More free supercharging for cars sold after January?

[henderrj]

The announcement that certain businesses are paying for supercharging electricity costs brings up an interesting question. Is it possible that charging will be free there for anyone with a Tesla? Even if they order it after January?

Tesla is increasingly able to make businesses pay for the electricity delivered by its Superchargers

 

[jelloslug]

The problem is not with paying for the power, it's with people hogging the chargers when they can be charging at home/work.

 

[ecarfan]

The announcement that certain businesses are paying for supercharging electricity costs brings up an interesting question. Is it possible that charging will be free there for anyone with a Tesla? Even if they order it after January?
Tesla is increasingly able to make businesses pay for the electricity delivered by its Superchargers

I don't thnk so. To do that the business owner would want to ensure that only their customers charged at the Supercharger location at their store. Not feasible.

That article includes this quote:
John Brehm, Hy-Vee director of site planning, said about the deal (via The Gazette):
“The time it takes for an average shopper to get through a grocery store to get groceries is about the same time it takes to get a full charge on a decent fast charger like this. So it’s a marriage made in heaven.”
---------
Which brings up another point. The Supercharger network is, in my opinion, inexorably moving away from the original purpose of providing charging primarily for long distance travel and towards a more mixed use network, charging for long distance and local and even somewhat business-specific sites.

Think about the Tesla owners that Hy-Vee is trying to attract. They are ALL locals. Few people drive over 200 miles rondtrip for groceries (Yes a tiny number do, the vast majority do not).

The problem is not with paying for the power, it's with people hogging the chargers when they can be charging at home/work.

the recent Supercharger announcement is clearly intended to address that issue, as is the ontological mg buildout of the network.

 

[Saghost]

I don't thnk so. To do that the business owner would want to ensure that only their customers charged at the Supercharger location at their store. Not feasible.

That article includes this quote:
John Brehm, Hy-Vee director of site planning, said about the deal (via The Gazette):
“The time it takes for an average shopper to get through a grocery store to get groceries is about the same time it takes to get a full charge on a decent fast charger like this. So it’s a marriage made in heaven.”
---------
Which brings up another point. The Supercharger network is, in my opinion, inexorably moving away from the original purpose of providing charging primarily for long distance travel and towards a more mixed use network, charging for long distance and local and even somewhat business-specific sites.

Think about the Tesla owners that Hy-Vee is trying to attract. They are ALL locals. Few people drive over 200 miles rondtrip for groceries (Yes a tiny number do, the vast majority do not).
the recent Supercharger announcement is clearly intended to address that issue, as is the ontological mg buildout of the network.

But a lot of people on roadtrips buy some groceries for their trip, sometimes while on the trip...

 

[Troy]

Free supercharging is not possible for new Teslas after this year because it would make city superchargers impossible in the future. Elon said Tesla will build a few million cars per year (source). Most people around the world live in apartment buildings and have nowhere to charge. For example, according to forum member @markwj, 90% of gas car owners in Hong Kong wouldn't be able to charge at home or work if they had bought an EV (source). In other words, Tesla needs to build there lots of city superchargers to unlock 90% of the market.

However, there are a few thousand Teslas in Hong Kong and all of them have free supercharging. Tesla would lose too much money if they did that now. Therefore they need to wait until the percentage of Teslas that have free supercharging is much lower than the total number of Teslas on the road. According to my calculation in July 2018, Teslas that have free supercharging will drop to 32%. This is not enough. In Jan 2019, it will drop to 23%. That's still not enough. Realistically, Tesla will be able to start building city superchargers in mid to late 2019. By that time, their yearly production will be close to 1 million units. They will need city superchargers to grow their sales beyond a million units per year.

 

[henderrj]

I think you are missing my point. Tesla does not pay for any power, the store owner does. If I owned a retail store, and I have owned and operated a lot of businesses, I would certainly be interested in getting the clientele. Particularly the model 3 crowd. I think it would be worth the minor amount of the electrical cost to them, to make sure Tesla drivers can charge there for free. They can always put a time limit on the parking spot. It would indeed be a marriage made in heaven. Tesla could give away free supercharger, sort of, the store owner gets customers, the customers get free charging.

 

[BluestarE3]

Tesla will definitely need to build out its urban Superchargers and destination chargers to satisfy apartment and condo dwellers. However, that doesn't mean this service needs to be free going forward. After all, no one expects free gasoline. Tesla just needs to price the cost of refueling their vehicles to be competitive.

 

[CSFTN]

Electricity is cheap. Building and then later repairing the Superchargers is not.

 

[scottm]

The point is to have businesses pay for electricity (the utility) and Tesla owners pay for the electricity too (charging service). If you're Tesla, it's a double win.

At least we hear these revenues are being spent on expanding the SC network, which I believe is true. Because the network is expanding rapidly and that takes money to get those assets in place.

 

[henderrj]

I think something like that would produce some fairly angry customers. Elon's comment today about free long distance travel for model 3 could mean something. Maybe it does just mean that you get the 400 kilowatt-hour or, maybe they are trying to get free charging to us throigh the businesses. I Can Dream can't I?

 

[Saghost]

I think something like that would produce some fairly angry customers. Elon's comment today about free long distance travel for model 3 could mean something. Maybe it does just mean that you get the 400 kilowatt-hour or, maybe they are trying to get free charging to us throigh the businesses. I Can Dream can't I?

You can dream. Just don't be angry and blame Tesla/Elon if the dreams don't come true.

For what it's worth, it's clear that we haven't yet heard the full story, and I doubt we've seen the last policy change they'll make on Supercharging.

My personal guess is that the current scenario (400 kWh free and pay for the rest) will be the worst case and there will be exceptions and improvements from there. But it's just a guess.