Probably not. Teslas are still (far) too expensive to be bought in order to save money on gas, at least for individual customers. Maybe with the Model 3.

Plus you can buy a tesla in Beijing and other cities without entering the license plate lottery and without a 2x markup standard on lux cars. They really should be doing better.

But charging is a problem. You'll see high end Audis parked illegally on the street because garage spaces are expensive. I'm not really sure how they will get around that.

The license plate lottery?

If you want to buy a car, you have to enter the plate lottery first. Unless you have some serious guanxi, it will take a few years for your number to come up.

Wow. On the one hand that's pretty tough, but on the other it's presumably a semi-useful way to curb air pollution & traffic. I can only imagine what things would be like if it was a free-for-all.

It's hard to imagine that traffic in Beijing could get much worse. I think there are already a lot of people there who wouldn't have a car for city use, even without Beijing's restrictions on cars.

Most people in Beijing don't have cars, that is a scary thought.

Self driving cars will eventually allow Beijing to optimize traffic flows given the limited infrastructure that can be built for a city of its density. Until then, I'm a slave to didi dache.

The H-1B for owning a car in Beijing, basically.

It depends on what your alternative is and how much you drive. If you're buying a Tesla instead of a Toyota and you drive like a normal person, yeah, you're not coming anywhere close to saving money on gas. But a fair number of people are going to buy something in Tesla's price range anyway, and drive a lot, and for them it can save a lot of cash. I don't think these people are numerous enough to make a big difference, but it's there.

Many people get cars through their SOE's (less now of days), and saving on gas really is an issue. But the main problem is parking: where do you charge the bugger if you don't have a space in a garage with a power outlet?

Indeed. If you have dedicated parking with a charger, it's far more convenient than a gas vehicle. If you don't, it's terrible.