Car cost more compared to something equivalent in gas. $300 for charger, $500 for install…. It’s not cheaper to own an EV. It’s the “I have an EV” badge people want.
Um. $800 bucks.
Electricity-based Model 3: $0.051/mile.
BMW Model 3.. Looking it up on the EPA's site.. 19 mpg. $4.50/gal * 1 gal/19 miles = $0.237/mile.
Difference = $0.237/mile - $0.051/mile = $0.186/mile.
How many miles before the Tesla is cheaper, not including the cost of the car, but including the cost of the charging equipment you mentioned?
$800/($0.187/mile) = 4,305 miles.
So, throwing in plus or minus, if one drives more than 5000 miles a year, one'll have made up the cost difference the first year.
That was a 2022 BMW M3; admittedly, 19 mpg is on the low side for an EV. But, I dunno, most people drive 15,000 miles a year, so even at 20-24 mpg, one'll get one's money back relatively soon. And that doesn't even begin to consider maintenance on an ICE, oil changes and all. Which the Tesla doesn't really have.
And the Teslas are getting
cheaper. That's not because of Elon chasing people away, although that might, I suppose, be part of it: It's because the Tesla line-up is a bunch of white-paper, we get to do this from scratch as efficiently as we can, designs. As Tesla gets better at manufacturing, as the economies of scale improve, and, flat-out, the cost of an electric motor and battery are 'way cheaper, fundamentally, than the cost of an ICE and that automatic transmission, those costs are going to continue to drop. And Tesla's doing its bit: By dropping prices, they're forcing the rest of the competition to lower theirs as well to stay in business
at all, and some of the biggies, possibly Toyota, may go under as they try to play catch-up.