srs5694
Active Member
when I NEED to charge quickly, like on a road trip, and I see a station full of people charging for free to 100% I am annoyed, like the person who started this thread. Quadrupling their FUSC cost wouldn't help, it would still be free.
That's a valid point -- raising the cost to charge past 90% won't affect those with free Supercharging. OTOH, as the number of Teslas and Superchargers goes up, the proportion of people with free Supercharging will go down -- if Tesla refrains from offering free Supercharging as an incentive (or for any other reason). They've said they'd do so in the past, but they keep doing so for limited periods, much like a person who promises not to eat any more potato chips. Right now, the chips bag is open, at least for Model S and Model X.
I don't believe that people will be using free supercharging for decades, just because I don't think the Supercharger network is going to last for decades. If EVs are the future, the only way we're going to get there is ubiquitous charging. It doesn't make sense to make heterogeneous networks with different access points, price points and connectivity. There will be a single universal charging standard in the same way that there is a single gasoline. Tesla is only in the charging business because it helps them sell cars. It seems reasonable that they would seek to divest this business, as long as it doesn't impact their core business of selling cars.
Maybe; but maybe a better analog is computer OSes. Windows has yet to kill off macOS, despite the interoperability issues between the two. There are also multiple Linux distributions and various more exotic OSes. Similar comments could be made about phone and tablet OSes (iOS vs. Android vs. the more exotic choices). Apple could ditch macOS and iOS in favor of Windows (or Linux) and Android. They don't because macOS and iOS remain, at least in some buyers' estimation, superior to Windows and Android. Right now, the Supercharger network retains a vaguely similar advantage over CCS/CHAdeMO charging. As the latter is built out and improved, I'd expect the gap to narrow; but it might remain wide enough for Superchargers to survive for quite a while, and maybe even indefinitely, particularly if Tesla can innovate with new features (I don't know what, offhand) or simply better service (superior reliability, in-car navigation to Superchargers, more or better locations, etc.). The longer Tesla holds out on its own charging plug, too, the greater the incentive to keep the Supercharger network operating simply to service existing vehicles.
To be sure, I'd prefer to see standardization and interoperability, or at least see Tesla, CCS, and CHAdeMO plugs on a majority of DC fast chargers. That might not happen for quite a while, though.
you aren't charging your car directly with AC power. The utility power is fed into giant array of batteries and then pushed DC to DC to your vehicle. These on site battery packs have costs, maintenance, etc.Your use of present tense makes it sound as if you think this is the way DC fast charging works today. Although there are a few stations with batteries in place to reduce utility demand charges today, they're the exception rather than the rule. Most DC fast chargers today, including most Superchargers, are run off of grid power. That may change in the future, but it's not clear how quickly it will change.