Teslas are incredibly cheap to drive in some part of the country. Los Angeles unfortunately isn't one of them.

 I was talking to an old friend from high school recently and he happened to mention in passing that the cost of electricity where I grew up in western Pennsylvania was currently 6 cents per kilowatt-hour. "Wow!" I thought. Here in Los Angeles, the cost is 21.9 cents.

This in turn got me thinking about the cost of driving an electric car versus a fuel-efficient car both in western Pennsylvania and LA. 

If you drive a fuel-efficient, gasoline-powered car here in Los Angeles where regular unleaded runs $3.92/gallon, you can drive 35 miles on one gallon for a cost of 11 cents per mile. In Pennsylvania, where gas is only $2.70 per gallon, you can drive 35 miles for 7.7 cents per mile.

If you buy a Tessla with the 100 kwh long-range variant battery, here in Los Angeles you can drive 412 miles for $25.76 (this assumes a charging rate efficiency of 85%). This translates into a cost per mile of 6.2 cents. In Pennsylvania,  it will only cost you $7.17 to recharge your Tesla. So the electrical cost per mile there is 1.7 cents per mile.

Conclusion: if all you look at are gas or electricity costs, the cheapest way to get around by far is in an electric car in Western Pennsylvania.  And the most expensive way (6.5 times more expensive by the way) is in a gasoline car in Los Angeles.