Supercharger gaps

[Seattle Tom]

**2. Tesla ended the "Desination Charging" program a couple of years ago, so they just don't really do that anymore.**

Tesla ended the Destination Charging program? That is really, really dumb and doesn’t sound right. I searched and couldn’t find anything about an end to that program. And it’s still on their website. Are you sure?

Charging Partners | Tesla

 

[acarney]

**2. Tesla ended the "Desination Charging" program a couple of years ago, so they just don't really do that anymore.**

Tesla ended the Destination Charging program? That is really, really dumb and doesn’t sound right. I searched and couldn’t find anything about an end to that program. And it’s still on their website. Are you sure?

Charging Partners | Tesla

I feel like I also recall Musk mentioning something about doubling the destination locations in the next year or something too fairly recently (like in some statement in the last six to eight months). Not positive though....

It could also be possible that Tesla has stopped an internal program to scout and place destination chargers and instead is more passive now and waits for people to contact them?

 

[PLUS EV]

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Tesla used to provide the HPWCs, but now the property has to purchase them. Needless to say they will get far fewer takers with this new policy.

 

[im.thatoneguy]

I added my mom's BnB this year. So the program exists in so far as you can add your charger to the map/database... But they no longer offered her a free charger and installation like they had a couple years ago.

BTW... "Why doesn't Tesla add destination chargers along routes like this?"

Probably because businesses don't want an open ended expense of non customers using $10 in power and not buying anything. HPWC gen3 though adds a payment mechanism and I think that's going to be HUGE for convincing businesses to add a charger.

Chargepoints cost a ton in monthly fees and for the pedestal. $500 + installation and then a low cost processing fee makes adding an EV charger easy. And cheap for the property manager. Especially since 16 can share loads. You can install like 24 destination chargers for the price of one Chargepoint dual pedestal and a few years of the Chargepoint network.

 

[acarney]

I added my mom's BnB this year. So the program exists in so far as you can add your charger to the map/database... But they no longer offered her a free charger and installation like they had a couple years ago.

BTW... "Why doesn't Tesla add destination chargers along routes like this?"

Probably because businesses don't want an open ended expense of non customers using $10 in power and not buying anything. HPWC gen3 though adds a payment mechanism and I think that's going to be HUGE for convincing businesses to add a charger.

Chargepoints cost a ton in monthly fees and for the pedestal. $500 + installation and then a low cost processing fee makes adding an EV charger easy. And cheap for the property manager. Especially since 16 can share loads. You can install like 24 destination chargers for the price of one Chargepoint dual pedestal and a few years of the Chargepoint network.

I just really hope Tesla restricts the pricing to only fair charges. I don’t want to see businesses thinking they want a minimum of $10 every time a Tesla plugs in so they do something stupid like $10 connection fee and then $0.50/kWh or something. They might look at 7 to 10kWh an hour at $0.50/kWh (or some other fair rate) not being “worth it”, especially if it’s empty 80% of the time.

They think it could still be a lot of hassle if they think they’re only going to make like $100/mo from actual usage costs.

 

[im.thatoneguy]

I think $0.32 kwh would be "reasonable" ish. (Same as supercharging)

If they get 2 hr a day off of an 11kw charger that would be $7/ day.

That would only be 2 months to break even + installation fees. Probably safe to say 6months including installation at that rate. Pretty much an instant return on investment. But well below 2-3 years even under conservative usage in a good location. I would happily pay 32c.

 

[acarney]

I think $0.32 kwh would be "reasonable" ish. (Same as supercharging)

If they get 2 hr a day off of an 11kw charger that would be $7/ day.

That would only be 2 months to break even + installation fees. Probably safe to say 6months including installation at that rate. Pretty much an instant return on investment. But well below 2-3 years even under conservative usage in a good location. I would happily pay 32c.

You have to factor in the cost they pay for electricity too though. Commercial rates tend to be extremely low, lower than residential, but it might eat $0.05 to $0.10 into that $0.32. That now makes it ~$5/day they’re getting... and honestly I think 2hr/day is optimistic in many areas. Probably the areas that could use more chargers because there just isn’t that much local demand, but there are some owners.

Some installs might be pretty tricky too. Anyone with a parking garage would be expensive. Anyone that had to trench concrete (think grocery store that has a parking lot with the drive lane between the spaces and the door or any location with a sidewalk between the door and spaces, can’t create a trip hazard of course...)

Maybe for new construction this would spur adoption, but I don’t know how much existing locations would jump on this if it was multiple thousands in install for potentially a couple hundred bucks a month...

 

[acarney]

I’m in an area of ~200k people. I only see maybe one or two Tesla’s out around town like 20% of the time I go out. We only have two hotels locally with chargers and a couple winery locations outside the city that have a charger. Then the hospital has one old legacy ~3kW charger that i suspect a doctor petitioned to get installed.

We could use some of these at our mall, and a few grocery stores, at the Target/Walmart complex, at a major shopping area with like 50+ stores all in the same parking area. However, I suspect they could get like 8 to 10 hours of use a month right now (but would hopefully encourage adoption to tick up). Maybe more if an apartment owner used it all day one day a week as a charging solution. I can’t see any business going to that trouble right now.. maybe in five years, but I doubt any time soon.