An Update to our Supercharging Program

[nativewolf]

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.

Because at certain locations, especially in urban metro regions, the super chargers are being used by people that walk away or simply charge every single freaking day ( I know one) even though they have chargers at home. I mean stopping to grab $1.50 in free electricity is just mind boggling to me....crazy that people do that because they are putting a time value on their own time of 0. In other cases people start charging and walk away to shop and come back 2 hours later. Tough in urban areas.

Overall they have to improve the network. Even my luddite father knows how limiting the network is and until they have super chargers readily available off the interstates he's not interested even though, at his age, a model 3 would be a great car for him. The 3's are going to just demand a whole different level of charging infrastructure. They need to be in apartment buildings, city streets, parking decks, etc. They need to be in small towns, basically if a truck stop exists or hotel exists you need to have a charger, that is one ton of chargers. 500k 3s paying for that would justify it.

 

[frebay]

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.

 

[BluestarE3]

The whole world is not California, shocking as it may seem. Sigh.

True, but, then again, we're not the ones who subscribe to this world view:

 

[mattwhite]

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?

That would not be a good idea, especially the "no supercharging access at all" bit. So you end up driving around more than you expect one day, realize you can't make it back home unless you supercharge, say 20 miles from home, and you are barred from doing so? So Tesla or someone else has to tow you home? Or the wind is stronger than you expect on a return trip and you're going to come up short unless you supercharge and same result.

Supercharges are supposed to add to the flexibility of the car not take away from it. Such an inflexible solution would only cause frustration.

 

[sandpiper]

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.

Because it's a concern that's been raised by Tesla before - to the point where they sent some letters out to users who were supercharging close to home. Telsa's long held position has been that the SCs are for travel - and not to save on the home electric bill.

So - if that's a problem with owners of $70-$200K vehicles, it's certainly going to be much worse with much large numbers of $35K vehicles. Literally anything that has value but that's provided for free will inevitably get abused. It seems to be the human condition.

 

[Phillip L]

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.

 

[sandpiper]

That would not be a good idea, especially the "no supercharging access at all" bit. So you end up driving around more than you expect one day, realize you can't make it back home unless you supercharge, say 20 miles from home, and you are barred from doing so? So Tesla or someone else has to tow you home? Or the wind is stronger than you expect on a return trip and you're going to come up short unless you supercharge and same result.

Supercharges are supposed to add to the flexibility of the car not take away from it. Such an inflexible solution would only cause frustration.

I agree. I think Tesla is handling this very well.

 

[ElectricMonkey]

I currently drive a leased Nissan Leaf (lease expires soon), and one of the reasons I was NOT considering a Tesla as a replacement was the free charging, believe it or not. My reason was pretty simple, and expressed by many here. A charge station should never be treated as a parking spot. It was a mistake to encourage that. I wouldn't park a gas powered car in front of a pump, and then just leave it there all day. I'd be towed. All too often when I'm in desperate need of a charge in the Leaf, there's someone who is parked at the charge station, and sometimes they're not even plugged in. Other times it reads 100% for like hours on end... or all day. That should never happen, and anything that encourages that type of behavior is just bad planning, from my perspective.

 

[jgs]

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

Well, @stopcrazypp claims it does:

The included 400kWh annually, is the level that Tesla planned for in their cost model.

I don't know if that's based on documentary evidence though, perhaps @stopcrazypp can comment.

 

[Beckler]

This makes no sense at all. I've always said if unlimited Supercharging were priced into the car, it would be the same price across the fleet.

So are you saying more expensive cars don't yield more profit and that profit doesn't contribute to building superchargers?

As far as your numbers on efficiency (assuming they're even close), it's mostly that they're different types of vehicles. A hypothetical high priced model 3 might be way more efficient because it could be all carbon and have exotic electrical components, etc. Are you saying it somehow makes sense the less expensive one just happens to be more efficient so you pay a bit less? Like that it's a natural law that cheaper products are more efficient so it always works out best for the user?

Anyway S and X buyers are already paying a heavy extra premium to fund the company and build out superchargers. They might as well continue to do so with charging.

 

[AMPd]

I was thinking that as well but Tesla would likely consider a new purchase

In most cases Tesla wouldn't even be involved in the purchase of a lease.
If BoA is the leasing institution and you purchase it from them, I doubt Tesla would know about it.

 

[BluestarE3]

Supercharges are supposed to add to the flexibility of the car not take away from it. Such an inflexible solution would only cause frustration.

No one is taking away the capability to use Supercharging, so the flexibility is still there for any road trips or, for that matter, local recharging.

 

[brabusamg55]

No one is taking away the capability to use Supercharging, so the flexibility is still there for any road trips or, for that matter, local recharging.

totally agree. you pay for gas when you go on trip. why shouldn't you pay for electricity? you still get to use supercharging, just need to pay. i think it's very reasonable.

 

[Cloxxki]

...I went to the local Whole Foods to pickup some charge. Same Tesla I notice plugged in there every day. Anything from 30 min to 4 hours. Yesterday it was there from 6pm-9pm. Again there today from 10am-11am.

Are there notices pre printed for those kind of drivers already?
There should be racing style jacks on site to roll away cars on full charge, let alone not charging at all.

 

[TexasEV]

Don't like it. For me in Orange County, CA 1000kwh is going to San Francisco touring Napa Valley etc. and coming home on the coast route. Traveling across country, a real trip, is 6+ thousand miles. How about free, or reduced charging cost 500 miles beyond home. I own a S but also have a 3 reserved.

So take your S for your San Francisco or cross-country trip and you're covered.

 

[brkaus]

Are there notices pre printed for those kind of drivers already?

I've seen some, but I'm not that bold. I will use it as a reminder for myself to not be such a ...

I just know as EVs become more prevalent, free power is going away everywhere. Just like no one offers free gas (or to make it more equal, 25% off gas).

 

[TexasEV]

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.

Average isn't really meaningful. Many Tesla owners have never used a supercharger. Others use it daily. Overall Tesla said supercharged miles were less than 10% of miles driven, but that was more than a year ago.

 

[e-FTW]

If you are on the fence about ordering, and this is important to you, pull the trigger now or before Jan 1st.
You could push out your delivery all the way to late March and still get unlimited SCing.
Extra $1000 motivation can't hurt either: http://ts.la/alexandre750

 

[Gizmotoy]

It is interesting that this permits both revenue for Supercharging, as well as a kind of sideways price increase for Model S/X. Current owners were told they were paying up-front for Supercharging, which we could infer was somewhat less than whatever the "Enable Supercharging" upgrade cost was for the S60 ($2500, I think?).

So they reduce crowding at the chargers, get funding for building new chargers and maintaining existing ones, and get more profit per vehicle sold (unless you think they'll reduce the vehicle price, which is doubtful).

Looks like a win to me. I do wonder if they see existing owners keeping their cars longer, though. I was considering getting a new Model S sometime next year to replace my 2013. Now I'll probably just keep mine. I probably don't Supercharge enough to make that anywhere close to a logical decision, but the emotional component weighs heavily on me.

 

[Max*]

So take your S for your San Francisco or cross-country trip and you're covered.

Wrong thread. We don't need any logic here, we're here to complain that the big bad corporation is infringing on our constitutional rights to supercharge.

Wait, wrong thread again...