Some people (like my wife) treat their vehicles like appliances. No more emotion put into it than buying a washing machine.
It just has to do the job for X amount of money.
And that is the market the cheaper Tesla will compete in.
It really isn't.
Those people are buying a Yaris, or Fit, or Accent- or some other $15,000 car (if they're buying new at all).
Or a corolla or civic for under 20k.
I dunno where people get this insane idea 35k is "entry level" for a new car.
It would be different If I bought a 100k model s/x.
Why?
I bought the car to save money on road trips and business traveling.
Then it's really weird you'd buy a $50,000 Tesla instead of a used Prius for 10k (or even a new one for 25k)
And if you WERE going to buy a Tesla anyway (for SOME reason) and the MAIN reason to buy it was saving fuel cost on road trips and business travel, then it's extra weird you wouldn't have grabbed one while FUSC was still available.
You don't appear to have put nearly enough research into your purchase.
Tesla is not going after the high end crowd anymore folks...They are trying to target the penny pinchers at 35k
Again not sure what fantasy land you're in where 35k is "penny pincher" land.
Who do you think buys all the $15,000 new cars? or the $25,000 ones? homeless people?
Math using new supercharging rates is downright ugly.
The new rate in Chicago is 0.34/kWh, up from 0.24/kWh in fall '18, and 0.12/kWh in summer '18.
Last weekend I went on a short 350 mile roadtrip to Michigan where regular fuel was between $1.65 and $1.95 - we will use $1.80 for the sake of this discussion. In cold climates the M3 will achieve 160-200 miles on a full charge, meaning roughly 2 full charges are needed to drive 350 miles at a whopping total cost of $51.
So there's 2 problems with your math.
First- you only need ONE charge during the trip. The first charge was done at home before you left, right?
Chicago averages .156 per kwh for home electricity.
So the actual cost is $37.2 (assuming you get the worst possible loss from weather... it gets cheaper if you are nearer 200 miles on a "tank")
And of course in the summer you're looking at making almost the entire trip on your home charge.
300 miles at home, and 50 at the supercharger, gets you to $13.65 for the whole trip with the Tesla.
AN EQUIVALENT ICE VEHICLE WOULD NEED TO ACHIEVE 12.4 MPG TO SPEND THE SAME ON FUEL AS A RWD LR MODEL 3 OVER THE COURSE OF 350 MILES ($1.80/GAL)
Nope.
At $37.2 (worst case math in the worst of winter) you're talking 20.6 gallons at $1.80 a gallon... best case at $13.65 you can only buy 7.58 gallons with what you spent on electricity.
Going 350 miles on 7.58 gallons would require making over 46 mpg.
And of course gas prices are higher in the summer, so it gets even worse for the ICE vehicle.
Overnight the cost of fueling a Tesla changed from one of the least expensive cars on the road to one of the most expensive cars on the road. Regardless of performance, there's no way a 2018 Accord Hybrid (48 mpg) should cost 3.85x less in fuel/energy than a Tesla.
Except, again, the vast majority of most peoples driving
is not roadtrips
When you're driving locally you are paying (in chicago, on average) $11.70 to "fill" a model 3 battery from zero to full.
And getting about 300 miles (probably a bit better given it's a LR RWD).
You could buy 6.5 gallons of gas (if the car takes regular) for that, at 1.80 a gallon
Which is roughly comparable to that Accord hybrid- but a lot quicker and better handling on top of it, not to mention the superior driver assist offerings.
And of course those who go to time of day billing so they can charge when electricity is cheaper can often save 5-10 TIMES that on rates- which really makes any ICE look insanely more expensive in normal use.