zlacker

> but Toyota and Ford? You can't ask budget customers to prepay a decade's worth of travel costs.

A 2014 Ford Focus gets ~40mpg. Assuming 12,000 miles/year, that's ~300 gallons of fuel. Assume, conservatively, $3/gallon. That's ~$900/year for fuel, or $2700 over 3 years. The cost to get supercharger access from Tesla is $2000 at time of purchase ($2500 after delivery).

To finance $2000 at even a ridiculously high 10% over 3 years is $64.53/month, fully loaded principal and interest. This is already less than most people pay per month for gasoline/petrol.

And that's THREE YEARS. After that, to fuel at Superchargers is essentially free (already amortized).

>>toomuc+(OP)
"Budget car customers" include a lot of relatively poor people who cannot afford to make that fixed-amount decently-large payment every single month. And certainly not upfront at time of sale. Have you never seen someone who can "only put twenty buck of gas" ?

>>nolok+x3
It will most likely be wrapped into the purchase price of the car and financed.

>>nolok+x3
Yea, but someone in that position probably shouldn't be buying any new car.