- A viewer wrote in asking me if a Tesla Model Three
could handle a 200 mile per day commute.
Which is crazy but I thought that would be a fun
little experiment to see if it can really take it on.
(techno music)
So in order to look at this problem,
there's a couple different ways and angles
that you need to approach it from.
So, I put together a little slide show here
to kind of break this down for you.
The first thing I wanted to look at
was the actual commute and whether
or not the car could physically make it
on a 200 mile per day commute.
So looking at the math of the commute itself,
you're starting out at 200 miles of distance to cover
which is an enormous amount every single day.
Some of you may do that and I wish you the best
at finding new jobs because that is insane to me.
Looking at the car, it gets about 280 miles on a charge.
This is 90% of the actual 310 range
for the Model Three Long Range Edition.
And looking at this math it works out pretty easily.
You've got 80 miles of range left at the end of the day,
nothing to worry about, right?
Well, we all know that things like temperature,
the traffic conditions, road conditions,
how fast you're driving, all of those things
play a role, plus while you're actually at work
your car's gonna be losing some
or sometimes potentially a lot of energy just sitting there.
So we can't really count on those numbers.
Let's redo it here with a more real world,
more conservative estimate.
This time we're looking at our 200 mile commute.
That doesn't change.
But I'm gonna put it at 80% of the 90% of range
if that makes sense so instead of the 280
which you may expect or hope to get
but we all know from real world testings,
never really comes out to be true,
you get about 224 miles of range
and when you do that math you're at 24 miles left
at the end of the day whoo,
that is too close for comfort for me personally.
In fact, your car may even recommend you stop and charge
which is pretty inconvenient considering
you're already spending so much time on the road
so you will likely want to charge while you're at work.
Even if that's a 110 volt outlet, just a regular wall outlet
but if you can find a Tesla Destination Charger
or a Supercharger or any of the other options
I think it'd be really good for you
just to have that added bonus.
I mean if you need to pick up the kids
or stop by the grocery store
or do whatever you got to do,
you're not gonna want to be skating on such thin ice
there with only 24 miles of range at the end of your day.
So, make sure to do that while your there.
Now, let's look at the savings side of it.
'Cause this is the other angle that I want to talk about.
First is like physically can it do it?
Now, what would it actually mean for your wallet
and again hopefully your commute shortens up a bit
'cause that, I couldn't see
that being sustainable personally.
So, the cost side of this breaks down
a little bit better for you.
First we're looking at about 2,500 miles per month
because I'm throwing in the 200 miles per day
and then some added trips here and there.
We're gonna round it out at 2,500 miles per month
which is a lot, it's almost double
of what the average consumer has here
in the United States.
Now gas in San Diego, and I know
that's the area that you were looking at as well,
comes out to be about $280 per month on average.
Sometimes it's more than that
and with rising gas prices this
could easily be more than that
and this is with a 30 miles per gallon
regular gas car is what I used for comparison here.
Now you also mentioned, in your letter,
that you're getting solar on your home
so what I did is I looked at what I'm paying
for the energy I use for my Tesla
based on a 25 year span and the full cost
of the solar system I got.
And then multiplied that times two for you
to try to just be conservative.
That comes to about 50 bucks a month.
So all in all you're saving $230
every single month on gas by doing this.
So you are in a great position there.
Plus you'll have less road noise, if you get autopilot
it'll be one of those things that will actually
reduce stress from not having to be entirely
intently focused all the time, you can kind
of sit back and relax and just be more passive.
Now if you advertise that out across 12 months,
you're looking at a decent amount of savings.
So first off you're saving $2,760 in fuel.
2,500 in the California state rebate.
If you get it before the end of 2018
you get the $7,500 Federal Tax Credit
assuming you qualify for all of that money there.
Then you'll be looking at a one year savings
or first year savings of $12,760.
If you expand that out to a five year plan
you're looking at about $23,800 in savings.
The rebates only come in the first year
then after that we're only looking at fuel.
And this doesn't even take into account things
like reduced maintenance costs,
or any of that kind of stuff.
This is really just looking at the main item
for you which is gonna be fuel here.
So if you look at a five year true cost of ownership,
and we're just taking this one category into effect here,
you're looking at a purchase price of around $54,000,
then taxes and fees in California of about 6,000
coming out to a total of about $60,000
which is effectively what I paid for my car.
Minus your five year savings of 23,800
giving you a true cost of ownership of $36,200.
A really great savings and great price
on a fantastic vehicle for you.
And this is where electric cars really shine.
Now you will have some challenges with charging
like I said whenever you get to your office
you're gonna want to plug in and just add
in whatever extra energy you can while you're there
or at least not lose any energy
so that way your car will be ready to go
when it's time to make that trek home.
But you're gonna save so much money
because you drive so much and this is one
of the greatest benefits of owning an electric car.
I personally don't get to partake in that
because my home is only about seven miles or so
from my studio here so it's really not one
of those things but with you driving so much
you're gonna have reduced stress from less road noise,
reduces stress from the actual autopilot system
if you're driving on freeways which I assume you are,
if you're going 100 miles each way,
and you're gonna be saving a lot of money.
So this is gonna be, I think,
the perfect commuter car for you.
Let me know what you think after you've had it
for a little while, I'm really curious
kind of how you're feeling about it,
how the pocketbook looks,
and how these numbers stack up for you.
These are just estimates.
This is my back of the napkin type math
and I hope that was helpful for you.
So thank you guys fr joining me yet again
and don't forget when you free the data,
your mind will follow.
I'll see you back here in the next one.
(upbeat music)