5 ms·

California electricity rates are high. Tesla mostly just has to pass along these costs.

matthewdgreen 4y ago
The article mentions that MD and DE rates have also gone from 31c to 41c per kWh. That’s a 32% increase. Wasn’t aware that we were seeing electricity price increases anywhere near that on this coast. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t care much: I rarely use these networks except on occasional long trips, so the extra $6-8 per 200 miles driven isn’t a killer. But hopefully this is not the first sign of Tesla exercising its vendor lock-in to juice profits. The supercharger network is currently the best selling point for the car.
- Mountain_Skies 4y ago
  Ouch! I understand that using a SuperCharger in the middle of the day is a very different use case than charging at home, but here in Georgia, the overnight charging rate is a penny per kwh. Lots of incentive to be sure to have a full charge before leaving for the day and make sure if you buy an EV that your common usage patterns don't require you to charge away from home often.
  - jjtheblunt 4y ago
    We charged in Arizona overnight at home for years for something similar to your Georgia rate. It seems that thrifty trick is often overlooked in the discussions.
    - matthewdgreen 4y ago
      I don't think it's overlooked. Pretty much anyone with an EV either installs home charging, or can't install home charging for some practical reason (they live in a condo, can't run wires to street parking, etc.) I just feel bad for people in the second category who bought Teslas thinking they could supercharge, and didn't realize they were about to see +1/3 increases in their fueling costs.
      - l1tany11 4y ago
        Home refilling is a paradigm shift that most people don’t fully understand/appreciate yet. People have gone their entire lives filling up at a station, so it’s hard to believe that you really can go from going to a station every week to basically never doing that again. Plus with all the focus on the superchargers and dc fast charging in the marketing and media it really does go misunderstood. It’s not just that you can fill up at home, it’s that realistically you have to. And as you mentioned some people just can’t. Something like 10% of Teslas get flipped because people buy them with no way to fill up at home and then don’t want to live with the alternative (and who can blame them). 300 miles of advertised range may mean that most people filling up at home almost never go to a supercharger, but if you don’t have that option, you’re probably going to be quickly thinking that’s not even half as much as you want. Electric pickups are coming, and they are going to disappoint a lot of people, and won’t work for tons more. Currently some trucks (Ram 1500) have 1000 mile range. That’s not for no reason. They will still sell like hot cakes, and many businesses owners will trip over themselves in the rush to get several and love the economics, but it’s not going to be for everyone.
      - jjtheblunt 4y ago
        One irony is that I home charged on 110v for > 7 years. Teslas could too. The reason that is viable is that average daily mileage was sub 50 miles, and 110v for 8 hours or so was fine. If people want to drive much further than that average, as they own average, then 220v charging overnight would easily suffice, if available to them.
cma 4y ago
Elon used to say almost all would soon be disconnected from the grid. And he also said every charger affected by California blackouts would get a megapack installed long before that.
- pengaru 4y ago
  Musk says a lot of things.

The article mentions that MD and DE rates have also gone from 31c to 41c per kWh. That’s a 32% increase. Wasn’t aware that we were seeing electricity price increases anywhere near that on this coast. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t care much: I rarely use these networks except on occasional long trips, so the extra $6-8 per 200 miles driven isn’t a killer. But hopefully this is not the first sign of Tesla exercising its vendor lock-in to juice profits. The supercharger network is currently the best selling point for the car.

Mountain_Skies 4y ago
Ouch! I understand that using a SuperCharger in the middle of the day is a very different use case than charging at home, but here in Georgia, the overnight charging rate is a penny per kwh. Lots of incentive to be sure to have a full charge before leaving for the day and make sure if you buy an EV that your common usage patterns don't require you to charge away from home often.
- jjtheblunt 4y ago
  We charged in Arizona overnight at home for years for something similar to your Georgia rate. It seems that thrifty trick is often overlooked in the discussions.
  - matthewdgreen 4y ago
    I don't think it's overlooked. Pretty much anyone with an EV either installs home charging, or can't install home charging for some practical reason (they live in a condo, can't run wires to street parking, etc.) I just feel bad for people in the second category who bought Teslas thinking they could supercharge, and didn't realize they were about to see +1/3 increases in their fueling costs.
    - l1tany11 4y ago
      Home refilling is a paradigm shift that most people don’t fully understand/appreciate yet. People have gone their entire lives filling up at a station, so it’s hard to believe that you really can go from going to a station every week to basically never doing that again. Plus with all the focus on the superchargers and dc fast charging in the marketing and media it really does go misunderstood. It’s not just that you can fill up at home, it’s that realistically you have to. And as you mentioned some people just can’t. Something like 10% of Teslas get flipped because people buy them with no way to fill up at home and then don’t want to live with the alternative (and who can blame them). 300 miles of advertised range may mean that most people filling up at home almost never go to a supercharger, but if you don’t have that option, you’re probably going to be quickly thinking that’s not even half as much as you want. Electric pickups are coming, and they are going to disappoint a lot of people, and won’t work for tons more. Currently some trucks (Ram 1500) have 1000 mile range. That’s not for no reason. They will still sell like hot cakes, and many businesses owners will trip over themselves in the rush to get several and love the economics, but it’s not going to be for everyone.
    - jjtheblunt 4y ago
      One irony is that I home charged on 110v for > 7 years. Teslas could too. The reason that is viable is that average daily mileage was sub 50 miles, and 110v for 8 hours or so was fine. If people want to drive much further than that average, as they own average, then 220v charging overnight would easily suffice, if available to them.

cma 4y ago

Elon used to say almost all would soon be disconnected from the grid. And he also said every charger affected by California blackouts would get a megapack installed long before that.

pengaru 4y ago
Musk says a lot of things.