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NRMA- why everyone is talking Tesla

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Hey ZTrekus Keep your in-laws guessing at your new vehicle purchase then blow their minds with a "Ludicrous Speed" test ride followed by a roadtrip to lets say Albury and back - free of cost - courtesy of the Supercharger network which should be built by then. Fingers Crossed

Hej lonewolf313,

Nice idea... But I think the cat is already out of the bag.... Also, I think nothing will really prepare them for insane acceleration though! I am not even sure that I am prepared for it.
 
You mean free of ongoing cost. Don't forget, supercharging has been pre paid for.

Speaking of which... The in-built cost of supercharging has been quoted as US$2000 which is approx AU$2600. Add GST = $2860, plus a bit for the Australia Tax, and we are looking at about AU$3k...
Lets say for a minute that power costs on average $0.25 per kWh, the $3k price buys us 12,000 kWh... (Yes, the cost to Tesla would probably be much less than 25 cents) but humor me for a moment longer.
Assuming you emptied a Model S P85 battery, and completely filled it again, this gives us 12,000 kWh / 85 = 141 tank fulls of power, at a cost of $21.25 per fill up.
141 tanks of juice @ 500Km per fill up = 70,500 Km you would need to drive before breaking even (less if you have a heavy right foot).

Does anyone agree / disagree ?

GH
 
You're not just paying for the cost of the supplied electricity. What you're buying is access to high-speed charging capability and convenience (at least in places that have a supercharger network). Plus it's an automotive option (or was) and thus priced accordingly. Applying economics to such things will seldom yield a compelling value proposition.
 
Lets just say Tesla are not losing on the "free electricity". It does look damn good on the marketing though!!

Yes :) But if you assume $150k per SC, about 400+ of them so far, that's about $60M amortised across what, 50,000 cars so far? So about $1200 per vehicle plus ongoing maintenance and electricity costs. So if my numbers are anywhere close the charges are at least in a reasonable ballpark at this point in time (obviously changes progressively with vehicle and SC numbers).
 
Assuming you emptied a Model S P85 battery, and completely filled it again, this gives us 12,000 kWh / 85 = 141 tank fulls of power, at a cost of $21.25 per fill up.
141 tanks of juice @ 500Km per fill up = 70,500 Km you would need to drive before breaking even (less if you have a heavy right foot).

Does anyone agree / disagree ?

GH

Yes and No - you aren't really paying for the electricity up front, but also helping to fund the rollout of the infrastructure, so not all of the cash goes towards the power. There is also the ongoing cost of maintaining the network etc, and since a number of these installations have needed another substation the installation costs would be significant.

If you look at it completely as a cost benefit and only used supercharging to power your car then I think that these numbers are more accurate, based on your assumptions.

- not all of the 12,000kWh goes into the car, so assuming 90% efficiency you are closer to 10,800kWh.
- my lifetime average is 200Wh/km so around 55,000km usage out of $3k
- in reality I hardly use the SC at all since I charge at home and couldn't be bothered going out of my way, even for 10 mins, for around $1.50.
- Assuming Tesla has sold 250 Model S with supercharging to date, they have taken $750k in funds that could be allocated to building and running the SC network. If they sell 1000 cars a year here then the budget is $3M p.a. to expand and operate the network.
- Once the major routes are up and running (Brisbane-Melbourne) then the cost to operate them in the scheme of things is negligible, the SC network could also be considered to be Tesla advertising - since they don't do any. I'd assume that *most* Tesla owners would be like me and only use the SC if going on a long trip. On average Australians drive 15-20,000km p.a. If 25% of that ended up being long trips using superchargers then you are looking at 5000km p.a. at best - so it'd take 10 years to use up the electricity... I'd suggest that aside from a few outliers who live close to the SC, your average use would really be something like 2000km p.a. per car or less. 2000*.2 = 400kWh p.a. At 25c/kWh thats $100 p.a. If they pay off peak rates (11c) then we are talking about less than $50 p.a. for each car.