Am I Crazy to Keep FUSC instead of $5,000...

[Silver Ghost]

In Texas that's what... $2 a day max with a typical work schedule (5*50 days per year) that'd still take ten years to recover assuming 10 kWh per day and assuming you only get 60 kW at the supercharger ($0.20 per minute for 10 minutes).

Reality might look like $1 and some change per day and much greater than 10 year payback period.

You are about right on the math

Ok - need to charge more. I still have my 2002 minivan that I bought when my second kid was born. Now he is driving it. I like to keep cars till they rust out. Hopefully they used ‘stainless’ steel on the model 3. Will update in 15 years and will know if this was the right decision or not.

 

[Jason_G]

Speaking for myself, when I had free supercharging, I was driving my car more. Yes something about it being free just made me go out and drive the car more. Now that I don't have free supercharging, I'm watching my consumption and driving less. Pretty much I drive only as needed, where as before I was joyriding and launching at every light for fun.

I personally would've picked free supercharging, but that's also because I can't charge at home. It would've worked better for me, especially psychologically it would've made me drive my car more which I really really enjoyed doing. I would imagine for most of the people $5k would've been the better choice.

I completely agree with the psychological impacts of having it "free & unlimited". I was very close to deciding to keep it, but ultimately the notion that I would lose this benefit in the event of the car becoming totaled pushed me over the edge.

 

[Santa Claws]

Just to keep you all updated. I have yet to hear anything from Tesla regarding my $5,000 refund...

Sent them a follow-up message this afternoon.

 

[Santa Claws]

UPDATE:

Got an email from Customer Service last night. Took me 2 elevated messages and 1 customer service email in order to finally get a response. And I actually don't think those 2 elevated messages did a thing...

Email:

Tesla Account w/ Zero Notifications:

 

[Santa Claws]

Update to the Update...

Just received this a few minutes ago:

 

[Ltespd]

My plan is to keep the 5K in the bank. Then when and if Ludicrous becomes available...buy it.

 

[Santa Claws]

My plan is to keep the 5K in the bank. Then when and if Ludicrous becomes available...buy it.

Thinking about buying TSLA and letting it ride for 5-10 years...

 

[Jason_G]

My plan is to keep the 5K in the bank. Then when and if Ludicrous becomes available...buy it.

Yuuup.

 

[Santa Claws]

Just received:

 

[Garlan Garner]

Well Well....

It looks like FUSC just got a lot more valuable.

Tesla drastically increases Supercharger prices around the world

Glad I kept it.

 

[Funkmobile]

So what's the new breakeven supercharger miles to get up to $5,000?

 

[Knightshade]

So what's the new breakeven supercharger miles to get up to $5,000?

Still depends where you live.

The most expensive places in the US looks like it's around 32c/kwh now.

$5000/.32= (15,625 kwh /75kwh battery) * 310 miles per full battery = 15,625 miles of supercharging (obviously that one crazy dude who drives such that he's using like 700 wh in his P3D might need to do his own different math on this one)

So I suppose if you have nothing better to do with your life than sit at superchargers on your daily drive you might well be better keeping FUSC... but for the average person who takes maybe 1-2k miles a year of road trips you're still talking a decade plus just to break even compared to taking the refund check.

And that's in the most expensive US places... elsewhere that it's half that or less to supercharge you're still looking at decades to break even unless you're gonna use SCs as local gas stations.... which honestly would suck to me... I love the fact I don't have to waste time weekly or more stopping to "fuel" the car in normal use versus just letting it charge in the garage overnight at 2c/kwh on ToU.

 

[MP3Mike]

The most expensive places in the US looks like it's around 32c/kwh now.

Apparently some sites in California are prices at $0.36/kWh. (Westminster is $0.34/kWh.)

Hawaii might be higher?

 

[mswlogo]

I currently use supercharging exclusively as I live in a condo and don't have a charger at home yet but I would take the money. Even at my current consumption it will be at least 80k miles before I can use up $5000 worth of charging. I don't intend to supercharge exclusively forever so the value will drop as my access to other options opens up.

The money is worth more in my pocket and can be used for car upgrades which have a more better long term ownership value and happiness.

That’s close to what I came out to. I calculated 200 miles a week for 10 years. Which is ~100k miles. And that’s based on expensive electricity ($0.23 kWh). If your rates are lower it would take even more.

I felt like I had to use supercharging even if it wasn’t convenient to cover the $5000 effectively spent.

Check is on the way.

 

[Kant.Ing]

With my MX on FUSC, I have done several road trips with my family of 6. All these road trips account for about 20K miles. If I drove my gasoline SUV a 4.7 liter with a 16MPG highway, the fuel cost would be $3.7K on $3/gal. FUSC >> $5K.

 

[mswlogo]

Still depends where you live.

The most expensive places in the US looks like it's around 32c/kwh now.

$5000/.32= (15,625 kwh /75kwh battery) * 310 miles per full battery = 15,625 miles of supercharging (obviously that one crazy dude who drives such that he's using like 700 wh in his P3D might need to do his own different math on this one)

So I suppose if you have nothing better to do with your life than sit at superchargers on your daily drive you might well be better keeping FUSC... but for the average person who takes maybe 1-2k miles a year of road trips you're still talking a decade plus just to break even compared to taking the refund check.

And that's in the most expensive US places... elsewhere that it's half that or less to supercharge you're still looking at decades to break even unless you're gonna use SCs as local gas stations.... which honestly would suck to me... I love the fact I don't have to waste time weekly or more stopping to "fuel" the car in normal use versus just letting it charge in the garage overnight at 2c/kwh on ToU.

Your math is messed up

((5000/0.32)/75)*310 = 65k miles

That assumes 100% efficient charging as well. So it’s more like 50k miles.

 

[MXWing]

Charging 70KW worth of power would take 90 minutes.

At $0.33 per KW, your hourly freebie would be $15 per hour.

333 hours of charging not counting all opportunity costs of getting to a charger and arranging your logistics to charge at near empty.

ROI doesn't make sense until about $1 per KW in my opinion.

With my MX on FUSC, I have done several road trips with my family of 6. All these road trips account for about 20K miles. If I drove my gasoline SUV a 4.7 liter with a 16MPG highway, the fuel cost would be $3.7K on $3/gal. FUSC >> $5K.

Opportunity cost of 6 people charging versus gassing could be expensive. Just illustrating the other side - as being owners we obviously will take the time hit for our own personal utility curves.

 

[Garlan Garner]

So what's the new breakeven supercharger miles to get up to $5,000?

According to some calculations in this link. I will reach $5000 worth of supercharging in about 200 charges.

Every 400 miles of travel, charging costs about $29. That's 172 tanks of electricity.

My car only gets around 310 miles of travel per charge....so that's about 200 charges to $5k. I'm already at about 19K miles in 5 months....so I'm getting there quick.

 

[Knightshade]

According to some calculations in this link. I will reach $5000 worth of supercharging in about 200 charges.

Every 400 miles of travel, charging costs about $29. That's 172 tanks of electricity.

My car only gets around 310 miles of travel per charge....so that's about 200 charges to $5k. I'm already at about 19K miles in 5 months....so I'm getting there quick.

Are a travelling salesman or is your time really that worthless than you waste it constantly visiting local superchargers instead of home charging?

 

[Knightshade]

Your math is messed up

((5000/0.32)/75)*310 = 65k miles

That assumes 100% efficient charging as well. So it’s more like 50k miles.

ack...somehow I ended up with the original kwh # in place of final miles.... thanks for pointing it out- makes keeping FUSC a far worse deal, even if you drive coast to coast and back once a year you're still looking at a decade just to break even vs the refund.