I recently got a Tesla. It may end up being the subject of many posts because I am indecently in love with it.
How much cheaper is it to operate? This does not account for purchase price, tax incentives, cost to rewire a garage outlet to 240v etc. Or that I can charge for free at work. Just looking at mile to mile costs.
Total driving and electric usage so far: I used 262 kWh to travel 1,057 miles.
I pay $0.106 per kWh on my electric bill (That’s an all inclusive rate, which bakes in all the random fees and sales taxes. The ‘pure’ rate is $0.083, so I’m taking a 27% hit here). That works out to a total expenditure of $28.29 to travel those 1,057 miles.
My last car got roughly 18 miles to the gallon in the real world, so that would have equated to 59.3 gallons. At $4.00 per gallon, that’s $237.10 to go the same distance in a gas car.
All in all, the Tesla costs ~12% as my last gas car to drive. Wow. 12%. Over eight times cheaper.
Point #1: It’s funny, I kinda miss going to gas stations. I dunno, it was sometimes a nice break in a journey.
Point #2: Yes! I’m looking forward to the reduced maintenance.
So I’m in California where both the electricity and the gasoline are more expensive than Georgia. $50,000 worth of solar panels on the roof, which covers most, but not all of our electrical use. We still have about a $1000 a year electric bill. .26/kWh before taxes and stuff. It’s about a 50% savings here, but I still love it. Two major things this simple math excludes:
1. The value of time, the point you make in your next post. I really value not having to go through the act of stopping at a gas station. That is worth a considerable amount of money to me. You might say, “well, you have to stop at a supercharger, don’t you?“ No, I don’t. Haven’t used one in 6 months. But I used to go to the gas station once a week.
2. I think this delta actually expands the more driving you do. As you put more miles on a traditional car, stuff starts to break, and that stuff frequently is associated with mechanical things required by the gasoline engines. Exhaust systems, catalytic converters, transmissions. As advanced as the Tesla is, it is actually simpler in many ways, and it just doesn’t fail in the ways ICE cars do. Heck, even brakes are a 100,000 mile maintenance issue with a Tesla, and I’ve been putting those on yearly when I drive a Suburban. Literally the only maintenance I have done to the Tesla is to replace the air filter in the cabin, and rotate the tires. Nothing more. And for both of these issues, the technician comes out and performs the maintenance in my own driveway. Incredible.