RAN Charging Costs? Tesla Superchargers, What Teslas Pay vs. What Rivians Pay

[bigsky]

Planning a long trip through WA and OR.
I have a Tesla Model Y Performance, which I actually have used on long trips the most.
Have a Tesla Model S Performance, and now my R1S beast.

There is a ton of Tesla Superchargers in the PNW and an okay number of RAN chargers as well.
Does anybody know where to look up what a specific RAN charger costs per kWh?
The Tesla app tells you how much each Tesla Supercharger costs per kWh. The Rivian app, apparently not.

Of course, I could take my Model S on my trip and call it a day because it will cost me nothing on electricity as it has free Tesla SC electricity for life.
But thinking of taking my R1S.

I ask how to find out the costs of RAN chargers because while it is great that the Tesla SC network is now open to Rivians, I started to notice what seems like a very hefty surcharge for Rivians using the Tesla SC network. Per kWh Rivian price is 30% higher on average!!

Take a look at the electricity cost I gathered for different Tesla SCs open to NACS in WA, OR, and MT. The surcharge that Rivians pay seems hefty compared to what Teslas pay.
To get a "lower price" presumably the same that Teslas pay, I would have to pay the monthly membership, but my use of fast chargers (not much) does not justifiy the monthly membership.

Let me know what you think. Thanks.

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[Antonio]

Just drove from Seattle to Bend. Cost at RAN in Happy valley was 0.29 KW. Tesla in Bend was .59 KW! (First time using the adapter) could have charged more at the Madras RAN, but wanted to make sure I had enough battery to just stay in Sunriver for a few days.

 

[DeafPug]

Yes, charging your Rivian at a RAN station will likely be your least expensive DCFC option that is available. Charging a Tesla at a Tesla a supercharger is likely the cheapest option available. When Rivian opens up the RAN to other vehicles later this year, they are NOT going to maintain their cheap prices for other vehicles. They will charge a premium like Tesla charges.

The monthly cost of the Tesla subscription isn’t that much really. You quote price differences of 4 to 16 cents per kWh. For a $12.99 per month fee, that’s 81 to 325 kWh. That’s between 150 and 650 miles of driving in your Rivian. On roadtrips for me, I blow through that many miles in a single day. If you are going to travel where the Supercharger network would help, sign up for a month and then cancel the subscription after you return home. No need to pay the $12.99/month except for those times that you are planning on using it.

 

[ryunited]

Just drove from Seattle to Bend. Cost at RAN in Happy valley was 0.29 KW. Tesla in Bend was .59 KW! (First time using the adapter) could have charged more at the Madras RAN, but wanted to make sure I had enough battery to just stay in Sunriver for a few days.

Love Sunriver!

We paid $0.36/kwh consistently across the two Maine and one RI RAN stations in New England on our road trip this week. Zero issues and all in nice locations.

I had to make my first Electrify America stop on the trip and was so disappointed.

 

[BrianB]

Thanks for posting the table.

You’ve got 2 Teslas and an R1S. Thats a quarter million dollars of cars, one of which has free supercharger use for life. Paying an extra 20 cents per kWh if you take your R1S isn’t going to matter.

 

[SANZC02]

Thanks for posting the table.

You’ve got 2 Teslas and an R1S. Thats a quarter million dollars of cars, one of which has free supercharger use for life. Paying an extra 20 cents per kWh if you take your R1S isn’t going to matter.

Or watching that 20 cents a kWh might indicate why he is able to have 2 Teslas and a Rivian…?

As my grandmother used to say, watch the Pennie’s and the dollars will take care of themselves.

 

[COdogman]

You could probably see the cost of each charger on Plugshare, but I’m not sure I would trust it. RAN will always be your cheapest option, beyond that it’s the Wild West out there. It will be dependent on local power costs, and some localities have requirements they charge by the minute or per KWh. prices will obviously also vary depending if you are a “club” member.

 

[bigsky]

And I am just getting started on my personal EV fleet .
I know, I know. I could not care less, really. After driving my Teslas for a while, though, It just feels as if CCS EV owners are getting scammed and ripped off by charging outfits. it is just the principle of the whole thing.

But yes, who cares!?
Thank you.

 

[bigsky]

And I am just getting started on my personal EV fleet .
I know, I know. I could not care less, really. After driving my Teslas for a while, though, It just feels as if CCS EV owners are getting scammed and ripped off by charging outfits. it is just the principle of the whole thing.

But yes, who cares!?

But think about it, wondering about the cost of trivial, lesser things is one of the reasons why the number of EVs in my garage is increasing.

Thank you.

 

[Riviot]

The Rivian app trip planner has prices clearly listed at each site.

 

[DeanB1452]

All RANs are $0.36/kWh. I have been using the BlueDot app recently which has many EVgo and ChargePointe stations at $0.30/kWh. Nice chart on the SC’s. It varies by location. In April I found a SC in Salt Lake City for only $0.18/kWh.

 

[SwampNut]

I use Plugshare to look at options and pricing. I find this more useful for trip planning than the built in apps or the Tesla app. "Planning" to me means knowing possible/probable stops, not necessarily fully deciding. It gives me the option to stop when I want to or need a bathroom, food, etc.

I find RAN to nearly always be cheaper than SC, except for one outside of Vegas that was 24 cents. Crazy cheap. Many other times, the SC is nearly double the price of RAN. However, SCs tend to be in better places as far a amenities and sometimes I will just pay extra to use them.

 

[CarlM408]

I would suggest RAN pricing is going to be at least roughly on par with membership SC pricing, sometimes better sometimes worse, but doubtful to ever be off by enough to add up to more than a cup of coffee...Just route optimally and enjoy the road trip!

 

[SwampNut]

but doubtful to ever be off by enough to add up to more than a cup of coffee

"Cup of coffee" is how marketers lie to us by saying something meaningless. In Kingman, we recently used RAN in one direction, and SC in the other. The latter was due to amenities; we paid more to enjoy the stop more. The cost difference without membership is 23 cents per kWh and with membership it's 18. So that's more like the cost of a small road meal. On a full road trip it will be a hell of a lot.

Edited to add: The idle fee policies are also very different and harder to figure out with Tesla. As far as I can tell, RAN will always charge you the fee after ten minutes, no matter what, and it's 50 cents per minute. Tesla ONLY charges you if the SC is busy, but then it's a dollar per minute after five minutes. If I want to walk away from the car for a while, this matters a lot. Again, Kingman being an example, the SC was barely used so no fees applied and we walked around the city without a worry.

 

[Yossarian]

I plotted out the charging for a trip from the Philly area to SLC using a variety of trip planners. Here's a summary of the various charging options and their costs, mostly as reported via Plug Share. The table only shows the costs for the charging stops that were part of my trip planning. Put another way, the EV charging costs at some service plazas is more expensive than that shown on the table. I have no way to validate this, but folks have reported rates in excess of $1..00 per kWh at a number of locations. Note also that the Tesla rate shown is non-subscription.

I tend to agree with the OP that many of the operators of CCS charging stations are taking advantage the situation. I'll also note that the high rates, seen mostly at service plazas, may not be due to the charging provider. My understanding is that the rates are often set by the service plaza operator, so the provider may be being blamed unfairly.

Provider​	Rate (kWh)​
Charge Point​	$0.45​
Electrify America​	$0.56​
EV Connect​	$0.59​
EV Go​	$0.56​
EV Go (at service plazas)​	$0.75​
Non-network​	$0.70​
RAN​	$0.35​
Tesla SC​	$0.50​
​	​
Average​	$0.56​

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