- Well, it's been two years since I got my used
Tesla Model S, obviously it's changed my life.
I've created this channel, it's affected my family
in ways that I couldn't even have imagined,
and I'm here to do what I did
when I first got it, which was to break down the cost.
What we're gonna look at is all the different costs
involved and the true cost of ownership
of a Tesla Model S.
This is a used 2013 60 kilowatt hour battery,
after two years of ownership, let's go.
First, let's take a look at the loan,
and I'm paying this off in three years with 1.5%
interest rate, which means that the first year
it was about $14,124 and that was the same the second year.
The only real difference is the interest that I'm paying
is a bit less now because I'm paying off
more of the principal.
This gives me a total for the payments
after two years of $28,249,
which is a lot, but know that this would be the same
if you chose any other car of a similar price.
Now let's break that down a little bit further
because I think it's important to talk about depreciation.
This is one of the biggest, often the biggest cost
of owning a car, and it's hard to calculate exactly,
and of course my data, my example here is just one anecdote.
It's not representative of the whole,
and so there are a lot of things to consider,
but I do have some decent numbers for you.
Let's start off with the first one, my purchase price,
which was $54,400.
I paid $4,000 of cash and then I financed 50,000 of it,
which is why I have the loan,
and I actually just got a quote from Tesla
for trading in my Model S of $36,300.
Now that may not sound like that bad,
but after you do the math on that,
that's over $18,000 of value that has been lost,
which is 33% drop.
Now mind you, this is after it was already used
for three years, so these are the last two years
in the first five years.
Now that is a big chunk to lose,
and I think it is due to how quickly the cars are advancing
and some of the newer ones that have newer hardware
and basically continue to get better
with over the air updates, those seem to be fine
when I check the prices online for those,
but mine, because it's older and I'm missing
autopilot hardware and things like foldable mirrors,
all these other features that you really can't add on
without a huge expense,
those seem to be a big difference maker.
So if you're looking to buy a used Model S,
just know that the depreciation is gonna be
pretty bad on it, especially if you don't have
any of the newer features like autopilot
or you know, the new front fascia or anything like that.
This brings us to insurance, and here we have
essentially what I've been getting over the past two years
but there are changes to that out there.
So if you're interested in this,
the prices definitely will vary,
and I have a lot of discounts because I have multiple cars,
I have life insurance, and I have my house
all on the same plan.
It comes out to just over 100 bucks a month.
In the first year, it was $1,226.
In the second year, $1,161.
So really not that bad, I don't think,
coming out to a total of $2,387 for two years.
This brings us to charging, and this is a big difference
where the Tesla really wins out compared to
a normal gasoline-powered car.
Now I paid just over $1,100 over the past two years
and I drove over 18,000 miles, which is pretty good,
but a big reason that my cost is so good here
is because in March I got solar.
So prior to that, I was actually paying quite a bit,
north of $70 a month in fuel charges
just for my Tesla Model S, but then when I got solar,
I basically broke down that cost over the 25 year life span
and looked at how much it would cost me to pay
for my Tesla energy each month.
Now the Tesla eats about 45% of my monthly electricity bill,
so that's a lot, and that comes out to just about
$26 a month in fuel or energy for my Tesla Model S.
That's 26 bucks a month, compared to what I would be paying
for a gas car, which is a lot higher.
When I add that up across two years,
what we're looking at here is a substantial savings.
In fact, it's over $1,000 of savings,
and so if you were to think about that,
I would be paying over $2,000 in fuel
for the amount that I drove and the gas prices
that I have here in San Diego, and I have details
on all this in a link in the description down below,
which is about a 50% savings, 49.34% difference.
So think about that for your situation.
If you drive a lot, the numbers here, the dollar figures
could add up to be much higher than this.
I don't drive that much, and that's why the dollar
figures aren't that big, but with solar,
I've been able to actually save on a percentage basis
a ton over what I would be paying
if I had a regular gasoline car.
Now one of the things that me and a lot of the other folks
that have Teslas and EVs in general talk about
is the lower cost of maintenance and repairs,
and that bears fruit and seems to be true
with my data as well.
Now the first year, I really didn't have any.
There were a couple repairs, if you recall,
if you guys have been with me this whole time,
and they were all covered by Tesla.
Well, the second year, I actually paid for some stuff,
and first and foremost, I paid for some tires.
I had one tire with a rim that had to be replaced,
and then I had another incident where two tires
were bad, so I just replaced all of them.
So my total for the two-year span for tires
was $1,327, which really would be pretty standard
on any higher-end vehicle, these tires aren't that cheap,
so there's that.
Now I did pay for the two year service here,
which was $725, so this is where I actually
paid for some kind of service,
and there was a lot that they went through.
If you guys are interested, I could put all the details
of that in the description and on the website.
Now this brings us to a total of just over $2,000
across two years, which may sound like a lot
if you own, say, a Honda or a Toyota and you don't
really do much, but if you own a BMW or a Mercedes,
you know that that's actually not that bad
considering how expensive oil changes are
and if you have any parts that need to be replaced,
how expensive that can be.
So I think this is a pretty good price
for the maintenance and repairs on this, and again,
that two-year service, I didn't really have to do,
so that's a big chunk of it right there.
Tires were the only thing that I had to really
come out of pocket for.
All right, so let's add it all up and see
what I've been paying here.
Starting out, we have depreciation of $18,100.
Then we have insurance, nearly $2,400.
Maintenance and repairs, just over 2,000
and charging, just over $1,100,
giving us a total true cost of ownership
for my situation here, my one data point, of $23,659.
I'm curious what you guys think.
Do you have a higher-end sedan like a BMW 5 Series
or a Mercedes Benz S-Class, or an Audi,
one of these cars that are kind of in the same
category as a Tesla Model S, if so,
I'm curious what you think of these numbers,
is this really high, is it low?
And if you don't have one of those cars,
this may seem insanely expensive to you,
but really, when you compare apples to apples,
I think you'll find that it's a much better deal
for your money, and there you have it.
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