I think you keep paying. It's an auto loan, not a lease. True Cost of Ownership | Tesla Motors shows a $1,051/mo payment for a 60 kwh model "Based on a 2.95% APR, 10% down payment, and 66-month term loan, excluding sales tax and registration." BTW, not sure if anyone looked at http://www.teslamotors.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/tesla-resale-value-guarantee.pdf.
Yes, my "payment" was based on the 85 kWh model. Unfortunately, this is not cost-effective for me now (and those financial institutions would likely not approve me for either model), as much as I envy a Model S. If one was brave enough to trade up their ICE/hybrid, I guess the downpayment could be increased (and I would still like to be able to throw down an additional $5000 cash downpayment when the time is right to leap). I wonder if they are adaptable to trade-ins and downpayments for this "leasing" program in order to further lower the monthly damage.
Fuller speach The Engadget Interview: Tesla's Elon Musk promises more Superchargers, better service, cheaper EVs that don't suck Also included
They will always be free to connect to, but my SWAG is that you will eventually have to pay for the electricity you get while using the Supercharger Station without being directly charged for using the hardware. It will be like cable TV, you don't pay a monthly charge for the cable hooked to your house, but you pay if you want to get a signal out of it. That nit-pick aside, what Musk and crew are doing is amazing. I'm not as impressed with the fact that his company is building an an excellent electric car as I am with the fact that they a building a new from the ground up car as a new car company and succeeding. From an amazement standpoint, the fact that it is electric is just icing on the cake.
The charge is included in the price of the car. I have no idea if they will ever sell charger cords to different makes. This helps to explain why they look like they won't support frankenplug (SAE standard) at their chargers, but will sell cables to tesla owners that want to use public frankenplug chargers.
Doesn't a supercharger installation include a PV array? I can imagine what they sell to the grid can subsidize the charges for cars. In time they will likely have to charge, but that could be a ways off. Like around the time they start building econo EVs. Plus, I think they'd keep vehicles sold with free charges free to charge for the vehicle's life.
120kw takes about 8,000 sq feet of array operating under ideal conditions. Ignoring some inefficiencies, that's enough to have one car at peak charge. You can't reasonably scale your way out of that. It's going to take lot more than PV arrays.
How often are the chargers being used now? With increased sales, there will come a time when Tesla will be paying to charge these cars. There will come a time when they will have to charge, but I think/hope they will follow Tivo. The lifetime subscription hasn't been offered for awhile, but Tivo didn't cancel it on the people who bought it before it ended. Seeing as how the vast majority on charges are going to be at people's homes, I see Tesla offering the free charging for the foreseeable future.
If the superchargers were being used continuously that would be a problem. And I think you're correct that it will be unlikely if not impossible to completely replace all the charger energy with PV arrays on-site. That said, these are grid tied, so the PVs feed into the grid when the charger isn't being used, so the array need not be capable of delivering a full 90kWh (or 120 if they upgrade to that level).
Yep, they sell what they don't use. Why would they need to charge? As time goes by their cost does not increase, they just get revenue from selling cars instead of selling electricity. They just need to account for it as a marketing investment. Most people are going to charge at home and/or work.
I was thinking of if Tesla ever decides to offer a real entry level EV. Something along the lines of the iMiEV. With further consideration, such a product probably wouldn't even have a supercharger. Also forgot that it is an option on the S. No reason to see Tesla deciding to make it standard on their more mainstream model. So the price of the supercharger option may already reflect access to the network. Maybe in the future with BEVs being more common, they might feel consumer pressure to seperate the supercharger and lifetime access costs. Then a customer who might take the car on a trip once a year at most can opt for the supercharger. Tesla gets a little more profit they would have missed out on, and the customer can buy access to the network for when he needs it in monthly segments or even the lifetime access later on. That way it is just software updates to the network.
Will be interesting to see if Tesla can get all these (talked about)models into production by 2020. Model S - 2012 Model X - end of 2014 Model s (Mini) - end of 2016 Roadster Sport - Electric Pick Up - 2018
Why do you think that? PV arrays can be basically any size. Roof over the parking lot in question, back feed the grid when the charger isn't in use. Efficiencies go up if you charge with DC (I presume). PV panels are running $1 per peak watt, so 120kW costs $120,000 for panels alone, probably 3-4 times that for full installation, call it six Teslas. 8,000 square feet is parking for only 23 cars. I would expect superchargers in lots far bigger than that.
Agree with the Tesla accomplishment so far. I too have never found that "free" was forever. My thought is that if the car company takes off and Teslas become common place, the supercharging stations will just like gas stations promising free gas.....get in the LONG line. In other words, he may keep the promise for the stations to be free, but that is not a promise that the stations will be permanent.
I wonder if anyone logic checks automobile articles. The Tesla Model S just spanked all of its luxury car competitors on units sold, and the author tells us that AWD is a must on luxury vehicles. If I were competing with Tesla in the luxury car market, I would be praying the didn't execute an AWD option on the Model S.
I don't think you understand the business model Elon is pursuing. Step back and take a look at the entire eco-system involved. If Tesla bundled enough solar panels with each vehicle to power the car, would you want to install those panels on your rooftop, or have Tesla manage them for you?
Only Elon knows his business model down to the final detail. I'm not claiming that I know it completely nor that I can predict the future. What I am pretty sure is that his business model is about making money, not giving away electricity. That said, as pure conjecture, the reasons for the supercharging stations is to overcome cultural inertia and perception that electric cars are confined to being only short commute vehicles. Overcoming that has a huge payoff for Tesla. Some day that hurdle will be overcome. Once that is achieved, then the supercharging stations become a Tesla expense to curtail. At that point, the trick is to curtails those expenses without causing a Public Relations backlash.
