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by toomuchtodo 1114 days ago
TCO is a better measure than upfront price alone. People don't want to buy golf carts (wrt the Bolt), sell what people will give you money for.

https://cleantechnica.com/2023/06/04/tesla-model-3-lifecycle...

1 comments

Why would depreciation be included in a calculation like that?

So if you buy a $40,000 car one day, and the next day it's worthless, your TCO is somehow $80,000? That makes no sense.

Oh, and there is no way the average owner is spending $5000 a year in maintenance and repairs in the first 5 years on a car like that. I've owned multiple new cars over the past decade, and I bet I've spent that much combined.

Pretty magical and convenient that this person was able to adjust the TCO down to be comparable though, isn't it? Amazing that anyone sensible would believe it.

The TCO comes down to gas savings (substantial) and a difference in maintenance costs (backloaded in the Tesla). Here that's less than $7k.

> there is no way the average owner is spending $5000 a year in maintenance and repairs in the first 5 years on a car like that

If I need to put $5000 in a year into the maintenance and repairs of any vehicle, I'm calling that vehicle a lemon and ditching is ASAP.