The Nitty Gritty

When starting my research, the most important thing I wanted to know was price. It turns out, like most other cars, it depends on specifically what you want out of the car.

With the Model S, the first thing you need to decide is what size battery you want. There are 40 kWh, 60 kWh and 85 kWH batteries, each offering further range and faster 0-60 speeds. Well, technically I guess there are four battery offerings, the one I left out being the 85 kWh performance battery, offering a faster 0-60 speed (more on that later).

Teslamotors.com offers a "build your own Model S" section so that you can price out what you want. Me being me (ha) I of course built one with anything and everything on it. Total price (after $7500 government rebate for buying an electric car AND including the price increase that went through on cars reserved after Jan 1, 2013) for my dream car is $103,970.

Ouch. BIG ouch.

Now, my husband and I are doing ok. He runs his own business and has two employees. We are able to buy food, send our daughters to preschool and I stay at home with them. We are 100% lucky, blessed, grateful and happy. What we are NOT is rich. So $103,970 for a family car is absolutely not in our budget.

So I went back and designed a car that was a bit more reasonable (relative to...). With a 40 kWh battery, bare bones with textile fabric, minus the tech package that includes navigation, power/remote rear liftgate and a bunch of other bells and whistles...$53,570. Not bad.

Now, I know what you're thinking. That's STILL a lot. And it is...but consider this. With tax and licensing, my husband and I paid almost $40K for our MINIVAN. A MINIVAN. It's not even the super uber awesome model, just leather and navigation. There are minivans that MSRP is closer to $50K. Really, in this day and age if you want any kind of decent car, you're really looking at at least $30K. Luxury cars are definitely in the $50K range.

However, for me, there are several problems with the 40 kWh bare bones configuration. A) It doesn't include the tech package. I have a hard time understanding why you would spend $50K on the car and not spring for the $3750 tech package. Apparently, the folks at Tesla agree because it seems like they try and make the package work it. Here's a complete list of what you get in the tech package:

Why would you pay $53,570 for a car, a car with CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY (more on that in a later post) and not get the tech package? Well, I can see some reasons. People might not have a need for most or all of that stuff. Powered liftgate - nice but a must have? Maybe not. HD backup camera? Definitely a luxury, but not a necessity.

But ah. We just hit on a key word there, didn't we? LUXURY. I'm not buying this car to sell it in a couple of years (there's no data to even show what resale on an all electric car might look like). So I'd better make sure it has everything I even remotely desire, including the tech package.

So then, the next major issue for me with the bare bones configuration is the B) 40 kWh battery. Now, I'm definitely not a complete snob, needing the best and greatest. I also NOT a race car driver, by any means. I have 100% zero need to go from 0-60 in 5.6 seconds. However, what I AM is impatient. If my car has a range of 160 for full charge, I can probably make it a few days on that. However, most charging stations (including the one we'd need to install in our home) is 240 volts, which charges at 31 kw/h. That means, if I'm running towards zero AND I'm lucky enough to find a 240 volt charging station, I'd need to find something to do for at least 2 hours to even get to close to have charge. With two nutso little girls in tow, this would be super, really, hard. However, Tesla has plans to open up Superchargers, one in Seattle coming this year. This charges at 150 kw/h. BOOM. One hour. Done. Out. However, Supercharging isn't offered on 40 kWh batteries. I'm not 100% sure why - I'll have to research that more, but it's absolutely vital to have that Supercharging option. Therefore, my list of must haves is going to have to include the tech package, the 60 kWh and the option to the $2K option for Supercharger access.

So maybe that's not a deal breaker for most people, but it's huge for me. And think about it, your time is valuable too, isn't it? In the long run, won't the cost of wasting hours while your car is charging justify that expense? PLUS - Elon Musk (the man behind Tesla) has publicly said that Supercharging will always be free to Tesla owners. So, why not?

My point is, while the 40 kWh is totally reasonable, NOT having the option for super-charging is just a deal breaker for me. I would be completely kicking myself driving by a Tesla Supercharger with my screaming howler monkeys to stop at Walgreens for God knows how long to get enough of a charge to get home vs a complete charge at the Supercharger.

Which leads me to my final issue with the lowest possible configuration. C) This is going to be a family vehicle. Although the minivan isn't sexy, we can comfortably haul our own family along with a complete other family of 4, car seats and all. While we don't need the extra seats very often, when we do it is really, really nice to have them. So, the bare bones 40 kWh configuration doesn't include rear-facing seats. Now, I'm going to have to do some serious research on this before I put my kids back there. When I hear rear-facing seats, I get this mental image of those 70's and 80's Volvo's with seats in the back...along with the many accidents/fatalities I remember reading about this. While I'm positive that the Tesla's "trunk" has been reinforced to make the rear-facing seats completely safe, I won't know for sure until I do my own research. See it for myself, so to say. The problem is, from the research I've done so far, there really isn't much about the rear-facing seats. At least, the few blogs I've read about people that have recently taken delivery of their Model S's, not many ordered the rear-facing seats. I'll have to do some digging :)

So, now I know what my deal breakers are. 1) 60 kWh battery for Superchargeing capability. 2) Rear-facing seats (maybe, but probably). Finally, 3) The tech package...because if you're car can't navigate you to the nearest charging facility, what are you doing with an EV anyway?

'Til next time...