Slashdot Mirror
Elon Musk Suggests Tesla Model 3 Won't Get Free Supercharger Use (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via The Verge: In response to a question about how the company would handle an influx of Model 3s to its Supercharging stations, which are currently offered as a free service to Tesla customers, Elon Musk said at Tesla's annual shareholder's conference in Mountain View, California, "it will not be free long distance for life unless you purchase that package." He did not specify what the "package" contained, nor did he say how much it would cost as an add-on with the purchase of a Model 3. His full quote reads: "Obviously, [free Supercharging] fundamentally has a cost. [...] The obvious thing to do is decouple that from the cost of the Model 3. So it will still be very cheap, and far cheaper than gasoline, to drive long-distance with the Model 3, but it will not be free long distance for life unless you purchase that package. I wish we could, but in order to achieve the economics, it has to be something like that." Tesla did recently announce their Gigafactory Grand Opening will be held on July 29, even if it isn't scheduled to begin production on lithium ion cells until next year.
So basically some rich guy wanted to know if he had to share his charging station with the unwashed lower classes.
To be fair, it is a genuine concern. It takes me about 4 minutes to fill my car.
In the last decade, I've had to wait for a pump only a couple times, and the longest wait was only a couple cars. (Maybe 10 minutes).
If the new model is cheaper and a hit, demand for charging will rapidly outstrip supply.
It takes an hour to charge a Tesla at a superstation. Its only going to take a small surge in electric vehicle to overwhelm a stations capacity. Get just 2-3 cars in front of you, and there goes half a DAY.
If you're going for long-distance, the optimal strategy is to charge for 30 min to get to ~70% then drive to the next charging station. The charging rate for Li-Ion gets significantly slower as you approach 100%. You'll start out at around 120-130 KW and fall down to about 50 KW at 80%.
It wasn't the case ~2 years ago but nowadays, the maximum distance between any 2 charging stations is about ~150 miles. So you should have plenty of charge after 30 min to get to the next station even if you drive like a maniac.
I know a guy who owns a Leaf that sits in his garage because the 50 mile round trip to work is a bit too risky
Many employers offer recharging outlets at work, so maybe he should look into that. In fact, maybe he should have looked into that before he bought the car.