Your M3 will pay for itself, if you

[GKwey]

drive it 30,000 miles per year 100% on free supercharging for 8 years.

Assuming $3 per gallon on premium gasoline and 20 miles per gallon mileage, the fuel cost saved in 8 years would be $36,000. And oh, how much you paid for your M3? $25,000 after rebate.

So the chance you actually making $$$ by keeping it longer or driving it more is quite good. MS and MX can't achieve this for their owners because their prices are too high.

So anyone out there still can't make up their mind about dropping $1K for order one on March 31?

 

[Fallenone]

First, Tesla will send you emails if they found out you are regularly charging at a nearby SC. May take more aggressive actions against you if you continue this manner
Second, Tesla may introduce a payment system for using the SC.
Third, you will waste a lot of time and electricity by doing the round trips.

 

[ucmndd]

I drive 30k/year. About 600 miles a week, 10 hours/week in the car. In a car with 200 miles of range, assuming you're somewhat close to a Supercharger, that's about an hour of time you need to commit to a full charge, three times a week (and really you'd need to do it ~4x/week unless you were always able to exactly time your charges with when your battery was fully depleted).

Also, a full size truck can manage 20MPG these days. Any M3 competitor will be getting far closer to 30MPG or greater (my TDI gets close to 50).

Plus the aforementioned wrath of Tesla you'll incur by racking up 30k miles of charge on a Supercharger in a year.

In all, an interesting fringe case analysis that only pans out if you ignore pertinent details and place zero value on your time.

 

[flyhigh123]

drive it 30,000 miles per year 100% on free supercharging for 8 years.



Assuming $3 per gallon on premium gasoline and 20 miles per gallon mileage, the fuel cost saved in 8 years would be $36,000. And oh, how much you paid for your M3? $25,000 after rebate.

So the chance you actually making $$$ by keeping it longer or driving it more is quite good. MS and MX can't achieve this for their owners because their prices are too high.

So anyone out there still can't make up their mind about dropping $1K for order one on March 31?

people like you ruin good things for everyone else, hopefully elon bans you quick

 

[Az_Rael]

In all, an interesting fringe case analysis that only pans out if you ignore pertinent details and place zero value on your time.

I find that a lot of people place zero value on their time with regards to saving small amounts of money. The Costco by me often has a 20 minute wait for gas, and if you don't turn off your engine while you wait, you may have just eaten up your savings while your engine idled. I went down and visited my father one time and there was over a mile long line into a Circle K gas station near his home. I asked what was going on, and he said Circle K was charging .99/gallon for the grand opening of that store. So people waited HOURS to save maybe $30 on one tank of gas. And then there are the Black Friday campers.

So I am positive people will attempt to drive their Teslas 100% on supercharger electricity if the system stays the way it is now.

 

[Laserbrain]

I find that a lot of people place zero value on their time with regards to saving small amounts of money.

And the time you spend at a supercharger is not really lost. You can do other stuff in this time - read a book, check your e-mails, make some phone calls, maybe you can even do some work.

 

[Mark Z]

And the time you spend at a supercharger is not really lost. You can do other stuff in this time - read a book, check your e-mails, make some phone calls, maybe you can even do some work.

I am waiting for photos of a Model X at a Supercharger with the Falcon Wings open and mosquito netting draped from the edges of the FWDs. The passengers could campout in style while enjoying the artistic seats.

 

[nwdiver]

drive it 30,000 miles per year 100% on free supercharging for 8 years.

??? Who goes on that many road trips? The vast majority of my charging is conveniently at home in my drive way.

 

[travwill]

drive it 30,000 miles per year 100% on free supercharging for 8 years.

Assuming $3 per gallon on premium gasoline and 20 miles per gallon mileage, the fuel cost saved in 8 years would be $36,000. And oh, how much you paid for your M3? $25,000 after rebate.

So the chance you actually making $$$ by keeping it longer or driving it more is quite good. MS and MX can't achieve this for their owners because their prices are too high.

So anyone out there still can't make up their mind about dropping $1K for order one on March 31?

I can't imagine anyone getting a base M III likely. You'll want at least some options like better seats, roof, at 1-3K a pop. That and you left out sales tax, which can be upwards of ~9% additional in some of our locales (minus any trade in value though).

 

[vinnie97]

^^Not too sussed about seats and roof aesthetics...however, the fattest battery would be hard to resist.

 

[diamond.g]

??? Who goes on that many road trips? The vast majority of my charging is conveniently at home in my drive way.

Commuting to work could do it too. I live in Fredericksburg but drive to Falls Church every weekday. That alone is around 26000 miles a year not counting weekends or road trips to OBX.

 

[nwdiver]

Commuting to work could do it too. I live in Fredericksburg but drive to Falls Church every weekday. That alone is around 26000 miles a year not counting weekends or road trips to OBX.

Your commute is >100 miles? Very few people live so far from work that they would need to supercharge to get there...

 

[diamond.g]

Your commute is >100 miles? Very few people live so far from work that they would need to supercharge to get there...

~57 miles each way. I used to take the VRE into Arlington, but the building that I work at now isn't near the train station at all. I don't plan on supercharging to get to and from work, I really don't think that is the purpose of the network. I'll be installing an EVSE (probably the HPWC) at my house.

 

[GKwey]

@diamond.g, if either your home or office is close to a supercharger or there is one in between your daily commute route (if not now, hopefully in near future), you are in luck to be able to use free supercharging daily. Your ~120 daily commute miles actually would be close to ~150 rated miles; and that can be charged up by daily 30 minutes stop at the supercharger. All the road trips shall be on free superchargers for sure. By the way you only need NEMA 14-50 in your garage, not HPWC. HPWC is more expensive and to fully use HPWC capability, you need to invest additional $2000 for installing a dual charger in your M3; save this expense for auto suspension lift or auto rear trunk that would serve you better assuming you would get auto pilot before these options.

 

[CTemp222]

I am waiting for photos of a Model X at a Supercharger with the Falcon Wings open and mosquito netting draped from the edges of the FWDs. The passengers could campout in style while enjoying the artistic seats.

You could also hang a disco ball from the FWD's! I think the X will be a tailgate hit!

 

[diamond.g]

@diamond.g, if either your home or office is close to a supercharger or there is one in between your daily commute route (if not now, hopefully in near future), you are in luck to be able to use free supercharging daily. Your ~120 daily commute miles actually would be close to ~150 rated miles; and that can be charged up by daily 30 minutes stop at the supercharger. All the road trips shall be on free superchargers for sure. By the way you only need NEMA 14-50 in your garage, not HPWC. HPWC is more expensive and to fully use HPWC capability, you need to invest additional $2000 for installing a dual charger in your M3; save this expense for auto suspension lift or auto rear trunk that would serve you better assuming you would get auto pilot before these options.

I could use the Woodbridge SuperCharger, but don't have any plans to during my normal commute to and from work.

 

[McHoffa]

I made this spreadsheet to compare buying a new ICE car vs the Model 3
Google Drive - Cloud Storage & File Backup for Photos, Docs & More

 

[MrBoylan]

drive it 30,000 miles per year 100% on free supercharging for 8 years.

Assuming $3 per gallon on premium gasoline and 20 miles per gallon mileage, the fuel cost saved in 8 years would be $36,000. And oh, how much you paid for your M3? $25,000 after rebate.

So the chance you actually making $$$ by keeping it longer or driving it more is quite good. MS and MX can't achieve this for their owners because their prices are too high.

So anyone out there still can't make up their mind about dropping $1K for order one on March 31?

I've replied to your similar post in another thread but Superchargers are intended for long distance travel only, not frequent local use. Musk has made specific comments about this on earnings calls and Tesla has already sent letters out to frequent users of local Superchargers asking them to cut it out. The Tesla web site specifically says the Supercharger network is for "free long distance travel" and I expect the owners agreement on the Model 3 will be very specific about that.

Also, I find it unlikely that Supercharger access will be included for free in the base Model 3. I expect that it will be an additional cost option (maybe $2K), though it may be included with purchase of a larger battery pack. Supercharger access was a $2K option on the 60 kWH Model S (though it was and is included on the 70, 85 and 90). If the base model of the 3 is a 60 kWH pack and the upgrade is an 80 kWh pack, then there would be precedent for charging for it on the base model and including it on the upgraded one.

 

[MrBoylan]

I made this spreadsheet to compare buying a new ICE car vs the Model 3
Google Drive - Cloud Storage & File Backup for Photos, Docs & More

Nice work. Easy to plug in different options for comparison.

In NYC, we pay about 12 to 13 cents/kWH off-peak, but can pay up to 42 cents/kWH during peak hours during the Summer (10 AM to 10 PM weekdays, June-September). We opted to go on the time-of-use plan when we installed our solar panels. And yes, I will be charging my Model 3 at night.

 

[Evbwcaer]

Gas already costs at least $6/gallon, probably more:

Here’s What Gas Would Have To Cost To Account For Health And Environmental Impacts

I hope/think/expect that most people interested in Teslas fundamentally realize the huge costs of fossil fuels.....and that those costs are not accurately reflected in their retail prices.

If you're cool with dispersing toxins in other people's lungs and have no plan to stop or compensate that person, then yes, the original poster's math works at the individual level....and also keep your fingers crossed you're not the one breathing the toxins....but you already are.

If you want to look big picture, AKA, "real picture," then the payback is much faster in a fueling price vs. purchase price analysis.