Cost of Supercharging

[Nocturnal]

Last time I was at the Kettleman City SC, the cost was 28 cents per KwH. That comes to about 7 cents a mile. My charging at home with an EV plan is about 3 cents per mile. Either way it's still much cheaper than gas.

And supercharging should be a small percent of your charging.

 

[chronopc]

Reason number 23,712 not to live in California.

I'm hoping more people move out so CA becomes a decent place to live in again.

 

[chronopc]

And supercharging should be a small percent of your charging.

Most definitely. I only use the SC if I'm on a road trip.

 

[LCR1]

I'm hoping more people move out so CA becomes a decent place to live in again.

I go to visit family and that's about it. I don't even like working there on a temp basis cause they try to take income tax from me on a prorated basis of my yearly income, not on the income I actually made there.

 

[SageBrush]

Last time I was at the Kettleman City SC, the cost was 28 cents per KwH. That comes to about 7 cents a mile.

At one kWh per minute, sure. But charging up the first 50% or so of the battery is at a much faster rate.

 

[chronopc]

At one kWh per minute, sure. But charging up the first 50% or so of the battery is at a much faster rate.

At Kettleman you pay for KwH instead of time, so the charging rate doesn't impact the average cost.

 

[mswlogo]

Don’t even think that Supercharger charging cost that much. You should never spend 71 minutes of Tier 1 charging. It sounds as if you may have charged to 100%, you shouldnt need to ever do this.

Generally, about an hour is the max that you should stay.

If you want to reset your battery, don’t do it on a Supercharger, do it ay home

That's a great catch !!!

It does look like he charged to 95% which can get costly.
Tesla's tier/time pricing somewhat punishes you for doing so.
The tier/time pricing steers you toward minimal time charging and minimal cost.

About 30% to 80% is what you should shoot for. Maybe 20%. But definitely not over 80%.
Some folks even argue for 70%.

 

[ebmcs03]

God I miss the $0.20 kw at the superchargers (California)

 

[chronopc]

God I miss the $0.20 kw at the superchargers (California)

I think most SC in CA are at $.28 per KwH now.

 

[afadeev]

I normally charge at home, and our electric is just .09/KW, so it's cheap. Also, I gave up my free supercharging to get a $5,000 check. Anyway, I hadn't Supercharged since last year, and only a couple of times total. I wanted to reset my battery charge per what people suggest is good occasionally. Here's what it cost...

Started with 25 miles left.
Ended with 295 miles.
Net gain 270 miles.

Tier 1 71 min at .13/min - $9.23
Tier 2 38 min at .26/min - $9.88

Total $19.11

Good data point, thanks.

Tesla's obsession with measuring battery levels in miles is not helpful for the price comparison purposes.
Your net is 270 miles, so I assume LR 75 kWh battery. So it went from ~ 25/310 * 75 = 6 kWh to ~270/310 * 75 = 65.3 kWh.
So $19.11 for ~65 kWh, or $0.294 per kWh.

It's not terrible, but about 2x what I pay at home ($0.14 per kWh).

a

 

[LCR1]

Good data point, thanks.

Tesla's obsession with measuring battery levels in miles is not helpful for the price comparison purposes.
Your net is 270 miles, so I assume LR 75 kWh battery. So it went from ~ 25/310 * 75 = 6 kWh to ~270/310 * 75 = 65.3 kWh.
So $19.11 for ~65 kWh, or $0.294 per kWh.

It's not terrible, but about 2x what I pay at home ($0.14 per kWh).

a

If they don't measure it in miles how are you going to know how far you can go?

 

[SigNC]

71 minutes at tier 1? Did you 100% charge? 80% at most and leave unless you want to be paying tier 1 for a fairly low charging rate.

 

[afadeev]

If they don't measure it in miles how are you going to know how far you can go?

You are not buying miles from a super-charger, you are charging battery with kWh of electricity.
Energy in, energy out.

Working off battery capacity (%, or in kWh) is intuitive to me, and translates directly into how much electricity I would be buying from a super-charger.

Luckily, you can change that setting in a Model 3.
It is also the estimated value at the end of a trip per nav (% battery at the destination).

Measuring it in miles is about as useful as measuring ICE gas tank in miles - range is extrapolated based on recent consumption patterns. Extrapolating consumption into miles is cute, but relying on that as a gospel is misleading, since consumption changes with speed, elevation, etc, etc.

a

 

[LCR1]

You are not buying miles from a super-charger, you are charging battery with kWh of electricity.
Energy in, energy out.

Working off battery capacity (%, or in kWh) is intuitive to me, and translates directly into how much electricity I would be buying from a super-charger.

Luckily, you can change that setting in a Model 3.
It is also the estimated value at the end of a trip per nav (% battery at the destination).

Measuring it in miles is about as useful as measuring ICE gas tank in miles - range is extrapolated based on recent consumption patterns. Extrapolating consumption into miles is cute, but relying on that as a gospel is misleading, since consumption changes with speed, elevation, etc, etc.

a

Because the general public has no idea how far 50 KWh gets you. It makes for a pretty crap press release when you say the model 3 can now charge at 250kw and add 50kwh in 30 minutes. How the hell is someone looking at a press release or news article supposed to understand what that means. So Tesla says you can charge 250miles in 30 minutes, that's relatable and brings people in. If I said to you the Model 3 can add 20,000 Kilocalories of energy every stop do you know off the top of your head what that means, same for people who have never heard of an electric car trying to figure out what adding 50 kwh in 30 minutes means.

 

[Skelly]

Is there a way to tell if a Supercharger is pay per kWh or pay per minute? I looked on the map in the car, and it does not specify....

 

[afadeev]

Is there a way to tell if a Supercharger is pay per kWh or pay per minute? I looked on the map in the car, and it does not specify....

Some states have idiotic regulations that prohibit anyone other than local utility monopoly, from reselling electricity per kWh. Tesla is forced to dance around that prohibition and translate per kWh cost into per minute charge to the end customer.

You can probably research what our state's requirements are, and infer that they apply to all supercharger stations.

This adds to the pricing ambiguity and confusion, but the root cause is government over-regulation.

Because the general public has no idea how far 50 KWh gets you. It makes for a pretty crap press release when you say the model 3 can now charge at 250kw and add 50kwh in 30 minutes. How the hell is someone looking at a press release or news article supposed to understand what that means.

You have a point about ease of communication, but Tesla has also been playing strategic hookie with the facts.
TM3's are sold as a 210, 240, 310, or 325 mile car.
Nowhere do they advertise that the actual battery of 75 kWh, or % fraction of 75 kWh that is software limited for lower range models.

In reality, the battery capacity and per kWh costs are critical in estimating the charge times and costs.
These may not be sexy or intuitive # for advertising purposes, but it's something that every owner will want to figure out, sooner or later.


a

 

[LCR1]

....You have a point about ease of communication, but Tesla has also been playing strategic hookie with the facts.
TM3's are sold as a 210, 240, 310, or 325 mile car.
Nowhere do they advertise that the actual battery of 75 kWh, or % fraction of 75 kWh that is software limited for lower range models.

In reality, the battery capacity and per kWh costs are critical in estimating the charge times and costs.
These may not be sexy or intuitive # for advertising purposes, but it's something that every owner will want to figure out, sooner or later.


a

Again, how do you communicate that to the general public? People invested in Tesla bought teslas and researched them they knew what kwh and what not meant. Normal people don't care, they want to know how far they can go and a car with 35mpg gives them an idea of how far they can go. A mass market car doesn't cater to fan bois and enthusiasts, it caters to the masses. EVs also have to battle the charge time, a person in an ICE fills up in 5 minutes and is on their way, not so with an EV and manufacturers need to convey how long they'll be sitting there waiting on fuel.

Telsa also moved away from the KWH label because as things improved they can keep the same range on a smaller pack so again, confusing people if a 90kwh more efficient car and100kwh car are getting the same mileage. Tesla also doesn't help by using wh/mi and everyone else uses mi/kwh which has a direct translation to mpg. I can go X miles on this unit, I have this many units and can go this far. My leaf got about 3.4 mi/kwh (125mpg) I knew I had 20kwh (3/4 gallon) so I could multiply 20*3.4 or any combo thereof. using wh/mi it's as easy to translate to a unit people currently use.


It all comes down to bringing people in and getting them comfortable with the car so they make the transition