The 20 most popular CleanTechnica articles of May are in a list below. First, though, I’ll highlight some of my favorites.
Well, the #1 story on the top 20 is also perhaps my favorite, but I wrote it, so I’m biased. It is a cost comparison between the Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus and several Honda Accord trims. Guess who wins.
Price policy for a product is a cross between fairness and what the market can bear. If you are too nice to your customers, your shareholders will not be happy. If you squeeze every last penny out of your customers, they will start to resent doing business with you. Beside these matters, there is the issue of competitive pricing. What is the price of competing products? Established products can charge a premium, new products often have to show a price incentive.
Tesla has just launched pricing and ordering for the Tesla Model 3 that will be made in the Shanghai Gigafactory. The 328,000 RMB ($47,475) price for the Standard Range Plus is before local incentives, and crushes fossil rivals in the same class, the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes C-Class (also both locally made in China).
Recently, we found out the German Tesla website introduced business leasing for the Model 3. Here is an example from the Tesla site. Congrats for those of you wanting a business lease in Germany!
John Rougeux recently ordered and took delivery of a Tesla Model 3 Standard Range with 570 miles on the odometer. He was charged $35,400 (there was a $400 price increase recently), but he got $1,250 off since the car had 570 miles.
It was the 12th of April. I had waited exactly 3 years and 12 days. That morning, like many before it, I checked the Danish locale of the Tesla Model 3 configurator and there it was: the Standard Range Plus ready to order.
For this piece, I will use the information on Tesla’s website to determine if paying cash, taking a loan, or leasing is the best option if you want a Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus (SR+). The twist here is I did these calculations for Switzerland, Norway, the Netherlands, China, and the UK. These were some of the most popular markets for Tesla in Q1 2019. I added in the UK, since it has been suffering for 3 years and deserves some attention.
I recently published some cost comparisons between the Tesla Model 3 and various Honda Accord trims. As I implied at the time, these models shouldn’t even be in the same discussion since the Model 3 is a much better vehicle (safer, quicker, more advanced tech, better handling), but the fact is that they do compare when it comes to 5 year cost of ownership. However, when I published the previous comparisons, I didn’t include the cost of interest if you took out an auto loan to finance the purchase.
I’ve got another report here comparing the Tesla Model 3 to a top selling car in the USA.The Model 3 was the 5th best selling car in the USA in the second half of 2018, the 11th best in all of 2018, and the 13th best in the first quarter of 2019. The Toyota Camry was the top selling car in the USA in 2018 and has long been at or near the top of the list.
I haven’t seen an announcement, but noticed on Twitter people talking about a $399 per month lease on a Tesla Model 3! Comparing the old deal to the new deal, the down payment required has gone up by $1,500, from $3,000 to $4,500, but the monthly payment has gone down from $504 a month to $399 a month. That more than makes up for the higher down payment — $105 times 36 months is $3,780, and subtracting the $1,500 increase in down payment brings you to $2,280 in savings).
