7 ms·

Its shady, but its not hypothetical, having owned a Model S for 4 years, I’ve saved a ton on fuel.

by martin_bech 8y ago

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
ekianjo 8y ago
If its your first car it makes absolutely no sense.
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
  It makes no sense either way. CapEx and OpEx are different animals.
  - greglindahl 8y ago
    Yeah, no one in the computer industry ever does anything to trade one for the other! Oh, wait, cloud. Server leases. I guess we do it all of the time.
  - martin_bech 8y ago
    CapEx and OpEx are different labels for money, thats all. Its still going out of your pocket, if its one or the other.
- dmode 8y ago
  It is still a savings as you would have bought an ICE otherwise
  - Rebelgecko 8y ago
    no I wouldn't
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
scarmig 8y ago
By that standard, they should also incorporate an amortized cost of battery replacement in the price.
- NickM 8y ago
  The vast majority of people buying a Tesla today will never need to replace the battery. The chemistry used in electric vehicle battery packs these days have much better longevity than what you see in most other lithium-ion cells.
  - goshx 8y ago
    And the warranty is for 8 years.
- themagician 8y ago
  Over the timespan in which you'd have to replace it, and given future cost reductions in battery production, it's probably the same as the total cost of maintenance for a petrol car. The cost of getting a petrol car to 100k or the 10 year mark isn't cheap. Even a Toyota is going to run you like $5k. A BMW or Benz, probably closer to $15k. If you buy a used BMW 3 series for $20k today and keep it for 10 years the cost of maintenance + gas will be well over $20k. A lot of people greatly underestimate the total cost of ownership for a petrol vehicle. Best case scenario is you have to replace every moving part that isn't the engine itself. Worst case scenario is you have the replace the engine too.
- mrep 8y ago
  Actually, you'll probably never need to change the battery as "the latest data shows less than 10% degradation of the energy capacity after over 160,000 miles on Tesla’s battery packs" [0]. Even if it degrades like 50% by the time the rest of the car dies, there will probably start to emerge a market for the old batteries to use them for grid storage where kwh/weight does not matter as much so you might even get some of your money back. [0]: https://electrek.co/2018/04/14/tesla-battery-degradation-data/ https://electrek.co/2018/04/14/tesla-battery-degradation-dat...
- alanbernstein 8y ago

Its shady, but its not hypothetical, having owned a Model S for 4 years, I’ve saved a ton on fuel.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

ekianjo 8y ago

If its your first car it makes absolutely no sense.

TheSpiceIsLife 8y ago
It makes no sense either way. CapEx and OpEx are different animals.
- greglindahl 8y ago
  Yeah, no one in the computer industry ever does anything to trade one for the other! Oh, wait, cloud. Server leases. I guess we do it all of the time.
- martin_bech 8y ago
  CapEx and OpEx are different labels for money, thats all. Its still going out of your pocket, if its one or the other.
dmode 8y ago
It is still a savings as you would have bought an ICE otherwise
- Rebelgecko 8y ago
  no I wouldn't

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

scarmig 8y ago

By that standard, they should also incorporate an amortized cost of battery replacement in the price.

NickM 8y ago
The vast majority of people buying a Tesla today will never need to replace the battery. The chemistry used in electric vehicle battery packs these days have much better longevity than what you see in most other lithium-ion cells.
- goshx 8y ago
  And the warranty is for 8 years.
themagician 8y ago
Over the timespan in which you'd have to replace it, and given future cost reductions in battery production, it's probably the same as the total cost of maintenance for a petrol car. The cost of getting a petrol car to 100k or the 10 year mark isn't cheap. Even a Toyota is going to run you like $5k. A BMW or Benz, probably closer to $15k. If you buy a used BMW 3 series for $20k today and keep it for 10 years the cost of maintenance + gas will be well over $20k. A lot of people greatly underestimate the total cost of ownership for a petrol vehicle. Best case scenario is you have to replace every moving part that isn't the engine itself. Worst case scenario is you have the replace the engine too.
mrep 8y ago
Actually, you'll probably never need to change the battery as "the latest data shows less than 10% degradation of the energy capacity after over 160,000 miles on Tesla’s battery packs" [0]. Even if it degrades like 50% by the time the rest of the car dies, there will probably start to emerge a market for the old batteries to use them for grid storage where kwh/weight does not matter as much so you might even get some of your money back. [0]: https://electrek.co/2018/04/14/tesla-battery-degradation-data/ https://electrek.co/2018/04/14/tesla-battery-degradation-dat...
alanbernstein 8y ago