PSA: 40% Up-Charge on Tesla Superchargers (Unless You Do This)

[SenatorSteak]

PSA: 40% Up-Charge on Tesla Superchargers (Unless You Do This)

$52.00 vs $38.00 — for the exact same 100 kWh charge.

That's the difference I got hit with on my very first Supercharger stop in the R1T: $0.52/kWh as a non-member vs. $0.38/kWh with Tesla's Supercharging Membership. That's a $14 hit on one single charge — more than the entire $12.99/month membership fee, gone in one stop.

This is especially a PSA for anyone coming from a Tesla, like I did (traded in a Model Y for the R1T). I had no idea non-Tesla vehicles get charged a premium at Superchargers now — you get used to just plugging in and paying the "normal" rate, and it doesn't occur to you that your own car isn't a Tesla anymore in Tesla's eyes.

If you're planning any kind of road trip and know you'll need at least two big charges along the way, do yourself a favor and sign up for the membership before you go. Non-members are often paying a real premium (30-40%+ more) at the same stall.

How to sign up:

1. Open the Tesla app (yep, the actual Tesla app, not the Rivian app)
2. Add your Rivian as a vehicle if you haven't already
3. Go to the Charging section and sign up for the Supercharging Membership
4. Big one — start your charging session from the Tesla app BEFORE you plug in. If you plug in first (Plug & Charge through your Rivian account), you'll get billed the non-member rate no matter what, membership or not.

I'm not planning to keep the membership active all the time — I'll toggle it on for trips and cancel after. But that one stop nearly paid for the whole month. If you're doing any real road-tripping and hitting Superchargers more than once, it pays for itself fast. Just don't forget to cancel when you're back if you don't need it month to month.

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[Redmond Chad]

Indeed.

My wife's Model X has free supercharging, so we generally don't have to worry about this sort of thing on road trips. But we recently bought a camper van based on a Chevy Brightdrop in Detroit and drove it home to Seattle. I checked all of the DC options on the way home...and the Superchargers, with a membership, were almost always the cheapest option. (This may not be true everywhere, but it was on my route). A couple of times there were ties or a near-tie. EA, I think could have been pretty close in several places if I had their membership, but they didn't have as many stations. I did find one other station that was clearly cheaper (can't remember the network), but I would have had to download the app, create an account, let them bank some funds to draw from...it just wasn't worth it.

I have done the same thing in our R1S on multiple trips to Eugene OR from Seattle. Works great.

To reiterate: if you sign up for the membership, always start the charge from the app.

And if it doesn't work...make sure you are the right charging station! Sometimes it takes the app a few seconds to update where you are, so don't just stab at the red pin in the center of the screen. Twice I enabled a charging station, plugged in, and nothing happened. Both times I realized I had activated a charger in another city. That was the only issue I ever had.

 

[iamnid]

you get used to just plugging in and paying the "normal" rate, and it doesn't occur to you that your own car isn't a Tesla anymore in Tesla's eyes.

To be fair, it's not just in Tesla's eyes that your Rivian isn't a Tesla anymore.

 

[SANZC02]

PSA: 40% Up-Charge on Tesla Superchargers (Unless You Do This)

$52.00 vs $38.00 — for the exact same 100 kWh charge.

That's the difference I got hit with on my very first Supercharger stop in the R1T: $0.52/kWh as a non-member vs. $0.38/kWh with Tesla's Supercharging Membership. That's a $14 hit on one single charge — more than the entire $12.99/month membership fee, gone in one stop.

This is especially a PSA for anyone coming from a Tesla, like I did (traded in a Model Y for the R1T). I had no idea non-Tesla vehicles get charged a premium at Superchargers now — you get used to just plugging in and paying the "normal" rate, and it doesn't occur to you that your own car isn't a Tesla anymore in Tesla's eyes.

If you're planning any kind of road trip and know you'll need at least two big charges along the way, do yourself a favor and sign up for the membership before you go. Non-members are often paying a real premium (30-40%+ more) at the same stall.

How to sign up:

1. Open the Tesla app (yep, the actual Tesla app, not the Rivian app)
2. Add your Rivian as a vehicle if you haven't already
3. Go to the Charging section and sign up for the Supercharging Membership
4. Big one — start your charging session from the Tesla app BEFORE you plug in. If you plug in first (Plug & Charge through your Rivian account), you'll get billed the non-member rate no matter what, membership or not.

I'm not planning to keep the membership active all the time — I'll toggle it on for trips and cancel after. But that one stop nearly paid for the whole month. If you're doing any real road-tripping and hitting Superchargers more than once, it pays for itself fast. Just don't forget to cancel when you're back if you don't need it month to month.

To add to the PSA, the 12.99 is a monthly charge, you can add and remove anytime with no penalty.

I rarely DCFC unless I’m on a trip so I typically start the membership a couple of days before I leave and cancel when I get home.

The documentation makes it seem like it is calendar month but my experience is it is 30 days. Last trip I started in mid June, canceled mid July and was only charged 12.99 one time.

 

[SenatorSteak]

I did see that it’s enabled for the next 30 days and not tied to a monthly cycle. I purchased it and the canceled it so it doesn’t auto renew and let’s me use it for my trip for 30 days.

Overall, shitty experience with charging. At those rates, you’re on par with gas prices.

 

[Gen(R3)Xer]

I know Rivian has a charger rating system built into their navigation, but do they have the price per kW displayed as well? That would be great.

 

[VSG]

I know Rivian has a charger rating system built into their navigation, but do they have the price per kW displayed as well? That would be great.

Yes. If you select the charger there will be a link to the pricing. It does not show the membership pricing on any network (EA, Tesla, etc.) - the only way to see that is through the network's own app.

 

[MountainBikeDude]

Yes. If you select the charger there will be a link to the pricing. It does not show the membership pricing on any network (EA, Tesla, etc.) - the only way to see that is through the network's own app.

It would be nice if pricing was displayed more prominently for each station. But that's minor nit picking.

 

[VSG]

Yes, but also there's a lot of information about each station - I'm sure everyone has an opinion about what information is most important. There's no way to please everybody. Right now availability is prioritized for display.

In the future, I think that settings allowing routing based on minimizing cost (as opposed to time or number of stops etc.) would be something that a lot of customers would use...

 

[SenatorSteak]

The Rivian app shows the non-member rate when you are exploring stations. In this screenshot, same station but first is Rivian app and second is Tesla app. Shows the 40% up charge (.62 vs .44)

 

[dubaigary]

Let’s face it - the charger network is still in its infancy, so players can charge high rates since they often have monopoly positions in many geographic areas. Over time as it builds out, rates will come down closer to the kWh cost from the local utility.

 

[VandalSibs]

Let’s face it - the charger network is still in its infancy, so players can charge high rates since they often have monopoly positions in many geographic areas. Over time as it builds out, rates will come down closer to the kWh cost from the local utility.

Keep in mind that DCFC stations don't pay the same rates for electricity that a residential customer (or even some commercial customers) do. There's higher demand charges because the amount of power that must be available for use is larger, infrastructure costs for the transformer that is on site, etc. The cost is almost always higher in these situations.

 

[BigSkies]

My number one hope is these member vs. non-member rates disappear. They're confusing and they make price comparisons difficult (which is one reason the charging networks like them). But that's unrealistic.

In absence of that, I'd hope the following items are pretty high up on the product development roadmap of both Rivian and the charging providers like Tesla and EA.

1. Plug and charge knowing whether you're a member and applying the appropriate rate when you plug in.

Just last week I was at a remote EA station with no cell phone signal, so I couldn't activate it with the app. Now I have to go put in some type of support request to get the discounted rate. It's stupid.

2. A visual added to the route planning UI showing how much each charging stop will cost, and an option to search for more cost-effective options along the route.

 

[JoelD]

Reading this, I think that some are missing the big picture. DCFC is always gonna be more expensive than gasoline, unless gasoline stays over $4. EV charging economics are different than gasoline and ICE. As one commenter said, demand charges are a big problem to solve. That’s why Tesla and others are building huge charging stations with battery storage and solar. But your DCFC charging should be a smallish part of your overall charging equation. At my super off peak utility rate, I could fully charge my 2022 R1T for $5 and go 350 miles. Less than 1.5 cents per mile. I typically take a trip once per month where I need DCFC, and I keep an active Tesla subscription and am damn happy to pay it, since their DCFC is everywhere and almost always works first time. So don’t sweat it, DCFC when you need and be glad Tesla opened the network!

 

[UnsungZero_OldTimeAdMan]

Keep in mind that DCFC stations don't pay the same rates for electricity that a residential customer (or even some commercial customers) do. There's higher demand charges because the amount of power that must be available for use is larger, infrastructure costs for the transformer that is on site, etc. The cost is almost always higher in these situations.

And, land lease is also a factor.

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