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As I'm sure most of you remember from the power crisis of a few years back, the problem is and always was peak demand. In other words, during the day, when people run air conditioners, there isn't enough power for everyone. But overnight, when the air cools and people are sleeping, there is ample supply.

Electricity costs of $ 0.02 per mile were quoted for this car. By comparison, a Porsche Boxter(*) gets 20mpg. At $ 2.95 a gallon, a recent price for regular gas(**) where I live, that would be about $ 0.14 per mile. So you can see that overall, the electric car is many times more efficient in terms of cost per mile.

Of course I don't know where that $ 0.02 per mile came from; it might have been with the cheapest electricity rates in the country. Probably not, since Tesla is a California company. But even if they choose the cheapest power in the country, that's no less than half what we pay in California. I would say, then, that power cost for the Tesla is no more than $ 0.04 per mile and probably quite a bit less.

Let's say you drive your Tesla 15,000 miles per year and in your location it costs $ 0.03 per mile. This would be $450 a year, or $37.50 a month.

Let's say you drove your Boxster the same 15,000 miles a year. It would cost $2,100 or $175 a month.(***)

This is pretty impressive in terms of savings. You are saving nearly 80% on fuel costs. In addition, the Tesla is faster from 0-60! In fact, it's almost twice as fast from 0-60 - 3-4 seconds (I've seen both figures) versus 5.9 for the manual and 6.8 for the automatic.

So yes, you're paying $80k-100k for the car instead of $50k for the Boxster, but if you're a wealthy California entrepeneur, the novelty and status value are likely to be well worth the extra price. With the way Californians drive, it seems like 30,000 miles a year would be common, in which case you'd save almost $300 a month compared to running the Boxster. That's not going to quite cover the difference in monthly payments, but it will cut it approximately in half.

So it seems to me that environmentally and financially there is quite a reasonable case to be made for this car. If I had the big bucks and felt like buying a sports car, I'd give it very serious consideration.

D

(*) The Tesla is based on the Lotus Elise, which is not officially sold in the US. I picked the Boxster as the most logical similar car to use for a comparison.

(**) I recently acquired a 2000 Mercedes S500. There is absolutely no difference in performance or fuel economy between Regular and Premium gas in this car.

(***) I reasonably expect fuel economy towards the bottom of the EPA scale for a sports car. My Mercedes gets 16mpg highway/23 city. I've averaged about 19mpg, so it's possible that I should revise my estimate slightly upward for the Porsche, which actually gets 18/26 with an automatic transmission. However, since the electric car does not run when idling, and since I'm using a 50% higher cost than quoted from the manufacturer, I think those details all come up OK in the wash.