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josefresco

You can't afford a Tesla, but can afford a Mercedes Benz and considered a BMW? - huh.

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MB B250e lease is around $400/mo. BMW i3 lease is under $300 right now. Tesla lease starts at $1,000.

Knock about $200 a month off the Tesla lease for TCO based on Delta between electricity cost in petroleum fuel cost.

Edit: i'm wrong. See below.

Edit 2: In quite a few places, you can get time of day metering, where you pay lower rates for electricity at night.

In Chicago, I pay $0.01/kwh between midnight and 5am; its essentially free to charge my Model S (it's slightly more at my place in Tampa, ~$0.06/kwh at all hours).

The national average cost for gas is $2.67/gallon, Electricity $0.12/kwh. Based entirely on fuel costs, the Model S 85 costs $0.04/mile and the 20 mpg BMW M4 costs $0.13/mile. In order to save $200/month on fuel with the tesla, you'd have to drive 2200 miles a month. In the area I live, where gas is cheaper than average and electricity is almost twice as expensive, that number is 5000 miles/month.

That gas price should be closer to $3.16 at the moment. If we're talking about the luxury car market, it's far more likely the vehicle is going to be consuming premium gasoline.

Both the B250e and i3 are electric as well. The B250e actually uses a motor from Tesla.

My mistake! Thanks for correcting me.

It's the same as the difference between a Model S and a Model 3. Both Mercedes and BMW offer cars starting at the $35k mark (C class, 3 series). Given how anticipated the Model 3 is, evidently there are quite a lot of people who feel okay with a $35k starting price, but not with a $70k starting price.

Tesla are much more expensive in Europe. In fact, I could have an BMW M4 and a Golf R for the price of a mid-range Model S with some options - I know which two cars I'd rather have...

An M4 is price equivalent to a Golf R in Europe? Wow - quite a different story here in the US.

I think he meant he could buy both of those instead of the Tesla.

Yep!

facepalm I see now.

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