Tesla open up the SuC network [in UK]

[NewbieT]

Anecdotally, UK Superchargers have been getting busier in recent times. It’s true, they are.

How bad could it get? Tesla SuC availability, speed & price has few competitors- the UK is nowhere near Tesla. If every plug-in car decides they like Tesla infrastructure we move from 82 cars per stall to 684 cars per stall…. 8x times as many cars as now.

 

[NewbieT]

All very well having a SuC factory in Shanghai but how quickly can Tesla build stalls in the UK? They’d better buy UK Power Networks or a DNO.

 

[Overworked]

Making the cabinets isn't the bottleneck, the underlying power infrastructure is. Another factor is the effect of 100k+ Hertz tesla's wanting to charge.

Those 100k or cars were going to need chargers anyway, no matter who bought them - as being rentals not one of them will be charging "at home"

 

[Artiste]

IThere's a lot of hysteria among Tesla owners who are saying 'exclusive' Supercharging was the #1 reason they bought a Tesla. As though they're going to trade it in for a Kia as soon as it's possible to charge one at a SuC.

I’ve already decided that my next car won’t be a Tesla, though it’s nothing to do with the SuC network as that wasn’t part of my decision to buy one in the first place. The M3 has too many imperfections which Tesla seem incapable of fixing and FSD is still a (very) distant dream. But it’s still good to know that I’ll very likely be able to charge my next non Tesla car using the SuC network.

 

[SpareHeadOne]

They would need to employ stewards/bouncers at every SuC location to police this.

Allow other users to report with a picture, then ban someone from the network for a period of time after repeated offences?

 

[Mrklaw]

on the positive side it can make it a simpler choice to get an i4 or Q4 next time around if I can use superchargers

 

[Dangerous Fish]

Those 100k or cars were going to need chargers anyway, no matter who bought them - as being rentals not one of them will be charging "at home"

"At home" = "at Hertz". Short term local rental clients won't need to charge at all.

 

[Bobly]

nice little video from bjorn on this

 

[Foucault]

i can’t see this going well. In the short term it will cheese off a lot of existing owners. Some Supercharger locations already get very busy at certain times and also around holidays. Throw in multiple other makes of car, some blocking two stalls because of where their charge port is or only charging at 50kwh maximum, then one of the key advantages of owning a Tesla is gone. Long term why would you even buy a Tesla given some of the options popping up elsewhere? While I’m not planning changing any time soon, I will seriously have a look at other options like the BMW i4.

 

[stopcrazypp]

10,000 extra stalls across the globe annually would be great. If they ramp up production with further factories, maybe even start to buy failing petrol stations, they could quickly corner the market in BEV charging.

Except they might not want that. All the charging networks so far are money losers (including the supercharger network, which is subsidized by the car sales). To have a good charging experience, it's almost a necessity that the charging network is a money loser (there must be as much empty stalls as possible). If you maximize profit (locations usually full), that typically leads to a poor experience (as is the case of other networks).

Of course if the government is paying for the station installation or subsidized it in some other way (not sure if this is the case for Netherlands, but likely would be the case when Tesla launches in the US) that is a different story.

 

[pgkevet]

Non-Tesla Supercharger Pilot

Tesla's stated aim is to stimulate EV ownership. Whether this is a money-loser in the short term isn't necessarily an issue for them in a march towards market domination in charger infrastructure. Amazon no longer just sells books.

 

[NewbieT]

Just to compare UK and the Netherlands.
Netherlands has 50,796 Teslas, 574 SuC stalls so 1 stall per 88.5 Teslas. Pretty comparable to us. Tesla makes up about 1/3rd of their BEV fleet. As guinea pigs go the Netherlands does make a good test subject. Watch with interest.

Source: https://www.rvo.nl/sites/default/fi...lands up to and including February 2021_0.pdf

 

[Jason71]

i can’t see this going well. In the short term it will cheese off a lot of existing owners. Some Supercharger locations already get very busy at certain times and also around holidays. Throw in multiple other makes of car, some blocking two stalls because of where their charge port is or only charging at 50kwh maximum, then one of the key advantages of owning a Tesla is gone. Long term why would you even buy a Tesla given some of the options popping up elsewhere? While I’m not planning changing any time soon, I will seriously have a look at other options like the BMW i4.

it will probably go fine in the short term because they have picked locations with lots of stalls which aren't busy. So although there will be cars using the wrong stalls we are probably not going to see Teslas queuing because of it which would be the PR nightmare Tesla would want to avoid.

 

[Jason71]

Non-Tesla Supercharger Pilot

Tesla's stated aim is to stimulate EV ownership. Whether this is a money-loser in the short term isn't necessarily an issue for them in a march towards market domination in charger infrastructure. Amazon no longer just sells books.

Does anyone actually believe the stated aims of companies (US particularly. (Don't be Evil FFS))? Public listed companies have a fiduciary duty to do what is best for their shareholders. If Tesla is opening up the SuC network it is for either short term financial gain, the long term benefit of Tesla / Tesla shareholders OR because they see the writing the wall for a private network anyway in the EU/UK so are jumping before they are pushed trying to get ahead of the game and get some sweet sweet subsidy money in the process.

 

[garybuk]

The world needs to move to standardised charging if everyone is going to move to EV's - having proprietary charging bays isn't the future...
I do think the infra tesla built with the Supercharger network makes them an attractive purchase for legacy ICE manufacturers (rather than the car tech).

Personally I did opt for a Tesla order due to the charger network as the others seem pretty crap when your away from home.... maybe Tesla should divest superchargers and build the capability as a licensing deal to other manufacturers.

 

[Durzel]

Non-Tesla Supercharger Pilot

Tesla's stated aim is to stimulate EV ownership. Whether this is a money-loser in the short term isn't necessarily an issue for them in a march towards market domination in charger infrastructure. Amazon no longer just sells books.

That's nice but I bought a car. I have a reasonable expectation that the company that made it isn't going to crater its value (normal price drops notwithstanding) because of silly decisions.

I don't really use the SuC much (don't do much mileage at all), but I can imagine that someone who might have otherwise bought my car - whenever I come to sell it - will decide to get something else, because what difference does it make so long as it has a CCS port? That will have a material impact on the value.

If I depended on the SuC network, and bought my car because of it, I'd be pretty pissed off now. As it is, I definitely will be looking elsewhere the next time around.

 

[pgkevet]

Just to compare UK and the Netherlands.
Netherlands has 50,796 Teslas, 574 SuC stalls so 1 stall per 88.5 Teslas. Pretty comparable to us. Tesla makes up about 1/3rd of their BEV fleet. As guinea pigs go the Netherlands does make a good test subject. Watch with interest.

Source: https://www.rvo.nl/sites/default/files/2021/03/Statistics Electric Vehicles and Charging in The Netherlands up to and including February 2021_0.pdf

The Netherlands (what's wrong with Holland?) are easily chosen for reasons other than comparative numbers of cars - already a major Tesla base, better range experience without hills and a small enough country that Tesla can influence government - and Germany adjacent. Probably unrelated but Schiphol is very accommodating to private aviation.

 

[browellm]

As guinea pigs go the Netherlands does make a good test subject.

I read some of the comments under the Bjorn video. Interestingly a few of the natives were saying that NL's non-Tesla charging network is already very comprehensive with a lot of good choices. That's obviously quite different to the situation over here so we might find the UK Tesla network be subject to a lot more pressure than the NL one during the trial.

 

[NewbieT]

I read some of the comments under the Bjorn video. Interestingly a few of the natives were saying that NL's non-Tesla charging network is already very comprehensive with a lot of good choices. That's obviously quite different to the situation over here so we might find the UK Tesla network be subject to a lot more pressure than the NL one during the trial.

Yes, they’ve got about twice as many ultra rapid chargers per BEV as we do.

Of course, Tesla’s main Europe base is in the Netherlands (Holland). Parts, Financial, Tilburg assembly plant etc etc. Probably the main reason for choosing NL.

 

[bingbongbing]

i can’t see this going well. In the short term it will cheese off a lot of existing owners. Some Supercharger locations already get very busy at certain times and also around holidays. Throw in multiple other makes of car, some blocking two stalls because of where their charge port is or only charging at 50kwh maximum, then one of the key advantages of owning a Tesla is gone. Long term why would you even buy a Tesla given some of the options popping up elsewhere? While I’m not planning changing any time soon, I will seriously have a look at other options like the BMW i4.

you just wouldn't buy one without the network. Its the one thing they've got going for them. I'd like my £50 odd K car to look and feel like a £50k car, with all the other plus points with it. The only reason for choosing a Tesla was the range and charging network.