Supercharging fee tiers

[A2Mark]

I'm trying to understand these charges, from the Gaylord MI Supercharger last month for charging my Model Y. So there were 18 minutes at the very high tier 3 rate, and 55 minutes at the much lower tier 1 rate. My car came in with a pretty low state of charge and I left it there to go to 100% while eating at the (very tasty) Lucky Steak House.

Would the tier 3 charge rate have started first, and the kW rate then dropped as the battery heated up? What are the most efficient ways to use superchargers on road trips? Maybe to save money on road trips I should always let it stay for a while and charge to 100% to get the lower tiers at the end of charging? Or to minimize time spent charging I should just leave when the kW rate drops and drive to the next supercharger and repeat?

 

[swaltner]

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Higher tiers are for faster charging rates, which happen when the battery is closer to empty.

You paid a bunch because you were at a time-based site and charged to 100%. Don’t charge to 100% unless you need all the range to make it to your next charging stop. Paying for time (minute) vs energy (kWh) is generally based on state laws as to who can bill customers by the kWh for electricity.

In general, it is much faster to charge to something like 50-60% and then continue to your next charging stop. I haven’t done the math, but it’s also likely much cheaper. It would be crazy expensive if you left it long enough to start getting charged idle fees.

 

[A2Mark]

Thanks for the reply. In this case I didn't really need the 100% range, so I probably should have gone out to move the car between the salad and the steak course. My understanding about idle fees is that they only take effect if all (or almost all?) of the supercharger spots are in use. This almost never happens for most of my travels. (I know congestion is a problem in some areas though.) I would like to do the math to figure out the ideal amount of supercharging to minimize cost at each stop. Also is there a way to predict when the supercharger will slow down and move to the next tier?

 

[Rocky_H]

My understanding about idle fees is that they only take effect if all (or almost all?) of the supercharger spots are in use. This almost never happens for most of my travels.

It's half or more. That may happen more than you think.

 

[micantony]

At a higher rate (200kw) you're getting a lot more kWh over time, so the price per kWh probably evens out over the tiers to be honest. If you could add in the chart above how many kWh's each segment added, you would have more information for your perusal.

just averaging/estimating as an example:
Tier3, 18 minutes, 42 kWh? --> .38 per kWh ($15.96)
Tier2, 9 minutes, 12 kWh? --> .40 per kWh ($4.75)
Tier1, 55 minutes, 27 kWh? --> .58 per kWh ($15.57)

(i did not double check my math )

Tier 1	Tier 2	Tier 3	Tier 4
Charging at or below 60 kW	Charging above 60 kW, at or below 100 kW	Charging above 100 kW, at or below 180 kW	Charging above 180 kW
Lowest price per minute	Second-lowest price per minute	Second-highest price per minute	Highest price per minute

 

[avs007]

It's half or more. That may happen more than you think.

The other thing that is important, is that if you set your charging limit, so you don't get an idle fee, the charging limit in your car resets to 80% if the chargers go from busy to not busy, and back to busy... So you'll probably want to periodically check the charging limit in the app, if the station you are at has a lot of turnover. Seemed to mainly be an issue at the smaller locations, as they can go from being full to empty quickly, wheras the larger locations if turnover is high, tend to stay "busy" according to the app, at least in my experience.