[biker1]

I don’t know what you define as the “future”. I can imagine a point, perhaps 25 years from now, when you will not be able to purchase a new gas vehicle. That doesn’t mean the gas vehicles will not still be around. The Government will financially incent you to move in the direction they want you to go. Gas might become very expensive and harder to find.

Electricity from the grid, regardless of how it is made, is cleaner than burning gas. Also, electric cars use less total energy than gas cars. EVs typically use about 1/3 the energy per mile as gas cars. They take more energy to manufacture but recoup the energy difference quickly - some estimates put it as after 5000 miles.

Buy one or don’t buy one. Tilt against windmills or don’t tilt against windmills. The Government subsidizes all sorts of things in an attempt to get you to do what they want. They wanted you to get a vaccine so they paid for it. They wanted you to buy a house so they made mortgage interest tax deductible. They want you to invest long term in businesses so they tax the first 80K of long term capital gains at 0%.

Originally Posted by Northerner52

The politicians will force you to buy electric in the future even thought the grid still makes dirty electricity. We will need charging parking lots the size of Walmarts to charge cars as many do not have garages and 220 volts chargers at home.

[GrumpyOldMan]

Originally Posted by biker1

I don’t know what you define as the “future”. I can imagine a point, perhaps 25 years from now, when you will not be able to purchase a new gas vehicle. That doesn’t mean the gas vehicles will not still be around. The Government will financially incent you to move in the direction they want you to go. Gas might become very expensive and harder to find.

Electricity from the grid, regardless of how it is made, is cleaner than burning gas. Also, electric cars use less total energy than gas cars. EVs typically use about 1/3 the energy per mile as gas cars. They take more energy to manufacture but recoup the energy difference quickly - some estimates put it as after 5000 miles.

Buy one or don’t buy one. Tilt against windmills or don’t tilt against windmills. The Government subsidizes all sorts of things in an attempt to get you to do what they want. They wanted you to get a vaccine so they paid for it. They wanted you to buy a house so they made mortgage interest tax deductible. They want you to invest long term in businesses so they tax the first 80K of long term capital gains at 0%.

Yeah, it's called social engineering, sadly. The government attempts to change social behavior by providing incentives to change. BOTH parties do it. The sad thing is when social engineering is done to facilitate a politician getting into the office or staying in office, not for the benefit of society.

There are examples of governments doing social engineering that is to benefit society, New Zealand comes to mind as a country that focuses its government on benefiting the people, and not big business. Eisenhower warned us about funding the Military-Industrial Complex, and we ignored him, so we just spent 20 years and $3T subsidizing an industry that focuses on meddling in other countries lives - and not protecting the US, since there are NO countries (other than possibly China) that could threaten the US and expect to survive the action.

But, yes, I agree with your post. And it is a sad post.

[DaddyD]

It's astounding how many replies there are on this thread, and how few of them have anything to do with the question the OP asked.

The OP asked specifically about the cost of ownership, yet 90% of the replies are people writing their opinion about electric vs gas cars, environmental consideration, how long it takes to charge a Tesla, etc..

[GrumpyOldMan]

Originally Posted by DaddyD

It's astounding how many replies there are on this thread, and how few of them have anything to do with the question the OP asked.

The OP asked specifically about the cost of ownership, yet 90% of the replies are people writing their opinion about electric vs gas cars, environmental consideration, how long it takes to charge a Tesla, etc..

Are you new to TOTV? At least this thread is still about Tesla's mostly - and that is almost unique here after this many posts.

Also, there have been a couple that specifically addressed the OP question which is also unique.

[GrumpyOldMan]

Originally Posted by oldtimes

And if there is a problem with the electrical grid or even just a power failure you are SOL. A least gas can be delivered to you if you run out in the middle of the road. Imagine being stuck in a bad traffic jam and running out of power.

And if the power grid is down, just how is it that the gas station is going to pump the gas into your ICE car? Just asking...

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by DaddyD

It's astounding how many replies there are on this thread, and how few of them have anything to do with the question the OP asked.

The OP asked specifically about the cost of ownership, yet 90% of the replies are people writing their opinion about electric vs gas cars, environmental consideration, how long it takes to charge a Tesla, etc..

Answers were given and than the thread moved on like threads here do.

[Dana1963]

Originally Posted by Polarlys

I've been a strong advocate of the electric auto's for awhile but I'm been mostly curious about the Tesla and the advanced they have made. Still, I wonder about actual cost of ownership now that there are more and more on the road. In the early days of availability I think Tesla provided some rapid charging stations free of charge but I'm thinking that that was unsustainable. I've been wondering just how things are managed these days and how much it really costs to own and travel in one.

The real-time driving experience is different for all of us. Battery-operated vehicles are designed for commuters. If I stop being a snowbird I would seriously consider an affordable EV vehicle.


American Driving Survey revealed that:
Motorists age 16 years and older drive, on average, 29.2 miles per day or 10,658 miles per year.
Women take more driving trips, but men spend 25 percent more time behind the wheel and drive 35 percent more miles than women.
Both teenagers and seniors over the age of 75 drive less than any other age group; motorists 30-49 years old drive an average 13,140 miles annually, more than any other age group.
The average distance and time spent driving increase in relation to higher levels of education. A driver with a grade school or some high school education drove an average of 19.9 miles and 32 minutes daily, while a college graduate drove an average of 37.2 miles and 58 minutes.
Drivers who reported living “in the country” or “a small town” drive greater distances (12,264 miles annually) and spend a greater amount of time driving than people who described living in a “medium sized town” or city (9,709 miles annually).
Motorists in the South drive the most (11,826 miles annually), while those in the Northeast drive the least (8,468 miles annually).
On average, Americans drive fewer miles on the weekend than on weekdays.
Americans drive, on average, the least during winter months (January through March) at 25.7 miles daily; they drive the most during the summer months (July through September) at 30.6 miles daily.

[spd2918]

Originally Posted by GrumpyOldMan

Sorry, I missed your question.....

There, am I getting better at playing your insult game? I feel so good now, almost like I was 10 years old again.

You wrote i "obviously hate" Tesla cars. You have no evidence of that. I actually like most things mechanical and am considered by most to a motorhead. I made a simple observation that subsidizing wealthy people's purchases with taxpayer dollars is wrong and then I (repeatedly) asked why these are cars subsidized.

You simply cannot handle different opinions and inconvenient facts. Very cult like not to be self reflective. You have made far more posts than any others in this thread to defend your opinion. Then you make assumptions about those that disagree with you. Well played.

[TCNY61]

Originally Posted by Northerner52

The politicians will force you to buy electric in the future even thought the grid still makes dirty electricity. We will need charging parking lots the size of Walmarts to charge cars as many do not have garages and 220 volts chargers at home.

My neighbor has seven kids and there are at least six cars over there. If they were all to use electric they would need to have at least a 400 amp panel installed and would still probably need to wake up in the middle of the night to switch out charging.

[Luggage]

While most of the commenters are talking about the time to charge the original op is talking about the cost overall. First you have to consider the premium for buying this car versus an average car and I know some people will say but it's like a Cadillac or a Lincoln and you going to pay more. But that's your choice. As I said before the many people you don't buy this car based on what it cost to run or not run it's obviously cheaper to fill it up with electricity and there's less maintenance overall. However considering the average person when they retire won't drive 50,000 miles a year there isn't really much difference if you compare apples to apples 10,000 miles a year with any decent hybrid. The question I have for most people is there you willing to spend up front 10 or 15,000 more for an all electric versus a gas car even though you know you would save it over 5-10 years. You can also argue it's more convenient to wait 5 minutes at the gas station in 30 minutes on a highway to recharge and you'll also hear of I don't need to be at a dirty gas station. The truth of the matter is that there are many cars that can still go 400 - 500 miles on one tank of gas without stopping and if you can hold yourself without going to a bathroom that certainly is one advantage for gas. The other thing to think about is that there's certainly an economic advantage of buying a two or three-year-old gas car for half the price of a Tesla 3 that's new and you'll save $20,000 easily for a pretty good car with about 20,000 miles on it.
Even if you drive 10,000 miles a year with that gas car, it's going to cost you $1,200 in gas versus maybe 3 or 400 electric and you'll still save $10,000 over the life of either car for 8 or 10 years.

[Luggage]

Except in Scandinavia where it's about 70% electric due to a very large government

[Luggage]

There is definitely some truth to that rumor but we're actually subsidizing the car companies and not just the wealthy people because they can afford it anyway. It would make more sense to have a scalable rebate based on the price of a car, meaning that a car under $25,000 will get a higher rebate than a car that's $35,000 etc

[Luggage]

Actually the entire tax system is either set up to benefit business or for social engineering. Ie the huge deductions when you have children or buy a house. So promoting an electric car versus a gas car is obviously also a socially engineered tax that she's supposedly to help with pollution etc. Billions have been given away to consumers in the effort to help manufacturers of electric vehicles. Nothing has been given to hybrids which would have benefited much more as their more of them, just imagine if 7500 was taken off the price of a $20,000 car that was a hybrid, literally tens of millions would be sold because they would become the cheapest cars and every manufacturer would try to make them.

Originally Posted by GrumpyOldMan

Yeah, it's called social engineering, sadly. The government attempts to change social behavior by providing incentives to change. BOTH parties do it. The sad thing is when social engineering is done to facilitate a politician getting into the office or staying in office, not for the benefit of society.

There are examples of governments doing social engineering that is to benefit society, New Zealand comes to mind as a country that focuses its government on benefiting the people, and not big business. Eisenhower warned us about funding the Military-Industrial Complex, and we ignored him, so we just spent 20 years and $3T subsidizing an industry that focuses on meddling in other countries lives - and not protecting the US, since there are NO countries (other than possibly China) that could threaten the US and expect to survive the action.

But, yes, I agree with your post. And it is a sad post.

[biker1]

There is a tax credit for plug-in hybrids. The amount varies from model to model.

Originally Posted by Luggage

Nothing has been given to hybrids which would have benefited much more as their more of them, just imagine if 7500 was taken off the price of a $20,000 car that was a hybrid, literally tens of millions would be sold because they would become the cheapest cars and every manufacturer would try to make them.

[Nucky]

Well, we should be finding out the real facts and figures sometime next year. Just put a deposit on the Cybertruck. I can't wait. I don't think we'll use it when we go visiting up north, that's why we have Enterprise.

I can't wait but have to get comfortable because I think it's going to be a while.

I had every intention of leasing a Cadillac SUV loaner car when we went to Jersey in July. The exact same vehicle was leased by a good friend for $498 a month with I believe $5k down. The price went up to $798 at the only dealer that had four in stock in Pennsylvania