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I don't think the business case for that closes. EVs are still overwhelmingly charged overnight at home. As they percolate to lower price points, that will cha

I don't think the business case for that closes. EVs are still overwhelmingly charged overnight at home. As they percolate to lower price points, that will change somewhat, but ultimately the total spend on charging stations is just too low to be much more than a distraction for a company the size of Tesla. The reason they built the supercharger network was that it was needed to sell cars, and now that they have it they might as well make money with it. I doubt it's much more than that.

SideburnsOfDoom 3y ago
> EVs are still overwhelmingly charged overnight at home And Tesla would like to be in that business too, with PowerWall batteries and "solar roof" panels. If they're succeeding well here is another matter though.
alistairSH 3y ago
You hinted at this, but a significant % of the population lives in either rented or multi-family housing, so home charging may not be feasible (at least in the short-to-medium term). While I own my home, I don't own my parking space (community property, assigned to me via HOA rules). While we're allowed to install a chargers, it's only possible for homes with assigned spaces directly in front of the home (albeit pricey, as it involves concrete work to run cables under community sidewalks). Some homes have spaces offset by a fair distance, or across community street, so installing a home charger is either extremely expensive or impossible.
- rootusrootus 3y ago
  The people who can charge at home still make up more than 50% of the market, though, and there's a few more years before that really becomes a limiting factor in sales. That's plenty of time for most places to get L2 chargers available.
  - alistairSH 3y ago
    Absolutely. But, it is a problem that needs solved. We're firmly within the "buy a new EV" demographic otherwise, but the cost+hassle of installing a charger at home definitely contributes to our "meh, we'll keep the ICE another year or two" mentality. And in a few years, charger availability might start to impact resales. Maybe. Mostly just thinking aloud.
piinbinary 3y ago
First reaction: I think you are right. Not only will a large portion of all chargeups happen at home, but I also wouldn't be surprised if the margin is lower. Second reaction: Maybe there's a business model where most of the profit from a charging station comes from things other than charging (e.g. onsite coffee shop, store, gym, etc) that gives people things to do while charging.

SideburnsOfDoom 3y ago

> EVs are still overwhelmingly charged overnight at home And Tesla would like to be in that business too, with PowerWall batteries and "solar roof" panels. If they're succeeding well here is another matter though.

alistairSH 3y ago

You hinted at this, but a significant % of the population lives in either rented or multi-family housing, so home charging may not be feasible (at least in the short-to-medium term). While I own my home, I don't own my parking space (community property, assigned to me via HOA rules). While we're allowed to install a chargers, it's only possible for homes with assigned spaces directly in front of the home (albeit pricey, as it involves concrete work to run cables under community sidewalks). Some homes have spaces offset by a fair distance, or across community street, so installing a home charger is either extremely expensive or impossible.

rootusrootus 3y ago
The people who can charge at home still make up more than 50% of the market, though, and there's a few more years before that really becomes a limiting factor in sales. That's plenty of time for most places to get L2 chargers available.
- alistairSH 3y ago
  Absolutely. But, it is a problem that needs solved. We're firmly within the "buy a new EV" demographic otherwise, but the cost+hassle of installing a charger at home definitely contributes to our "meh, we'll keep the ICE another year or two" mentality. And in a few years, charger availability might start to impact resales. Maybe. Mostly just thinking aloud.

piinbinary 3y ago

First reaction: I think you are right. Not only will a large portion of all chargeups happen at home, but I also wouldn't be surprised if the margin is lower. Second reaction: Maybe there's a business model where most of the profit from a charging station comes from things other than charging (e.g. onsite coffee shop, store, gym, etc) that gives people things to do while charging.