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Tesla has not "monopolized" charging stations in any reasonable understanding of the word. They spent somewhere south of $1B to built their own infrastructure.
by jtaillon 5y ago
Tesla has not "monopolized" charging stations in any reasonable understanding of the word. They spent somewhere south of $1B to built their own infrastructure. Any other company could have done that, but they chose to drag their heels instead. Even still, they could _still_ do that (and maybe EA will be that network). Electricity is pretty much everywhere, and there's definitely room for lots more long distance chargers. I don't understand how anyone could think what Tesla has done with it's supercharger network is a bad thing....
- kube-system 5y agoTesla does not let other vehicles charge at their stations, at least in the US. I don’t have this issue with any gasoline stations.
- jtaillon 5y agoShould they? Why should one private company be forced to build infrastructure for other companies that are intentionally dragging their heels? GM doesn't run gas stations It would be great if they could be altruistic to let anyone use them, but altruism isn't really a good path to profits in our society
- kube-system 5y agoBecause electrical distribution infrastructure is a utility in every other case. Good on Tesla for building a solution, but their stations are monopolized, and this isn’t good for EV adoption overall. It’s good for Tesla.
- jtaillon 5y agoOk, then the government should be doing it and investing to meet current and future demand. A private company (in a non-regulated market) can't be forced to do so.
- kube-system 5y agoI am not suggesting any of that. I explicitly said above that PHEVs are the more immediate solution to the situation.
- jtaillon 5y agoYes, in the same way a Cuisinart blender is a "monopoly" since I can only buy a Cuisinart blender from Cuisinart No one's preventing anyone from building a better solution and making it available to consumers. Not a monopoly
- kube-system 5y agoI am not suggesting that Tesla has prevented anyone else from building charging stations. I am using the word monopoly in the non-antitrust sense here.
- tene 5y agoIn what sense do you mean it, then? Are any of these what you meant? https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monopoly https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monopoly None of those seem to apply to Tesla's charging stations to me. Could you explain more about what you're trying to say here?
- kube-system 5y ago> To dominate or use to the exclusion of others. https://www.wordnik.com/words/monopolize https://www.wordnik.com/words/monopolize Tesla's network of fast charging stations are owned by the manufacturer of the car, and they exclude others from using their network.
- HWR_14 5y ago> Tesla does not let other vehicles charge at their stations, at least in the US. IIRC, the EU forced all EVs to adopt an industry standard charger interface. So, yes, it's a stupid US thing.
- jsperx 5y agoMusk said on an earnings call they expect to open the network up to other models by the end of this year. https://electrek.co/2021/08/18/tesla-prepping-giant-supercharger-expansion-ahead-opening-network-other-evs/ https://electrek.co/2021/08/18/tesla-prepping-giant-supercha...
- toast0 5y agoForward looking statements from Musk don't have a good history of accurate timelines.