Let's see if we can get a cost breakdown:
Base Tesla S: $69,900 (minus $7,500 Federal Tax Credit brings it down to $62,400)
Annual Maintenance: $600 per year
Cost to charge per mile: 4.51 cents per mile, based on
2011 Energy Costs
Battery Swap: $60 to $80
Battery Replacement: $10k for 60kWh, $12k for 85kWh (available after 8 years due to warranty)
Insurance: Seems to range between $1000 and $2000 per year, so we'll average it out at $1500 per year or $125 a month
For the car price: With every single single available option selected at checkout, the final price was $119,170 (or $111,670 after $7,500 Federal Tax Credit). So there's an approximately $50,000 price range you can vary between. I'm also guessing that most people would opt for the higher-power wall charger, which runs $2700 with the twin charger system (20kW capable; 62 miles of range per @ 80 amps), plus installation cost (it looks like the average cost is $500, or if you need the 240V service run with a new panel system, $2000 to $3000). So really, your OTD base price with the good charger & installation is going to be around $73,100.
For charging: 4.51 cents per mile is the 2011 CT price; a 206-mile charge on the 60kWh battery would cost about $9.30 and a 265-mile charge on the 85kWh about $12; on the high side of charging it from empty to max every day, your yearly cost on the 85kWh battery would be $4380, which is roughly what I was paying for gas every year ($85 a week in my Volvo = $4420 per year). A quick google says that the average American drives 13,476 per year, so that would be approximately $608 per year. That could go even lower if you use Superchargers and other public/business chargers. You could also erase it completely with a one-time fee for a solar panel installation at your home, such as from Tesla's sister company
Solar City.
So let's look at the 8-year TCO (8 years under the stock battery)
1. Base Tesla with installed high-power chargers: $73,100
2. 8 years of annual service: $4800
3. 8 years of charging based on average driving: $4864
4. 8 years of insurance: $12,000
Total: $94,764 TCO for 8 years
There's still other factors (property tax, interior/exterior detailing, any modifications, etc.), but that works out to $11,845.50 per year, $987.13 per month, or $31.85 per day. My typical basic car lease for a Civic was around $250 a month plus up to $400 in gas per month ($640), plus insurance for $80 per month ($720), so that Tesla package would really only work out to an extra $267 a month to go from a gas-powered Civic to a 4.2-second electric-powered Tesla S. That ain't bad! (assuming you could get a 96-month loan on a Tesla lol)
Then for the next 8 years, you buy a new battery at a cost of $12k for the beefed-up 265-mile battery. That works out to $1500 a year, $125 a month, or about $4 per day. Plus maintenance at $600, insurance at $1500, charging at $608 for a total cost of $4208 per year, $350 a month, or $11.31 a day.
Anyway, there are a lot of variables, driving range limitations, battery degradation over time, etc. but it's pretty interesting to see that the TCO is not horribly out of reach if you drive a regular car right now. You'd basically be paying a $267 monthly premium to drive an electric sports car vs. a basic Honda ICE vehicle.