spwolf

yeah, i guess if you can pay upfront for solar panels that pay off in 20 years (unless your state is subsidizing them), and then get $20k worth of batteries for your car, then it is "free".

obviously it might be "free", but it is not economical yet, it is more expensive. However you gotta start somewhere and people who get EV today due it for enviroment, patriotism (less dependency on oil) and sheer coolness.

I am more interested in how $1k per month for $60k car compares to conventional vehicles on the market, such as 5 series or GS350.

CK6Speed

iTrader: (1)

There were some really good rebates and tax credits being offered before. Not as good today though. It makes PV solar very affordable. My friend after all credits probably paid less than $10K and had an electric bill of about $300 or so a month. The savings are bugs and the cost is not as high as one might think. At least in my state. Some new home communities being build are already including PV systems included.

spwolf

hopefully industry stays alive as rabates are lower and continues to grow and improve... they have 20%-24% panels these days, which was impossible few years ago when i was checking it out (they had 12%-14%)

make no mistake about it, if i still lived in SoCal, i would get solar+ev these days. still might be too expensive for average joe... here i live in apt, plus my electricity bill is tiny ($30-$50 average) due to natural gas pipe and simply cheaper bills... so it cant pay off.

change is slow though, germany has set a goal of 20% renewable electricity by 2020, had huge rabates for wind and solar and still had to scale back plans since it was impossible to get there in some 12-14 yrs.

SW17LS

I'll tell you what, I have been seeing a TON of Teslas on the road lately. I would say its up to 3 or 4 a week. Easily more than I see GS's for instance.

You're assuming I want to keep a car 10-12 years. I don't, I want a new car every few years, and when you factor in the fact that I can deduct the cost of a vehicle for business and don't have to worry about recapturing any depreciation if I sell in 3 years, leasing is MUCH cheaper for me than buying a car and trading it in after 3 years or so. Is the cheaper way of doing it buying a 3 year old car and keeping it for 12 years? Yes. I however am a car enthusiast and derive a great deal of enjoyment out of my cars, and want to drive a new car. You only live once.

I can afford to buy these cars outright, but why would I do that when I can use someone else's money for little to nothing, and deduct the cost that is there for using that money from my taxes, and leave my money where it grows at a much higher rate than what the money is costing me.

I would never pay cash for a car, at least not unless interest rates were 10% and I couldn't get better returns on my cash by leaving it invested.

Don't assume.

spwolf

i think they are producing 1800-1900 per month now.

dmvp29

So you're rich enough to lease a new car every 3 years. I didn't assume anything. Learn to read next time. I covered most permutations, and you fall into one of them.

SW17LS

You insinuated that people lease because they cannot afford to buy, and people don't buy cars outright because they cannot afford to, and that people who can afford to will "usually buy them outright", and none of those assumptions are necessarily true. As I said, I would never even consider buying a car outright in this financial climate, I think doing so would be profoundly stupid to be quite honest.

You don't have to be "super wealthy" (your words) to lease a new car of this calibre every 3 years, nor are you "not so well off and simply don't do the long term math" (your words again) if you do so and are not "super wealthy". I'm not super wealthy, and I don't consider myself rich, and I realize that this is not the least expensive way to take care of my transportation needs...I just don't care. I enjoy my cars, other people spend a lot more on other luxuries and hobbies than I spend in lease payments every month, especially after my tax savings I promise you that.

The goal of my life is not to make it to a coffin with the most money.

gengar

I think dmvp29's language in his original post ("many", "usually", etc.) showed he was not making absolute statements. Let's not start fires where there are none, please.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Tesla increases lease calculator costs; Supercharging, 'mystery' announcement coming soon

Even Tesla Motors hasn't totally figured out the details of the just-announced Model S "lease" program. Yesterday, when the financial product was first revealed, the small print on the company's online calculator described a 66-month loan and a tiered monthly payment structure, depending on which model you chose: $1,199 a month for the 85-kWh Model S, $1,421 for the 85-kWh Performance model and $1,051 for the 60-kWh version. Today, all three of these prices have been increased slightly, to $1,252 (85-kWh), $1,483 (Performance) and $1,097 (60-kWh). Tesla spokesperson Shanna Hendriks told AutoblogGreen, "We made a small change to the site overnight – changing the 66-month term to a 63-month term. We were incorrect with putting 66 months initially. I believe this is the reason for the discrepancy."

So, yeah, there's some confusion out there. Since the announcement, the Internet has been abuzz with critics taking Tesla to task for CEO Elon Musk's insistence that the "true cost of ownership" can be driven below $500 a month. It can, using Telsa's calculator, if you live in a world where you're always getting paid $100/hour and therefore your 15 minute gas station stop is valued at $25. And you fill up four times a month. With premium gas. In a car that gets terrible fuel economy. We found that making these assumptions were the best way to get our "effective monthly cost" down to $500 or less. Oh, and claiming your Model S for business purposes helped tremendously. You can see why Tesla's stock went down 7.3 percent since the "lease" news came out.

Nonetheless, Musk is confident that his numbers are right – he told Automotive News that "Even if you don't count the time savings, you can own the car for net cash out of pocket for $500 a month, no marketing gimmicks. Some people wanted to call bull---t on us because we had certain default [calculations] set up on the site, and we have fixed them" and also "I just want to make sure people really do appreciate that $500 is a real number and not some sort of marketing fiction" – and is promising more announcements throughout all of April. Next week, we'll learn something about servicing and the week after that will be one about Supercharging and after that, Musk said, "there will be a mystery announcement. Then we'll shut up and hopefully people won't be sick of us." It all depends on what those announcements will be.

http://green.autoblog.com/2013/04/03...culator-costs/

spwolf

well Musk is guaranteeing for this himself, right?

:-))))

what does that even mean? Does he have some large ego and thinks somehow people will buy it because he says he guarantees retained value? This is not George Foreman's grill.