This seems like a pretty fair and obvious way to move forward: the electricity isn't free, and it doesn't seem like they are attempting to turn a profit off of the electricity cost like a Gas station does. It curtails the externalities of Uber/Taxis freeloading off of infrastructure that has ongoing costs to maintain but provides a good value for buyers for a few longer distance trips.
It used to be unlimited supercharging. The assumption was that people would primarily charge at home, and use the supercharger only for long distance travelling.
It seems that in practice far too many people were using the supercharger as the only place to charge their vehicle, with a fair number of people using it for commercial purposes.
The Tesla Taxis at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam were apparently all using the supercharger facility, rather than setting up their own charging infrastructure.
Also, it wasn't, technically, 'free' - a supercharger fee was charged either on purchase of the car or afterwards.
Not in the US, all Tesla vehicles ordered before January 15th of 2017 came with free supercharger access.
By no means 'free': there was a $2000 Supercharger access fee included in the purchase price of the S85, or $2500 to enable it after purchase for the S60.
Not available for the S40 variant which wasn't permitted to use the Superchargers.
Everything else is included in the price of the vehicle and is standard https://www.tesla.com/models
Under specs they list
* Access to Tesla's expanding Supercharger network
* Mobile connector with 110 volt, 240 volt, and J1772 adapters
* 17" capacitive touchscreen
* Onboard maps and navigation with free updates for 7 years
* Automatic keyless entry
* ...
"If your vehicle is eligible, the Supercharging upgrade option will be visible in the Available Upgrades section."
http://shop.teslamotors.com/products/enable-supercharging
The S40 has the hardware for Supercharging but is excluded by policy.
I'm only aware of this because a friend in the UK has been trying to work-out what's applicable in this market and Tesla's constant changes to the policy makes that difficult.
Yes.
383 / 52 * $2.61 = $19.22
Or a Honda Civic:
383 / 34 * $2.61 = $29.40
(Assuming their definition is one way not roundtrip.)
382 / 52 * $1.90 = $14
Data from (I used Greenville, SC): https://www.gasbuddy.com/Charts
EDIT: From Tesla's blog post "What’s important is that in every region, Supercharging will remain simple, seamless and always significantly cheaper than gasoline."
Looks like Tesla will be pricing the electricity differently in different states as well. I wonder if the changes in their electricity prices based on the region will be enough to offset currently low gas prices.
The Model 3 will most likely have significantly better range per kwh than the Model S, reducing the cost even more.
They don't have that much control. The US would increase fracking / shale ops and bring the cost of oil back down. We have incredibly massive oil reserves here in the US that any sort of Saudi nonsense will have limited effect.
Saudis have gotten themselves into a world of pain over the past few years attempting to play their stupid games with oil prices, so much so that they are about to take Saudi Aramco public to get a desperately-needed cash infusion. Our fracking/shale ops are also hurting though in this race to the bottom.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/07/31/texas-shale-o...
Not surprisingly all current technology is relatively competitive with the others. If it wasn't the case, we would have a clear winner and there would be nothing interesting to discuss!
Seems like solar is at 3c/kWh (production cost before transportation) in certain regions now http://reneweconomy.com.au/solar-prices-plunge-to-new-lows-a...