Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

New Supercharger pricing

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
image.jpg
Supercharging cost now has four tiers when charging by the minute. Grey is $.33/kW. Blue is new 4 tier pricing. Orange is old two tier pricing. Y axis is dollars / kW. X axis is charging power level.
 
Last edited:
Well, that brings the per minute cost up to roughly what the per kWh cost was (when comparing pricing across a state line with different pricing schemes). I had previously lamented that paying by the kWh was twice (or more) what the per minute rate was. My recent trips in the Midwest where they have converted to kWh pricing were about twice what I paid for the same trip using the per minute rates at the same sites. Oh well, misery loves company and it’s still cheaper than buying gas (but barely).

Is this 4 tier pricing a global change or just something they have done at a handful of locations? I haven’t come across the new pricing yet, but it’s been 2 months since my last road trip and using a Supercharger.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: ElectricIAC
My understanding this is across the US. My guess is they are implementing this as they are opening up to other cars using SC's.

This now compares makes taking our Chevy Volt (40 mpg) the same as taking our M3 600 miles, right about $45, which is a bummer... The M3 used to cost about $20 or about half as much and right when we are about to run out of free SC'ing from referrals. Now I have to look in to a Prius or what else out there gets 50+mpg?

Now if only there was a way to limit ours cars to charge at 99 kw :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: ElectricIAC
If Tesla is opening the superchargers to everyone, this seems like a bad idea to me, and actually upside down pricing. The pricing ought to be based on how slow your car is to charge, not how fast. If your car is using a charger, the goal should be to get you out as fast as you can. Using market-based pricing incentive would help lower congestion. It was never intended to be a profit center for them, so unless that changed, the incentives are wrong.
 
This now compares makes taking our Chevy Volt (40 mpg) the same as taking our M3 600 miles, right about $45, which is a bummer... The M3 used to cost about $20 or about half as much and right when we are about to run out of free SC'ing from referrals. Now I have to look in to a Prius or what else out there gets 50+mpg?
If achieving the absolute lowest trip cost is your main motivation, then the Model 3 was probably never the right choice to begin with, considering you likely paid $thousands more for the car itself than you would have paid for a small, very fuel efficient, and inexpensive economy vehicle in the first place. Even a $5000 price premium for the car amounts to 200 of your 600-mile trips, saving the $25/trip over the Volt (which itself is an expensive car for what you get), or a gas sipper economy car. It's very likely that you would never have made up that cost difference anyway.

While price increases are not fun, let's not lose the forest for the trees. There are many reasons people have for switching to fully electric beyond cost, and considering the amount of time Supercharging versus just plugging in at home (unless you rely exclusively on Superchargers), the relative impact of this price adjustment is really not all that significant in the big picture
 
RTPEV you are correct, our M3 wasn't intended to be the cheapest thing to drive that 600 mile trip, but it previously worked out that way. It is the least expensive driving locally, since we have PV on our house and pay only $.0603 per kWh with off peak rates.

I did do some more math and $.33 average per kWh turns into over $10 a gallon. My math and correct me if I am wrong, is approx 33.7 kWh = 1 gallon of gas so $.33 times 33 = $10.80 comparable to a gallon of gas. Now granted our M3 gets about 120 miles on that "gallon" of electricity.

For anyone that travels further, on a regular basis or was using the SC as primary charging, the idea of paying more than you would for gas and waiting longer than you would for gas is no longer a selling point.

I was really hoping that Tesla users of SC's would have a reduced rate compared to other EV's at SC's, thus incentivising non Tesla owners to get a Tesla.

Bo3bdar, I totally agree, an ID4 or Bolt sitting at a SC's charging at 50 kw will quickly become the norm, since it costs less than electrify america, EVGO or Chargepoint, unless Tesla upcharges from these rates.
 
  • Funny
Reactions: ElectricIAC
RTPEV you are correct, our M3 wasn't intended to be the cheapest thing to drive that 600 mile trip, but it previously worked out that way. It is the least expensive driving locally, since we have PV on our house and pay only $.0603 per kWh with off peak rates.

I did do some more math and $.33 average per kWh turns into over $10 a gallon. My math and correct me if I am wrong, is approx 33.7 kWh = 1 gallon of gas so $.33 times 33 = $10.80 comparable to a gallon of gas. Now granted our M3 gets about 120 miles on that "gallon" of electricity.

For anyone that travels further, on a regular basis or was using the SC as primary charging, the idea of paying more than you would for gas and waiting longer than you would for gas is no longer a selling point.

I was really hoping that Tesla users of SC's would have a reduced rate compared to other EV's at SC's, thus incentivising non Tesla owners to get a Tesla.

Bo3bdar, I totally agree, an ID4 or Bolt sitting at a SC's charging at 50 kw will quickly become the norm, since it costs less than electrify america, EVGO or Chargepoint, unless Tesla upcharges from these rates.

You took a roundabout way of arriving at the cost by trying to convert electricity to gallons and back...just make it simple and calculate the per mile cost for each.

Model 3 gets about 4 miles/kWh, so at $0.33/kWh, that is 0.33/4 or $0.0825 per mile.

Then compare to a car that gets X mpg (let's say 40), and take your best guess as to what the price of gas will be over the life of the car (volatility in gas prices is just one of the reasons I ditched gas). If you assume $3.30 (I suppose that's not a bad assumption today), the math works out the same (3.30/40) or $0.0825 per mile.

BUT--that's just to break even on the occasional trip. If I do most of my charging at home for $0.12/kWh, I'm still coming out ahead versus driving a 40mpg gas car. Although certainly not by enough to justify the $50K ($42.5K after tax credit) I paid for my Model 3 versus buying a 4-year old used Nissan Sentra or the like that could deliver 35mpg. But as I said, there are reasons beyond lifetime cost per mile that went into that decision.

For me, I look at the cost of Supercharging as offering not just electricity, but convenience. Superchargers allow me to get charge fast, and allow me to take my car on long trips, and I'm willing to pay extra for that. I'm not expecting to get anywhere near the price I pay for electricity at home.

Even if the cost of Supercharging was the same as gas, I still have the benefit of having an EV at the remote end that I can charge cheaply rather than being stuck paying $0.0825/mile while at my destination.
 
You took a roundabout way of arriving at the cost by trying to convert electricity to gallons and back...just make it simple and calculate the per mile cost for each.

Model 3 gets about 4 miles/kWh, so at $0.33/kWh, that is 0.33/4 or $0.0825 per mile.

Then compare to a car that gets X mpg (let's say 40), and take your best guess as to what the price of gas will be over the life of the car (volatility in gas prices is just one of the reasons I ditched gas). If you assume $3.30 (I suppose that's not a bad assumption today), the math works out the same (3.30/40) or $0.0825 per mile.

BUT--that's just to break even on the occasional trip. If I do most of my charging at home for $0.12/kWh, I'm still coming out ahead versus driving a 40mpg gas car. Although certainly not by enough to justify the $50K ($42.5K after tax credit) I paid for my Model 3 versus buying a 4-year old used Nissan Sentra or the like that could deliver 35mpg. But as I said, there are reasons beyond lifetime cost per mile that went into that decision.

For me, I look at the cost of Supercharging as offering not just electricity, but convenience. Superchargers allow me to get charge fast, and allow me to take my car on long trips, and I'm willing to pay extra for that. I'm not expecting to get anywhere near the price I pay for electricity at home.

Even if the cost of Supercharging was the same as gas, I still have the benefit of having an EV at the remote end that I can charge cheaply rather than being stuck paying $0.0825/mile while at my destination.
While I agree with everything you've said in general, I do think that the "charging at superchargers is considerably cheaper than filling gas" line of thought has a strong appeal to those considering EVs and replacing ICE cars. Even though everything you said is true and that typically most EV customers will charge at a cheaper rate at home, the average, unsophisticated car buyer isn't going to think through all of that. They're going to say well, if it costs about the same and is less convenient than a gas station for top-ups, why in the world should I bother?! I'm waiting for my MYLR, and I'm not planning on using SCs much myself when I get my car, but I would be lying if I didn't admit that this news kinda ticked me off the wrong way in a mild way because it basically deflates one whole line of argument people tend to publicize for the advantages of switching to EVs. If I had to charge at an SC regularly for my commute, I would definitely reconsider going with a PHEV if the cost of charging is neck and neck with pumping gas at the station.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ElectricIAC
Even though everything you said is true and that typically most EV customers will charge at a cheaper rate at home, the average, unsophisticated car buyer isn't going to think through all of that. They're going to say well, if it costs about the same and is less convenient than a gas station for top-ups, why in the world should I bother?!
I don't have any problem confronting that kind of denseness by asking, "Is 100% of the use of your car all year long ONLY road trips?!" The answer is obviously no. People should be able to understand that 80-some percent of the use of their car all year long is at home around town--not road trips. So yeah, a little inconvenience on the occasional road trip is reality, but is not the majority or only use of people's cars.
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: ElectricIAC
I find it hilarious some are defending this price increase. One of the main selling points and appeals of a Tesla was to cut the cost of travel when going long distances. If you go to the supercharging page on the Tesla website it says, “The goal of the Supercharger network is to enable freedom of travel for Tesla owners at a fraction of the cost of gasoline. Reduce your cost per mile and never pay for gas again.”
 
I find it hilarious some are defending this price increase. One of the main selling points and appeals of a Tesla was to cut the cost of travel when going long distances. If you go to the supercharging page on the Tesla website it says, “The goal of the Supercharger network is to enable freedom of travel for Tesla owners at a fraction of the cost of gasoline. Reduce your cost per mile and never pay for gas again.”
I think you are confusing a marketing statement made to justify the greater cost of the vehicle itself (compared to ICE vehicles) with a real benefit that could be considered a "main selling point". In reality, the cost savings of Supercharging over buying gas, as frequently as most people actually use it, don't actually add up to a whole lot. The same is for the 1000 free Supercharging miles that people get for referrals. That usually works out to about $35-40, so not really the big deal that it sounds like.

While I don't feel like I've gone so far as defending the price increase itself (if you can call it that--it's more of a realignment to bring the per minute cost in line with the per kWh cost), I will actually do so now:

There are many people that are upset that Tesla didn't maintain the free Supercharging policy that used to be in place for their vehicles. I am not one of those. The cost of building and maintaining a Supercharger network is not zero. If you're not going to charge a sustainable price for the service, you're going to end up getting what you pay for, and basically that amounts to a sparse network of unreliable chargers. I would much rather prefer to pay a price for the service--that I only use occasionally, but when I do, I need it to be highly usable--that allows the network to grow and have a high availability. I don't want to deal with sites being overcrowded so that I have to wait in a long line to charge, or to arrive at a site to find that all of the chargers are down. Is paying the same price for those occasional travel days as I would pay for taking a gas vehicle worth it? Actually it would be. But the reality is that the Supercharger network is not actually as bad as people make it sound. I just took a 1000-mile round trip journey costing between $18-20 each way (let's say $40). That's actually $0.04/mile. My annual trip north (1600 miles round trip) usually costs about $70 altogether ($0.044/mile). I'm able to get well under the $0.08/mile in my previous example because I take advantage of L1 and L2 charging at the start, destination, and end of the journey. Anyone taking a long trip should aim to take advantage of L2 charging at hotels/campgrounds en route, not just for time optimization, but also cost.

I will offer one concession, and that is that Tesla ought to have a frequent user "membership" for people that just don't have good charging options at home, that would offer reduced rates for frequent use. This is tricky, of course, because it could be abused by gig drivers (which might be why they don't offer this).

But in general, yes, I will defend the price increases to the extent that they are necessary to maintain a high quality Supercharger network. I don't think that Tesla is looking to make money on the network. But they do have to keep it viable in the midst of the huge numbers of vehicles that they continue to deliver that will put additional demands on the system.
 
RTPEV I agree on the cost per mile, but I have yet to find a person in the real world that has even a guess as to what it would be in their vehicle, But when I told them if I "fuel" my car at home it cost me $2 a gallon and my car gets 120 mpg, they all see to understand that.

I do agree that the cost we used to pay was lucky to break even, at least in our state where we have really low rates, and they have literally gone up 414% overnight... But I agree that paying a price that makes them viable that works. We hadn't intended to drive 300 miles one way to visit our son in college every other weekend and now our daughter will be in the same place, so I can't imagine we will be going there less. Unfortunately it is a 300 mile drive there, visit, go shopping, run errands, help with things and then drive the 300 miles home, no destination charger so its supercharges after the first battery, that is the only time I charge it to 100%, right before we leave. Honestly one of the reasons we went so often was it only cost us $15 in SC's good weather and the most was $28 in the dead of winter.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ElectricIAC
I find it hilarious some are defending this price increase. One of the main selling points and appeals of a Tesla was to cut the cost of travel when going long distances. If you go to the supercharging page on the Tesla website it says, “The goal of the Supercharger network is to enable freedom of travel for Tesla owners at a fraction of the cost of gasoline. Reduce your cost per mile and never pay for gas again.”
“Fraction of the cost”, 15/16ths is a fraction right?
 
I was really hoping that Tesla users of SC's would have a reduced rate compared to other EV's at SC's, thus incentivising non Tesla owners to get a Tesla.
This is the biggest miss I think. If you are opening up all SC to non Tesla's then there should absolutely be a price break for a Tesla. No matter what the pricing model is I think a Tesla should be cheaper. Just makes good business sense. then again I am not a billionaire so what do I know.
 
When they converted from per minute to kWh pricing here in Texas, it just about doubled the supercharging price. To me, that's a price increase no matter how you look at it. I think Tesla now has a cash cow and they are using it. Sure this helps expand the Supercharging network across the country but at what point is it still worth it? States are charging such a huge registration tax over a petrol vehicle, (defined as road tax), and so on. I'm all for the supercharging network growing but when is it no longer going to be fun with these Tesla price increases?
 
  • Love
Reactions: ElectricIAC
In time based pricing states, I don't get why Tesla doesn't simply define the per second rate as $(target cost per kW*hour)*(charge rate in kW)*(1 hour/3600 seconds), evaluated every second. In other words, if you can't do the integral, then just get as close as you can by doing the Riemann sum. No changing of the per minute pricing would be necessary because it gets calculated based on some target cost per kWh and if the interval used for the Riemann sum is sufficiently small, it will be very close to the true value of the integral. I'm pretty sure that this is actually how Tesla does the billing even in the kWh pricing states (and how utilities do billing at your meter as well) so there would be no real difference, it would simply be invoiced as a cost per second based on the power you are pulling every second, all added up together.
 
  • Funny
Reactions: ElectricIAC