Supercharging rates go WAY up!

[Az_Rael]

Wait....I thought SC costs depended on the location of the SC. In other words. California and Hawaii costs are the highest because the cost of living is the highest in those areas.
OR
I thought that SC costs were a variant of local electricity prices.

They are related to the local electricity costs, and potentially some other metric now that we are unaware of (because they vary from station to station now, not just state to state). The website now says $.31/kWh everywhere in places where they can charge that way. If, say, Texas is one of those places (as I can’t see costs in my car), that is way more expensive than the cost of gas, which was at $2 when I was there over Christmas.

 

[SageBrush]

Consumer here, don’t care about some supplier’s cost structure

My response was to the person who opined that Tesla is collecting a 300% profit.

To you I say that fuel costs are an amalgam of home charging, destination charging, and Supercharging.

 

[SageBrush]

They’re competing with the gas pump, not with the home outlet.

No

 

[SageBrush]

Yes, obviously, but Tesla is charging .31c per kw where they can according to their website. That would indicate a:

• 300% markup over some states rates (.08c - .12c per kw)

No
You are confusing per kW and per kWh costs.

 

[Blup85]

Totally fine with it. I like the idea of unloading the SuC network cost off the initial cost of the vehicle (allows for lower pricing?). Charge the users directly, rather than loading the cost on folks that dont use it. I have two MS with free SuC. and use it 1% of the time. My levelized cost is 3c a mile with solar.

Convenience and availability is priority 1. My LA disney trip was a pain last year due to full SuC at Costco..charge the users..

I'm excited about being able to get an Ap2+ at a closer cost to an AP1 MX with free SuC. I'll happily pay the SuC fee, doesnt Tesla give you 400kwh a year anyway?

Anyone interested in a 2013 P85 w free Suc? haha

 

[Az_Rael]

dont the give you 400kwh a year anyway?

I don’t think they do this anymore even for the S and X. I believe it stopped last year.

 

[MARKM3]

No
You are confusing per kW and per kWh costs.

Uhh, no. If I add 70KWH to my car, that cost $22. How am I confusing that? 70KWH to the car cost the electric company $6 at .08c per KW. A huge markup.

 

[VT_EE]

Since most Model 3s don't have free supercharging I'm posting it here. Local rate in Vancouver WA started at $0.11/kwh, early in 2018 then went to $0.24 and today, a year later, went to $0.31!! My home power is $0.0816. Even with demand charges, power factor charges etc I am sure their industrial rate is less than I am paying.here. Are we getting close to $3 gasoline equivalent? I have solar panels and charge at home like most, but road trip cost has gone up significantly. And renters and condo owners costs have gone way up too.

Doesn't look like local power rates affect the price, making a LOT more profit in the Northwest than in high power cost areas like California. Shouldn't it be a % markup based on local power rates, not a near flat fee? And when is the next 30+% rate hike?

https://electrek.co/2019/01/18/tesla-increases-supercharger-prices/

I think installation and maintenance cost are higher than most people realize. These rates are in line with what Electricfy America is charging. Not all Superchargers are created equal. High volume sites will make money, low volume ones lose money. They must average that out and stay positive. They also need to make some money for additional Supercharger deployment. These increases are logical and needed.

 

[Garlan Garner]

Ok wait...

I wonder how many cars don't have FUSC. Out of the 500K cars they have produced....what is the percentage being charged for SC'ing.

150K?

The vast majority of Model S and X have FUSC IMHO...although as time moves forward....the "majority" factor will turn into "half"….and then "some" and then "a few".

 

[Az_Rael]

These rates are in line with what Electricfy America is charging.

Which just makes me really want a CCS adapter for the 3. Now that their network is priced similarly, I would like to have the option of using their stations. For example, in Baker, the supercharger is by a Dairy Queen, and the EA chargers are near the Mad Greek. I would probably prefer the EA charging stop there over the SC.

 

[Eno Deb]

I think installation and maintenance cost are higher than most people realize. These rates are in line with what Electricfy America is charging.

Depends on the charging speed. Electrify America charges $0.30 per minute. At 60kW the cost is comparable, but if you charge at, say, 100kW the Tesla charger is now more than 1.5 times as expensive in states where they charge per kWh

 

[Merrill]

I think we need to put this in perspective, what if Tesla had no superchargers then you would need to stop at a level 2 on your trip and probably pay for that along with hanging around for 3 to 4 hours. When I purchased my first Tesla almost 6 years ago superchargers were almost non existent but I did not care, the fact that we have them is amazing. To me this is a convenience and like so many things in life you pay for what you want, you have ave choices, most of my friends would never spend what I have spent on cars over the years. I love cars so I’m willing to pay for them, also I live in California so the electricity prices are already very high. I just hope that Tesla will survive because of the vision of one man to drive electric is the future.

 

[svp6]

As many have already stated - I don't mind at all the concept of paying for SC, but it is way too expensive now. I have now free supercharging, but what about my next car?

At current price structure, a plug-in hybrid is cheaper and far superior for convenience when travelling long distance. A PHEV from Porsche or BMW will be slower, but not by much....

If utilities / states charge Tesla so much to force them into a huge price hike, maybe it is time for Tesla to deploy their solar charging / battery storage at all SCs.

 

[VT_EE]

It

Tesla's statement is that they will use the price increase ( profits ) as a financial source to install additional SC's.

If that's not making a profit off of then.....

Sure....they aren't using the profits to build up their bank account, but a profit is a profit no matter what they are doing with the increased rate money.

It is not a profit if the company makes no money off of it. Profit = Revenue -Expenses. Adding Superchargers is an expense.

 

[azred]

I suspect some who gave up free supercharging for a $5000 rebate may eventually regret their decision. I fully expect similar price hikes in the next 6-12 months, especially after Tesla starts selling a cheaper Model 3 and deploys Supercharger v3. OTOH, I expect Tesla to lower the cost of their wall charger in the same time frame, to encourage more home installations.

For me it makes little difference except for the positive effect on resale value of my two-year old S with lifetime of the car free charging. Both my 3 and S are almost exclusively charged at home anyway.

However I do have sympathy for those who cannot charge at home. Personally, I wouldn’t have considered an electric without a home solution, mostly for reasons of convenience but also because price will surely keep rising to support expansion and site repairs/upgrades.

The hopefully good news for the apartment dwellers is that charging more for popular urban sites will eliminate some cheapskates. (I noticed on my screen that the urban Phoenix chargers are more expensive than those in rural AZ areas — so far anyway.)

 

[sjg98]

I'm not terribly surprised from where I sit in NYC.
Nearly impossible to home charge here..
So I was happily surprised to see Urban Superchargers charging the same $/kWh as I pay on my electric bill.
I'm sure they get some sort of volume discount/commercial rate so they aren't paying what I pay at home.. but still seemed low.

Seeing it go up to cover the obvious overhead they have doesn't bother me.
As long as Tesla gets to & stays in a financially stable state, I'm happy.

 

[FlyNavy01]

For long distance travel, an efficient ICE is now cheaper to drive in my area. Home charging doesn’t play into long distance travel other than the first leg.

One of the questions I get frequently is how much it costs to charge on trips, and my answer is now going to be “the same or a little more than gas”. Not exactly a sales pitch for EVs being a full replacement for an ICE. Especially with the time sacrifice charging adds.

This. As a TSLA shareholder I fear this will cause more money lost in potential vehicle sales than any amount they're saving with this price increase. It's going to turn off a ton of people who were starting to look at Tesla for an ICE replacement. This goes directly against Tesla's mission of transitioning the world towards a more sustainable future.

I get why they're doing it, but I disagree with it. I also don't like the "bait and switch" feeling since Elon used to always say supercharging would be free forever, then said it would never be a profit center when they started charging for it, and is now vastly increasing prices for a second time in less than a year to the point where many ICE vehicles are cheaper to run. Not a good look to keep having to go back on your word.

 

[mtndrew1]

For my use case supercharging just has to be cheaper than renting a gas car for the same trip.

Tesla is probably paying demand charges instead of per-kWh rates at these stations and those are very pricey. I doubt they’re making a penny of profit on this network.

 

[SageBrush]

These rates are in line with what Electricfy America is charging.

Not even close because the charging rates are so different. You will be lucky to get 45 kW at an EA station.

 

[Kant.Ing]

It's not a profit center but definitely a cost center. It needs to support its own and future growth if every Tesla owner cares.