Tesla QUADRUPLED Supercharger Prices Overnight

[miata]

... I have analyzed solar every way I can, and the payoff isn't sufficient for me...

Most public utilities support home solar incentives because solar's production peak is also when peak customer demand is high. Otherwise the utilities have to build more generating infrastructure just to meet peak demand and so when others bear this investment, it's a good thing for them.

But it's really part of a bigger picture of demand smoothing. The public utilities would also like you to help them with energy storage at nighttime. This is when charging an EV at home at night becomes attractive to them. So we really should work with them to get RF-communicated metering and negotiate for a better deal to charge in the wee morning hours when the PoCo's demand is minimal.

Tesla wants to sell you batteries in their car for transportation and then and then also sell you batteries in a PowerWall to store your solar power at night. Great if going off-grid is a Big Deal for you. But any home-charged EV acts as a rolling energy storage device. We just need to charge when the utilities can give us the best deal. It's like the last room on a cruise ship...it goes to waste if no one buys it, so a very good deal can be had.

Conversely, if we need a charge in the middle of the day, we'll pay peak rate whether at home or at an EA or Tesla station.

I don't think the market has adjusted yet to where this is all headed. It could be the full EV is best suited to the typical commute 350 days per year. In fact, lighter, cheaper, lower-capacity battery packs (resulting in highly-maneuverable EV's!) may be the next big thing. Carrying around batteries for a round-trip range you don't need makes no sense. The best solution for Road Trips (the other 15 days a year) may be a mild Hybrid while maintaining a vastly decreased, but well-distributed, gasoline station economy.

It seems quite reasonable to me that the only consumer demand for gas-based vehicles will end up being for these Vacation or Road Trip vehicles. And a lot of folks may decide that renting a vehicle for those Road Trips (instead of owning one) makes the most sense. If you like the idea of a Time-Share for a vacation, you may feel you really want to own your vacation vehicle as well. But if you like variety and the idea of "renting" a camp site or hotel seems totally natural to you, then renting the vehicle to get you there probably will too.

Plus that approach leaves the consumer owning the low-maintenance (ie electric) vehicles and someone else maintaining the high-maintenance (gasoline-based) ones. Which is pretty much the normal model when I travel (and pay) to visit a museum, roller-coaster, world-class garden, etc. It's also not a lot different from "paying for a seat" on a commercial jet to travel long distances. How many want to hassle with the headaches of their own jet?

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[dbsb3233]

BTW, my understanding of "per minute" charging rates at Electrify America is that the rate you are charged per minute is based on what your car is CAPABLE of accepting ... not what you actually get.

In the video, Brandon made it sounds as if Tesla will vary the rate based on the charging rate at that time ... so a single charge-session would have multiple rates. That somewhat surprised. He even did fractional minutes (and that REALLY surprised me).

For Electrify America, their per-minute rates are typically:

For non Pass+ users:​

16¢/minute for cars that can charge at 0-90 kW rate​

31¢/minute for cars that can charge at 90-350 kW rate​

​

For Pass+ users ($4/monthly membership fee):​

12¢/minute for 0-90 kW rate​

24¢/minute for 90-350 kW rate​

Since the Mach-E can charge at 150kW (approximately) then you would ALWAYS pay the 90-350 kW rate ... regardless of how fast you are charging.

As you approach 80% and the charge rate slows ... and ultimately drops to the 12 kW rate... you would probably want to discontinue charging because you'd be paying (for non-Pass+ members) 31¢/min to charge at a 12 kW rate. That's 1/10th of a kiloWatt per minute. So you are basically paying $3.10/kWh if you continue to charge.

EA will need to fix those per-minute rates at some point. They're incredibly cheap relative to the per-kWh rates. I was shocked when they announced those as part of the rate changes last year.

On the MME, for instance, I average roughly 95 kW charging power up to 80%. That's 1.58 kWh/minute. At 24c/min, that's only 15c/kWh.

 

[Tbird]

EA will need to fix those per-minute rates at some point. They're incredibly cheap relative to the per-kWh rates. I was shocked when they announced those as part of the rate changes last year.

On the MME, for instance, I average roughly 95 kW charging power up to 80%. That's 1.58 kWh/minute. At 24c/min, that's only 15c/kWh.

The way they can charge is regulated by state laws. At this point they have to follow the law

 

[dbsb3233]

No way is electricity for cars getting more expensive in the future. You can charge a car with Photovoltaics and that tech along with batteries are getting cheap. Utilities can't monopolize the grid anymore.

That depends a lot on location. Solar can be very effective in some locations, but not nearly as much in others. Same with wind, and hydro, and nearly every other source. It's why electricity is so (relatively) cheap in Washington State, for instance, because they have a lot of cheap hydro.

 

[Tbird]

My observation is that the increase by tesla superchargers ( and others) only impacts when you charge while on the road. Most of the time I charge at home and my electric rates have not increase (yet).

 

[dbsb3233]

The way they can charge is regulated by state laws. At this point they have to follow the law

The method, yes. That's dictated by laws in certain states that say only the power company franchises can sell electricity on a per-kWh basis.

I was just referring to the EA prices. 24c/min is dirt cheap. Surprised that's not closer to 48c/min to put it more in line with their own per-kWh rates.

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