There are quite a few reasons why I’m not buying Tesla. I’m talking about both the stock and an actual Tesla car. I’m foremost going to focus on the acquisition of a car in this post.
There are quite a few things to take into consideration when buying a car and as I’m currently thinking of getting a new one in the near future. So I have looked deeper into what could be an affordable option, not only to buy, but to drive and maintain.
What I have right now is a Seat car. It’s already paid off and has around 100 000 kilometers on it. It’s an okay car, had it for 2 years already and didn’t have many glitches so far to be honest. It’s not a sexy car, but i don’t need one, I already have a wife. It does it’s job pretty much, gets me from A to B. However, due to the increasing gas prices it has become a little expensive. I would like to get something that doesn’t rely fully on gas. Either a hybrid or electric car.
So why not get a Tesla then ? Well, the thing is, with buying a new car, the biggest cost is is not the gas, maintainenace or electricity cost of charging it. No, as everyone knows, the biggest cost is actually the depreciation of the value of the car.
I did some research on Tesla model 3 which cost around USD 65 000 in Sweden. With the 7 K Green bonus discount that end up to be USD 58 000. So it turns out the depreciation for this model is around 14 % the first year. But after 3 years it is already 40 percent. Almost half the value has vanished. That means that the depreciation would cost me 58K x 0,4 = USD 23 200 % 36 = USD 644. This means that just due to the depreciation this car would cost me USD 644 a Month!! Then I haven’t taken into account any of the other cost associated with owning and maintaining this car.
My current car with gas cost, insurance, service, everything included, cost me around USD 250 a month. As I stated it’s already paid off, so that keeps this number pretty low. But still, that is a lot cheaper than having a Tesla.
The gas prices might continue to go up . But, the fact is that the price of electricity has gone up much more rapidly in the recent year and will probably continue doing so for some time to come.
We are not ready for such a fast change into electric vehicles, we don’t have enough electricity to sustain it. The infrastructure is not ready. To be honest, I would rather continue waiting and see what happens with fuel cells and hydrogen powered cars. That I think will be more sustainable than battery powered cars.
The fact is that a lot of the battery cars today have a huge carbon print in the production of the batteries and a lot of the rare metals needed to be dug up to make them. Furthermore, I heard just recently on the radio that they don’t even know how to handle the batteries once they have run out.
So giving it a second thought I think I will just keep my car for now and wait to see what’s gonna happen.
What is your view on the subject ? Do you have a Tesla or electric car or still drive a car on gas ?