I don't see how it differs than any other vehicle, they all depreciate rapidly the second you leave the lot.

I bought a 2nd hand car originally 120k for a quarter of it's price, 3 years later with the usage/km of a car 12-18 months old

not all vehicles are like that. For example 3rd-4th year Model S does not really depreciate any longer (especially with these Model3 prices), campers hardly depreciate, etc.

EV's have a much larger lifespan as the engine etc. is fairly simple.

Batteries are the problem. Tesla give an 8 year guarantee. So after that unless there has been a battery revolution by then, the cost of replacement will make the car hard to sell....

To answer the OP‘s question. I pay CHF1700/for full everything and full discount on a Golf GTI performance. The Tesla 3 is faster and likely the same cost to repair, so I imagine the insurance would be about the same...

The reason that it is so much is that the Golf GTI is a typical boy racer. The Tesla 3 is probably considerably cheaper.

Sadly not cheaper. The model 3 for Switzerland is highly speced and kicks in at about CHF60,000. GTI 40,000 (high spec)

I just checked a new BMW 5 of 100k+ which was cheaper to insure than your Golf. 1700. CHF is quite high.

Modern cars have tons of sensors, cameras all over the place.
Bumpers are plastic, so they can't be buffed out and need full replacement, if you can't live with a dent or two.

That's why it's so expensive.
Also, re-doing the varnish on a modern car isn't cheap either - especially, if the varnish isn't plain-vanilla (which it often isn't in higher-end cars).

Because modern cars need to cramp more and more tech into the same or less space, they're really cramped.
Repairing anything often involves taking apart half the car, resulting in a huge bill (due to the labor).

As for a Tesla: repairing them is apparently not cheap:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18MItauAgKo

Oh look, another great EF camparison. Really...!!

OK when my Tesla 3 eventually arrives we‘ll see how far I was out...

If I remember right, I could not select a Tesla Model S on the Zurich Connect.
Now you can,

See for your self what the premiums for a Model S are like and take it from there what it will be for the Model 3:
https://www.zurich.ch/en/premium-cal.../motor-vehicle

just saw sub-50k Model S-es on the 2nd hand market, some with new engine and battery pack even, albeit 150k+ on the clock.

This is a bit scary for 2 reasons:
- Model 3 start at 60k, reasonable (comparable) models are around 70k
- that Model S was 100k+ 4 years ago. The depreciation is a killer and the EV-savings are actually very minimal

I'm a bit disappointed.

Uh... huh. How many cars do you know that are with half of their purchase price 4 years and 150k km later??? If it’s anywhere close to 50k, it’s doing very well for a used car indeed, and is better than normal depreciation.

Quantify your “minimal” savings, please. Because I’m curious just what your rationale is.

Maybe the Basler police would be interested in buying one to reduce their costs.

https://www.bzbasel.ch/basel/basel-s...-aus-133813743

what he said, given the swiss's hate for vehicles over 100k km the mere fact dealers are stocking them is pretty amazing.

If its had new batteries that would have been under warranty so that makes it an even better deal.

Tesla's don't have engines, that's the whole point of them.

Yes they do. An electric one, true but still an engine.

no, they have an electric motor (or 2)

Still an engine.

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/motor

now post up all the other links that contradict that one