Joe Yates
A YouTuber who has been driving a Tesla for the last six years has gone into detail about the hidden costs that most new electric vehicle owners do not realize.
There is no denying that electric cars are good for the environment and that they will save you thousands in the long-term through filling up at the gas station.
But you'll have to fork out a pretty penny if you want those privileges, with the cheapest brand new Tesla being the Model 3 Long Range RWD (rear wheel drive) priced at $29,990 - and that's without including the additional costs.
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Now, YouTuber Kevin The Tech Ninja has given us a bit of insight into the seven hidden costs of owning the vehicle, which the company 'isn't telling' people about.
He explained that the recommendation Tesla make is to buy its home connector which is worth $475, but Kevin told his fans what he did.
"I added a NEMA plug, which requires you to buy the mobile connector for $200 and the plug in your wall is around $30 in addition to whatever home connect you go with, you need an electrician, and those can run anywhere from a few $100 to $1000s," he said.
"So you're already buying the new vehicle, but you're also paying anywhere from $1,000 to $2500."
"Let's say you don't want to pay that setup fee for a home charger. Sorry, there's a hidden cost for that too. You know, you'll be paying supercharger rates, which can be very costly," the Michigan man shared.
Supercharge is an electric vehicle fast charging network created by Tesla. He explained that superchargers vary in price, from $24 for a full charge at a station 30 miles away from him to $28 at one near his house.
He also detailed how he noticed his electric bill has gone up from $75 to $100 a month.
How well your battery takes to charging can depend on where you live, as Kevin mentioned that cold weather actually makes your Tesla cost more.
But there are ways around this as Kevin told his 253,000 subscribers: "Thankfully, there are ways to combat that with overnight charging and reconditioning your battery before you drive for the day and you set that up in the app or on your car battery stat screen, just to tell it what time you're leaving.
"And if your car is plugged in, it'll condition the battery to be the most efficient when you leave, and then you don't have that battery drain."
He went on to add that if your Tesla is cold you will lose some battery, and if you leave your car at the airport and come back after a long weekend away, you'll likely find that your battery is flat - if you were on a low percentage to begin with.
If you want to own a Tesla, you better be prepared to fork out premium rates on insurance, the main reason being the cost of replacing one.
"So insurance companies bakes that into the pricing to combat that, bundling your home and car insurance can help lower that price where I'm paying around 165 a month to insure mine through progressive," Kevin added.
According to the YouTuber, Tesla owners 'rip through' tires 'so much faster than a traditional car' and labeled it another 'major expense'.
Kevin explained that it is because of the technology in the tires, as well as the how heavy Teslas are due to their batteries, and gave an example of how he had to buy new tires after just 13,000 miles that cost him almost $2,300 to replace.
I'll let Kevin explain this.
"For the first year the car comes with all the connected services on the car, which includes real time, traffic, satellite map, view, radio, streaming, video streaming. And then after the first year, it's gone, and you got to pay $10 a month or $100 a year to keep it up," the tech expert said.
Finally, the last hidden cost is tax. The YouTuber explained that when you pay for gas, the government tax you on the price of it and since electric vehicles don't use gas, authorities instead tax you on registration.
"Don't you worry, in Michigan, it's an additional $250 on top of your registration. That amount of tax is assuming you're driving 20,000 to 30,000 miles per year, and I drive less than 10,000 miles a year, so I've been taxed nearly 3x more than I should," Kevin added.
While this is all good to know, I'll stick with gas for the time being as I simply can't afford all that - maybe in a few years!