wear on the rears and less on the fronts, but the overall wear imposed due to braking doesn't change. You'd just be replacing rears more and fronts less than a normal car.

At least with regards to my driving style, regenerative braking tends to "brake" far more aggressive than I would if I were manually applying the brakes.

 

[dsm363]

Are you flooring the roadster at every light and have performance tires installed? That seems like an very low interval for replacing tires.

For comparison purposes, if the ICE vehicle has a similar performance why would the tire replacement costs and intervals be much different?

That's actually high for the Roadster AD07 rear tires (I assume that's what he has). Most people get 5-8 thousand miles on the rears and driving style does play a big role but they are very soft tires and will wear quickly with normal driving as well. The fronts on the Roadster probably last 3 times as long. I'd expect something similar for the Model S but not as bad, maybe over 10,000 for the 21" wheels and much more for the 19" wheels.

 

[Zorba]

With my Audi I only have maintenance once every 2 years (30 000km). Anything more with the Tesla would suck