Tesla model 3 UK prices
 

Finally after 3 years of waiting, I'm excited to see Tesla have released the UK pricing for the model 3. In a way I'm a little disappointed. First off, the base model in the UK starts at just under £39000. That may sound relative to the US prices, but directly converted, the $35000 base model offered in the US works out at around £27000 here. I expected a slight hike with taxes etc, but a £12000 premium, it's almost worth buying one state side and importing it, and living with the steering wheel on the wrong side.

The base price means almost any option you add that takes the price over £40000 will subject the car to a luxury car tax in the UK for the first 5 years. This works out, if I've done my homework correctly, at £320 a year, or £1600 total for the five years. This may not sound much, but one of the incentives of buying an EV is to avoid the tax, of which is actually more than it is on my Porsche Boxster than drinks like a fish. Still trying to work out of the list price is before or after the plug in grant available from the government, as Tesla prices include the grant already. Poor logic.

Another disappointing aspect is the poor warranty here. The car itself is only covered for 4 years or 50000 miles. The battery and drive train have 8 years but limited to 100000 miles on the standard battery. The model S in the US has unlimited mile warranty in those 8 years, does the model 3 too? What gives?

On a more positive note, deliveries are expected in June according to Tesla, and if I traded both my cars in and put a £5000 deposit down, I could own a basic 3, with metallic paint, for £279 a month for 5 years, with a potential fuel saving of £9500 in that time. More thought required...

What are electric rates like over there? How much of the $9500 fuel savings will be spent on additional electricity for charging? (I know it's not dollars but don't know how to do other symbols right off.) How does net monthly insurance compare? It's an interesting decision to analyze and compare.

That is basically the same warranty we get in the US. The long range model gets 120k miles for the drive train.

https://www.tesla.com/support/vehicle-warranty

It's confusing, apparently the average cost in the UK is 14 pence per kwh. Last year I used 1285 KWH of electricity, but it cost me around £338, but that works out at 26 pence per kwh so somethings not right there. I heard an average EV costs around £300 a year roughly in electrical charges, assuming a Tesla with its larger battery and high performance would be a tad higher. As for insurance, I haven't considered that yet, I pay for mine once annually. Its cheap around here due to low traffic and low crime, I pay less that £600 for both my cars currently.

OK, just checked my tarrif. So I pay just over 20 pence per kwh for electricity, and the base Model 3 has a 50 kwh battery. So simple maths, it would cost me £10 ($13 US converted) give or take to fully charge. Correct?? If I could just plug one in now, and watch the cost per hour rise on my smart meter, and calculate the length of time to charge, I'd know exactly haha.

And now I've just learned the 3 consumes 27 kwh per 100 miles, so if I drove 10,000 miles, I'd use 2700 kwh and it would cost me £540 ish a year in electricity.

Ok, so $10 to "fill the tank" as opposed to petrol at how much to fill the tank? And how many miles to a fill on the petrol and how many projected on the Tesla?

Most people with EVs, here in the UK, use overnight "Off peak" electricity to recharge them. My tariff for off peak is 9p/kWh so you can more or less halve that annual fuel cost. Fuel costs would work out to about a quarter that for my Jazz for the 9K miles I do annually.

10000 miles in the Porsche would cost me £2500 in fuel, so id save around £2000 per year if I did those kind of miles. And the Peugeot would cost around £1600 in fuel over the same distance. If I take the average MPG of both my cars, 29.5 then my fuel bill would be £2000 over 10000 miles, so as JockoT said, around 25%. You'd save a fair chunk in fuel, but spending that much on a car in the first place would make any savings utterly pointless anyway...

As for cost per fuel up V's miles, we'll the Porsche has averaged £78.75 to fill, and 293.6 miles per tank. The Peugeot has averaged £61.68 to fill, and 390.6 miles per tank.

My average fuel fill costs £34.44 for around 344 miles per tank (I never run it right down, just till the low fuel light comes on). So £10/$13 per 100 miles.

As of my last fill I'm at 107 gallons for 5019 miles for $239, just under 5c per mile. And $66.01 in maintenance cost.

That's the issue in the US, with such cheap fuel, an EV could actually cost more to run V's a high MPG car. In most parts of Europe, an EV will nearly always work out far cheaper to run.

Yes, we aren't taxed to death as you are. Yet. Not for lack of trying on their part though.

We actually pay a tax on the tax we pay! We pay fuel duty on the petrol/diesel and then they charge VAT (sales tax) on that.

Tesla just reduced the prices of the model 3, all the models in fact, getting closer to that £35000 dream. Also I noticed that pearl white is now standard instead of black, which is a bonus as I hate black, but like white.

Seemingly £35,000 is the average price paid for a new car, here in the UK(!). Seems a bit rich for me, but that is the official number.

Expensive cars are tough on us guys who were born so good looking instead of rich, right JockoT? :)

Exactly. Most of the cars I have owned cost less than £500.

Yea it's a lot of cash to part with, but then a base Model with no options is still over £5000 cheaper than the most expensive Hyundai kona electric for sale currently, and the 3 is a much better car I my opinion. If I had safe parking I'd actually be tempted, like I said, I can get one for about £270 a month with my trade ins, but people are constantly damaging my cars here with their poor driving/parking so I wouldn't want my investment ruined by other's stupidity.

So I configured a 3, a standard range model in white with no options comes to £10 less than the luxury car tax threshold. Coincidence? I think not. That's before the £3500 government grant. So chose any colour other than white and you'll be paying a luxury car tax for the first 5 years!

£320/annum for five years is not that much to pay for a red/black/whatever car, considering the other annual savings you would be making. Such as the £700/annum saving the government grant gives you.

True, but then again, £300 a year is what the average electric car owner spends on electricity, so one could argue opting for a white car offers them free fuel for five year haha.

And, if this weather becomes the norm, a white car will be the one to choose for the reflectivity.

Very true! Drove 28 miles home from my friends house last night at 10 pm. Was so hot I left the roof down on the Porsche, and I got to my town at 11 pm where it was still 28 degrees celcius. Didn't anticipate how much fun open top motoring can be late at night in the dark.

That was my favourite time for riding my bike. Finished work at 10 pm and a fast, warm run home in the early dark was great fun. Not so much fun on a snowy February night though!

I think unless I move somewhere with a very different climate I'm sticking with white cars from now on. Between the color and the excellent heat rejection of the 3M tint it's amazing how much less intolerable the temperature is even if the car has been sitting in the sun for a few hours.

I came back to my car, sitting in the sun for three hours, and before starting I set the ScanGauge to display the intake air temperature. It showed 41°C (106°F). And this is Scotland's East coast!