People in shock as Tesla owner shares amount they saved on petrol by having electric car
Plugging your motor in to power it up is a lot cheaper than filling it with petrol, according to this Tesla owner.
The bloke has left a lot of people considering whether to make the switch to an electric vehicle themselves after revealing that he's been saving hundreds each month.
After swapping his gas guzzler for one of Elon Musk's electric sedans, he claims to have been left with a lot more cash to stash away in his rainy day fund.
Upon sharing his stats with inquisitive social media users, people were understandably left pretty shocked - as the US man is saving a lot more than an odd tenner here and there.
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In a Reddit post, the former truck driver explained that he considered the charging costs for his Tesla Model S Plaid to be 'crazy good' in comparison to petrol prices.
"I looked at my charging stats and gawd damn," the driver, from Texas, wrote alongside a screenshot of the data.
In the Tesla app, motorists can take a look at their charge stats to get an understanding of their vehicles 'charging behaviour' and how it relates to their total spending.
It also shows Tesla owners the probable savings they have made while charging their electric car, rather than fuelling it up.
Musk's firm explains on its website: "Fuel Savings is an estimate of how much money you have saved by driving a Tesla as opposed to a comparable petrol vehicle.
"Fuel savings is determined by: Fuel Savings = Fuel Equivalent Cost in a Petrol Vehicle – Total Spent on Charging."
So, now we've got the mathematical formulas out of the way, let's dig into how much this Tesla owner claims to save each month.
In a screenshot showing the charging stats for the last month, it explained that he had spent $20 (£14.73) on juicing up his Tesla Model S Plaid for the four week period.
If he had been fuelling it up instead, the petrol would have cost him $280 (£206.19) - meaning he saved a substantial $260 (£191.47).
This calculation made by Tesla is based on an estimated petrol cost of $3.55 (£2.61) per gallon in Texas, for some further context.
The car owner went on to explain that in his state, in certain utility areas, you can charge for an unlimited amount of time for a flat rate every month.
He explained he pays $15 (£11.05) a month to do this, with the only stipulation being that you must schedule this charging between certain hours, with his being in between midnight and 6am.
This means in total he spent $35.16 (£25.95) on charging, and saved around $245 (£180).
These figures came as quite the surprise to social media users, who seemed to believe there wasn't that much of a difference in paying for petrol and paying to charge your electric car.
One person said: "Cheaper than a subscription to Netflix. Lol."
Another pointed out: "Even better if you charge for free at work!"
And a third person chimed in saying: "Got a new quote and it’s about the same as you, 15¢ average all in all. Not bad might switch after my current contract ends. Thanks!"
Olivia Burke