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Free Supercharging Still Worth It?

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I have a 2016 90D with FUSC and 155,000 miles; also, a 2021 MY for which I pay supercharging fees. I also had a 2018 MS 100D. I made trips from FL to OH (and drove around while there; about 1000 miles) in both cars and the bill for charging came in around $200. Now I know how to value my trip costs. I'd like to think if you can afford a Tesla, you can probably afford to pay for electricity for road trips but that may not be true. If you only do the trips once in a while I would opt for a newer car (though my 2016.5 has been almost flawless). I would not spring for FSD but I think the EAP (which is essentially what I have on the 2016) is valuable. The 2021 has FSD and I have the beta version. My opinion: meh! Won't buy it again.
If you drive enough miles or cannot charge at home FUSC may be worth it otherwise, it's like the EV credit: if you don't have enough tax liability the credit doesn't mean much.
 
What would be the main concerns (maintenance wise) for a Model S out of warranty?
if the car is out of powertrain warranty (battery and Motor) then DO NOT even think about it.

if you still have some powertrain warranty but no standard one, then check and see how much it will cost for the remaining milage before you lose powertrain warranty. Most likely not worth it as one small repair (AC, door, computer) will blew all your potential savings.

use a conservative number like 300wh per mile. for example if you still have 50K miles left then if you charge that at home

.3kwh * 50, 000 miles = 15000 kWh needed to drive 50k miles
15000 * $0 .15 (that's how much I pay per KW in FL) = $2250 (add another $500 to Misc supercharging if you are not home) is what you will save is this worth it for an old car? up to you
 
if the car is out of powertrain warranty (battery and Motor) then DO NOT even think about it.

if you still have some powertrain warranty but no standard one, then check and see how much it will cost for the remaining milage before you lose powertrain warranty. Most likely not worth it as one small repair (AC, door, computer) will blew all your potential savings.

use a conservative number like 300wh per mile. for example if you still have 50K miles left then if you charge that at home

.3kwh * 50, 000 miles = 15000 kWh needed to drive 50k miles
15000 * $0 .15 (that's how much I pay per KW in FL) = $2250 (add another $500 to Misc supercharging if you are not home) is what you will save is this worth it for an old car? up to you
Free supercharging should only be compared in cost to paid supercharging. Double or triple your initial estimate.
 
Free supercharging is very much worth it. In the 5.3 years I've had the car i have saved $10k by supercharging 29.25 MWh and doing the math at at $0.34/kWh which is an average price for the various chargers I've used over the years, according to the spreadsheet on the tesla website.

Also I retire in 8 months and will be towing a teardrop trailer all across the country for relaxing and fishing, having the free supercharging is very important to this lifestyle as i don't have to calculate fuel cost into my retirement budget. Yes I'll stop a lot and yeah I'll have to disconnect sometimes to charge but that minor inconvenience is nothing compared to not having to pay for charging.
 
Base on the new pricing structure in CA, it is more expensive to drive a tesla on supercharging rates only during normal hours compared to a regular petrol car averaging 30mpg. Unless you plan to charge off peak at the supercharging station during road trips, unlimited free supercharging is a very valuable option for road trips and can save you quite a bit if you use it often.
 
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For me free super charging is extremely valuable. I've driven my '16 MS 50k miles in 11 months. I sometimes hit the super charging 2 times a day in the DC, MD area. Plus I live about 3 miles from the nearest one so I only have the 110 volt adapter at home. It charges 3 miles per hour so I'm only plugging in to keep from discharging on days off.
 
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I only bought mine for the FUSC. Otherwise couldn't justify it to myself. I don't think supercharging up to 80% is harmful. Once I hear the battery cooler start to ramp up, I end my session. Let's say I do kill my battery by over-supercharging: for the cost of a few year old Toyota Camry I'll have a renewed 2015 Model S with more free supercharging.

Exactly bro. Tbh buying an EV without unlimited supercharging is just not worth it
 
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The short answer is it depends on what your charging infrastructure is and how much you pay for it!

For someone who rarely does road trips and can charge very cheaply at home (solar or off peak rates) then FUSC may not be very valuable to him (however if the car has it, it will undoubtedly be valued higher than if it didn't!) but if you cannot charge at home/or rates are very expensive because you live in apartment and you happen to have a SuC nearby your place where it doesn't actually make you go out of your way just to charge (my case) then it is super valuable!

I only supercharger and I don't really waste time because I combine it when I am running errands, grocery shopping, etc.

If you are driving an average of 10,000 miles a year and 1 kWh is circa 3.5 miles of range, you would use 2,857 kWh which if you were to pay the average price of £0.50 per kWh then that's £1,478 of savings per year. Assuming you will drive at least 60,000 miles before you sell it, that's £8,868 of savings!

This is a fairly conservative estimate because kWh has been as high as £0.70 or £0.60 in the UK.

The other benefit of having a SuC close to where I live means I don't need to install a wall charger which is another saving.
 
I have a 2018 Model 3 RWD that is great and does pretty much what I need it to do. However, I find myself needing more trunk space and my passengers need more space in the back seat. I'm on the FSD beta, but don't really use it as much since it's nowhere near stable enough to be comfortable (in my opinion). I'm starting to think about buying a used Model S especially with the changes to the stalk and steering wheel. I hardly go on long trips in the 3 mainly because of the trunk space and back seat comfort and have driven an S in the past and like how more more "premium" it feels and how much larger it feels. I feel like supercharger pricing will continue to go up with the superchargers being opened up to more cars and with peak/non-peak pricing going up in CA.

Is it unreasonable to think that I could find a SC01 Model S with my range requirements (250-300 miles), having the MCU upgrade, free premium connectivity, and the earlier Autopilot that is more stable?
I happen to own a 2014 Model S with all those things. Range has deteriorated to about 235miles as the car now has 93k miles on it. I just pulled the trigger on a new S for my wife after coming to the conclusion that free supercharging is worth about $200-$300/year to me given how little we take roadtrips that require supercharging. If I'm towing or going to the mountains in the winter, I'm using our gas powered SUV. Maybe we'll use the new model S for mountain trips more now that we have 400 miles of range and AWD and that will increase my supercharging usage but with this current Model S, I think this feature is overvalued.

I'll add that there is now a supercharger about one mile from my house next to a Trader Joe's so sometimes I'll plug in there while shopping but the thought of using it as a replacement to at-home charging is a non-starter. I value my time too much to spend 90 minutes a week to save about $30 a week.
 
I recently bought a Model S 70 with FUSC and upgraded the MCU to MCU2 with LTE. It's more comfortable than friends' MY or M3 (2021 and 2019 respectively). Supercharging speeds are quite good (not sure how it compares to the 85) and we intend to use it mainly for road trips where we might not have otherwise decided to go if we factored in the cost of gas (mostly it's emotional guilt) and we defer that gas cost over to meals, drinks, hotel, etc which makes the trip feel more enjoyable. Our is under Battery and DU warranty til Nov of 2023 which was a requirement before purchase. We intend on having it fully looked over by a third party shop close by prior to either warranty expiring. I'm not in love with the nosecone but ??

I have considered selling it to get a newer Model S but am hanging on til I can get one with FUSC which seems to be a unicorn more and more lately. We calculated on our last road trip alone, we saved about $250 in gas. Another thing you might consider is the tax + dealer fees savings by purchasing directly from an owner, which is the only way to truly guarantee the FUSC transfers. That's a few thousand dollars plus whatever value you ascribe to FUSC.