ZBB
Emperor
Why?
Tesla has to fund the supercharger network -- hardware and electricity cost. Pointing out that 180 Model S sales are needed over a period of time to help fund the cost of electricity helps show that Tesla's model makes sense...
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Tesla Supercharger network
- Thread starter dsm363
- Start date
Why?
Tesla has to fund the supercharger network -- hardware and electricity cost. Pointing out that 180 Model S sales are needed over a period of time to help fund the cost of electricity helps show that Tesla's model makes sense...
Superchargers are a marketing expense. It's availability sells cars. Tesla said the fee for enabling supercharging in a 60kWh car is for the hardware and software IN THE CAR and it's included in the price of the 85kwh car. No one has ever suggested that charge has anything to do with the cost of paying for the superchargers themselves or the electricity.
ZBB
Emperor
You are assuming its a marketing expense.
Regardless, they need revenue from selling cars to cover their operating cost. That includes the cost to operate Superchargers. So saying that X # of cars sold helps cover the electricity cost, or X # of 60s with the paid SC option and allocating a portion of an 85s sale price to Superchargers helps show that Tesla has the cash flow T&L continue operating the SC network, and grow it...
Regardless, they need revenue from selling cars to cover their operating cost. That includes the cost to operate Superchargers. So saying that X # of cars sold helps cover the electricity cost, or X # of 60s with the paid SC option and allocating a portion of an 85s sale price to Superchargers helps show that Tesla has the cash flow T&L continue operating the SC network, and grow it...
You're interpreting the data one way. I've heard plenty of people including Tesla employees explain it differently, namely that the supercharger supercharge on the cars' price is intended to pay for the entire system, from car hardware and software to the infrastructure. "No one has ever suggested" is just plainly false. However we all agree that superchargers are a necessity to make the entire concept of BEVs viable. And we probably also agree that we don't really know how Tesla Motors accounts for all that internally, unless it's been published in SEC filings. Anyone know?
When Tesla announced supercharging in September 2012 it notified 60kWh reservation holders that the $2000 charge to add the supercharger option was $1000 for the hardware in the car and $1000 for the software testing and calibration. Because there had been confusion on the order page for a while about this they were going to charge some reservation holders just the $1000 software charge as all cars were being built with the hardware, and then waived the software charge too for those who reserved in the time frame at issue before the announcement. By "no one" I mean there has never been an official statement to the contrary since then about the reason for the $2000 charge. In one of the quarterly reports or conf calls Elon referred to superchargers as a marketing expense. Tesla employees say lots of things that aren't necessarily accurate.
Prices in Norway are very close to the 13 cents in the US. Including demand charges.
Unfortunately, so does Elon Musk. He is particularly bad with setting dates and times.
GM marketing budget is $4.7B on revenue of $155B, and they're a big spender. I guess Tesla could be spending $3k per Model S on the network, but given a target gross margin on the Gen 3 of around 10%, it'd have to drop. Also, given an average life of 20 years per car, with a likelihood of increased use from Gen 3 onwards, I'd suggest that the marketing budget wouldn't cover it and that those $1k charges look suspiciously round. Or maybe it is $1k for the hardware and $1k for configuration and testing and they simply left out the bit about the charge not all being related to the car itself.
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Don't forget wholesale pricing and use being primarily off peak.
Well the Albany supercharger was almost fully iced when I was there last night. Two open spots at the end. Rest were all Non-tesla cars icing all the spaces and blocking all the chargers. Because there was one open space left and the mall was busy, people kept trying to pull into it next to me but when they saw me sitting in the car as they were turning to pull in they'd stop and back out and leave as if they just got caught parking somewhere they shouldn't. It seems like an ok area but I wasn't sure if people were giving me dirty looks as if I'm entitled to this spot and they aren't.
This isn't the first time I've had uncomfortable encounters like this in the Tesla. I almost got in a road rage fistfight with a guy at the Hamilton supercharger who blocked me in and started yelling and screaming at me "who do you think you are" etc etc he was driving a beat up white van. He drove off though fortunately no fisticuffs that night.
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LAst night between 9-10:30pm the Newark SC was very busy/full. One of the four spots was 'Iced' so I waited for the owner to come back. Turned out it was one of the employees of the food court at the service plaza. I asked him politely not to take up a spot as people were waiting on/off to charge. Luckily, no real confrontation although his girlfriend (I think a coworker) yelled at him, 'I told you not to park there':biggrin:. All the model S drivers were courteous with each other. We swapped stories as people charged enough to get to the next SC or their destination.
HankLloydRight
No Roads
I'd really like to see Tesla tether some green or red traffic cones to each SC stall with a chain or rope. It would only work if each SC user replaces the cones in the middle of the spot when they pull out for the next MS driver that shows up. I think that would keep most ICE drivers from using the spot if they have to get out and move the cone. It's a small inconvenience for MS drivers to reduce the chance of getting ICE, especially on busy weekends.
gg_got_a_tesla
Model S: VIN 65513, Model 3: VIN 1913
At Gilroy, CA, all spots were taken up at 11 am (I got the last one) but, by the time I was juiced up, there were only two others charging.
Only a couple of cars at Atascadero at 3 pm:
Post A Picture Of Your Car Charging - Page 42
Cottonwood
Roadster#433, Model S#S37
At Glenwood Springs, the "orange cone" solution works well. The Supercharger Stalls were put in a "too good" spot, but the cones work as an acceptable bandaide.
I know there has a been a lot of postings lately about the Solar Roadways, and I'm not sure on its viability (personally I think its fairly expensive), but it just passed its funding goal of $1,000,000 -https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/solar-roadways
Yes, there have been a lot of posts on this subject, over here: Solar Roadways - Working prototype and pictures!
Airj--
I just returned from a 1300 mile trip that included use of 4 superchargers in Utah, 1 in Nevada, 3 in Arizona, and 2 in New Mexico. There were two other Teslas charging in Vegas and 1-2 others charging in Kingman when I was there, including an employee of a US car manufacturer that had bought an early Tesla to intensively instrument and road test it for competitive analysis purposes. Neither of those stations was busy enough to cause me to wait. Every other supercharger I visited was completely empty except for me. Seems like they have a long ways to go to face crowding issues at the majority of their superchargers, though it's definitely occurring at a few locations in California that are heavily used...
I just returned from a 1300 mile trip that included use of 4 superchargers in Utah, 1 in Nevada, 3 in Arizona, and 2 in New Mexico. There were two other Teslas charging in Vegas and 1-2 others charging in Kingman when I was there, including an employee of a US car manufacturer that had bought an early Tesla to intensively instrument and road test it for competitive analysis purposes. Neither of those stations was busy enough to cause me to wait. Every other supercharger I visited was completely empty except for me. Seems like they have a long ways to go to face crowding issues at the majority of their superchargers, though it's definitely occurring at a few locations in California that are heavily used...
Was it BMW again? They've already been caught at the Newark DE supercharger before with a tesla and a laptop taking notes of how the supercharging works, lol. If I recall right they said something like they were amazed at how Tesla could do this safely and were trying to understand how they did it.
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