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New Tesla Buyers Will Have To Pay To Use Superchargers (theverge.com)
Tesla has updated its Supercharging Network of free fast-charging stations. Customers who purchase Teslas after January 1st, 2017, will be required to pay "a small fee to Supercharge." The fee itself "will be charged incrementally and cost less than the price of filling up a comparable gas car." The Verge reports: Current Tesla owners with Supercharger-equipped cars will be able to use the stations for free for the life of those vehicles, and a Tesla spokesperson tells The Verge that the free charging will transfer to successive owners. Customers who buy Teslas after that January 1st cutoff will be afforded 400 kWh of free Supercharging credits each year, good for about 1,000 miles, according to Tesla. The company says it will release more details about the change later this year, but added that "prices may fluctuate over time and vary regionally based on the cost of electricity." "Our Supercharger Network will never be a profit center," the company wrote in a blog post about the change. Tesla says that, by losing less money on providing free electricity at these stations, that the fees will subsidize the continued expansion of the Supercharger network. The Superchargers allow for a full charge in about 75 minutes or a half charge in about -- much faster than the standard Level 1 or Level 2 chargers found around the U.S. -- and Tesla has built 734 Supercharger stations (with nearly 5,000 chargers) since the network was started in 2012.
Yeah, that's pretty sloppy. From the original article, the number dropped was "30".
An imperfect plan executed violently is far superior to a perfect plan. -- George Patton
That should almost cover the miles back and forth to the dealership for the higher-than-industry average service issues and recalls.
The first one is always free...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
It had better cost a hell of a lot less than filling up a comparable gas car.
I'm pretty certain the model 3 was never going to have free supercharger access.
In fact, a quick search shows that I wasn't remembering wrong:
https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/234896-no-free-lunch-tesla-model-3-owners-will-pay-for-supercharger-access
No, they said that the Model 3 would have the capability to supercharge but not that it would have free supercharging. The hardware to support it is there, just like most other EVs have some kind of rapid charging capability, but there was never a promise of free electricity.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Why do people keep buying these unsafe cars from a manufacturer who can't be trusted?
it might have something to do with... i dunno, facts: Tesla’s Model S Sedan Named Safest Car In The History Of Cars
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
We do not know for sure, but my guess is that if never will be a profit center. They will charge just enough for it to pay for itself.
It should have been obvious that free supercharger use would never be more than a perk for early adopters. It would never be economically sustainable for mass market when the Model 3 is out, and most people will do the vast majority of charging in their garage overnight. Anyone who gets worked up over this obviously has a preexisting anti-Tesla bias.
You don't understand Musk. He's already made the big fortune that gives him everything me might desire for the rest of his life. Many billionaire's can't turn that off though, and keep seeking to make more and more money. Not Musk. Musk is motivated by changing the world. That's why he's doing Tesla and Space X and the rest.
He's already given away his patent rights on all technology in the superchargers, free for any competitor. That is not the action of a man with a plan to make money from superchargers.
Most people are - given that most people sleep for 8 hours a night, and don't use their car for significantly longer than that.
Further to that - in locations where EVs are taking off, it's pretty normal for work car parks to have a bunch of chargers (there's another 8 hours of the car sat around with no one in it), along with a bunch of shops/restaurants.
Owning an EV, I may be biased, but my experience so far is that I spend far *less* time messing about putting go-juice of one kind or another in my car, because I plug it in, go to work, come back, and have a full charge.
30 minutes to go 170 miles you say? Amazing. It took me about 2 minutes to "recharge" so I can go 220 miles. Of course I only had to partially "recharge" so if I had spent longer, say 5 minutes, I could go >400 miles.
Spent longer to go over 400 miles you say? Speaking of spending, it's amazing what benefit you get when you pay far more for it.
You can't currently charge a Nissan Leaf at a Tesla supercharger. The Nissan leaf uses the japanese CHAdeMO charging standard for DC fast charging. Teslas can also use CHAdeMO chargers with an adaptor. Teslas don't charge as fast on a CHAdeMO charger.
Elon Musk has spoken about opening up the Tesla charging stations to other models of EV in the future once a billing mechanism was in place. This was the motivation behind his release of Tesla patents so that other manufacturers can use them at no cost. He wants to other car makers to build Tesla charger compatibility into their cars. As yet there are no signs of any other manufacturer doing this. Japanese manufacturers have put a lot of investment in CHAdeMO over many years.
Musk could also convert his charging stations to support multiple charging standards. At the moment there seems to be an impasse when it comes to charging compatibiltiy.
Superchargers are meant for long distance travel, not for everyday charging. Most Tesla owners wake up every morning to a car full or electrons charged at home overnight, ready to roll ~220+ miles. Unfortunately some people, mostly in CA, decided they are willing to wait 30min to an hour every day just to get their $1-$5 worth of free electricity. That in turn caused congestion and people who were traveling long distances were annoyed having to wait, delaying their travels. I am speculating that the original thought was that people spending $70K+ on a car would not value their time at $4/hr or less (much less if they have to add another hour to drive to the nearest supercharger) but that turned out to be incorrect for small percentage of people. As Model 3 is priced at much lower price-point ($35K) and it's expected to sell a lot more units, so Tesla figured this problem will get worse. Charging a nominal fee to charging makes it not worth for someone who has a charger at home to drive to a supercharger to charge $2 worth of electricity. Only people who actually need them will use them.
PS> All the "old owners" have paid a $2,000 fee for the lifetime access to superchargers. It used to be an optional fee, but quickly was included with every car sold. A great majority of those owners will never get $2,000 worth of charging (e.g. coast-to-coast round trip will get you about $200 of free electricity). Not including this $2,000 in the price of the car will allow Tesla to keep the model 3 car price lower.
... according to US tests. In European tests, the Tesla Model S is just a standard car. Here are the Euro NCAP best cars of each class: http://www.euroncap.com/de/bew...
For comparison, here are the numbers for the Model S: http://www.euroncap.com/de/res... and here are the numbers for e.g. a Volvo XC90. http://www.euroncap.com/de/res...
Just look at the numbers, e.g. "safety equipment" Volvo 100% to Tesla 71% or "adult passenger safery" Volvo 97% to Tesla 82%. "Safest car in the history of cars" my ass.
Those that have 100km driveways number in the small hundreds. EV are probably not for them. A small 2 or 4 seater plane is.
What proportion of the population live within 100km of Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne CBD? Around 80% of the population. Australia is one of the most urbanised countries in the world.
EV makes most sense for those within 100km of a reasonable population centre, with a commute of ca 100km or less. And that is a helluva lots of people. For everyone else there is dead-dinosaur based fuel.
I don't have a car at the moment, but do have a ebike and a petrol guzzling noisy hog for the weekends. However, I am looking very seriously at a Tesla model S. Having driven the currently models more than once, I think it would fit the bil nicely. Even if it cost a few dollars to "fill the tank".
Q:I was listening to a CD in Grip and it sounded horrible! What's up? A:Perhaps you are listening to country music