Do supercharger users not care about price?

[bradtem]

Not to pick nits, but the Cupertino Whole Foods EVgo site is very old (mid 2014). It has ABB 50kW chargers, one of which has the bolted on Tesla adapter. EVgo is installing new sites with high power chargers, but they have not done many, if any, upgrades to high power chargers at old sites.

Understood. Just a side note. Anyway, my main point was not to debate the merits of the two charging locations. As I said in the OP, CMS is definitely superior, but Target is more than adequate, so I currently don't believe the high demand at CMS is just because the location superiority more than compensates for the doubled price, lines and slower 150kw shared chargers. My guess is that people are not looking at the price too much or perhaps are not even aware of it.

On the other hand, I think if the parking lot at CMS charged $12 to park, making it so visibly obvious, I doubt we would see lines there. People are funny on how they evaluate money. When I was in Whistler, the supercharger there requires you pay $7/hour for parking (minimum 1 hour) and was only 72kw and left you in the hotel, not the village. I used the DC Fast station with my adapter. Sure I only got 43kw but it was a nice place to wander around and the pay parking was more like $2/hour. Longer charge is better if you're eating anyway. But $7/hour for parking hits you much more somehow than paying more for kwh.

 

[avs007]

Understood. Just a side note. Anyway, my main point was not to debate the merits of the two charging locations. As I said in the OP, CMS is definitely superior, but Target is more than adequate, so I currently don't believe the high demand at CMS is just because the location superiority more than compensates for the doubled price, lines and slower 150kw shared chargers. My guess is that people are not looking at the price too much or perhaps are not even aware of it.

On the other hand, I think if the parking lot at CMS charged $12 to park, making it so visibly obvious, I doubt we would see lines there. People are funny on how they evaluate money. When I was in Whistler, the supercharger there requires you pay $7/hour for parking (minimum 1 hour) and was only 72kw and left you in the hotel, not the village. I used the DC Fast station with my adapter. Sure I only got 43kw but it was a nice place to wander around and the pay parking was more like $2/hour. Longer charge is better if you're eating anyway. But $7/hour for parking hits you much more somehow than paying more for kwh.

Honesty, in the beginning I didn't even notice the different rates until I saw in the app that the price I paid at one particular supercharger was dramatically different one of the many times I went there. I remember before I tried lookup up the rates, but didn't know it would only show the rates in the car display, not in the app... So I never dug any deeper until I noticed the price difference one day when looking at the charging history. So then I actually spent like 15 minutes in the car while supercharging, to lookup all the superchargers along the 5 freeway to see what the rates were at the superchargers I normally go to... So now I try to plan around that when time allows. But in the end, convenience is still king. For example, just a little while ago, I asked the wife why she likes going to this one particular SC that is only 72kw instead of the v3 that is a little further away... She said she likes the 72kw one becuase it's in the basement of a parking garage, so she doesn't get wet when it rains.

 

[Big Dog]

That's good to know about Starbucks. I thought it was like the targets over here that have a Starbucks inside the actual Target. I'll be driving thru Cupertino next month, so I'll keep that SC in mind if it's a v3 that usually has free stalls, lol.

The SBUX is inside the Target.

 

[bradtem]

The SBUX is inside the Target.

Yes, there is one in there. The other one is across the street. It seems the joke about always having multiple Starbucks on either side of the street is real sometimes.

 

[andaconda]

I think what bothers me the most is the rising cost of Supercharging! What was once 27c is now 35c and what was 35c has gone up to 42c. I used to brag about how cheap it was to travel in a Tesla—- but now it’s not much cheaper than my hybrid.

 

[FOOLSLFDRVNG]

The people sensitive to "fuel" prices are lower-income and are unlikely to drive Tesla(s).

Soon it will take EBT cards and food stamp vouchers. Baby mama’s with tattoo twerking and charging.

 

[STS-134]

I think what bothers me the most is the rising cost of Supercharging! What was once 27c is now 35c and what was 35c has gone up to 42c. I used to brag about how cheap it was to travel in a Tesla—- but now it’s not much cheaper than my hybrid.

Including or excluding the ICE maintenance on the hybrid?

 

[andaconda]

Including or excluding the ICE maintenance on the hybrid?

True enough, I stand corrected. I must average in an additional 0.0048 cents per mile for the 5000 mile oil changes that I do myself. Still - my bragging rights bubble has bursted.

 

[STS-134]

True enough, I stand corrected. I must average in an additional 0.0048 cents per mile for the 5000 mile oil changes that I do myself. Still - my bragging rights bubble has bursted.

Add coolant flushes, spark plugs, transmission fluid changes, etc., to that total.

 

[andaconda]

Add coolant flushes, spark plugs, transmission fluid changes, etc., to that total.

I never keep a car long enough to do that.

 

[bradtem]

I never keep a car long enough to do that.

Yeah, but somebody buys it from you, and the price of that depends on how much it will cost to maintain. Indeed, for most used cars, their life ends when the cost to maintain them starts to approach their book value, among other factors. So while people are not conscious of it, you do pay for a car that is more expensive to operate, even if you don't own it long.

 

[andaconda]

Yeah, but somebody buys it from you, and the price of that depends on how much it will cost to maintain. Indeed, for most used cars, their life ends when the cost to maintain them starts to approach their book value, among other factors. So while people are not conscious of it, you do pay for a car that is more expensive to operate, even if you don't own it long.

………..

 

[STS-134]

I never keep a car long enough to do that.

Well you're paying for all of that in the depreciation.

 

[andaconda]

Well you're paying for all of that in the depreciation.

Almost 3 years old—- No depreciation yet —- worth 3~4k more than when I got it.
So I guess it’s just a moot point. And my model y is worth over 13k more than when I got it!

 

[bradtem]

Almost 3 years old—- No depreciation yet —- worth 3~4k more than when I got it.
So I guess it’s just a moot point. And my model y is worth over 13k more than when I got it!

True, but everybody agrees that is amazing and unexpected, and caused by the one-time event of the massive shortage of new cars caused by both the chip shortage and the giant surge in EV demand due to rising gas prices. The statement is still generally true. Your car is depreciating even while going up in price (!) because when the shortage ends, your car should return to the normal value given used cars in comparison to readily available new ones. People are paying more for used cars than for new ones right now. Not sustainable.

 

[jsmay311]

Looking at two Superchargers near me which are very close together, less than 2 miles apart on Stevens Creek Blvd. in Cupertino

• The older one, at Main Street Cupertino outdoor mall has 10 chargers, 150kw paired. It's on the 2nd floor of a parking garage. It costs 24c/kwh off-peak and 48c/kwh on-peak. Cupertino, CA Supercharger | Tesla
• The newer one, near a Target, has 28 250kw chargers, 24c/kwh all the time. Cupertino, CA - Stevens Creek Boulevard Supercharger | Tesla

Fast forward a month and now these Superchargers are up from $0.48/kWh and $0.24/kWh to $0.58/kWh and $0.29/kWh. And it looks like the same is true for all of the other Superchargers around the major metro areas in Cali that used be at $0.48/$0.24.

As for the OP’s original question…
My personal take on why people act like they don’t realize the price difference is that they actually don’t realize the price difference.

If there were big signs posted at the Main St location notifying people that they could save 50% and charge faster by charging at the Stevens Creek Blvd location a couple miles away, I bet you’d see a significant shift in demand. But currently the only way to get Supercharger pricing info is to sit inside a Tesla and tap away at the screen. Not many owners are going to bother doing this, especially when they don’t realize that such large savings opportunities exist in the first place.

Tesla could easily post pricing info online so it would be easier for owners to figure out the cheapest/best place to charge. But, for whatever reason, Tesla chooses not to do this and they keep pricing info hard to find — to the detriment of the customer.

 

[cwerdna]

Add coolant flushes, spark plugs, transmission fluid changes, etc., to that total.

FWIW, I had an 06 Prius for 13 years that I bought new in 06. IIRC, Toyota had no interval for changing the transmission fluid in the power split device. I had it done once, for good measure. I never changed the spark plugs as the interval was 120K miles but is over by time now. My dad has the car now and has had it since end of Jan 2019.

Coolant flushes, yes, I'd had that done a few times. IIRC, I got a free change of inverter coolant due to a recall or service campaign related to the inverter coolant pump, but there's the engine cooling loop too.

There is one belt that only connects the engine pulley to the engine water pump (which Toyota got rid of on gen 3 Priuses ('10 to '15 model years) and is probably still gone on gen 4). I had that changed when I had the engine water pump changed after it was seeping a bit for years.

For gen 3 Prius, engine water pump became electric, so the engine pulley is present but has no belt around it so it's connected to nothing.

 

[andaconda]

Fast forward a month and now these Superchargers are up from $0.48/kWh and $0.24/kWh to $0.58/kWh and $0.29/kWh. And it looks like the same is true for all of the other Superchargers around the major metro areas in Cali that used be at $0.48/$0.24.

I for one am getting disenchanted with the rising prices of SC charging. Never thought I'd see Tesla raise the cost of their network as high or higher than their competitors, Seriously considering switching to the other providers now. Guess it's about time to get the CCS adapter.

 

[Park2670]

I for one am getting disenchanted with the rising prices of SC charging. Never thought I'd see Tesla raise the cost of their network as high or higher than their competitors, Seriously considering switching to the other providers now. Guess it's about time to get the CCS adapter.

I remember thinking how insane the pricing was for EA, EVGO, and ChargePoint back in the day when Tesla was only 25 cents per kWh in my area. Now the competition is cheaper than Tesla! What a weird increase.

 

[andaconda]

Now if we could get the competition to install a Tesla connector on their chargers —- we’d be in good shape!