Supercharger Landlords

[Economite]

If the goal of Tesla is to promote the adoption of sustainable transportation, don't you eventually foresee the day when all parking spaces in a lot would contain an electric charging port? Granted we are far off from that now, but give it time, as adoption increases, demand will increase and only those facilities willing to grow to sustain that demand will profit, others will be avoided and decline. Would it not be in the local business' best interests to consider expanding facilities or provide additional options in most crowded areas?

If the model we're going to is of having cars with big batteries and long ranges, I don't think this is going to happen. Such cars only rarely actually need to charge when they visit a business (they mostly charge at home or at work). And the supercharger level quick charging stations will probably always be expensive to install (and will definitely always have a substantial electricity cost). Businesses aren't going to spend a lot of money installing redundant chargers that most customers won't actually need to use.

In a world where most cars are electric, the incentive for retailers/restaurants to install lots of chargers might exist if cars have very limited batteries, chargers are cheep, and chargers are so slow that they don't use much electricity. But for high speed charging the incentives are very different. And I don't think anyone on this forum is hoping that we end up in a world where all cars are Leafs that need to slow charge every time they park in order to complete their trips.

Plain and simple, I think fast charging is going to have to be a fee-for-service product. And I think that companies providing that product (be they car manufacturers or operators of independent fast charging networks) are going to need to pay substantial rent to whoever owns the parking lots where they operate.

 

[kort677]

I would think a casino would simply add a valet. Wonder if Tesla has a valet management page for the super chargers that shows current charge status off all plugged in cars?

Add queue management and some way for the valet to unlock/operate cars that are queued for bonus points.

Drivers approach and the center screen says "press yes to queue your car and allow remote valet operation".

Of course, only needed until cars do it for themselves.

valet? no thanks, I don't want a valet to drive the car.

 

[cpa]

As it concerns the Hy-Vee signage that the electricity is provided by Hy-Vee:

It is entirely possible that Tesla and Hy-Vee formed a joint venture--are there not several Hy-Vee sites that have Superchargers? I suspect that Hy-Vee is not a franchise operation--but rather a corporate entity that owns all its retail establishments. (We do not have Hy-Vee here in the West.)

 

[Economite]

It is entirely possible that Tesla and Hy-Vee formed a joint venture--are there not several Hy-Vee sites that have Superchargers? I suspect that Hy-Vee is not a franchise operation--but rather a corporate entity that owns all its retail establishments. (We do not have Hy-Vee here in the West.)

The Tesla/ Hy-Vee match up has always struck me as a weird one. Superchargers and supermarkets don't seem to share a use profile.

When the deal was announced, Hy-Vee said: "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.” (Tesla adds supercharging stations at three Iowa Hy-Vee stores).

So Hy-Vee is encouraging folks to fill up or top off by parking at a supercharger parking space as part of their normal grocery shopping routine. On the other hand Tesla's message for quite a while has been that superchargers should be used only for long distance travel. And Tesla's new parking charge policy is designed to discourage unnecessary topping-off by requiring that a shopper move their car when it's full-- even if that shopper hasn't finished their grocery shopping.

This seems like a set up for confusion. It could explain why at Hy-Vee the landlord is paying for the electricity rather than Tesla. On the other hand, since these sorts of "sponsored" superchargers aren't visibly different from normal superchargers, how will drivers know that there are potentially two different sets of chargers that potentially have two different sets of etiquette.

 

[Missile Toad]

Hmm, a lot of truthiness going on between Hy-Vee and Tesla with this press release

"The superchargers can put about 170 miles of charge into a Tesla car in about 20 minutes."​

Not exactly bolstering the brand. On the other hand, I have heard that Tesla has been working on the 1.21 gigawatt output chargers. Maybe this is a pilot test site?

 

[Missile Toad]

But seriously, the Tesla WWW site says:

Tesla Superchargers provide up to 170 miles of range in as little as 30 minutes.​

See Supercharger | Tesla
Our kids are going to be so confused when they look at the sloppiness we've allowed our journalism profession to fall into.

 

[EVie'sDad]

Hmm, a lot of truthiness going on between Hy-Vee and Tesla with this press release

"The superchargers can put about 170 miles of charge into a Tesla car in about 20 minutes."​

Not exactly bolstering the brand. On the other hand, I have heard that Tesla has been working on the 1.21 gigawatt output chargers. Maybe this is a pilot test site?

sure beats slow charging a chevy bolt for 10 hours.

 

[Economite]

What's interesting here (though not necessarily surprising) is that it sounds like Tesla is getting into a number of different deals with Supercharger landlords.

Sometimes Tesla pays rent (and covers all installation and operating costs). This is a direct net profit for the landlord. Other times Tesla covers installation and operating costs, but doesn't pay anything to the landlord. That winds up being a financial wash for the landlord. Still other times the landlord pays for energy (therefore incurring direct net costs).

It's going to be hard for Tesla to offer a uniform per kwh charge to supercharger users under this model. Sounds like Tesla's costs vary a lot from site to site. And my guess is that the sites that are most popular for drivers will also be the sites that Tesla has the largest costs at. If Tesla doesn't charge more for charging at sites where its costs are higher those sites will just keep being crowded. Plus, landlords are going to get smart about their bargaining power.

 

[Economite]

I know that both a pizza place and BBQ around the corner from Supercharger.
They are very happy that it's there.
It's definitely increased traffic to their businesses.

But do the pizza place or BBQ own the lot? Since you say the lot is "around the corner" from them, I assume that the lot is either owned by a public entity or by some other business.