Woman who owned Tesla for five years compares costs to used BMW and is amazed by the results

A Tesla owner decided to compare the costs of owning and running a brand new Model 3 for five years to a pre-owned BMW - and the results were fascinating.

Tech and lifestyle YouTuber Shelby Church took the plunge and purchased her Model 3 in 2019 for $41,100.

It's no wonder people are making the switch to fully electric cars; they're better for the environment and appear to save you thousands of dollars in the long run by no longer filling up at the gas station.

However, they certainly don't come cheap; the cheapest brand-new Tesla, the Model 3 Long Range RWD (rear wheel drive), is on the market for an eye-watering $29,990 - and that's not including the additional fees that come with it.

And with Donald Trump set to revoke the Biden administration's EV targets and scrap tax credits, it's understandable that potential car buyers might be scratching their heads at the minute.

Are Teslas really worth the initial investment? (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Anyway, when Shelby bought her Model 3 back in 2019, she paid a total of $50,000 for the vehicle.

Let's break it down: that's a $41,000 purchase price, plus $4,000 in sales tax, $4,400 in interest and a $500 registration fee.

She then got some of this money back, thanks to EV tax rebates.

For her comparison, Shelby opted for a 2017 BMW 3 Series which would've cost $37,800 - that's $32,000 purchase price, $3,200 sales tax, $300 registration and $2,300 in interest.

But which one was better value for money over the course of five years?

The cost of electric charging versus gas was staggering (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Image)

Shelby sat down and crunched the numbers for her 1.84 million YouTube subscribers - and some of the figures are pretty amazing.

Overall, she worked out that her Tesla actually cost her around $45,018 initially, thanks to EV rebates.

Across five years, she paid just $1,000 in maintenance, $8,008 in insurance and $2,250 in electricity - in lieu of fuel costs.

She then had some unexpected maintenance to deal with, adding on almost $3,000 to her running costs.

So the overall cost of her Tesla ownership and use came to $58,574 in total over those five years.

As for the BMW, it would've cost Shelby $37,829 to purchase initially.

Insurance would’ve been almost double that of the Tesla, at $14,400.

See Shelby's full breakdown and analysis below:

Gas would've cost more than triple the amount she paid to charge her Tesla, coming in at $8,064.

She forecast that maintenance would've cost around $3,000, although she admitted it could've easily come to more.

In total, the BMW would've cost $63,343 to own and use over a five-year period.

That means in this case, Tesla was the better value, 'saving' Shelby $4,769 - that's $954 a year.

And she could've saved even more if it wasn't for those extra maintenance issues.