Updated Supercharger Rates

[Mr T]

Chargepoint is charging 40 cents a KW! We still have a bargain. I wouldn't mind if Tesla charges more and help fund an even more rapidly expanding supercharging network.

 

[TechOps]

The car does the communicating with the mothership, so it makes sense to me that it is reporting kWh (it’s kWh, not kW) into the battery, not kWh from the grid.

It's kWh if you're talking about the total amount of energy delivered during charging, and it's kW if you're talking about the amount of power being delivered at a specific point in time. Tesla bills based on either of these, depending on the state.

Tesla is definitely still pumping money into the Supercharger network, even with these higher rates. Electricity costs are just one part of operational expenses (in addition to rent, labor, repair costs, replacing broken parts, etc.) but there is also the fixed capital expenditures they had to make, and depreciate over time (the transformers and other electrical equipment, conduit and cable, construction costs, etc.) so it's not a bad deal.

 

[milleron]

I tend to agree that it is reasonable for the area, but it is a 30% increase so that might be the hat holding part. For where I live, 8 cents KWh, that price is considered outrageous.

Technically, my cost in Ohio is about 6.9¢/kwh. However, the REAL cost must include the DISTRIBUTION charges, and that brings the real cost of electricity to 12.5¢/kwh.
That said, charging twice that for Supercharging is ridiculous. They cannot need that huge 100% surcharge to cover the cost of maintenance.
Tesla said (or strongly implied) that when they stopped free Supercharging, they would sell the power at their cost. These rates seem to violate that statement.
Compared to the hybrid I traded in on my Model S, these prices give me the same MPGe I got with that car -- i.e., no savings at all on road trips. Granted, 95% of my charging will be at home, but I still resent what appears to be the breaking of a promise.

 

[TexasEV]

Technically, my cost in Ohio is about 6.9¢/kwh. However, the REAL cost must include the DISTRIBUTION charges, and that brings the real cost of electricity to 12.5¢/kwh.
That said, charging twice that for Supercharging is ridiculous. They cannot need that huge 100% surcharge to cover the cost of maintenance.
Tesla said (or strongly implied) that when they stopped free Supercharging, they would sell the power at their cost. These rates seem to violate that statement..

You haven't read anything people have said about commercial electric rates and demand charges, have you?

 

[weccman]

We have both a Model S with free supercharging and a new Model 3, for which we have to pay for supercharging. I'm delighted with both. With the Model S, we did understand that we had paid a share of the cost of the network in the price of the car, and free use of the network is a nice benefit, but frankly it is not that big a deal. We save so much money charging at night at home over buying gas that our occasional supercharger payment for the Model 3 (recently $10.60 and $11.60, both for a lot more than 100 miles) just seems very reasonable. And as the Model 3 ramp continues, we will be glad that Tesla has developed a sustainable model for keeping superchargers up to the increasing demand.

 

[Johann Koeber]

In Germany no change:

€ 0.34 pro Minute über 60 kW
€ 0.17 pro Minute bis 60 kW

So you probably average 0.20 Euro per kWh, which compares favourably with the home rate of almost 0.30 Euro per kWh.

Possibly Tesla as a large consumer of electricity might be exempt from the environmental taxes that consumers here have to pay and are the main reason for electricity being so expensive.

In Austria Tesla charges 0.23 Euro per minute, regardless of charge rate.

 

[Big Earl]

Technically, my cost in Ohio is about 6.9¢/kwh. However, the REAL cost must include the DISTRIBUTION charges, and that brings the real cost of electricity to 12.5¢/kwh.
That said, charging twice that for Supercharging is ridiculous. They cannot need that huge 100% surcharge to cover the cost of maintenance.
Tesla said (or strongly implied) that when they stopped free Supercharging, they would sell the power at their cost. These rates seem to violate that statement.
Compared to the hybrid I traded in on my Model S, these prices give me the same MPGe I got with that car -- i.e., no savings at all on road trips. Granted, 95% of my charging will be at home, but I still resent what appears to be the breaking of a promise.

That is your residential rate, but what are commercial rates including demand charges? As I've mentioned in other posts, demand charges can increase the average price per kWh significantly in many typical supercharger applications.

For example, at my current commercial rates, a 10 stall Supercharger would incur $6,000 worth of demand charges for a single 30 minute period of full utilization in a one month billing cycle, even if nobody used the superchargers for the rest of the month. At Kettleman city, that would jump to $24,000.

 

[dhanson865]

What was it before?

the archived prices Supercharging https://web.archive.org/web/20180201045829/https://www.tesla.com/support/supercharging

 

[elfredo]

Oh, not saying that it's cheaper than charging at home.

I agree, the upcharge is reasonable. Having it priced higher than home charging (even if they weren't just covering costs) may clear some of the supercharger congestion caused by people deciding to 'fill up' on their way home to save some pennies. And it's definitely cheaper than gas. By far.

Hi-

At least in Oregon, that's double the rate I pay the power company for power at my home.

(I appreciate that Tesla has to cover more than the costs of electricity at these locations - so the upcharge is reasonable.)

Most of my driving is done near Asheville, NC. There is a Duke Energy utility rate that i switched to called Time of Use or TOU. During off peak hours, I charge at my home for 6.644 cents per KWH. Beats driving to a Suoer Chager even though i am grandfathered n to free SC. i love a full charge in the morning!

 

[cantbechanged]

Minnesota and Virginia are at the lowest rate Tesla charges by kWh, $0.21. The highest is Hawaii at $0.34kWh.

I can’t wait to pay $.34 at our elusive supercharger .

 

[CBPfromTN]

Quick question in Free Lifetime Supercharger
I am about to take delivery of my model S.
How can I know for sure it has it... does it have to be listed in the specs ( Like PUP, AP, etc) before delivery?

Well, first of all, did you get a referral before you ordered? I feel like you probably did but I don't know for sure. So, if you did, you should have it. I believe mine was on my spec page that I have it but I cannot remember for sure. I just looked at my account page and it is on there but what I would do if you KNOW you had a referral code and purchased before the referral program was over for the unlimited lifetime super charging, is call your owner advisor to be sure it is on there. You definitely want that and while I don't think that program is still going on, I believe it might've ended on Jan. 31 but don't hold me to that. I would ask my owner advisor immediately. You don't want to have to fight that battle after you take delivery! Good luck and let me know what you find out! (While looking at my account, I noticed a have a referral!!! I believe it came from someone who saw my post on Twitter, maybe...I have no idea but I thought that was pretty cool!)

 

[pdx3181]

Well, first of all, did you get a referral before you ordered? I feel like you probably did but I don't know for sure. So, if you did, you should have it. I believe mine was on my spec page that I have it but I cannot remember for sure. I just looked at my account page and it is on there but what I would do if you KNOW you had a referral code and purchased before the referral program was over for the unlimited lifetime super charging, is call your owner advisor to be sure it is on there. You definitely want that and while I don't think that program is still going on, I believe it might've ended on Jan. 31 but don't hold me to that. I would ask my owner advisor immediately. You don't want to have to fight that battle after you take delivery! Good luck and let me know what you find out! (While looking at my account, I noticed a have a referral!!! I believe it came from someone who saw my post on Twitter, maybe...I have no idea but I thought that was pretty cool!)

I ended up switching to an inventory car - so my specs didn't show free charging on that car. (It did on the one I had on order.) I ended up asking the delivery person to write me a one sentence letter, on letterhead, saying my car (with the VIN in the letter) came with free supercharging. Four or five days later, Tesla.com showed free charging.

 

[pdq]

I tend to agree that it is reasonable for the area, but it is a 30% increase so that might be the hat holding part. For where I live, 8 cents KWh, that price is considered outrageous.

Here in PA, I pay 13 cents/KWH for normal residential rates.

Take into consideration that Tesla is probably buying the energy at highly discounted commercial rates, the SuperChargers are probably a huge profit center for Tesla given that once constructed, they don't need a lot of maintenance.

Perhaps Tesla should stop trying to be a car company, and instead become a utility company providing charging to multiple car manufacturers. Sounds like a great business.

 

[Big Earl]

Here in PA, I pay 13 cents/KWH for normal residential rates.

Take into consideration that Tesla is probably buying the energy at highly discounted commercial rates, the SuperChargers are probably a huge profit center for Tesla given that once constructed, they don't need a lot of maintenance.

Perhaps Tesla should stop trying to be a car company, and instead become a utility company providing charging to multiple car manufacturers. Sounds like a great business.

Commercial rates have discounted rates per kWh but often introduce demand charges. See this post for an example of commercial rates: Updated Supercharger Rates

 

[ZBB]

Just adding another perspective to this thread. My takeaway is that the new pricing is completely reasonable.

I have a 2013 S60, and paid the $2k option to enable supercharging. So even though I have "lifetime" supercharging, there was still a cost to me, so I decided early on to log all supercharges (manually -- just take a picture if the dash just before and just after plugging in/unplugging. From that, I built a spreadsheet with each supercharge -- so I'm using those stats to compare to the new SC pricing.

I'm a couple months shy of my 5th anniversary of delivery, and the car has just over 84k miles. We've done several road trips, and my Supercharger log shows I've added 15,946 Rated Miles to the S60 from Supercharging. I estimate that is about 4,784 kWh, so just over 19% of my mileage on the car has been "Supercharger Powered". I've Supercharged 158 times, for an average of 45 min per charge. Since I paid $2k for Supercharger access, I can put a cost on both the kWh and minutes -- here's what its cost:
- $0.42 per kWh
- $0.28 per minute

Both of those are higher than the new Supercharger rates. Of course, each additional Supercharge I make, will bring the cost down. But I'm getting towards the end of my time with this Model S -- I'll be replacing it with a 3 soon (waiting for non-black interior and dual motor…).

I also bought a CHAdeMO adapter a couple years ago and have kept a corresponding log of my CHAdeMO charges. CHAdeMO is only a gap-filler charge for me and was needed on a couple of our road trips, and I've only used it 9 times -- but from 5 different charging companies in the US and Canada. The log shows I've added 631 rated miles and added 182 kWh (this is actual since the providers billing statements provide this -- although I also estimated usage the same way as my Supercharger log works, and my estimate is within 2%). Average charge duration is about 36 min (partly driven by EVgo's artificial 30 minute cap, although I only used EVgo once, and I understand they just reduced rates and changed that cap time…). Here are the fees I've paid:
- $0.72 per kWh
- $0.20 per minute

So, Tesla's fees are completely reasonable compared to other charging networks. Also, keep in mind the CHAdeMO adapter peaks at around 44kW, and my charges averaged 34kW, so significantly slower than a Supercharge…

My take away is that I'll end up spending less on Supercharging when I get my Model 3 than I did when buying my Model S. Sure, I'll pay by the drink when using it, but most of my charging is at home. I mostly use Superchargers on road trips. I've had 5 "local" Supercharges since moving to OH -- and 2 of those were Tesla putting the car on the Supercharger while it was in for Service, the other 3 were to supplement home charging for unexpected driving -- I still need to install a Wall Charger at our new house (been relying on 120V charging since moving last summer).

 

[CraigW]

I have made a summary of the rates across the United States. Available here: weightman.us/documents/SuperchargerRates201803.pdf

 

[CBPfromTN]

I ended up switching to an inventory car - so my specs didn't show free charging on that car. (It did on the one I had on order.) I ended up asking the delivery person to write me a one sentence letter, on letterhead, saying my car (with the VIN in the letter) came with free supercharging. Four or five days later, Tesla.com showed free charging.

Oh good! You might not have gotten it had you not done that. Wow. So, how do you like your new car?

 

[blkpantha]

I ended up switching to an inventory car - so my specs didn't show free charging on that car. (It did on the one I had on order.) I ended up asking the delivery person to write me a one sentence letter, on letterhead, saying my car (with the VIN in the letter) came with free supercharging. Four or five days later, Tesla.com showed free charging.

this is the best tip to ascertain free supercharging is on the specs
Here is the deal, when I see cars on this forum even the used inventory it stipulates specifically in the specs "free super charging"
Will def email my delivery person

 

[pdx3181]

Oh good! You might not have gotten it had you not done that. Wow. So, how do you like your new car?

It's a long story . . .

 

[CBPfromTN]

It's a long story . . .

I hate for you to have to tell it but if you care to, I'm here to listen.