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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.
The first one is always free...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
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.
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.
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.