Free supercharger

[irvineboy]

hi everyone, not familiar with Teslas at all and I am looking at 2018 model X at dealers. When looking to buy a used model X from a dealer, how do you know if free supercharging carries over?

If not, how much is it to pay at supercharger? How do you pay?

 

[Harvey Danger]

Pretty thoroughly covered elsewhere on this site (upshot you'll probably have to pay to supercharge a secondhand 2018 Tesla and it will cost anywhere from 2 to 8 times what you pay for the equivalent amount of electricity at home, depending on location and time of day).

But honestly it may or may not be a big issue depending on whether you expect to actually supercharge a lot.

If you can't charge at home or at work you may have to or want to use superchargers a lot in which case this matters.

But if you're just imagining road trips, don't overestimate the importance of supercharging expenses. It's usually comparable to or even more than what gas car owners pay to make the same trip, true. But realistically almost no one goes on enough road trips for supercharging (or gas for that matter) to be a significant part of their total car ownership budget.

Oh and you set up your credit card in advance, the car displays the rate you'll pay, and Tesla bills you automatically after each visit.

Feel free to use that 'like' button..

 

[Cornwallav8r]

I am considering buying a used 2016 75D Model S, I stopped at a supercharger, and it let me supercharge. It showed the $ cost ($3.50 or so to top it off). Is this normal behavior with a free lifetime supercharging car (shows $ amount) or is this being billed to the previous car owner?

 

[Harvey Danger]

Uh, mine always shows 0.00. If there's a real number there, someone's paying something somewhere

 

[ABC2D]

It's usually comparable to or even more less than what gas car owners pay to make the same trip, true

FTFY

 

[jboy210]

hi everyone, not familiar with Teslas at all and I am looking at 2018 model X at dealers. When looking to buy a used model X from a dealer, how do you know if free supercharging carries over?

If not, how much is it to pay at supercharger? How do you pay?

I am not sure if 2018 had free Supercharging with the car. Mine only had it for the original owner of the car. I was on a lease, and even if I bought out the lease I lost free Supercharging. Earlier cars had it for the life of the car. FWIW, Tesla used free Supercharging as a demand incentive. So it came and went depending upon what incentive programs were running at the time of purchase.

Regarding the rate, it varies from location, day, and time of day. It is cheapest by me on mornings and late night at $0.21 kWh. After 11 AM it goes to $0.42 kWh. Regardless of the rate, and any charges are paid via a credit card tied to your Tesla account.

 

[Harvey Danger]

It's usually comparable to or even more than what gas car owners pay to make the same trip

Charging an EV on a road trip costs generally costs more than ICE according to

How Much Do Electric Vehicles Cost to ‘Fill Up’ Compared With Buying Gasoline?

As global auto makers turn their fleets electric, drivers are thinking differently about fuel—and whether operating an EV is really much cheaper than gasoline.

www.wsj.com

The point was not so much that it was EV's cost more in Spokane or less in LA, it was that the differences were not large either way. So I stand by my original claim. If you have better info let's hear it.

 

[njmurvin]

Mine only had it for the original owner of the car. I was on a lease, and even if I bought out the lease I lost free Supercharging. Earlier cars had it for the life of the car.

Are you sure about this? Registered owner shouldn't change in a lease buyout.

 

[jboy210]

Are you sure about this? Registered owner shouldn't change in a lease buyout.

Yep. It was right in the documentation they sent me.

 

[DCGOO]

hi everyone, not familiar with Teslas at all and I am looking at 2018 model X at dealers. When looking to buy a used model X from a dealer, how do you know if free supercharging carries over?

If not, how much is it to pay at supercharger? How do you pay?

Free supercharging on a 2018 is only offered to the original owner. You will have to set up a mytesla account to use the smartphone app. Once the account is established, you add a credit card to the account for supercharging. All Supercharging is handled by the car interacting with Tesla over the air.

 

[DCGOO]

Charging an EV on a road trip costs generally costs more than ICE according to

How Much Do Electric Vehicles Cost to ‘Fill Up’ Compared With Buying Gasoline?

As global auto makers turn their fleets electric, drivers are thinking differently about fuel—and whether operating an EV is really much cheaper than gasoline.

www.wsj.com

The point was not so much that it was EV's cost more in Spokane or less in LA, it was that the differences were not large either way. So I stand by my original claim. If you have better info let's hear it.

The rates Tesla charges for Supercharging are very reasonable. My X has Free Unlimited Supercharging, and shows nothing in the display, supercharging history is empty. My Model 3 though, charges me between $4 and $5 for around 200 miles of driving. That is about 25% of what 200 miles would cost in an ICE. The WSJ article was likely using only third party changers, which are crazy expensive, in comparison (I can't actually read that article, because I am not a subscriber).

Never mind, I found that article available in Apple News (How Much Do Electric Vehicles Cost to ‘Fill Up’ Compared With Buying Gasoline? — The Wall Street Journal). So I did read it. The writers only compared the Ford Mach-E and the Toyota RAV4 (which is not even a BEV). They also did not say what charging vendor they chose. Tesla was not mentioned in the article at all. The charging experience in a Tesla is wildly different than anything non-Tesla. The claims made by the writers are completely inept, if applied to a Tesla <sigh>.

 

[Harvey Danger]

Yeah I saw all that. But I stand by the original claim (which, let's remember is pretty modest: saying the expense is *comparable *. Not sure why people are so threatened by this) .

And I repeat my invitation for others to supply better information.


I sanity checked the relevance of charging a Mach E at a non Tesla supercharger. I decided it was still relevant. The Wh/mi consumption rates are roughly the same for the Mach-E and the Tesla the OP is asking about: (see fueleconomy.gov citation above)

3rd party chargers like Electrify America aren't crazy more than superchargers. Pricing and Plans for EV Charging | Electrify America

And the WSJ article specifically points out the whole comparison meds to take into account both local electricity rates *and* local gas prices. Which is why it costs more to do EV than gas in places like LA. Which, judging by the OP's username, is highly salient.

Again: if you got something better, let's see it

 

[ABC2D]

Again: if you got something better, let's see it

ABRP

ABetterRouteplanner is the world's most popular consumer EV routeplanner - both for beginner and experienced EV drivers. And of course for anyone curious about EVs.

abetterrouteplanner.com

Go nutz.

 

[jboy210]

Yeah I saw all that. But I stand by the original claim (which, let's remember is pretty modest: saying the expense is *comparable *. Not sure why people are so threatened by this) .

And I repeat my invitation for others to supply better information.


I sanity checked the relevance of charging a Mach E at a non Tesla supercharger. I decided it was still relevant. The Wh/mi consumption rates are roughly the same for the Mach-E and the Tesla the OP is asking about: (see fueleconomy.gov citation above)

3rd party chargers like Electrify America aren't crazy more than superchargers. Pricing and Plans for EV Charging | Electrify America

And the WSJ article specifically points out the whole comparison meds to take into account both local electricity rates *and* local gas prices. Which is why it costs more to do EV than gas in places like LA. Which, judging by the OP's username, is highly salient.

Again: if you got something better, let's see it

The biggest difference for Tesla in California where the OP is located, is the density of Supercharger locations. We have one EA location near me with 12 stalls, one of which is 350 kW. We have 6 Supercharger locations within 15 miles of me. One has 20 stalls, the others have from 10-16 stalls.

Regarding rates, the Supercharger rates for me in NorCal are $0.20 kWh off peak, $0.41 on peak. These are pretty much the same as my home power. Gas is $4.75 - $5.10/gal of regular.

 

[Harvey Danger]

I get it, I'm familiar with all these numbers.

Let's take a deep breath and remember why i opened my mouth in the first place: OP wants to know how much electricity costs if he doesn't get free supercharging. My reply was a) this probably only matters on road trips, which usually isn't the main way people use their cars, and b) road trip expenses are comparable to gas cars.

Nothing controversial here.

 

[Unclepaul]

SuperCharger rates can be a bit fluid as well. Tesla just announced that for the upcoming busy Thanksgiving Holiday, they expect Superchargers to be more busy than usual. To reduce lines they are offering Free Supercharging in locations along busy routes both early and late to incentivize some to not all pull into Superchargers at the same time.

During national emergencies, Tesla has done this as well. When people were evacuating from Hurricanes they made all the Superchargers along the escape routes free as well.

In the future I expect that SuperCharging rates will also evolve as our Society turns more and more to electric vehicles.

 

[BM3B]

supercharging is cheaper than gas in most states. Here is my calculation for my 2020 X vs my Acura MDX in California:
Assume you need to drive 250 miles in a X versus comparable size gas SUV.

$28 for Tesla (250 miles / 3.5 miles per kWh * $0.42 per kWh)
$59 for ICE SUV (250 miles / 21 mpg * $5 per gallon).

Half price

 

[Harvey Danger]

Thank you for 'showing your work'. This sounds totally reasonable.

I guess you could tweak a couple of those assumptions (like mi/kWh and higher supercharging rates due to 'dynamic pricing') and things might get a little closer to parity. But anyway as a back of the envelope calculation this passes the sniff test.

For the record I'm not quoting WSJ because they have any kind of last word on a much bigger topic than what the OP is asking about, i just tossed that in there because it was a) recent and b) relevant to an offhand reminder I had made that EV supercharging is not trivially cheap.

 

[ABC2D]

a) recent and b) relevant to an offhand reminder I had made that EV supercharging is not trivially cheap

let me help you complete the list:
c) inaccurate and misleading
If you like quoting "recent" and "relevant", you should also ask OP not to buy Tesla all together per Biden "recent" comment that GM "electrified America" and being the "leader" in EV - based on which Bolt sounds much better option
/s

For real world, actual, and accurate cost, just go to the Better Route Planner and plan some routes, then compare the cost to your gas car based on your car's MPG and actual gas prices. Simple, recent, and actually accurate. You'll see charging cost most likely, will be, typically, less than half of gas.

 

[tengtengvn]

The biggest difference for Tesla in California where the OP is located, is the density of Supercharger locations. We have one EA location near me with 12 stalls, one of which is 350 kW. We have 6 Supercharger locations within 15 miles of me. One has 20 stalls, the others have from 10-16 stalls.

Regarding rates, the Supercharger rates for me in NorCal are $0.20 kWh off peak, $0.41 on peak. These are pretty much the same as my home power. Gas is $4.75 - $5.10/gal of regular.

ONLY at some Superchargers. Around the Bay Area, I see 24c/kWh off-peak and 2x peak hours (Tesla recently raised the price). But when I drove pass Livermore a few days ago, the prices were around 35-39 cents without peak/off-peak schedule. For people who live in say Sacramento would suck to rely on the expensive Superchargers as the main source of charging the car. Still, it's cheaper than gas.
The strange thing was I drove from Mammoth to the Bay Area and the nav was telling me to charge at the expensive Supercharger while I have enough range to get the the cheaper one in the Bay Area. I ignored it and drove to the Milpitas Supercharger with 20% SoC to spare.