Reasons To Buy A Tesla Model 3 By May 27, & A Few Reasons To Not Buy

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

Tesla is offering 5,000 free miles of Supercharging if you order by May 27. You have to use the miles within 6 months, but that could save you about about $450 if you drive a lot, less if you drive less. You should also get your car by June 30, 2019 — so, if you are in the US, you should be eligible for the $3,750 tax credit (if you make enough money to owe that much in income taxes — see your accountant or tax advisor about that, or this answer from TurboTax/Intuit may help you).

Model 3 Is Built To Bring You Joy

Teslas aren’t just cars — they are made to bring joy, said Elon Musk on the Joe Rogan podcast in September of last year (summarized at this link).

The handling is better than 99% of the cars you have driven. The closest I’ve driven is the old Honda CRX that handles like it is on rails. The Model 3 is much heavier, but has perfect 50/50 weight distribution, sophisticated suspension, and a vehicle stability system monitoring everything 100 times a second. The nannies keep you safe, you just point it where you want to go and it goes that way at any reasonable speed (and many unreasonable speeds, too).

Aiden Weller, 6, Future Tesla Owner

The power will also be greater than 95% (or more) of the other cars you’ve driven. The instant torque — not having to wait for turbos to spin up, RPMs to increase, or gears to shift — means it will also feel faster than the 5% of gas cars that are faster than it.

The next reason you want to buy the car is it looks great. This is subjective, but although it doesn’t get the attention of a Lamborghini, it still gets a lot of attention — especially younger people, if that’s something you like.

Practical Reasons To Buy The Model 3

About now you are thinking this sounds pretty good, but how am I going to talk the spouse into getting this rocket? Don’t fret; I’m here for you buddy! The following points will help if you have a spouse or significant other who you love but who is sometimes a bit frugal, too practical, or even a bit of a killjoy. You know what I’m talking about…

First, if you have any rugrats in your family, I’d recommend leading with safety. Point them to this article I wrote in January. Women with kids (but men too) especially tend to remember the pain of birthing and raising the kids, and would rather not start over (to put it in the lightest possible terms).

Another thing we may want to do is be good stewards of the earth and not harm others by harming the environment. This article by my friend Kurt Lowder covers it better than I could. This week we published an article that discusses another benefit of EVs that is frequently overlooked — they don’t produce any carbon monoxide! As it turns out, accidental carbon monoxide poisoning kills over 200 people a year, just in the US.

Zach and I have both written a lot on the cost of ownership of the Model 3 and showing how it is significantly less expensive to own than other cars in its class (premium, compact, luxury sedans). It is even competitive with cars like the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry, which it totally outclasses. Here is the most recent article on this topic. How can a car that costs much more than another car up front cost less to own? 4 reasons: Fuel savings, maintenance savings, tax credits, and the biggest advantage is the motor is designed and tested to last a million miles. The batteries are designed to last 300,000 to 500,000 miles. Your gas or diesel car won’t last that long unless you spend a fortune on repairs.

The over-the-air software updates keep the car feeling like a new one for years after you buy it, since you get new features every few weeks.

As I wrote in this article, Tesla estimates your car will make $30,000 a year if you use it as a robotaxi when you don’t need it. My article covers the technology, while this one does a better job describing the robotaxi financials that could make this the first car that makes you money instead of costing you money. Vijay also wrote a great article on the 9 ways the Tesla Network can help you make money.

The reduction in stress from taking long trips using the now standard Autopilot can’t be overstated. For all long trips, the Model 3 is by far the preferred car. Not only do we have free fuel via the referral program, we arrive much less tired than we are with a car we have to drive manually. You still have to pay attention, but it’s a lot less work to supervise the driving than do the driving.

Reasons why you shouldn’t buy a Model 3 we covered pretty well in my article last year, but I’ll update several of the reasons now.

  1. Off-roading — Not much has changed here except we know Model Y will be okay for mild off roading when it arrives, but not targeted to that market.
  2. Large cargo or towing capacity — Tesla has announced a tow hitch in Europe and you can get a 3rd party hitch in the US or buy a roof rack. If you need to tow or haul more, you could use the Model S or X with more range and power than ever, but you also might want to wait for the Tesla Pickup. Screen Capture from https://www.tesla.com/supercharger
  3. Rural charging — In the last 6 months, Tesla has added 1,654 Superchargers and added 82 more stations. Expansion should accelerate now that V3 Superchargers are available. With the range increased on all Tesla’s in the last 6 months, finding a charge is less of a concern than before.
  4. Low miles — I still think a used Leaf or Volt will be a more economical choice for those who drive fewer than 10,000 miles a year (although, less fun).
  5. Conservative with your spending or don’t make much money — Tesla recently announced the $399 a month lease and in February announced the $35,000 Model 3 (still available by calling or visiting a store). But if you usually spend $5,000 on a car, there are still no Teslas available at that low price point.
  6. Risk averse — Tesla’s are becoming a bit more mainstream, as they have been on the market for 6 more months, but risk averse people are still not going to buy a Tesla Model 3 for a few more years.
  7. Daily charging — More workplaces, apartments and retail establishments install level 2 chargers every day, but in my neighborhood, there is still no charging available for people without a home for about 5 miles. If I didn’t have a home, I don’t know if I would own an EV (as much as I love them). Check PlugShare to see if there are chargers close to where you work, shop, or sleep if you don’t have a place to charge where you live.

Chip in a few dollars a month to help support independent cleantech coverage that helps to accelerate the cleantech revolution!

Conclusion

Should you pull the trigger and get a Model 3? It will be a lot of fun and I gave you plenty of research links if you need to convince someone else to make it happen. If one or more of the 7 reasons still apply to you, you should probably wait until you can resolve the issue, if you can stand to wait. There will always be enhancements in the new cars. Even though Tesla will allow you to get many of them in an existing car with its industry-leading over-the-air updates, the company can’t always retrofit existing cars to support every new feature.

Take the leap to Tesla, you will never look at driving the same way again!

If you want to take advantage of my Tesla referral link to get 5,000 miles (hurry, 5,000 miles goes back to 1,000 miles after May 28) of free Supercharging on a Tesla Model S, Model X, or Model 3, here’s the link: https://ts.la/paul92237 (if someone else helped you, please use their code instead of mine).


Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest CleanTechnica TV Video


Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

Paul Fosse

I have been a software engineer for over 30 years, first developing EDI software, then developing data warehouse systems. Along the way, I've also had the chance to help start a software consulting firm and do portfolio management. In 2010, I took an interest in electric cars because gas was getting expensive. In 2015, I started reading CleanTechnica and took an interest in solar, mainly because it was a threat to my oil and gas investments. Follow me on Twitter @atj721 Tesla investor. Tesla referral code: https://ts.la/paul92237

Paul Fosse has 231 posts and counting. See all posts by Paul Fosse