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Tesla Model 3 owners will have to pay to use superchargers

4K views 26 replies 17 participants last post by  Norton 
#1 ·
#4 ·
True, Tesla is not one of the "main players" yet. However, there have been no price increases on the Model 3, and no delays from the stated estimate of the end of 2017 which was announced at the Model 3 reveal.

How can giving away Free Fuel for Life ever be a sustainable business model?

I know, I know, you paid for it 1 time, up front, but what about when you use WAY more than $2000 worth of electrons and rising ?!?
If you, or me, or another Model S driver uses more than $2000 in electricity (about 50,000 miles worth), it would have no impact on the success or failure of the business model.

The only thing that matters is the average use of the superchargers per paid/subscribed user.
I've charged about 6,000 miles on superchargers on two vehicles. So far, Tesla is way ahead of the game for me. If someone else has driven 90,000 miles on superchargers, then Tesla's cost has balanced out.
 
#3 ·
How can giving away Free Fuel for Life ever be a sustainable business model?

I know, I know, you paid for it 1 time, up front, but what about when you use WAY more than $2000 worth of electrons and rising ?!?
 
#5 ·
roughly 67,000 miles at average power costs in US



if you figure roughly 4 miles per kWh, and $0.12/kWh USA average, that's $2000/$0.12/kWh=16666...kWhx4mi/kWh=66,666 miles of supercharger driven miles. Considering that the supercharger network is specifically designed for long distance highway travel that is not likely.
 
#6 ·
It's an option. Nothing wrong with this. My Leaf had CHAdeMO as an option. People who thought this would be free were mostly just hearing what they wanted to hear.

Will this ever make financial sense? No. Would I get it if buying a Model 3? Probably. :)

The bigger issue will be that the Model 3, or the car everyone thinks about when mentioning a Model 3, won't be $35K.
 
#8 ·
So can a model 3 owner who didn't purchase the free charge option still get charging at the superchargers if they pay for it? And if so, how much do they charge for a charge at a supercharger?
 
#10 ·
I just discovered this news from Autoline Daily - edition 1875. See their report at 3:49 here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCVDGDCW32s

So, my prediction that many will return their "foolish" deposit for the Model 3 is coming true as they learn that the Superchargers will not be free! I expected this, and I do hole for all TM drives that the Superchargers will be pay per-charge for everyone, and prevent the freeloaders who don't need it, but don't want to pay for it either.
 
#24 · (Edited)
What are you talking about? Are people returning their deposits or are you just making BS up? It is obvious you didn't do any research into what was expected of the model 3. Did you really think it would be free because just about everyone I know knew and expected to have to pay for using the superchargers. Just like Tesla did when they had the S60. I think the option was $2,000 if you wanted supercharging capabilities.
 
#11 ·
I doubt this will make much difference to those to made reservations. It certainly won't to me.
Superchargers are mostly not convenient to cities but arranged to facilitate long distance travel.
Somewhere I saw that only something like 5% of total Tesla charging happens at superchargers.
So its hardly that big a deal since most of the charging is happening at home.
For example where I live, Teslas are very common and yet its something like 30 miles to the nearest supercharger.
I doubt that many owners are driving down there to get a "free" charge.

Actually I think the pay per charge model would be very good, if they can implement it, for the reasons already cited here.
 
#23 ·
How does Apple manage to sell me a single song off iTunes for 99 cents and charge my CC? All this BS about administrative costs etc make no sense.

EM could make their SC network whatever he needs it to be.
 
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