Tag: tesla model 3 cost of ownership
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I’ve driven my Tesla Model 3 for over 1 year after the new vehicle warranty expired. Here’s how much I’ve spent on repairs & maintenance on my Tesla Model 3 after driving nearly 75,000 miles. My mileage so far is equal to 5+ years of driving for the average driver.
Here’s what I’ve spent on repairs & maintenance for my Tesla Model 3 so far. First I’ll go over all the repairs that were covered for free under the basic vehicle warranty during the first 50,000 miles – all of which were fixed by a mobile technician at my location. My exterior driver door handle wasn’t closing as quickly as it should have been. One of my windshield wipers was making a clicking noise. My cellular LTE data stopped working and the board needed to be replaced. My driver door was making a loud clicking noise when opening and closing in the winter when it got cold.
I’ve only had to replace my tires once. It cost $640 to replace all 4 tires around the 40,000 mile mark. Tesla doesn’t require service intervals for the Model 3 like they do for the Model S, but in the owner’s manual they recommend some service at the 2 year mark consisting of cabin air filter replacement, wiper blades replacement, brake caliper cleaning, and brake fluid replacement. I requested only the brake caliper & brake fluid service which was $390. I ordered the cabin air filter directly from Tesla and replaced it myself and it took about 30 minutes, costing me $36. Also during my 2 year checkup Tesla upgraded my FSD computer to HW3 at no charge since I was already an FSD owner.
Here are all the out-of-warranty repairs that have happened after I surpassed 50,000 miles. $94 in July 2020 for the mobile technician to come to my location and fix my driver door window button after it started sticking when I tried to open or close the window. In September 2020 my LTE connectivity stopped working again, but the connectivity card was actually covered under the HW3 computer warranty so they fixed that LTE issue for free. In December 2020 my charge port door stopped opening and closing automatically. The mobile technician fixed this at my location and it cost $311. In March 2021 I had an issue with my iPhone not automatically connecting which was caused by a bad seat occupancy sensor and the mobile service replaced it for $106.
Including tires the total I’ve spent on repairs & maintenance for my Tesla Model 3 after the first 73,000 miles = $1,577. If we just count the Tesla-specific service (not tires) the total is $937, nearly half of which was a completely optional 2-year service checkup. That’s not bad at all given that covers the span equivalent to 5 years of driving for the average driver. None of the repairs for my Tesla Model 3 have prevented me from actually driving the car. They were all pretty minor so I still rate the reliability very high for my Tesla Model 3.
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I’ve owned a Tesla Model 3 (the best selling electric car) for 18 months so I’m going to show you exactly how much it has cost to own & drive it 40,000 miles by going over the top 5 categories of expenses.
Upfront cost
The total cost of my Long Range Tesla Model 3 was $59,422. But I got the full $7,500 tax credit so after that it came to $51,922. I did have a very small, low-interest loan for a couple months but I quickly paid the car off because I knew I wanted to keep it long term so the little money I paid in interest brought the total to around $52,000.
Electricity
One of the best advantages of owning an electric car is not buying gas anymore. In its first 40,000 miles, my Model 3 used 9,622 kWh of electricity (9,428 from home charging & 194 from Supercharging). I’ve spent a total of $54 at Superchargers, and my cost to charge at home overnight during off-peak hours is $0.07/kWh. However, 100% of the electricity does not always make it from the outlet to the turning of the wheels. In one of the original Tesla documents they estimated an 86% wall-to-wheels efficiency so based on that, my home charging cost $767 so that means the total electricity cost to travel 40,000 miles was $821. To put it into perspective, if I drove 40,000 miles in a similarly priced gas car (such as the BMW 3 series that gets 30 MPG) at an average gas cost of $2.50 per gallon that comes to a total of $3,333 spent on gas. That means compared to a BMW 3 Series my total estimated fuel savings over 17 months was over $2,500.
Maintenance
The total cost of maintenance after 40,000 miles has been $0. Not even new tires yet. I’ve had 3 minor repairs done to my car, all of which were covered for free under the warranty and each time the Tesla Mobile Ranger came to my location and fixed the issue. So far the only recommended maintenance according to the manual is tire rotations every 10,000 miles. But I have a local tire shop in my city that gives free tire rotations to Tesla owners. Some people say ”What about the cost of a new battery?” What if it never needs a new battery? Since I got my Model 3, the estimated range has actually increased by 10 miles. First my estimated range went from 310 to 325 miles as a result of a free software update. My current estimated range is 320 miles so I’ve only lost about 5 miles of estimated range after driving 40,000 miles. Based on this, at 400,000 miles my Model 3 could still have an estimated range of 275 miles which is more than some EVs right now that cost 3x as much as the Model 3.
Depreciation
I went on a few different sites (CarGurus, Edmunds, AutoTrader, Kelly Blue Book) and got the estimated value based on my Model 3’s options and mileage. Based on these sites, it’s worth about $42,000. That’s an estimated $10,000 loss in value so far which is right on par with the rule of thumb that says almost any new car will lose about 20% of its value in the first year. But this is not an actual expense unless you plan to sell the car. With a Tesla the car is constantly improving via software updates that improves things such as the range & performance, not to mention the promise of Tesla’s future robo-taxi service which is designed to make money for the owner.
Miscellaneous
My insurance costs about $2,000 per year for my Model 3 + my wife’s car. But since I’m saving almost $150/month on fuel, my fuel savings basically pays for my insurance which is cool. I paid a $500 deductible to get my bumper replaced. Also 2 of my 3 speeding tickets I’ve ever gotten have come since getting my Model 3 so that’s one con about owning such a quick car. So I invested in a $200 cordless radar detector. I’ve also spent about $150 on various Model 3 accessories including floor mats, console wrap, and screen protector. I paid around $900 to get a NEMA 14-50 outlet installed which isn’t a requirement for all Tesla owners. Some can get by with a normal outlet. Another optional expense was $1,700 to get the front of my Model 3 wrapped in a paint protection film because I drive so much and plan to keep the car for a long time. I also use my Model 3 for business purposes (Uber, Lyft, YouTube videos, driving to job sites, etc) so my business mileage deductions so far have actually saved me about $4,500 in taxes. That’s pretty amazing, considering this is virtually a maintenance-free car that doesn’t require gas.
That’s how much it has cost me to own and drive my Model 3 during its first 40,000 miles. It’s one of the best purchases I’ve ever made!
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After 10,000 miles here’s how much it really costs to own & drive a Tesla Model 3 after factoring in all the details.
These numbers are all based off my personal experience so it’s not going to be the same for everyone but at least it will give you an idea of the costs and how much a difference it is driving a Tesla compared to an internal combustion engine vehicle. I’m going to compare my Model 3 acquisition to what it would be like if I kept driving my 2007 Pontiac G6.
The total cost of my Long Range Tesla Model 3 was $56,000. I also had to pay $3,422 for taxes. I am getting the full $7,500 tax credit but my car insurance increased by $500/year so assuming I keep my Model 3 for at least 5 years that brings it to $54,422. However we also have to calculate the cost of installing a home charging outlet. This cost heavily depends on your particular location and how difficult the install is. My NEMA 14-50 outlet cost $900 for a professional electrician to install, which is on the expensive side because my box was the furthest possible distance from my garage so they had to run cable underground which increased the price.
That brings it to a grand total of $55,322 upfront cost for my First Production Long Range Tesla Model 3, assuming I keep it for at least 5 years. How much does it cost to charge & drive a Model 3 compared to buying gas? My Model 3 is at 10,400 lifetime miles and it’s averaging 233 Wh/mile.
So far I’ve only spent $20.29 on four Supercharging sessions, and that resulted in approximately 700 miles of range which means the other 9,700 miles traveled were from charging at home in my garage. To find out how much it’s cost to travel those 9700 miles we need to calculate my electricity rate along with the Model 3’s charging efficiency. My off-peak electricity rate when I charge my car at home is $0.06882 per kWh.
However, 100% of the electricity doesn’t make it into the car’s battery when charging at home. This is true for all electric cars. Edmund’s is doing a long-term test drive of the Model 3 and they’re measuring the average wall-to-wheels efficiency. So far from their tests they’ve seen an 83.3% charging efficiency (meaning only about 83% of the electricity makes it from the charging cable into the car battery). If we also account for the amount of battery that depletes as the Model 3 is just sitting somewhere not plugged in (I’ll make a guesstimate and say 3% is a fair assumption for vampire drain), that brings us to 80% total charging efficiency.
So 9,700 miles at an average of 233 Wh/mile with an electricity rate of $0.06882 per kWh with an 80% charging efficiency equals $186.65. And if we add the $20.29 I’ve spent on Supercharging that comes to a grand total of $206.94 spent to travel 10,400 miles in my Model 3. If you compare that to my 6-cylinder automatic transmission 2007 Pontiac G6 which averages 21 miles per gallon and using the current average cost of gas in my area which is $2.77 per gallon, the total cost to travel 10,400 miles would be $1,371.81.
That means I’ve saved almost $1,200 over 10,400 miles or maybe it’s better to say that’s $1,200 I’ve stopped having to give to gas stations since getting my Model 3. And I’m not driving a car that puts out any emissions which feels great. Also keep in mind there are free apps like PlugShare and ChargePoint that show you locations of thousands of public charging stations, most of which are completely free for anyone to charge their electric car which is something that just doesn’t exist with gas stations.
Also I’ve saved so much time from not having to stop at gas stations during my normal weekly driving. It takes me 5 seconds to plug in my Model 3 in my garage. When I drove a gas car I had to get gas at least once or twice per week, and each stop took around 5 minutes. So over the course of a year that’s a huge amount of time saved from not having to stop at gas stations. We could also get into the money saved from oil changes and maintenance but that’s another story. So far I’ve paid absolutely $0 in maintenance for my Model 3 so hopefully that continues.
Bottom Line: The Tesla Model 3 been a fantastic car after 10,000 miles and it’s still just as much fun as the day I got it. I hope you enjoyed this detailed look into how much owning and driving a Tesla Model 3 actually costs.