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What does it cost you to use Supercharging?

10K views 43 replies 26 participants last post by  IPv6Freely 
#1 ·
Went to chage my TM3 at our nearest Tesla supercharging station and I was at 26% charged it to 90% which came out to $26.94. it's cheaper than gas but I was surprised at the cost. I previously filled up at work (no supercharger just regular EV charging station) and it cost me a little under $5 (32% charged to 83%)

What Are you paying for supercharging?

According to Tesla website rates in CA are .26 kwh
 
#3 ·
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#4 ·
We've used Superchargers here in Washington a few times. Always $0.25/kWh. Our last three charges were: $4.75, $4.75 and $6.00. Our home rate starts at about $0.085 and moves to the second tier of about $0.105 around 840 kWh per month so it's a lot more economical to just charge at home when you sleep.
 
#5 ·
I wonder what your history shows on your account page. That may give you some details to explain the extra charge.

But, I can't imagine an idle fee accounting for the difference.
 
#6 ·
I'm really going to guess that you left it there for a while as you were shopping and got an idle fee charge. Did you ? Was the charger kinda busy with other cars?

In the future, you park at a charger only when charging. When finished charging, it is courtesy to move the vehicle so that others may charge. And Tesla will charge you if you leave a car plugged in after full while at a busy station.
 
#10 ·
In Edmonton Alberta (where electricity at home runs me about $0.06/kwh), the supercharger cost is time based.
Supercharging Fee – Power Tier 2 Can$0.36 / min
Supercharging Fee – Power Tier 1 Can$0.18 / min

Seems a little pricy - I got about 100km of range for $7 on Tier 1. Good if I need a quick charge, but I'll charge at home or at the free Level 2 charging stations available in town.
 
#12 ·
My guess (can we say, "educated opinion"?) is:
  1. You'll be charged at whatever rate is in effect for the particular state (which will be in USD).
  2. Your credit card company will handle the conversions (so use a card without foreign transaction fees).
I guess Tesla could handle the conversions themselves, but then they'd have to keep track of conversion rates over time, and I doubt they want to add that when they can just let the credit card companies handle it.
 
#13 ·
My guess (can we say, "educated opinion"?) is:
  1. You'll be charged at whatever rate is in effect for the particular state (which will be in USD).
  2. Your credit card company will handle the conversions (so use a card without foreign transaction fees).
I guess Tesla could handle the conversions themselves, but then they'd have to keep track of conversion rates over time, and I doubt they want to add that when they can just let the credit card companies handle it.
Supercharged today from 25% to 85% cost me $12.19
 
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#15 ·
I recently recharged my new M3 at a supercharger station. When finished it indicated the cost for the session but then quickly disappeared. i could find no way to see what the charges were. I expected to be able to see charges on "mytesla account" but could not. I talked to someone at the service center who said you have to go to your particular credit card statement to see what they were. This does not seem right. Why can't there be a record available on line that gives me history of energy amount and charges? Am I missing something? How can I see what the cost was after my trip?
 
#16 ·
I think when you click on the charging icon on your screen, it will show you a summary of your last supercharging session with the cost in the bottom right of the screen. You can also find your full supercharging history with cost in your tesla account on tesla.com
 
#17 ·
Would someone be kind enough to educate me on kWh.

Is the long range battery in a 3 100kWh rated?

If true and I charge 50% is that 50kWh? Therefore at 21 cents per kWh it would cost $10.50?

I am new and learning...
 
#18 ·
Is the long range battery in a 3 100kWh rated?
No.

A quick Google search for "Tesla Model 3 battery size" indicates that it is 75kWh.

If true and I charge 50% is that 50kWh?
If it were a 100 kWh battery, yes. But it isn't. It's a 75 kWh battery. Therefore if you add 50% then you've only added 37.5 kWh.

Therefore at 21 cents per kWh it would cost $10.50?
If you added 50 kWh, then at $0.21 per kWh it would cost approximately $10.50.
However, if you add 37.5 kWh (50%), then at $0.21 per kWh it would cost approximately $7.88

Note that the amount you pay may be slightly higher than this. If I recall correctly, Tesla will charge you for the amount of electricity the Supercharger supplies, not the amount of electricity that your vehicle stores. Charging a battery is not 100% efficient. There will be some losses due to resistance in the cable from the supercharger to your vehicle. There will also be some losses in the vehicle equipment. I'd guess that the charging efficiency of supercharging is somewhere around 95%. So, if you add 37.5 kWh to the battery, you're probably using approximately 39.47 kWh (39.47 X 95% = 37.5) from the supercharger. At $0.21 per kWh that means you'd probably pay somewhere close to $8.29 instead of $7.88

I am new and learning...
I hope this has been helpful.
 
#20 ·
I recently recharged my new M3 at a supercharger station. When finished it indicated the cost for the session but then quickly disappeared. i could find no way to see what the charges were. I expected to be able to see charges on "mytesla account" but could not. I talked to someone at the service center who said you have to go to your particular credit card statement to see what they were. This does not seem right. Why can't there be a record available on line that gives me history of energy amount and charges? Am I missing something? How can I see what the cost was after my trip?
Go to your account on Tesla.com. It is kind of hidden, but select History. That will show payment history. I am not sure how quickly it shows up there. I notice my SC from two days ago is not up yet.
 
#23 ·
Over the summer we charged at 20+ different Superchargers in 12 states. The average (partial) charge was about $5. The most expensive charge, for 70 minutes in Wyoming, was $11. It cost about $100 to cross the country. Supercharging is cheap compared to buying gas.
 
#24 ·
No.

A quick Google search for "Tesla Model 3 battery size" indicates that it is 75kWh.

If it were a 100 kWh battery, yes. But it isn't. It's a 75 kWh battery. Therefore if you add 50% then you've only added 37.5 kWh.

If you added 50 kWh, then at $0.21 per kWh it would cost approximately $10.50.
However, if you add 37.5 kWh (50%), then at $0.21 per kWh it would cost approximately $7.88

Note that the amount you pay may be slightly higher than this. If I recall correctly, Tesla will charge you for the amount of electricity the Supercharger supplies, not the amount of electricity that your vehicle stores. Charging a battery is not 100% efficient. There will be some losses due to resistance in the cable from the supercharger to your vehicle. There will also be some losses in the vehicle equipment. I'd guess that the charging efficiency of supercharging is somewhere around 95%. So, if you add 37.5 kWh to the battery, you're probably using approximately 39.47 kWh (39.47 X 95% = 37.5) from the supercharger. At $0.21 per kWh that means you'd probably pay somewhere close to $8.29 instead of $7.88

I hope this has been helpful.
Also of note, if you compare what you charge with and the odometer kwh usage, you will also find out that there is also about 5% overhead there.
Example if you charge 50%of a 75kwh battery, it will take about 39-40 kwh to do that, but if you look, you will only be able to use about 95% of that, or about 31kwh. Try it out, you will never consume the 37.5kwh before it drops 50%

Just an interesting side piece of info
 
#25 ·
Or in other words, you pay for the juice used by the SuperCharger, not the juice it delivers to your car, which is a bit less.

======

Commercial entities generally pay according to a "demand" meter, which records kWh and maximum kW draw - the power company wants money for both, the latter for the infrastructure it takes to deliver power, especially the peaky sort of power demand from a SuperCharger. Maybe NY's pro-EV stance means chargers get a break from demand charges, but Tesla's $0.26/kWh rate tells me they do not (a regular rate would be more like $0.14). That rate must be some sort of average to meet their stated goal of neither making nor losing money on charging. Or does Tesla pay extra for renewable power?
 
#27 ·
Maybe NY's pro-EV stance means chargers get a break from demand charges, but Tesla's $0.26/kWh rate tells me they do not (a regular rate would be more like $0.14). That rate must be some sort of average to meet their stated goal of neither making nor losing money on charging. Or does Tesla pay extra for renewable power?
The cost of Supercharger installation, maintenance and monitoring likely costs as much or more compared to the electricity they need to purchase to operate them. So, to break even on Superchargers, they still need to charge roughly double (or more) the cost of the electricity.

This means that using a Supercharger that is under-utilized (many open stalls) helps Tesla financially. Using busy Superchargers increases pressure for Tesla to spend more money expanding the network and is probably a net negative.
 
#26 ·
I find most times I use a supercharger I pay between $6-8 here in Mass, where Tesla charges a relatively expensive 23 cents per kWh.

Remember you would never normally be charging a battery from zero to 100%

Most likely you are down around 20-30%, and you only need to charge up to about 75-80%.
Charging slows down significantly as you get towards the top end.

In other worse not using the top and bottom percentages of your battery saves you time and is better for the battery's life as well.

Tesla publishes the supercharging cost per state here:
https://www.tesla.com/support/supercharging
Keep in mind these prices change.

And you can pull up the history of you supercharger charge charges* under History in your Tesla account:
https://www.tesla.com/teslaaccount/payment-history

*I did that on purpose
 
#32 ·
And you can pull up the history of you supercharger charge charges* under History in your Tesla account:
https://www.tesla.com/teslaaccount/payment-history

*I did that on purpose
Hmm. This doesn't show me anything. I get redirected to my main account page (just like the edit link trick for checking on an order). I assume this is because I don't technically have a car in my account? I've Supercharged twice and it's been a couple of days or more.

I wonder if this means I get free Supercharging until my car gets officially marked as delivered. Who knows the answer to this?
 
#31 ·
I recently recharged my new M3 at a supercharger station. When finished it indicated the cost for the session but then quickly disappeared. i could find no way to see what the charges were. I expected to be able to see charges on "mytesla account" but could not. I talked to someone at the service center who said you have to go to your particular credit card statement to see what they were. This does not seem right. Why can't there be a record available on line that gives me history of energy amount and charges? Am I missing something? How can I see what the cost was after my trip?
Sometimes it has taken a couple days for it to show up on your My Tesla account. But I've also had 2 free visits at the local charger before I went out of town and got charged a few days later. Though it did show up on the charging screen.
 
#35 ·
Can you imagine the pandemonium that would break out if a gas station had a sign that said:

FREE GAS TODAY!

Free electricity, not so much...
 
#36 ·
This might be a dumb question but how do you know how much a supercharger charge costs? We’ve had the car for a week now but have not seen any signs of charging after using a supercharger. Do you not get the bill until later? Do you get a free grace period of free charging after delivery?
 
#38 ·
This might be a dumb question but how do you know how much a supercharger charge costs? We've had the car for a week now but have not seen any signs of charging after using a supercharger. Do you not get the bill until later? Do you get a free grace period of free charging after delivery?
The car should display an approximate cost on the charging screen (in the lower right). I charged three times since getting my car (day of delivery, two days after delivery, and six days after delivery). I was only charged for my last Supercharging session. Charges show up under your Tesla Account (under History).
 
#37 ·
I went to my first supercharger on Saturday. We didn't really NEED it but wanted to try it. Unfortunately, we tried it at a busy outlet mall (Palm Desert). Took about 20 minutes to top us up. I had no idea how they worked and assumed there would be signs of some sort. Ended up just plugging the car in, seeing that it was charging, and walked away. Spent two hours in the mall.

Unfortunately, I didn't know about the idle fee at >50% full supercharger stations. $0.50/minute. For two hours. Thankfully Tesla are the awesome people that they are and waive the idle fee the first time. I assume they do this for people like me who just didn't know. I SURE KNOW FOR NEXT TIME!

Don't get me wrong, I think the idle fee is a good thing. Encourages people to move their cars when they've finished charging. I actually kind of wish all L2 charger companies charged an idle fee!
 
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#40 ·
The Tesla phone app is supposed to warn you before idle fees were charged. Did you get a notification?

From Tesla:

How do I know when I've incurred an idle fee?
The Tesla mobile app notifies you when charging nears completion and again when charging is complete Idle fees then accrue while the station is at least 50% occupied until your vehicle is moved. Supercharger session details, including idle fees incurred, are available in your Tesla Account after each Supercharger session.
 
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