My Story – Why a Tesla?
Before we talk about which models work best, let’s talk about make (manufacturer). Tesla was started in Silicon Valley as an American car-brand and one of the first to survive in over 100 years. They built a few prototype vehicles using laptop batteries and struggled with their supply chain for 6 years just getting that one done – the Tesla Roadster. This car was a sports car running at $100,000 starting price. I was not ready for that level of risk.
Thankfully, I was ready to try out a completely different vehicle. In 2014, thanks to government incentives, I was able to lease a Nissan Leaf for $199 per month. That is still partially true today in WA and CO state. I think it’s down to $70 per month with the latest incentives. I reasoned that the gas savings alone would make the experiment worthwhile. As a result, I traded in my Audi A7 2013 for a Nissan Leaf. I don’t think you could have been farther apart in vehicles. I likened the early leaf to driving a tin-can with headlights.
A 2014 Nissan Leaf has 88 miles of range. I guess someone was a Back to the Future fan. The car used a regular outlet to charge at 20 amps, something my garage could handle. This meant it was good enough for 3 miles of charging an hour. As long as I was home for 8 hours a day, I had enough juice to go to work and back. I dubbed it our Electric Fox, or Foxy for short. My wife hated Foxy. She was dangerously underpowered, and more than once risked our safety by leaving us stranded in a cold unknown place. We got married in 2014 and during our wedding, we decided to drive people from the airport to our house so they wouldn’t have to rent a car. The problem is, the car couldn’t make it back to the airport when it was time to go. Luckily I found a public charger next to a tourist location so we could kill two birds with one stone - entertain and charge. I remember driving back from the airport with the heater and lights off to save electricity. Needless to say, we had Foxy for a year before handing it off to a friend to finish the lease terms at $199/mo. Financially, we learned about savings by direct experience and the savings were real. However, EVs like Foxy were compliance cars - not made for any useful purpose other than to claim fleet efficiency improvements. They were hard to use for real life.
After a few months, I decided it was time to try out the Tesla Model S. This new variant, Model S 90D, was something that just above my purchasing power. The car itself was starting at $89K but I was factoring in three things - hey this car looks more fun, it’ll probably last forever, and it saves me $1500/yr in gasoline. A combination of Sales Tax exceptions and Federal Tax rebates further reduced the total cost to $63K which was way cheaper with a comparable car I was looking at, a BMW 650i.
My first Tesla was awesome but they’ve grown a lot since their early release. Here’s just a quick top-level coverage on the current benefits:
Safety – Tesla’s have the highest safety rating of any cars on the road. If my family were to be in an accident, I would want them in a Tesla. They are engineered to protect teh occupants and it has shown time and time again. In a Tesla, you have the lowest probability of injury compared to any other vehicle on the road (see here)
Efficiency – Teslas drive like normal vehicles but are adequately efficient. This means that the electricity and battery size work together with efficiency to give you great range under cold or hot weather conditions. Now, ever car has an efficiency hit under extreme weather conditions. While there are other electric vehicles that can match efficiency, most don’t handle the extremes as well thanks to Tesla’s investment in heating and cooling mechanisms.
Self-Driving – Teslas can drive you where you need to go and are safer than humans. The technology will eventually become something to replace taxi’s but today it makes my commute easier. It’s good enough that I think it’s a better driver than I am. I’m not a horrible driver, but Tesla drives better than me. This takes the stress off me.
Technology – Play games? Listen to music? Want to stream Netflix? You can do all this in your car. On a roadtrip with kids? Take the Tesla. There’s no alternative.
Power – The cars are so powerful and fast, owners can easily get into trouble. In fact, new drivers should be locked to chill mode until they’re demonstrated responsibility. It’s so much fun but you should be responsible.
Needless to say I upgraded from the Model S to the Model X when my daughter was born. The seats worked out better and we all loved being able to drive the whole extended family in one car.
