It’s been two years and 50,000 miles since Andy Slye, a popular YouTuber, purchased his Tesla Model 3 RWD. After his two-year Tesla anniversary, he shared his Model 3 experience after clocking that many miles on the odometer.
In December, I published exclusive insight from a Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) study showing that, thanks to policy changes in the UK, consumers and businesses could save thousands or tens of thousands of pounds by switching to an electric car.
A major Dutch leasing company, LeasePlan, has thought a lot about the total cost of ownership of a vehicle. It is getting more and more bullish about electric vehicles. Last year it released a white paper on the topic, after conducting nearly 1000 vehicle ownership scenarios in 13 European countries.
It’s been a long time since I conducted some new 5 year cost of ownership comparisons between the Tesla Model 3 and other top vehicles in its class. The $1,875 federal EV tax credit for the Model 3 has gone away in that time, and we’re into a new model year. So, I decided to get back into this by comparing the the Tesla Model 3 to the BMW Series (the 330i xDrive Sedan, to be specific) and Audi A4.
We’re quite fond of running and publishing total cost of ownership forecasts here, whether comparing the Tesla Model 3 with the BMW 3 Series, comparing the Tesla Model Y with the Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S, or comparing the Volkswagen ID.3 with the Volkswagen Golf.
After comparing the Tesla Model Y to BMW’s high-performance SUVs a couple of weeks ago, and the more practical but less fun Lexus RX 350 last week, I noticed Mercedes is just coming out with a new performance SUV this summer as a 2021 model year SUV and thought I would compare it to the Model Y Performance.
The United Kingdom (not so united these days, but that’s another story) is becoming a hot electric vehicle market, but it gets very little attention in the EV world. I’m going to postulate that’s because people drive on the wrong side of the road there. (Just sayin’.)
When asked for the top reasons the EV drivers got their cars, we got similar responses as in previous years. The largest portion of buyers in every group referenced the environmental benefits. As before, Tesla buyers in the various markets were more likely to select “fun & convenience” and “I love new tech” than other EV drivers.
What caught readers’ eyes the most on CleanTechnica last week? That would be the new Tesla Backup Gateway 2, which looks like a mini Powerwall; a titillating study on EV total cost of ownership in the UK that Bank of American Merrill Lynch conducted and shared with CleanTechnica; and a commentary on Tesla’s revenue growth juxtaposed against Tesla critics’ seemingly never-ending pessimism, which is typically very misplaced.
They explained that Mini was started as a reaction to the Suez Canal Crisis in the late 1950s, as a small affordable car that got good gas mileage. Later, they found they were fun to drive and the company enhanced them for racing. I know them for the extreme customization offered.
