Tesla Has Revealed How Much Supercharger Access Will Cost Future Owners
The whole free Supercharger access thing with Tesla always seemed a little good to be true. And sure enough, we found out last year that the Model 3 wouldn’t come with the same unlimited access enjoyed by Model S and X owners, and back in November Tesla announced that all future owners would be charged.
As it turns out, it’s not as simple as that. If you order a Model S or X after 15 January 2017, you won’t get unlimited access, but you will get a 400 kWh ‘credit’ that renews annually on the anniversary of delivery. Tesla said that it “carefully considered current Supercharger usage and found that 400 kWh covers the annual long-distance driving needs of the majority of our owners.”
So it should remain free for most. But how much might it cost if you go over? That’s where it gets a little complicated. In most places you’ll pay per kWh, but the amount charged per kWh is going to vary, being fixed for each state/province/county (as detailed by Tesla here). In some places it’ll be necessary to charge by the minute due to regulations.
Happily, Tesla has attempted to put the extra costs into context with a few examples, in the form of four hypothetical road trips:
San Francisco to Los Angeles - around $15
Los Angeles to New York - around $120
Paris to Rome - around €60
Beijing to Shanghai - around ¥400
So in most cases it still works out a lot cheaper than taking a conventional internal combustion powered car, although it’s worth pointing out a particularly economical diesel car wouldn’t cost more on the Paris to Rome trip.
Despite the new charges, Tesla says it will never make money from the network, saying that the intention is to merely “recover a portion of our costs”. Any Tesla ordered before the cut-off point will retain free charging for the life of the vehicle.
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
I still rather supercharge this
The hellcat already has a supercharger though
Sobo
Waiting for someone to post “I have 3 dollars”
This is supercharging!! Dont know what Tesla are going on about ;)
At least Tesla don’t CHARGE that much for their superCHARGERS…
(I’ll let myself out)
Slams door and is incredibly SHOCKED that Tesla have only provided a limited range every year…
That’s not a huge surprise to be honest. Tesla is, first and foremost, a company that needs to be in the black, not a welfare organisation. Free electricity everywhere and always sounded way too good to be true, didn’t it?
Though it’s worth pointing out that they are charging (hehe) 20ish cent per kWh on their super chargers. The average you pay in Europe for electricity in your house is between 25 and 30 cent per kWh, so in the end, it’s still marginally cheaper than plugging it into your house’s wall socket.
Not hugely surprising, no, but it does still work out to be a much better deal than expected with the ‘credit’, and for what you pay for over that, as you say.
How long Tesla continues to give out the credit is another matter, though…
That’s why I hate EVs
Cost effective travel is what makes you hate EVs?
idk what car gets form Paris to Rome on 60 EUR.
320d gets around 1000 km range so you need to fill up 1,5 times. A tank is around 60 EUR so it’ll be 90 bucks.
c220 cdi w205 can do 4l/100km so u have 15 times 100km to rom from paris means u are 4*15=60 but still 1l costs about 1,1€ so 66€ ~60€. And btw dafuq means LA-NY for 120$ ???
if you check ViaMichelin they say a luxury car needs 300€ of petrol or 200€ of Diesel to do Paris to Rome…
I don`t remember any carmaker to give you free gas or something, stop whining.
You’re lonely? Find a girl for the night == >> goo.gl/KZbTjV