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I own a Tesla, I don't know why I should care about other charging stations. Tesla's supercharger network is more than enough for road trips and in city I live

by msoad 5y ago

I own a Tesla, I don't know why I should care about other charging stations. Tesla's supercharger network is more than enough for road trips and in city I live in I just charge at home. Not sure why Tesla should be worried about their connector format "losing" to competition.

duped 5y ago
Not everyone can charge at home, and access to charging infrastructure is a selling point for those people.
- toomuchtodo 5y ago
  Most folks I know without home charging charge at Superchargers at grocery stores (Meijer grocery stores, specifically, who have an arrangement with Tesla for colocating Supercharge stations, although I've also seen Tesla 72kw urban chargers at higher end groceries in urban areas such as Chicago). Their vehicle is charged back up before their ~weekly grocery shopping trip is complete, and in some cases their employer has installed a J1772 charging station for them (and provides free electricity) as a perk. Those J1772 stations are very reasonably priced compared to a DC fast charger. As long as Tesla can continue to colocate fast chargers at places urban dwellers must frequent (which is likely based on their experience and the brand value), it's a non issue imho. I've seen lots of Electrify America charging stations, but there might as well be tumbleweeds rolling through with how rare it is to see someone charging at one.
nrjames 5y ago
Furthermore, an inexpensive adapter makes the issue moot both for Tesla owners and owners of other EVs.
turbinerneiter 5y ago
Because not everyone can charge at home and in cities people will rely on curbside charging, for which Tesla has no answer. The question will be: how big is the market of people who can afford a Tesla, but live in an apartment building with no possibilty to install a charger in the garage. I don't think it's a live threatening issue for Tesla, but at some point they will need to solve it. I guess adapters will do.
- hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
  > Because not everyone can charge at home and in cities people will rely on curbside charging, for which Tesla has no answer. Sorry, totally disagree that EVs (electric only, not hybrids) will be viable for more than a teeny percentage of apartment dwellers if their building doesn't support charging. Curbside charging just won't cut it for most people, for the simple fact that the most common time when people want to charge their cars at night, when the car is in their garage.
  - taken_username 5y ago
    Assumption: everyone has a garage!
    - hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
      I was thinking of an apartment building garage in that statement, but all of my reasoning goes the same for an apartment building parking lot.
      - freemint 5y ago
        Mandatory parking area is not that excessive as it is inside the USoA all over the world. Those mandatory parking area laws are on the mayor contributors to urban sprawl (where every family needs a 2 car garage and therefore has one).
  - ericd 5y ago
    Why? I have friends who can’t charge at home, and just charge at superchargers. Not ideal, but they seem fine with it. It’s not like the cars take that long to charge, and their range is such that you only need to do that maybe once a week with a normal commute.
  - turbinerneiter 5y ago
    If the range of the car is 500km, in Europe most people would probably charge once or twice a week. But I agree, we need chargers in buildings parking garage to make this work.
sudhirj 5y ago
Because they can’t sell their cars in locations where they haven’t built out a supercharger network, which is still most of the world. The more interoperable standard will win there. Starting a supercharging station worldwide is very different from doing it in a few first world countries.
- dahfizz 5y ago
  Do a lot of $50,000+ cars get sold in third world countries? I'm not sure those markets are a priority for Tesla.
  - sudhirj 5y ago
    Would seem that way, but yeah. A car affordable to 10% of a 100 million people and 1% of a billion people is the same market size.
  - michaelt 5y ago
    The UK has a Tesla charging network, but it's very sparse in places [1] - if you're in Peterborough the nearest Tesla charger is 40 minutes drive away. A bunch of other networks have chargers that are much closer. I suppose you could argue the UK is a third world country, of course :) [1] https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/trips https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/trips
    - dahfizz 5y ago
      The UK is also tiny. You don't need superchargers in every neighborhood, because people charge the cars at home. There are ample superchargers to get you anywhere in the UK you would want to go.
  - fakedang 5y ago
    The district in India where my grandmother was from was the poorest in that state, and one of the poorest in India overall. In the span of the past 20 years (one generational transition), that district has transformed into one of the more affluent districts in the state, as well as the biggest car market in the country, especially for luxury cars such as BMW, Mercedes, Jeep and Range Rover. And also 0.1% of Indians or Africans is still 1 million potential customers or 300k cars sold potentially. Or $15B each market. So yeah, it makes sense to pay attention to the third world too.
gwbas1c 5y ago
Honestly, I suspect that most businesses like restaurants and other attractions that anyone would want to stop on during a long drive will have a high-speed charger in the parking lot. When that happens, I doubt that it will be any format other than CCS. I also bet Tesla owners will grumble that they need to use an adapter when no one else has to.

by msoad 5y ago

duped 5y ago

Not everyone can charge at home, and access to charging infrastructure is a selling point for those people.

toomuchtodo 5y ago
Most folks I know without home charging charge at Superchargers at grocery stores (Meijer grocery stores, specifically, who have an arrangement with Tesla for colocating Supercharge stations, although I've also seen Tesla 72kw urban chargers at higher end groceries in urban areas such as Chicago). Their vehicle is charged back up before their ~weekly grocery shopping trip is complete, and in some cases their employer has installed a J1772 charging station for them (and provides free electricity) as a perk. Those J1772 stations are very reasonably priced compared to a DC fast charger. As long as Tesla can continue to colocate fast chargers at places urban dwellers must frequent (which is likely based on their experience and the brand value), it's a non issue imho. I've seen lots of Electrify America charging stations, but there might as well be tumbleweeds rolling through with how rare it is to see someone charging at one.

nrjames 5y ago

Furthermore, an inexpensive adapter makes the issue moot both for Tesla owners and owners of other EVs.

turbinerneiter 5y ago

Because not everyone can charge at home and in cities people will rely on curbside charging, for which Tesla has no answer. The question will be: how big is the market of people who can afford a Tesla, but live in an apartment building with no possibilty to install a charger in the garage. I don't think it's a live threatening issue for Tesla, but at some point they will need to solve it. I guess adapters will do.

hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
> Because not everyone can charge at home and in cities people will rely on curbside charging, for which Tesla has no answer. Sorry, totally disagree that EVs (electric only, not hybrids) will be viable for more than a teeny percentage of apartment dwellers if their building doesn't support charging. Curbside charging just won't cut it for most people, for the simple fact that the most common time when people want to charge their cars at night, when the car is in their garage.
- taken_username 5y ago
  Assumption: everyone has a garage!
  - hn_throwaway_99 5y ago
    I was thinking of an apartment building garage in that statement, but all of my reasoning goes the same for an apartment building parking lot.
    - freemint 5y ago
      Mandatory parking area is not that excessive as it is inside the USoA all over the world. Those mandatory parking area laws are on the mayor contributors to urban sprawl (where every family needs a 2 car garage and therefore has one).
- ericd 5y ago
  Why? I have friends who can’t charge at home, and just charge at superchargers. Not ideal, but they seem fine with it. It’s not like the cars take that long to charge, and their range is such that you only need to do that maybe once a week with a normal commute.
- turbinerneiter 5y ago
  If the range of the car is 500km, in Europe most people would probably charge once or twice a week. But I agree, we need chargers in buildings parking garage to make this work.

sudhirj 5y ago

Because they can’t sell their cars in locations where they haven’t built out a supercharger network, which is still most of the world. The more interoperable standard will win there. Starting a supercharging station worldwide is very different from doing it in a few first world countries.

dahfizz 5y ago
Do a lot of $50,000+ cars get sold in third world countries? I'm not sure those markets are a priority for Tesla.
- sudhirj 5y ago
  Would seem that way, but yeah. A car affordable to 10% of a 100 million people and 1% of a billion people is the same market size.
- michaelt 5y ago
  The UK has a Tesla charging network, but it's very sparse in places [1] - if you're in Peterborough the nearest Tesla charger is 40 minutes drive away. A bunch of other networks have chargers that are much closer. I suppose you could argue the UK is a third world country, of course :) [1] https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/trips https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/trips
  - dahfizz 5y ago
    The UK is also tiny. You don't need superchargers in every neighborhood, because people charge the cars at home. There are ample superchargers to get you anywhere in the UK you would want to go.
- fakedang 5y ago
  The district in India where my grandmother was from was the poorest in that state, and one of the poorest in India overall. In the span of the past 20 years (one generational transition), that district has transformed into one of the more affluent districts in the state, as well as the biggest car market in the country, especially for luxury cars such as BMW, Mercedes, Jeep and Range Rover. And also 0.1% of Indians or Africans is still 1 million potential customers or 300k cars sold potentially. Or $15B each market. So yeah, it makes sense to pay attention to the third world too.

gwbas1c 5y ago

Honestly, I suspect that most businesses like restaurants and other attractions that anyone would want to stop on during a long drive will have a high-speed charger in the parking lot. When that happens, I doubt that it will be any format other than CCS. I also bet Tesla owners will grumble that they need to use an adapter when no one else has to.