Model 3 Cost Calculator (Public)
This is a view only Google Sheets document. Click 'File > Make a Copy' or 'File > Download As' to have your own copy to input and make changes. The orange colored cells are for your input. The lighter orange cells can be overridden if you know what you are doing. If you're confused, take a look at the Personal Sample tab for the figures I inputted.
I define "true financial cost of ownership" to be the difference in your future financial position as a result of your decision to make a purchase. A calculation that captures the true cost would need to factor the timing in which money is spent and saved. The money you spent on your new car had opportunity costs attached to it. The money you save as you drive an EV not only reduces your cash spent, but factors as a decrease in perceived opportunity costs.
In this calculator, I try to tie together all of these factors and everything I can think of that impacts the cost of owning a Tesla Model 3 in five, ten, even thirty years from now. I try to leave out all my biases. Any bias on this calculator should be a result of the assumptions your own input. Of course, it still doesn't capture 100% of all perceivable costs or variables and still rely heavily on assumptions, but it should be very close if all the assumptions hold out to be true.
The way it is currently set up, it is comparing what my future financial position would be if I kept driving my current gas car for another 10 years as opposed to me getting the RWD Model 3. If you look at the Personal Sample tab, using all my personal assumptions, by financing the Model 3, I would have only exhausted $5,985 of my future net worth to own a Model 3 for 10 years. The car is quite affordable to me thanks to easily accessible free level 2 charging at work. This calculator might show the car to be extremely expensive or extremely cheap depending on what inputs you use.
There are many ways to tweak this calculator and adjust it for other comparisons besides Model 3 vs ICE. I have tweaked it to helped my friend compare getting a used Prius over keeping her current ICE (she does want a Model 3 eventually). If you need it for other purposes, but can't figure out how to tweak the spreadsheet, let me know and I can try to help.
I didn't have anyone review my work. Let me know if you guys find any mistakes or have question or suggestions.
This is a view only Google Sheets document. Click 'File > Make a Copy' or 'File > Download As' to have your own copy to input and make changes. The orange colored cells are for your input. The lighter orange cells can be overridden if you know what you are doing. If you're confused, take a look at the Personal Sample tab for the figures I inputted.
I define "true financial cost of ownership" to be the difference in your future financial position as a result of your decision to make a purchase. A calculation that captures the true cost would need to factor the timing in which money is spent and saved. The money you spent on your new car had opportunity costs attached to it. The money you save as you drive an EV not only reduces your cash spent, but factors as a decrease in perceived opportunity costs.
In this calculator, I try to tie together all of these factors and everything I can think of that impacts the cost of owning a Tesla Model 3 in five, ten, even thirty years from now. I try to leave out all my biases. Any bias on this calculator should be a result of the assumptions your own input. Of course, it still doesn't capture 100% of all perceivable costs or variables and still rely heavily on assumptions, but it should be very close if all the assumptions hold out to be true.
The way it is currently set up, it is comparing what my future financial position would be if I kept driving my current gas car for another 10 years as opposed to me getting the RWD Model 3. If you look at the Personal Sample tab, using all my personal assumptions, by financing the Model 3, I would have only exhausted $5,985 of my future net worth to own a Model 3 for 10 years. The car is quite affordable to me thanks to easily accessible free level 2 charging at work. This calculator might show the car to be extremely expensive or extremely cheap depending on what inputs you use.
There are many ways to tweak this calculator and adjust it for other comparisons besides Model 3 vs ICE. I have tweaked it to helped my friend compare getting a used Prius over keeping her current ICE (she does want a Model 3 eventually). If you need it for other purposes, but can't figure out how to tweak the spreadsheet, let me know and I can try to help.
I didn't have anyone review my work. Let me know if you guys find any mistakes or have question or suggestions.
