| > I mean is electricity free in the US? No, but it's a lot cheaper than gasoline. The average cost of a kilowatt-hour is something like $0.11-$0.12 in the US (some places are much higher, some are lower). The highest-capacity model with an estimated 300-mile range holds 85kWh. Tesla claims >90% charging efficiency, but let's just say 95kWh to charge. 95kwh * $0.12 = ~$11.40 per 300 miles. Right now, a gallon of regular gasoline in the US averages $3.601. 300 / 50mpg = 6 * 3.6 = $21.60 300 / 40mpg = 7.5 * 3.6 = $27.00 300 / 30mpg = 10 * 3.6 = $36.00 300 / 20mpg = 15 * 3.6 = $54.00 300 / 10mpg = 30 * 3.6 = $108.00 As a point of troubling comparison, the Model S gets compared to a BMW M5 a lot, which apparently has a 16mpg/24mpg city/highway rating. Another useful comparison is to a basic Prius, which has a 51/48 rating, but is substantially smaller, lighter, and less performant than the Model S and M5, but the Model S still beats it by a large margin. When Tesla gets around to a Prius-like EV, the numbers are going to be even more ridiculous. The "fuel cost" of commuter EVs will simply be noise in the typical family budget. |
Or some of the European diesels, some of which are pushing 100 MPG.