Well I disagree on a couple of points. I could not afford a $80k Audi A7. The fuel costs would put me out. The operating costs of the Tesla are significantly less than a comparable car. The 40kWh car over 5 years is about equal to buying a $35-40k BMW 3 (or Subaru STI) if you include the rebates out there. And it gets even cheaper the longer you hold onto cars. And sure buying the performance makes the car a 'toy'. But a lot of people are using the S as their workhorse daily driver.
Agreed here. This was my scenario. My previous car before the S that I just got rid of was a Range Rover Evoque Dynamic. I think the final cost including taxes was around $57,000. I had put $5k down and had a loan for around $52k 2.75% for 60 months - payment was $937/month. I do 90% highway driving, and the Evoque was
rated 28mpg. I drive roughly 3000 miles/month. The
ACTUAL mileage I got from the Evoque was about 20mpg
(side note: that really ticked me off). At $4/gallon for premium fuel, I was spending $600+/month on gas. Now my cost per month was $937+$600=$1537.
Now lets look at the total monthly cost for the Model S. For me, where I park daily has free charging. I will most likely charge there, not at home (when the mobile app is out, I'll probably set it up to slightly charge/warm up the vehicle right before I leave every morning). So essentially, "fuel is free". Total cost for my pretty much loaded P85 is $103k (no EV sales tax in NJ). Lets assume I put no more money down besides the $5k reservation, so I finance $98000. If I go for a 72 month loan (I know, not exactly apples to apples), but I think it's relatively easy to get a 72 month loan at 2.49%. That monthly cost is now $1466, cheaper than what I was paying for the Evoque. I could also probably do an 84 month loan at 3.49%, That's now around $1316/month. Not bad for a car that costs almost double what the Evoque was costing me.
(side note: I'd love to see if I could get that lower, anybody know any banks offering good 84 month loans?)
This doesn't even take into account that I won't be needing to pay for oil changes or brakes either and the myriad of parts on an ICE car that could break that I no longer need to worry about. Even if I do the same 60 month loan, while total monthly price would be slightly more, I'll still save a TON over the life of the vehicle (and I plan on having it at least 10 years).
My point is simple - for me, ESPECIALLY TCO over time, even though the Model S is almost double in price what the Range Rover was, the total cost of ownership is actually A LOT cheaper. THAT is how I can afford a $100k car. I mean come on, price of the Evoque +$7200/year every year I owned that car? Over 10 years that's $57k+$72k=$129k. LOL. Ridiculous. (besides, the Range Rover would NEVER last that long anyway, so I'd have to buy a new car there too before end of 10 years haha.) And all this still doesn't even factor in the $7500 fed rebate or the home charger rebate either, so really the savings are even more than I've pointed out above.