If This is to be believed, the Tesla Motor Company will be introducing a $98,000 all-electric sportscar soon - possibly next year. Some circles claim that it will run at an average cost of $0.01/mile, do 0-60 in 4 seconds, and require only 3.5 hours to charge (though not from a standard wall socket - it will need special “fueling stations” of its own).
It’s the 1cent/mile fuel cost that strikes me, of course. That’s really spiffy!
So where’s the catch?
Well, the price tag, obviously. By comparison, I drive a 1999 Maxima that I bought used for around $15k. Taking the current mileage and comparing it to what it was when I bought it and dividing by the number of years, it seems I drive about 6,000 miles a year. OK - ‘99 Maximas get about 21mpg (that feels about right to me). So that implies I use 286 gallons of gas a year. Since I have to fill up with premium, I’m currently paying $4.20/gallon. All other things being equal, I would drop that to an even $4 to factor in this year’s cheaper months - but since I expect gas prices to continue rising a bit, let’s just do the math at $4.20. Assuming a solid rate of $4.20/gallon, I could expect to pay just over $1200 in gas a year. Since my total expenditures on gas for the Tesla Roadster would be only $60, I would save $1040 or so a year in gas by buying one.
Yeah, but it costs so much more than my current auto. Even if we buy these numbers (and let’s face it, we don’t: I find it hugely implausible that there are cars in existence that run on $0.01/mile, not to mention that new technology like this that expects to sell only 10,000 units or so exclusively in California in its initial offering is bound to require frequent and expensive repairs), it would take me over 80 years of driving to break even (a $15k car vs. a $98k car).
The irony of all this, of course, is that people who are in a position to shell out $90+k for a car probably aren’t sweatin’ the $1000/yr gas bill much. So I don’t really see the point in talking about fuel efficiency for an electric-powered luxury car.
Fortunately, Tesla gets this. From a post by the CEO on the company’s blog:
Almost any new technology initially has high unit cost before it can be optimized and this is no less true for electric cars. The strategy of Tesla is to enter at the high end of the market, where customers are prepared to pay a premium, and then drive down market as fast as possible to higher unit volume and lower prices with each successive model.
Without giving away too much, I can say that the second model will be a sporty four door family car at roughly half the $89k price point of the Tesla Roadster and the third model will be even more affordable. In keeping with a fast growing technology company, all free cash flow is plowed back into R&D to drive down the costs and bring the follow on products to market as fast as possible. When someone buys the Tesla Roadster sports car, they are actually helping pay for development of the low cost family car.
Needless to say, this is encouraging, a really smart strategy.
Ah, but do the cars work? Popular Mechanics seems satisfied!
I will be needing a new car in exactly two years. If they have family cars on the market by then in the $50k range, I’m in.