Free Super Charging for Model 3 customers?

[cwerdna]

I was in factory area last summer. The number locals super charging just amazed me. The lines were around the block at one place.
I read where Teslas electric bill was $4.5 MILLION LAST YEAR. That fee was built into the S and X cost for travelers, NOT locals, everyday.

FWIW, it seems investors don't care about Tesla losses and/or assign them to incorrect causes/uses. (Example: They'll cite Supercharger or factory expansion when those are actually capital expenditures and come out of cash. Their cost is amortized (spread out) over time and the spread out amounts are included in cost of revenues.)

$4.5 million is a drop in the bucket given that they lost $784 million last quarter (search for net loss at Tesla - Current Report) and $2.2 billion in 2017 (see page 64 of Tesla - Annual Report).

 

[timk225]

I don't plan to use superchargers often, but it'd be nice to get them for free, since I had to spend an extra $14,000 to get my 3 this year!

 

[brkaus]

Should not be free, pre-paid unlimited for anyone. It creates poor behavior. See lines at Costco for gas, to save $0.10/gal.

 

[SigNC]

Should not be free, pre-paid unlimited for anyone. It creates poor behavior. See lines at Costco for gas, to save $0.10/gal.

Agreed.

 

[drawfour]

Why? It would cost Tesla a crap ton of money in the long run with little return, considering they’re not having demand issues as of yet.

Sorry, what I meant to say was "If it's going to be free for anyone, then I think it should be for everyone". With the caveat that I mentioned, which is that you only get it for free if you're at least 50 miles or 100 miles (or some decent number) from home, or you can get one that's closer to home provided that your last charge (say within 12 hours or something) was at a free one. In other words, used for the purpose of what Superchargers are meant for, which is long distance travel. None of this referral crap, none of this S/X crap. You wouldn't have clogging of SuperChargers because it would be quite strange to travel 100-200 miles round trip just to get a free charge.

 

[drawfour]

I guess you haven't seen threads like 15 cars in line, 2 hour wait. The poster later said:

Corning, CA has a population of just over 7.5K. I don't believe that area is very densely populated (I never paid attention when I did my drives thru that area, as it was well before I had an EV). Its in Tehama County (which I'd never even heard of, until now), with a 63K population.

Or, (Reported on 12/26/2015) 11+ car wait at Tejon Ranch!. Tejon Ranch is basically out in the middle of nowhere. You'd pass it if you drive between Nor Cal and So Cal on I-5.

If curious, take a look at the satellite view at Google Maps. It looks like that SC is in Lebec, CA with a population of just under 1.5K.

Yeah, I'm going to come right out and say that this has nothing to do with people trying to get a free charge just because they have free supercharging. That 2-hour wait thread clearly mentions "eclipse mania", and the thread was posted on Aug 20, 2017. Aug 21, 2017 was the date the full solar eclipse hit the United States, and it hit in Salem, OR. People in that thread mentioned how the chargers "up north" were also quite full. Clearly that is an example of a mass exodus of people from California heading north to watch the eclipse. The other one is Christmas.

Both of these are examples of the SuperChargers being used exactly what they were meant for -- long distance travel. The only problem is that they did not have capacity for the surge. Giving free as I suggested, where it's only free if you're further away from your house than a certain number of miles, would have very little, if any, impact on capacity of SuperChargers.

 

[cwerdna]

Yes, the eclipse was unusual. And the other was a holiday, but there are many reports that it's not just limited to holdiays. In the 2nd thread, there were these, for example:

Yeah, Tejon can get nasty during busy travel weekends. An expansion is long overdue. Buttonwillow may help eventually as folks coming from LA over the Grapevine can possibly skip Tejon with an 85.

Yeah, down San Diego way, we all thought the San Diego supercharger would relieve congestion at San Juan Capistrano. No suck luck. It is still congested.

I haven't re-read the entire thread to find more.

Both of these are examples of the SuperChargers being used exactly what they were meant for -- long distance travel.

Yes.

Giving free as I suggested, where it's only free if you're further away from your house than a certain number of miles, would have very little, if any, impact on capacity of SuperChargers.

Totally disagree. The population of Teslas w/Supercharging capabilities is now FAR greater than it was back then.

Tesla Motors - Model S/X Road To 50,000 Sales In 2015 & Cumulative Total Of Nearly 110,000 was for end of 2015. Tesla confirms having produced its 300,000th electric car was on Feb 14, 2018. If Elon's going to hit 5K/week of Model 3, that'd be 260K year.

There are so many reports of people taking roadtrips in their Model S or X over an ICEV because Superercharging is free while gas isn't. And, sometimes people were just doing it because it was free. Making it non-free discourages that somewhat. Pricing it beyond that of gasoline will further discourage it. They will either not take the trip or just take the ICEV instead.

If he's able to hit 500K units in total/year, can you imagine what would be needed if Supercharging away from was free for all Teslas?

 

[scrapps]

From my experience some supercharging is free. I'm not sure why the closest one to me doesn't charge but it hasn't yet.

 

[Dan_LA]

Still a low bill for long trips when most people will use SC... out of that, this 5min. reading here cost me $5 of my time, enough for a full supercharge in CA, I think.. didn't use it yet. I'm concerned if it will work in a long trip... guess will test locally beforehand.

 

[jboy210]

Until the charging infrastructure builds out, charges will be a limited resource. In cities like Oslo they have chargers like parking meters on the street. Free to plug in. Hopefully it will be that way in the US soon.