An Update to our Supercharging Program

[Garlan Garner]

Yes, nothing changes for current owners.

Unless you think they'll change that for current owners, which makes me laugh.

It's like Toyota selling you a car and promising free gasoline fill ups, then two years later they send you a letter telling you to go **** yourself, and in case you're not fluent in English, they will also include a photo of a hand giving you the middle finger.

Nicely stated.

 

[Garlan Garner]

What Supercharging option?

There hasn't been a selectable option for it for almost two years - it has been included in every car.

Ok...so are they going to "un-include it"? Resulting in a decrease in MS or MX price?

 

[Garlan Garner]

But EM said it would not be a revenue source.

If this effort isn't a revenue source....then what is it's purpose.

 

[Garlan Garner]

Do people hear themselves saying that they should get a megawatt-hour of free electricity "just because"? I mean, wow...

3 days ago it was free forever...so........

 

[Garlan Garner]

I think it would have been better if they said no free supercharging (or an more even more radical no supercharging access at all) within 100 miles of home?

Honestly, I do not think this will make the superchargers any less congested as people who can afford Teslas can definitely afford a full charge for the convenience of charging so quickly.

Now there is a good idea. If Tesla did this for congestion.....I would agree with this effort.

Of course - people would start registering their cars 200 miles away from their house. IE. Summer homes. Remember we are talking about MS and MX users. A lot of them have the means to have multiple homes.

 

[Saghost]

Ok...so are they going to "un-include it"? Resulting in a decrease in MS or MX price?

That's a very interesting question, isn't it.

My personal guess is that after the first we'll see either a price drop or a feature gain with little or no cost increase, like the 70D changeover, but I could be wrong.

 

[Garlan Garner]

Why are so many people assuming this is the goal? It's not what the plain English of the blog post says. They list "reinvest in the network, accelerate its growth and bring all owners, current and future, the best Supercharging experience" as their purpose. I guess the last clause might include "stop abuse" (abuse I've never witnessed, BTW), but the first two obviously don't.

Reinvest in the network?
Accelerate growth and bring all owners the best Supercharging experience?


I feel safe and saying that 95% of all Superchargers never experienced congestion. If California was removed from the equation .... I believe that percentage would comfortable sit at 99%. Ooops....Tesla is saying that their new charging effort isn't an attempt to alleviate congestion...so I'm throwing that reason out of the window.


So...I'm going with their own words which brings up a question. If the Supercharging experience isn't currently the best experience possible...then how can they make it better?

Charging without getting out of your car? i.e. L5 type charging?
Coupons for Supercharging for customers who purchase certain options?
Free SC'ing for Tesla Fleet participants?
Groupon Charging credits for cheap?

Free doughnuts and coffee being ejected from each Super Charger?

How can it get better?

 

[purplewalt]

If this effort isn't a revenue source....then what is it's purpose.

For cars ordered after Jan. 1, 2017, after the initial 400kW per year @ a Supercharger (roughly 1,000 miles) the cost of the local electricity will not longer be paid for by Tesla, but by the car owner.
So, newer cars use of (local) electricity in long distance driving (after 1,000 miles per year) will be the owner's financial responsibility.

The cost of the local electricity is not a revenue source for Tesla.
Tesla has decided to pass the cost of the local electricity on to the new car (ordered after Jan. 1, 2017) User.

 

[Garlan Garner]

A few questions:
Can unused credits rollover annually?
Can we transfer credits to other cars, for example if you own 2 Tesla, and use one for a road trip.

I would vote for all of these suggestions - especially rollover.

Hello Tesla? Rollover?

 

[Garlan Garner]

For cars ordered after Jan. 1, 2017, after the initial 400kW per year @ a Supercharger (roughly 1,000 miles) the cost of the local electricity will not longer be paid for by Tesla, but by the car owner.
So, newer cars use of (local) electricity in long distance driving (after 1,000 miles per year) will be the owner's financial responsibility.

The cost of the local electricity is not a revenue source for Tesla.
Tesla has decided to pass the cost of the local electricity on to the new car (ordered after Jan. 1, 2017) User.

I'm not sure how they will do this since every state has different electricity rates.

Are you saying that Tesla was tired of paying the electricity bill for SC'ers?

 

[bro1999]

I'm not sure how they will do this since every state has different electricity rates.

Are you saying that Tesla was tired of paying the electricity bill for SC'ers?

DC charging during the summer at peak hours....that ain't cheap in CA!

 

[Garlan Garner]

Does anyone know how much is the average use of Superchargers per vehicle per year is now? Does 400 Kw approximate that I wonder?

And as far as myself, I always intended to keep my Model S for as long as I could. I am fully satisfied with the self driving capabilities of my current Model S so have no interest in paying for further enhanced AP. So I am happy with the grandfathering of my Model S.

Grandfathered Teslas are going to be golden.

Kinda like my cell phone service. For years I was one of the few who retained a grandfathered unlimited data plan and I was leaving my phone sitting on the desk with movies streaming all day. Then - every carrier started offering unlimited data plans and the price dropped. Maybe this SC charging by Tesla is only here for a season until someone else steps up to the plate and provides competition at a rate of - "Free".

 

[WannabeOwner]

I would rather pay for time based though.

We have that here for one 3rd party provider. People park for the full duration of the time element (30 minutes). Of course the interval could be more granular .... but it isn't - be careful what you wish for! Also, people moan that the charging rate is variable but the price is fixed per time - of course that's true for Tesla too - if you are second car on a charger-pair, or for whatever reason charger is running below normal max-power - e.g. hot CAL weather!.

But overall I think it is better to keep it simple. All the talk I hear of "Not if it is a charger near your home" and "additional charges for This and That" all obfuscate the service, lead to support calls for "I can't believe I was there that long" and "Your other Supercharger was busy so I had to stop at the one nearer my home" or any of the "dog ate my homework" excuses ... all those will cost Tesla a fortune both in call-centre support and PR.

Ok...so are they going to "un-include it"? Resulting in a decrease in MS or MX price?

Personally I don't see why - my assumption is that 400 kWH per annum is "average" - thus new cars will be allowed to use the average amount included in the purchase price.

 

[Stealth MD]

Well, you say "it won't be long", but then you point to nine years from now, maybe we have different definitions of "long". You then say, "it's only a matter of time", with no indication as to what Tesla will be doing during that same span of time. Will they somehow be stuck in amber? Sure they're ahead now, but maybe they're like the victim in a cheesy horror flick and they just keep falling down or running down dead-end hallways? You address these supposedly far superior (and I can only assume much more affordable) cars that these other manufacturers will be coming out with, but you don't address the actual topic of this thread, mainly, the supercharger network. Will they also have that covered nine years from now? As much as any other factor, if not THE factor that sells the Tesla is the infrastructure, because an EV has little hope of replacing an ICE without it. I would also like to know, exactly what promise your referring to that was made by Tesla, specifically about supercharging, they're now taking back? Did they claim that every car they ever made now or in the future would have unlimited free access to their supercharging network? I've been following them for years now and I don't recall that claim being made. Any reasonable person should have been able to figure out that they wouldn't be able to keep the offer of free charging on the table indefinitely. Are you suggesting that all of these other "legacy" car makers will be offering a free supercharging network? Good luck with that one. I have no doubt that the big boys are going to get in the game eventually, and they will bring some very nice buggies to the show, but they're playing catch up and will be doing so for years to come.

Obviously you haven't been following Tesla for that long. Why don't you go watch the original Supercharger launch event where Elon says using the supercharger network you could travel for free forever on pure sunlight. There's the "claim" (as you put it) that was made....

 

[WannabeOwner]

Grandfathered Teslas are going to be golden.

400 KWh per year is what? about 80 bucks? (assuming $0.20 per unit ... could be more, by Elon said "Cheaper than ICE")

EDIT: Sorry, phrased that wrongly.

The "golden" part is the amount over 400 kWh per year that a driver might want to use, excluding the first part of each trip on home/destination-charged. For each additional 1,000 kWH at supercharger, what's that? about 20 visits and 3,000 miles? its going to add a cost of $200 ... doesn't seem like a deal-maker/breaker to me

 

[Garlan Garner]

Obviously you haven't been following Tesla for that long. Why don't you go watch the original Supercharger launch event where Elon says using the supercharger network you could travel for free forever on pure sunlight. There's the "claim" (as you put it) that was made....

Yes...I would have to agree with you on that one. That was an original statement by Mr. Elon. There are obviously expiration dates on Tesla owners benefits, however I have always been surprised that it was free.

I wonder if this would ever have come about if the M3 wasn't knocking at the door.

 

[SW2Fiddler]

Nope. For the life of your Tesla are the exact words.

Once it's no longer your Tesla, it doesn't say what'll happen. My car vin XYZ3, I sell it, it becomes your car vin XYZ3. Still the same Tesla (good), no longer mine (bad).

They chose the words very carefully. It doesn't say for the life of the Tesla.

That changes the "life" to a different "life?" Nah.
Regardless, when I purchased mine, it was "for the life of the Model S"
Need to learn how to work the wayback thingy, give me a moment.

 

[Garlan Garner]

We have that here for one 3rd party provider. People park for the full duration of the time element (30 minutes). Of course the interval could be more granular .... but it isn't - be careful what you wish for! Also, people moan that the charging rate is variable but the price is fixed per time - of course that's true for Tesla too - if you are second car on a charger-pair, or for whatever reason charger is running below normal max-power - e.g. hot CAL weather!.

But overall I think it is better to keep it simple. All the talk I hear of "Not if it is a charger near your home" and "additional charges for This and That" all obfuscate the service, lead to support calls for "I can't believe I was there that long" and "Your other Supercharger was busy so I had to stop at the one nearer my home" or any of the "dog ate my homework" excuses ... all those will cost Tesla a fortune both in call-centre support and PR.



Personally I don't see why - my assumption is that 400 kWH per annum is "average" - thus new cars will be allowed to use the average amount included in the purchase price.

BTW - Love your name. Excellent choice.

 

[WannabeOwner]

when I purchased mine, it was "for the life of the Model S"

I think that's been raised before and the upshot was that there is nothing concrete in the contract, so it might turn out to be, retrospectively, defined as "The lifetime of YOUR ownership of the car"

 

[WannabeOwner]

Love your name. Excellent choice.

Thanks ... turns out it didn't stand the test of time!!