Tesla forced to open superchargers to unlock billions

[STS-134]

It’s already bad enough in major metros with Uber drivers and hertz rental places hogging the chargers and in some cases cutting in line.

I really couldn't care less about what's happening in major metros though. You should be charging at home and if you're traveling, booking accommodations with charging if you care about that sort of thing. I can't believe Tesla is wasting so much money opening SC sites in urban areas. It's nice to have options to stop at a lot of places if traveling through the urban area but some of these places are so far off the main travel routes that they make no sense, like Alameda's Alameda South Shore Center site or Torrance's Del Amo Fashion Center site (because if you're trying to get somewhere, you're certainly going to spend half an hour or more getting off of I-880 or I-405, driving along city streets, and going to a busy parking lot).

I'm more concerned about SC availability along major travel routes.

 

[popgodazipa]

Tesla club is not really the point. Tesla SC have so far been safe and reliable places to charge….I can’t say the same about local gas stations and that did factor into my decision to buy a Y for the wife. Grant it she charges at home mostly but I feel relatively safe with her at a SC, it’s TX so she does carry. Taking Biden's money is fools gold for TSLA. Protect the SC competitive advantage at all cost.

 

[ElectricIAC]

Or Tesla could just, you know, not take the money and not have to do it.

What people are suggesting with tiered pricing makes zero sense.

When the funds are released, Tesla can ramp up the infrastructure. And none of the fanbois need to worry about the small percentage of other manufacturers’ vehicles “taking” their spots at the charger.

Triple price for brand defectors.

 

[WyoDude]

What people are suggesting with tiered pricing makes zero sense.

Adding another revenue stream and prioritizing your primary customers makes zero sense?

And none of the fanbois need to worry about the small percentage of other manufacturers’ vehicles “taking” their spots at the charger.

I agree with this

 

[Electroman]

IMHO, not opening the Tesla connector specification until now was a major strategic blunder on the part of Tesla. It could easily have become the industry standard and they pissed away that chance.

If you repeat this a few times and can get some "trusted" main stream media sources to write an article or two about evil Musk's greed of not opening up Tesla's supercharger standard to others, then it might actually becomes the truth.. ...forget that the actual reality is exactly the opposite.

Tesla and Musk have always offered to open up their standards and allow anyone to partner with them, but the industry at large decided to stick with the abomination called CCS. Pride and stupidity got in their way.

 

[electracity]

Tesla is not going to give up a major competitive advantage without good reason. Many of us here would be more likely to consider other brands if CCS charging was convenient and reliable.

 

[Sophias_dad]

If you repeat this a few times and can get some "trusted" main stream media sources to write an article or two about evil Musk's greed of not opening up Tesla's supercharger standard to others, then it might actually becomes the truth.. ...forget that the actual reality is exactly the opposite.

Tesla and Musk have always offered to open up their standards and allow anyone to partner with them, but the industry at large decided to stick with the abomination called CCS. Pride and stupidity got in their way.

IMHO the industry made the right decision not to give away all their ability to enforce their patents, and not even only those specific to charging.

From https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/11/business/tesla-opening-charger-network/index.html :
---------------------------
In the past, Tesla has offered to allow other companies to use various Tesla-patented technology, but doing so meant companies had to abide by Tesla’s “Patent Pledge.”

Under the terms of that agreement, companies that wanted to use any Tesla technology had to agree not to sue Tesla for any sort of patent infringement or to help any other company to do so, essentially making Tesla’s offer of patent sharing a two-way street.
---------------------------

I really don't care, I almost never supercharge anyway.

 

[mjwojtukiewicz]

Anyone else dreading the day they open superchargers to other OEMs? I think that’s gojng to really suck and make Tesla ownership a lot less special..

Routers: Open Superchargers to Unlock Billions

Very short sighted of you. What makes you think they won't convert gas stations to SC stations? And you could probably get more SC than gas pumps in the
same real estate. Just like when cars took over for horses. More gas stations, less horseshoe establishments. We REALLY have to drive emissions down alot like YESTERDAY. Also, the SC are like robbing a bank. Double the kwh rate than charging at home. If you want to supercharge on a long trip, do it between 8pm and 8am. I've seen it as low as 17cents/kwh

 

[mjwojtukiewicz]

As long as you exempt non-commercial use Tesla from that I can go with that.

I still want double per kWh cost for non tesla.

Good idea. Make electric charging more expensive and maybe it'll drive them away back to ICE cars

 

[mjwojtukiewicz]

Charge double rate for non Tesla and we should be good.

Yeah, give em a reason NOT to buy an EV

 

[mrbulk]

I should be (and indeed am) thankful I'm retired, and to just have the simple EV life of charging at home and then go puttering around the neighborhood driving short routes to Smith's or to visit a friend, etc., then right back home only to exclaim out loud about how the range went down a whole 7 miles as I plug it back in at the garage.

Yup life is good right now but I can imagine still having to work, or having to drive across state/s using the sometimes already overcrowded SCs, like when we do to visit ppl in Reno a few times a year. At least that route (from Vegas) has mostly open stalls unlike when driving towards San Diego where you really notice the proliferation of EVs.

I do like the idea someone mentioned above about having different charging rates for different EVs...

 

[STS-134]

Tesla is not going to give up a major competitive advantage without good reason. Many of us here would be more likely to consider other brands if CCS charging was convenient and reliable.

They won't be if there is pricing that discourages use of the SCs. Think of it like the only gas station in town on a rural road (like the gas station at the Kirkwood ski resort). You can buy gas there if you're willing to pay $8 a gallon, just in case you really need to. Its presence makes it where you don't have to worry about running out of gas if you drive that road or go to that resort. But most people will do everything they can to avoid buying gas there because you're paying such a premium, it's basically only for use during emergencies.

 

[ucmndd]

Anyone else dreading the day they open superchargers to other OEMs?

Nope. I can think of nothing better to incentivize EV ownership than fixing the proprietary charging problem.

I think that’s gojng to really suck and make Tesla ownership a lot less special..

There’s nothing special about owning a Tesla.

 

[MP3Mike]

Even if Tesla opened the network as is, no site would likely be NEVI compliant, so they wouldn't qualify for funding to open them. Making them compliant wouldn't be easy, and for some sites might not even be possible. (Need new/larger transformers and grid feed.)

It would also open up another FUD story against Tesla for all of the government money they took.

So, I think it is best that Tesla just pass on the money, just like they recently did to the $6M California was going to give them for chargers.

 

[Hyperion M3P-]

Yes, the goal is to make charging infrastructure open to the masses.

I myself am not impressed by my being a member of the Tesla club. At the same time, when superchargers instantly get double, triple, or quadruple the eligible user base there will be far more horror stories of two hour waits to get to grandma's house on Thanksgiving, and that will reflect negatively on the EV experience.

IMHO, not opening the Tesla connector specification until now was a major strategic blunder on the part of Tesla. It could easily have become the industry standard and they pissed away that chance.

They tried to get the NACS approved from onset but other automakers just laughed at them. They tried hard to get legacy automakers to get on board and use the same charging standard before the first superchargers rolled out. Better late than never I suppose. The rest can play catch up now and most will die off as they run out of money to pay off the interest on their debt. Hopefully the American tax dollars won't bail them out this time...

 

[ElectricIAC]

Hopefully the American tax dollars won't bail them out this time...

Hope in one hand and in the other, see which one fills up first.

 

[Big Moe]

Hello fellow Tesla owners:

I am opposed to opening up Tesla chargers to other brands. It will jam up our charge stations. Many of us bought Teslas because of their great charging network. It would be short sited to take a 15 Billion payoff only to lose future customers and piss off existing ones.

 

[TomB985]

This kind of thought is predictable. "Me, me, me...," not what's best for society as a whole.

If you believe in Tesla's publicly stated mission to accelerate the transition to sustainable transportation, letting others in is a no-brainer. If you think that Tesla should leverage their competitive advantage to sell more cars at the expense of a slower transition to EVs, then they should keep it exclusive.

I don't want to deal with backed-up chargers, but I'll be happy to deal with some inconvenience if it's better for everyone else. I can use CCS chargers with my adapter, so I think this is fair.

 

[Waltjo]

It will depend on how Tesla deals with it. I can imagine a strategy where the SC Network becomes a profit center for Tesla. In this case, they would expand and enlarge this business. Providing more capacity to Teslas owners while still working well for Tesla owners and other EVs. It might be tempting to charge more to different types of EVs but I suspect that would be illegal under antitrust law. It seems to me that Tesla's experience in constructing SuperChargers and maintaining them should provide a competitive advantage over the other players.

We will have to see just how it all plays out over the next few years.

 

[ElectricIAC]

Just charge out of network cars and commercial use Tesla vehicles 3x per kWh or minute (where applicable) and pare it back to 2x with a monthly pass like EA’s Pass Plus.

Use the above to make rates cheaper for personal Tesla owners as well as further buildout.