IAA Frankfurt Tesla press conference on Tuesday September 10th at 9:20 (Hall 5.0 B36)

[Doug_G]

He only promised Supercharging would be free for life for your Model S. He didn't say anything about future models.

 

[Benz]

He only promised Supercharging would be free for life for your Model S. He didn't say anything about future models.

Yes he did. I have seen many interviews of Elon Musk, and I am sure about it.

 

[EV2BFREE]

It costs money to include the Supercharging options on the cars, isn't that paying for it?

 

[Benz]

It costs money to include the Supercharging options on the cars, isn't that paying for it?

Indirectly, yes you could say that is true.

 

[tamtam10]

I doubt they are scaling back on promises, and I doubt free supercharging was meant for Model S only. I believe Musk has said several time it will always be free for all models. My only explanation is the speaker made a terrible, inexcusable mistake. It would really be unfortunately if Europeans were given misleading information about free supercharging.

 

[Krugerrand]

Foreseeable: 1: being such as may be reasonably anticipated
2: lying within the range for which forecasts are possible

At some point Tesla's CEO isn't going to be here on this planet (Mars or Otherworld) and his successor, or his successor, or his successor....may decide to charge for Superchargers. I would think that as long as he has anything to say about it, Superchargers will be free. After that, who knows and thus the use of the word 'foreseeable'. Nothing to get excited about.

 

[Jackl1956]

Solar panels have a product life of 40 to 50 years.

In 2053 will you be complaining about charging your EV?

Never let your intellect outsmart your common sense.

 

[Benz]

I doubt they are scaling back on promises, and I doubt free supercharging was meant for Model S only. I believe Musk has said several time it will always be free for all models. My only explanation is the speaker made a terrible, inexcusable mistake. It would really be unfortunately if Europeans were given misleading information about free supercharging.

Indeed.

 

[Benz]

He only promised Supercharging would be free for life for your Model S. He didn't say anything about future models.

On the Tesla Motors website, in the Photo's and Video's section, you can watch a video called "Superchager Announcement". In this video Elon Musk clearly says:

"Something that's unique about the Supercharger is that it's free, it's not just free now, it's free forever."

And

"By buying a Tesla you essentially have free long distance travel throughout the country for ever."

He does NOT say that it's only going to be free for the owners of a Model S, right?
And we all know that the Model S is not going to be the only EV that Tesla Motors is going to be manufacturing and selling, right?
Elsewhere Elon Musk already has mentioned that the buyers of the Model X (and Gen3) will also be able to charge for free at the Superchargers, right?

 

[Johann Koeber]

I feel safe with the model S (free charging).

The model X will also fit this bill.

Not sure about SC access in GenIII. Might be an option which needs to be paid for.

Obviously SC are not for all Tesla brand cars. There are about 2.000 of them on the road that cannot use the SCs. Yes, the roadsters. Built in a different era.

 

[Benz]

I feel safe with the model S (free charging).

The model X will also fit this bill.

Not sure about SC access in GenIII. Might be an option which needs to be paid for.

Obviously SC are not for all Tesla brand cars. There are about 2.000 of them on the road that cannot use the SCs. Yes, the roadsters. Built in a different era.

Yes, you are right about the Tesla Roadster not being able to charge at a Supercharger station. By the way, there were 2,500 Tesla Roadsters sold in about 5 years time.

But except from the Tesla Roadster, all the other Tesla EV's will be able to charge at a Supercharger station.

At the Conference Call of the Supercharger Announcement (May 30th, 2013), after 45 minutes Elon Musk did say: "All future cars will have Supercharger capability".

You can re-listen to this Conference Call via the website of Tesla Motors, if you want to reconfirm this.

 

[Realist]

I was live at the press conference.

Their goal is to have one supercharger within 300km reach for every german household by end of 2014.

It was quite amazing to see that big crowd of people being interested in the car.

There will be a test of the Tesla Model S in Auto Motor und Sport, german's most important magazine very soon.

 

[Fast Laner]

Here's a link in german to a comment on a common german broker site about TESLA:

Tesla - Ãœberwertung wie zu Zeiten der Internetblase, aber ... | GodmodeTrader.de

@ mod: please get in into the proper thread

gruss

 

[Benz]

He only promised Supercharging would be free for life for your Model S. He didn't say anything about future models.

At the annual shareholder meeting in June 2013 there was enough time for a Q&A session, Elon Musk talked about the use of the Supercharger and mentioned the following:

"Effectively the cost of the Supercharger network is built into the price of the car."

And

"And I really wanted it always to be the case that the Supercharger is free once you bought the car, so we don't want to have this sort of pay everytime you arrive thing. I think it's just so much easier if you just built it into the cost and you arrive and you just never have to deal with anything."

 

[brianman]

At the Conference Call of the Supercharger Announcement (May 30th, 2013), after 45 minutes Elon Musk did say: "All future cars will have Supercharger capability".

Yes, this has been asserted. What hasn't been explicitly asserted is that there will be no per-use charge on anything other than the Model S. We (well, I) expect that they will have the same approach for Model X as for Model S, but it's "hazy" to me whether that will carry through for Gen 3. It's just too far out with too many unknowns for me to have a confident expectation.

 

[SebastianR]

Does anybody know any locations for Super Chargers outside Norway yet? I get the maps, but they don't say anything about the chargers' locations

 

[Fast Laner]

- - - Updated - - -

Comment in the local newspaper on the IAA 2013 and two Model S pictures:

The all decisive subject this International Motor Show is - once again - the electrification of the impulse.
The whole fair runs on adrenalin.
»The time is ripe to electrify the great series«, says VW boss Martin Winterkorn.
Now there come German ev-cars.
Besides, differently than in former years the bosses don't leave it by wholehearted announcements: On many booths electrically powered cars are turning which one can also buy during the next months - sometimes purely electrically like the BMW i3 oder der VW E-Up, sometimes with plug-in impulse like the Audi A3 e-tron or the Mercedes S 500 plug-in which the Swabians celebrate as the first luxury sedan with three litres of consumption. The new engagement of the German big series manufacturers brings the forerunners of the electric mobility in train compulsion:
On time to the International Motor Show Opel has lowered the price of the Ampera by 7500 euros down to 38,300 euros.


IAA 2013 (16 / 55)


IAA 2013 (17 / 55)

 

[Benz]

Yes, this has been asserted. What hasn't been explicitly asserted is that there will be no per-use charge on anything other than the Model S. We (well, I) expect that they will have the same approach for Model X as for Model S, but it's "hazy" to me whether that will carry through for Gen 3. It's just too far out with too many unknowns for me to have a confident expectation.

In the video "Superchager Announcement" we can hear Elon Musk say: ""Something that's unique about the Supercharger is that it's free, it's not just free now, it's free forever."

And

"By buying a Tesla you essentially have free long distance travel throughout the country for ever."

He does NOT say that it's only going to be free for the owners of a Model S, right?

But I do agree with you that this discussion will only end when Elon Musk will explicitly say that there will be no per-use charge for the Gen3 vehicle.

In the mean time, I can only say that Elon Musk is a man with principles, and he will stick to his principles.

The man knows what he wants to achieve, and he knows how to realise what he wants to achieve, and he also knows that he will realise what he wants to achieve.



I would like to add one other important aspect.

Every 150 Model Ses that are sold with Supercharger capability, gives Tesla Motors the posibility to finance 1 Supercharger station (150 x $2,000 = $300.000).

If Tesla Motors can sell 15.000 Model Ses with Supercharger capability in one year. And that's very likely to happen in 2013 and certainly in every year as from next year. Than that enables Tesla Motors to finance 100 Supercharger stations.

Now imagine that when 150,000 Gen3 vehicles (with Supercharger capability) will be sold in one year, the Supercharger network will become another source of income for Tesla Motors. Already in the next decade they could be earning a billion $ per year by just adding Supercharger capability to their EV's. Just imagine that they will be making billions of $ by selling pure sunlight to people. How genius is that?

 

[Benz]

In the video "Superchager Announcement" we can hear Elon Musk say: ""Something that's unique about the Supercharger is that it's free, it's not just free now, it's free forever."

And

"By buying a Tesla you essentially have free long distance travel throughout the country for ever."

He does NOT say that it's only going to be free for the owners of a Model S, right?

But I do agree with you that this discussion will only end when Elon Musk will explicitly say that there will be no per-use charge for the Gen3 vehicle.

In the mean time, I can only say that Elon Musk is a man with principles, and he will stick to his principles.

The man knows what he wants to achieve, and he knows how to realise what he wants to achieve, and he also knows that he will realise what he wants to achieve.



I would like to add one other important aspect.

Every 150 Model Ses that are sold with Supercharger capability, gives Tesla Motors the posibility to finance 1 Supercharger station (150 x $2,000 = $300.000).

If Tesla Motors can sell 15.000 Model Ses with Supercharger capability in one year. And that's very likely to happen in 2013 and certainly in every year as from next year. Than that enables Tesla Motors to finance 100 Supercharger stations.

Now imagine that when 150,000 Gen3 vehicles (with Supercharger capability) will be sold in one year, the Supercharger network will become another source of income for Tesla Motors. Already in the next decade they could be earning a billion $ per year by just adding Supercharger capability to their EV's. Just imagine that they will be making billions of $ by selling pure sunlight to people. How genius is that?

This will make Tesla Motors the first car company that sells it's customers not only cars, but also the "fuel" to drive the cars (well, actually we should call it energy instead of fuel, but you get my point, right?). Imagine Toyota and Shell being one and the same company.

And instead of a receiving a payment everytime a customer charges the battery of the EV, they just collect an one-time amount for the option of Supercharger capability ($2,000) each time a customer buys a Tesla EV.

And the whole thing becomes even more mindblowing when you start thinking about other car companies who decide to ask Tesla Motors to put the Tesla technology (drive-train / battery pack / Supercharger capability) in their cars. Then you should start thinking about tens of millions of EV's per year.
That's when you should stop thinking about a billion $ (or two). Then we enter the trillion $ era.

 

[Fast Laner]

article and pictures in german news magazine "der spiegel" website

IAA-Blog: Tesla Model S - der sexieste Siebensitzer der Welt - SPIEGEL ONLINE