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That makes sense though, you’re also paying for the infrastructure, not just the energy.
by brk 3y ago
That makes sense though, you’re also paying for the infrastructure, not just the energy.
- eru 3y agoWhen you get energy from the grid, you are also paying for the infrastructure, don't you?
- usrusr 3y agoIt's infrastructure all the way down and Tesla's stack is considerably higher than your home wallbox or some opportunistically placed medium speed charger.
- Ekaros 3y agoYes, but in addition you have the supercharger device itself, the asphalt and keeping it clean around it. And then maintenance and repair if it breaks and so on. For three thousand charger at net of 0.29 per kwh would mean that you have to sell 100 00 kwh of energy. And 3000 is probably bit low for these type of installations in total cost.
- progbits 3y agoIt probably makes more sense to account the costs for building superchargers in car sales and profits, rather than the electricity costs. More cars than chargers, much higher profit margin and it gives brand value driving future sales. Although I don't think the price has to be exactly the same as regular consumer electricity price, it should cover some maintenance.
- rcme 3y ago> It probably makes more sense to account the costs for building superchargers in car sales and profits, rather than the electricity costs. Why would that make more sense? You'd need to raise the cost of the cars, which would decrease sales. Also, people who charge at home would be paying for super chargers they might not use. Usage-based charges seems totally logical here.
- fomine3 3y agoPlease don't. My future plan is buying BEV and charging 99.5% at home.
- junon 3y ago> the asphalt and keeping it clean around it. In Germany, we already pay taxes for this exact thing, so that shouldn't be factored into the cost of the charging itself.
- Ekaros 3y agoAre all of the car parking spots on public roads in Germany? Here at least the chargers are usually at some privately owned and maintained parking lots.
- carlmr 3y agoSuperchargers are usually not located on the street, but at Autobahn gas stations. I'm not sure who pays for the asphalt and cleaning around there. I would have assumed it's private property and the oil company usually pays for that. I could be wrong though.
- thatfrenchguy 3y agoMore importantly, demand charges from the utility
- stavros 3y agoI don't know how Superchargers work, but isn't there some sort of machinery installed, and maybe staff to run it/monitor it? That costs money too.
- CrampusDestrus 3y agoand where do Tesla chargers get the electricity from? when you use a supercharger you are paying for Tesla's infrastructure, your country's infrastructure and the electricity itself, so of course it costs more
- nicoburns 3y agoI think it makes sense that drawing energy from the grid at a high rate costs more than drawing the same amount of energy from the grid at a slower rate. There is a real cost to supporting that high rate of current draw.
- maxerickson 3y agoMy utility charges residential customers $0.11 per kW-h Large users pay $0.06 per kW-h and then a demand charge of $10 per kW based on their max draw for the month. So if you do a bit to smooth out demand, the resulting cost isn't going to be wildly different than residential.
- brk 3y agoRight, you’re paying for the infrastructure to bring the energy to what is essentially a handoff point of a power meter and some bare wires. From there, additional overhead exits to convert those bare wires into a Supercharger location. Beyond the initial costs of building the charging site you will have some non-zero ongoing maintenance costs. Beyond all that, Supercharger outlets are arguably a business of sorts. Which means it needs to make a profit and not just sell at cost.
- danans 3y agoA high power DC charger (50-350kW) puts higher peak load on the grid, and therefore the infrastructure needs to be sized to meet that peak load. A lower power 240V home charger (5-6kW) doesn't demand nearly as much real time power from the grid, and so doesn't require as much infrastructure, especially if it can be charged during off-peak hours.
- Symbiote 3y agoThere is possibly a small penalty for the intermittent, high-power use.
- dzhiurgis 3y agoI think most superchargers have batteries to offload and balance the load
- Symbiote 3y agoI tried to find out whether that was the case, and it isn't clear. At least some have batteries, and the batteries can provide at least some of the required power, but the capacity of the battery at a particular location seems to be obscure. I'd guess it depends very much on the power available to Tesla at the location. In some locations there will be plenty of power with little additional cost from the electricity company (e.g. near an industrial area), in others the opposite (isolated motorway rest area).