The excitement for your M3 arrival might mean you overlook some of the potential drawbacks. Tesla makes excellent cars, but driving an EV and a Tesla is not for everyone. Depending on the time you have, driving pattern and availability of a home charging station, your Tesla and EV experience can either be greatly enhanced or reduced. Let’s take a realistic look at being an M3 owner.
Charging Cost
The first question potential owners need to ask is how to charge their new model 3. If there is already 240V outlet in your garage you are set the cost is likely minimal as it involve purchasing just the charging equipment (assuming it does not come standard with M3) either a Tesla wall charger or mobile cable. If you do not have a 240V and you live in an older home, it’s a good idea to get an electrician out to see how much wiring would cost. Tesla does recommend having a 50 amp circuit breaker to allow continuous 40amp current. If you live in an apartment, rent or the cost of installing a 240V is too expensive due to the age of the home and there is no supercharge nearby. You should check out a list of supercharger that’s scheduled to open in 2017.
While no one knows the true cost of insuring M3 yet even with the MS there were quite a lot of fluctuation in insurance rate as more data become available. Recently, AAA plan to increase the insurance rate by 30% due to data from the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI). The best way to estimate your potential cost would be to know what it will cost to insure a 2016/2017 MS 60 which is probably the closest car to M3. Keep in mind in case you do get into an accident there are quite a few stories of MS owners waiting months to get their car fix on relatively minor accident. While it’s too early to tell what will happen to M3, one would imagine it can be difficult to obtain individual parts from Tesla as it focuses on massive scaling of production. Therefore review your insurance policy to determine whether you got car rental and the limitation to avoid surprise. In case, the repair goes beyond the limitation, do you have a backup car? Are you able to afford not having a car or able to pay the rental cost out of pocket? Those are things you should consider, especially if you using your M3 as your only car and is stretching your budget to afford one. Also search your area to see is there any Tesla-certified body shop so you won’t be surprised when they try to tow your car 100 miles to get repaired.