Supercharging now more expensive than ICE

[mmyers300]

I'm not sure the price estimation on ABRP is much better. They don't have access to live pricing data, so rely on general estimates and perhaps a bit of crowd-sourced data, so their data is probably going to be stale and inaccurate.

I do get that higher prices stink. I'm not so sure the hyperbole of trips being "ruined" holds up though (although I guess an annoyance doesn't get as many clicks).

I just did a 2100 mile trip at Thanksgiving, and the Supercharging cost was $158.16. A similar (but shorter by about 300 miles) trip last summer cost $90.60, so for sure costs have increased (cold weather probably played a role as well). Significantly even. But of all the costs incurred while travelling, did that extra $70 "ruin" my trip? Hardly! I spent far more than that on food & drinks just on the road, not to mention eating out and hotel rooms at various destinations. If I wanted to complain about something it would be the crappy Microtel which is the only hotel in my small hometown and charges an exorbitant $130 + tax per night for a $#!++y single bed room.

Considering the potential ability to get free or cheap charging at the destination (which is an advantage over gas cars), and if you have multiple passengers, suddenly those airfares don't look so hot (plus you'd probably have to rent a car at the far end anyway).

I'm not saying we shouldn't be upset about increasing Supercharging costs, but let's be a bit real here as well.

So your trip saved a couple supercharging sessions with free hotel destination charging? Otherwise you must have been driving very slow.

Haha - I hear you on the $130/night hotel. On our trips we sometimes have to do some extra planning on the road to avoid some areas/hotels.

 

[mmyers300]

Let's break it down even more:
Look at how much time and $ you save every day with your Tesla. Sure, those road trips cost more than we'd like but what doesn't?

You must not have really wanted to take that trip (visiting the inlaws?) if that was enough to deter you. Unless you don't drive locally at all, you're way ahead for the year financially compared to driving an ICE. I would think you could splurge and take a road trip if you wanted.

I did forget to mention here that, overall, it's not that big of a deal as I don't road trip very often and yes, I'm saving tons of money everyday charging at home.
Unfortunately, I splurged on too many things recently and my expectations for taking a really inexpensive trip ($250 round trip) were ruined.
And yeah, there is a little bit of the, "do I REALLY want to visit them?" thing going on - hahaha!

 

[mmyers300]

No doubt about it, electricity prices vary tremendously from country to country and region to region. Seems like every Costco gas station has a lineup just to save a few pennies/gallon.

Personally we charge at home with dual wall connectors, in fact rarely have I used a SC, maybe 4 times with the Y which were free as part of the purchase and not yet with the S after 1 year except to try out a CCS adapter for a few minutes. Cost to fill up the Y at home assuming I can fill from 0 to 100% which will never happen, is around $2.75 US. SC pricing is way, way over that. Huge difference!

$2.75 for 0-100% ?? What size battery is that? What does electric cost there?

We are at about .12/kWh here, so more like $9 + some extra waste for a 75kW battery.

 

[Midnightsun]

I believe it is a 85KW may be slightly smaller. 045/kwh Canadian which is around .03 USD

 

[ElectricIAC]

I believe it is a 85KW may be slightly smaller. 045/kwh Canadian which is around .03 USD

How’s that hydro bill?

 

[Midnightsun]

How’s that hydro bill?

Pretty cheap considering what is running plus water cost $140/year unlimited (no meters). Pretty sure you would not want to pax income tax like I do though. A tad over 50%. At then end of the day it probably works out the same no matter where you live.

 

[RTPEV]

So your trip saved a couple supercharging sessions with free hotel destination charging? Otherwise you must have been driving very slow.

Haha - I hear you on the $130/night hotel. On our trips we sometimes have to do some extra planning on the road to avoid some areas/hotels.

Well, not quite...the $130/night hotel doesn't have a charging station (this is a very small town), but I did plug into a 120V at the end of the building to get about 15% back. I also plugged in to 120V at an overnight stay at my son's en route.

I did plug in at my in-laws 120V and got a substantial charge there, and I did take advantage of a free L2 charger at a hospital when I was visiting an old friend, and also used an L2 charger while visiting my other son, which I did get a good charge from (although that was only 150 miles into the trip, so it wasn't a huge benefit.

But that's all part of the benefit of traveling in an EV. Sometimes you can pick up some free energy (I did reimburse my in-laws for the electricity I used, so I guess you can add $10 to my "tab").

P.S. I would avoid the $130/night hotel if I could, but it is really the only game in town (this was not an en route stop, but rather one of the destinations). The only other options are some really ancient motels on the outskirts of town that are extremely sketchy. Funny thing is on the first night of the trip we stayed at a very nice Holiday Inn Express right in uptown Charlotte for only $100/night with far better location and amenities than the Microtel. They didn't have a charging station either, although the parking deck across the street did have one if I needed it.

 

[avs007]

I noticed recently, that Tesla seems to have lowered SC rates across the entire I-5 corridor from California up to the Canadian border, on my most recent trip. Some places used to have 4 tiers, now only have 3. Some that had 3, now only have 2. Places that used to have peak rates of 45 cents are now 34 cents, places where off peak used to be 27 cents are now 17 cents, etc.

 

[ElectricIAC]

View attachment 884475


I noticed recently, that Tesla seems to have lowered SC rates across the entire I-5 corridor from California up to the Canadian border, on my most recent trip. Some places used to have 3 tiers, now only have 2. Places that used to have peak rates of 45 cents are now 34 cents, places where off peak used to be 27 cents are now 17 cents, etc.

Maybe they beat the utility providers into submission or are forgoing margin to aid the customer.

 

[RayK]

Hmmm... I just checked the three Supercharger sites around me. Prices have come down. Off-peak price is now $0.23/kWh, while peak is $0.35/kWh. Hours vary between the three but still, during peak hours, when I usually charge, I'd be paying almost double what I normally pay for DC charging. Off-peak would only be 20% more expensive so that's nice.

 

[Fischergeist]

Was that around Jacksonville? I too was very surprised that the Supercharging there was about $.45 per kWh. We drove my Model YLR to PA a few months ago, and that was our first stop. After that, I started checking out the kWh rates before I would choose an SC to stop at. But, you also need to be aware that some of the SC's charge more at higher kW charge rates, so stopping for a small amount, like 8 kWh, will skew the average a lot higher. But, as you charge, and the kW rate drops, it gets cheaper to charge. That is because many electric companies charge by "demand rate" I believe it is called. The more amps you demand, the higher the charge per kWh. It's not really Tesla's fault that some utilities charge so much more. Most of the SC's we stopped at the rest of the way to PA were about $.35 per kWh.

Where did you find the data for Kw/h at individual Tesla super çhargers stations, was it also inclusive of other charger systems?