Tesla to Start Charging Users for Superchargers

There are many problems that are associated with electric cars that OEMs need to overcome in order to truly make electric cars mainstream. Some of these include the range of the batteries, how quickly they charge and, for many countries, how they will cope with the electric surge that will come if everyone used electric cars rather than gasoline or diesel automobiles. Putting these aside, electric cars are still seemingly the future with more and more cars being released with electric motors. The market leader of electric cars, Tesla, have pretty much led the way when it comes to manufacturing electric cars in the masses. This is because they are cool cars with great tech, supercar-like acceleration and performance, huge ranges of over 300 miles and very cheap to run. However, they are only cheap to run if Tesla planned on allowing their superchargers free to use. However, news has now broke by Tesla that they are going to start charging users to charge using superchargers.

 

If you have been living in the stone age, Tesla’s superchargers are chargers for the Tesla model cars to enable super quick charging, as opposed to what is currently out there. To put it into perspetive, they take around 20 minutes to charge to 50%, 40 minutes to charge to 75% and 75 minutes to charge to 100% – for many people this is quick enough to warrant replacing the 5 minute fuel stop that occurs with petrol and diesel cars.

 

Up to now, Tesla’s Superchargers were free for Tesla owners to use. But, since Teslas are becoming so popular, there was always going to be a cross-over when they would have to start charging users for their electricity.

• For those that already own a Tesla and purchased it before the 15th January 2017, the supercharging stations will be free for the whole life of the vehicle (I could imagine there are going to be many people buying Teslas now for this exact reason)!
• If you buy a Tesla after the 15th January 2017, you will be given 400kWh free of electricity from superchargers once a year. For the normal user, this will provide 1,000 miles range which is renewed every year. But, if you go over this, you will then be charged per kilowatt, which will vary in price based on what location of supercharger you charge from (it will still be very cheap ranging from a rough estimation of $0.30 per kilowatt hour). Compared to your typical new petrol or diesel car, this is still dimes and dimes saved.

The important thing from what Tesla have released is that you will be given enough electricity to travel 1,000 miles in your Tesla. So yes, it was always going to happen especially with the Tesla Model 3 being released in the next few years. But, it is not the end of the world by any means for Tesla and electric cars.