AFAIK, Tesla's "savings" number is not meant to be TCO, just an adjustment for the price of gas vs. electricity. It doesn't factor in the lower amount of maintenance needed on an EV (maybe because they still want to sell service plans).
What chc said. But yes I agree I don’t like the way they display the price after savings first. I guess they are fighting the issue that most people don’t have this savings top of mind. It’s their call to make. I’m sure it rubs some people the wrong way enough to scare them off. I wonder if they have done A/B testing with it.
They advertise the cheapest Model 3 at being on equal footing with a $30,315 ICE car. In a quite misleading way I must say.