Tesla Model S Cost Per Mile: Full Data Breakdown

The 2025 Tesla Model S runs $0.047 per mile in electricity at home charging rates — but that number accounts for less than 4% of what you’ll actually spend owning the car over five years. Edmunds True Cost to Own data puts the five-year total for the base AWD model at $95,418, on a vehicle with an MSRP of $79,990. The gap between the sticker and the reality is where the real story lives.

Key Numbers at a Glance

Sources: Edmunds True Cost to Own (2025), KBB (2025), EIA residential electricity average 17.3¢/kWh (2025). Cost per mile calculated using EPA combined efficiency of 27 kWh/100 miles at national average electricity rate.

Where the Money Actually Goes

Depreciation dominates. Over five years, the Standard AWD loses $59,739 in value according to Edmunds — 62.6% of the total TCO. That single line item dwarfs every other cost combined. iSeeCars, analyzing over 15 million vehicle sales, puts the five-year depreciation rate for the Model S at 63.3%, resulting in an average residual value of $26,775. The luxury electric large car segment average is identical: 63.3%. The Model S isn’t an outlier in its category — the category itself is a depreciation problem.

Context from iSeeCars’ most recent study (March 2025–February 2026, over 950,000 five-year-old vehicles) shows that the broader EV market has recovered slightly — average five-year depreciation across all vehicles improved to 41.8%, up 3.8 percentage points from the prior year. The Model S, positioned in a shrinking luxury EV sedan segment facing aggressive competition from newer platforms and Tesla’s own price cuts, continues to lag that recovery. An owner who bought a Model S in 2020 and sold it in 2025 faced a market materially different from what the original purchase price implied.

Source: Edmunds True Cost to Own (2025 Tesla Model S 4dr Sedan AWD). Assumes 15,000 miles/year, 10% down payment, 60-month financing, above-average credit, national average costs. Edmunds TCO® is a comparative tool, not a predictive one.

Cost Per Mile: The Full Calculation

The EPA rates the 2025 Model S AWD at 124 MPGe combined (132 city / 116 highway), which translates to an energy consumption of approximately 27 kWh per 100 miles. Using the EIA 2025 annual average residential electricity rate of 17.3 cents per kWh, home-charging costs run to $4.67 per 100 miles, or roughly $0.047 per mile. At 15,000 miles annually, that is $700 per year — a number confirmed almost exactly by Edmunds’ year-one fuel figure of $704.

The Plaid’s performance configuration (EPA-rated 104 MPGe on 19-inch wheels) consumes approximately 32 kWh per 100 miles, pushing the home-charging cost to roughly $0.055 per mile — about 17% more per mile than the standard trim, entirely due to the efficiency penalty of the tri-motor setup and larger wheel options.

Public Supercharger rates change the math significantly. Tesla’s Supercharger network currently prices sessions at approximately $0.25–$0.50 per kWh depending on location and time of day. At a midpoint of $0.38/kWh, the same 27 kWh per 100 miles becomes $10.26 per 100 miles — more than double the home-charging rate. Owners who rely heavily on Superchargers for daily charging will see fuel costs closer to $0.10 per mile, eroding the electricity cost advantage. The comparison between gas-powered luxury cars and performance EVs tilts more narrowly than most EV marketing implies once Supercharger pricing enters the calculation.

Sources: EPA combined efficiency 124 MPGe = 27 kWh/100 miles (California DriveClean / EPA, 2025 Model S AWD). EIA 2025 residential electricity average 17.3¢/kWh (Statista citing EIA, March 2026). Supercharger range from Tesla owner reports and EnergySage (2025). California rate from ChooseEnergy / EIA state data (May 2026). Annual cost rounded.

The Insurance Number Edmunds Uses Isn’t the One You’ll Pay

Edmunds’ five-year insurance figure of $5,856 — about $1,171 per year — reflects a national benchmark derived from a defined driver profile applied to the vehicle, not an actual quote for a Model S owner. The market data from specialist insurance sources tells a different story. The Zebra pegs average full-coverage premiums for the Model S at $5,675 per year for a 30-year-old male with no violations. Insurify puts average full-coverage at roughly $305 per month ($3,660 annually) based on its own network of quote data. InsuranceOpedia cites $5,074 per year for 2025 coverage. The realistic range for a $150k+ household buyer — typically in an urban or high-cost-of-living area with a newer vehicle — is $3,660 to $5,675 per year, against Edmunds’ $1,171 baseline.

That gap matters for the five-year math. Substitute the Zebra’s $5,675 annual figure into the Edmunds TCO framework, and five-year insurance alone reaches $28,375 — nearly five times Edmunds’ modeled figure. Total TCO for the Standard AWD climbs to roughly $117,937 under this scenario. For a full breakdown of how insurance premiums vary by model, see the 2026 luxury car insurance cost data by model.

Why the spread? Tesla repair costs are genuinely high. The Insurify analysis from 2025 documented Tesla insurance rates among the fastest-rising in the market, with Model Y premiums up 29% year-over-year and Model 3 up 24%. The Model S, carrying a higher vehicle value and more complex aluminum body structure, sits at the upper end of Tesla’s insurance cost range. Owners should treat the Edmunds insurance figure as a floor, not a midpoint, when budgeting total luxury car ownership costs.

Depreciation: The Structural Problem

Sixty-three percent gone in five years. That is the iSeeCars figure for the Tesla Model S across a dataset of more than 15 million vehicles — a number that has been essentially unchanged even as other EV segments have begun recovering. The 2026 iSeeCars study (March 2025–February 2026) found that overall vehicle depreciation improved by 3.8 percentage points industry-wide; the Model S’s luxury electric sedan category showed no meaningful improvement.

Three structural factors drive this. First, Tesla’s habit of cutting new-car prices aggressively between 2022 and 2024 compressed the spread between new and used Model S prices, punishing existing owners. Second, the luxury EV sedan segment has expanded dramatically — Porsche Taycan, Mercedes-Benz EQS, BMW i7, and others now compete for the same buyer who once had no EV alternative to the Model S. Third, Tesla’s own software-update strategy, while it adds features, simultaneously signals to used-car buyers that they are buying older hardware. The combination is lethal for residual values. For a deeper look at how this pattern plays out across segments, the year-by-year depreciation data for luxury cars shows the Model S underperforming its own brand stablemates.

KBB’s five-year residual for the 2025 Model S Standard is $23,673 on a vehicle that starts at $79,990 — a 70.4% cumulative loss from MSRP. Edmunds’ model, using actual cash price rather than MSRP as the starting point, shows a slightly smaller $59,739 depreciation on a $87,042 starting price. The KBB and iSeeCars figures more closely reflect MSRP-to-residual reality. However you frame it, depreciation is consuming the majority of what this car costs to own — by a factor of roughly 10-to-1 compared to electricity.

Maintenance: The EV Advantage Is Real, but Narrow

Tesla does not publish a traditional time-and-mileage service schedule. The Model S requires annual inspections, tire rotations, brake fluid checks, cabin air filter replacements, and HEPA filter service on a two-year cycle — and essentially nothing else in terms of powertrain servicing. No oil, no spark plugs, no transmission fluid. Edmunds estimates five-year maintenance at $2,805 for the AWD model, or roughly $561 per year. CarEdge data, drawn from actual repair records, shows the first five years of Model S maintenance running approximately $1,542, averaging $308 per year. Recharged’s owner-report analysis puts annual maintenance for the Model S and Model X at $700–$800, higher than smaller Tesla models due to larger wheels, air suspension complexity, and part costs on a heavier vehicle.

The maintenance advantage over a comparable internal-combustion luxury sedan is genuine. For comparison data on how luxury car maintenance costs stack up across models, the Model S’s annual figure is roughly half what a comparable BMW 7-series or Mercedes-Benz S-Class would require over the same period. RepairPal’s Tesla-wide figure of $832 per year is a reasonable planning number if you are pricing conservatively.

Tires are the wildcard. The Model S rides on 19-inch or 21-inch performance tires that wear faster than standard rubber — particularly on the Plaid, where acceleration habits compound the issue. Replacement cycles of 25,000–35,000 miles are common, meaning a 15,000-mile-per-year driver faces a full tire replacement every two years. At $250–$350 per tire for appropriate performance fitments, a four-tire replacement runs $1,000–$1,400 per event, a cost that falls outside most published maintenance estimates but inside every real-world ownership budget.

Finluxy True Ownership Cost Score

The Finluxy True Ownership Cost Score expresses five-year TCO as a percentage of MSRP. A score of 100% means the car costs exactly its sticker price in total over five years. Above 100% means ownership costs exceed the purchase price. Below 100% means residual value offsets enough running costs to bring the total below the original sticker.

Finluxy True Ownership Cost Score = (5-Year TCO ÷ MSRP) × 100. TCO source: Edmunds True Cost to Own (2025). Score calculated using Edmunds TCO, which includes depreciation, taxes & fees, financing, fuel, insurance, maintenance, and repairs over five years at 15,000 miles/year.

At 119.3%, the Model S Standard AWD costs 1.19 times its sticker price over five years. The Plaid is nearly identical at 120.1%. For context, a vehicle that held its value perfectly and had no running costs would score 0%. The practical floor for any well-maintained luxury car hovers around 80–90%, driven by unavoidable depreciation and insurance. The Model S scores worse than that benchmark primarily because of its steep depreciation curve — not because its running costs are high. In fact, fuel and maintenance together account for just 6.8% of total TCO, which is competitive with or better than any gas-powered luxury sedan in its price class. The car is inexpensive to run. It is expensive to own because it loses value fast. For a broader benchmark, see how luxury SUVs compare to luxury sedans on total cost.

The Overlooked Insight: Year One Is Where the Damage Concentrates

Most five-year TCO presentations average the annual cost, which obscures something important: the Model S front-loads its financial damage. Edmunds’ year-by-year breakdown shows $35,748 in costs in year one alone — 37.5% of the five-year total consumed in the first 12 months. That figure includes $22,852 in first-year depreciation and $5,662 in first-year taxes and fees. By year two, annual cost drops to $16,752. By year five, it has fallen to $12,535.

The implication for a $150k+ household is specific: buying a Model S that is 12–18 months old sidesteps that first-year depreciation cliff almost entirely. The buyer who purchases a one-year-old Model S with 15,000 miles versus the buyer who purchased new has effectively shifted $22,852 in depreciation cost onto the original owner. A two-year-old Model S carries $33,293 in accumulated depreciation (Edmunds year one plus year two) — meaning that buyer captures roughly $33,000 in depreciation savings versus the original owner. The math on certified pre-owned luxury car savings is compelling specifically because of patterns like this.

This is not universally true — software updates and battery health on early EVs introduce their own uncertainties — but for a buyer whose primary concern is total cash out, year-two and year-three Model S examples represent a meaningfully different value proposition than new. That math never appears in any manufacturer’s marketing, and rarely in coverage that leads with per-mile electricity cost.

How the Numbers Scale for a $150k+ Household

At a $150k+ household income, the Model S Standard AWD at $79,990 represents a purchase price roughly equal to 53% of gross annual income — above the frequently-cited 20% of gross income guideline for vehicle purchases, but within the range many high-income households treat as acceptable for a primary or secondary vehicle. The more relevant constraint for this income bracket is often opportunity cost, not liquidity. The financing cost in Edmunds’ model ($15,489 over five years) represents roughly what $87,000 would return at a 4% after-tax annual investment yield over the same period — not a decisive argument either way, but a number worth including in any honest accounting.

For the buyer financing the Plaid at $94,990 MSRP (Edmunds total cash price $103,079), five-year TCO rises to $114,087 — a cost that looks manageable against $150k+ income but concentrates $37,944 in year one. Adding realistic insurance at $4,500–$5,500 annually rather than Edmunds’ national benchmark increases the five-year burden by $16,000–$21,000 over Edmunds’ figure. The income threshold analysis for $100k+ car purchases is relevant here: the question isn’t whether you can make the payment, it’s whether the depreciation drag on a depreciating asset is the highest-value use of those dollars.

One scenario changes the calculus: buying versus leasing. A three-year lease on the Model S sidesteps the worst years of depreciation entirely, transferring residual risk to the lessor. Against a 5-year purchase TCO of $95,418, a lease comparison requires modeling the capitalized cost, residual, money factor, and acquisition fees — variables the lessor controls and that shift by market quarter. The three-year buying versus leasing cost gap for luxury cars is worth running with current deal data before committing either direction. Given the Model S’s severe depreciation trajectory, a well-structured lease may represent a materially lower total outlay for households with three-year ownership horizons — assuming the terms pencil out, which they may not in a high-money-factor environment.

For households evaluating the Model S against comparable luxury sedans, the BMW 5 Series TCO analysis, Mercedes-Benz E-Class five-year breakdown, and Lexus versus BMW five-year repair cost data provide useful benchmarks. The Model S wins on fuel and maintenance cost per mile. It loses decisively on depreciation. Whether that trade-off makes sense depends on how long you intend to hold the vehicle — and how much the used EV market recovers over the next three years.