Tesla charges by charging speed

[Billyt1963]

My Rivian has been out of commission since late November and of course I got my adapter in that time. I picked the truck up today and went by a Tesla charger to add a little range. The charger charged by the speed of charge. Below is what I took off the app, not sure if it is this site or all, didn’t check.

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[ndmiller]

Do some research and try another brand. In TN around knoxville I've used Walmart at less than a $1 a minute, subsidies I'm sure. EA and EVGo were the brands. Tesla pricing is all over the place so need to research and join for a month or so if doing roadtrips for sure.

 

[SolartoEV]

I guess it's a given but it in a given minute what your charge speed is and what your are getting charged? Average charge speed per minute? Charge speed at the beginning of the minute?

I guess you could make a graph and plot the charge speed over the cost per minute.

 

[ndmiller]

I guess it's a given but it in a given minute what your charge speed is and what your are getting charged? Average charge speed per minute? Charge speed at the beginning of the minute?

I guess you could make a graph and plot the charge speed over the cost per minute.

At .30/Minute my R1T from 20-80% was about $7-$10. At .55/KW it was $30-$40. Per minute pricing subsided by retailer anchors in parking lots is the way to go.

 

[DeafPug]

Generally billing for charging on a per-minute basis is done in states where the laws only allow the public utility companies to bill for electricity by the kWh. In those cases, Tesla (and other EV charging companies) use the different charging speeds to charge roughly by the kWh, but not exactly.

When paying by the minute, you get cheap electricity when you are charging at the top of a specific band, but it's expensive if you're just into the next higher band.

Doing the math:
(price per minute) * (60 minutes per hour) / (instantaneous kW) = (price per kWh)

Charging at
60 kW = $0.31/kWh
61 kW = $0.62/kWh
100 kW = $0.38/kWh
101 kW = $0.58/kWh
180 kW = $0.33/kWh
181 kW = $0.55/kWh
220 kW = $0.45/kWh (a Rivian maxed out)
250 kW = $0.40/kWh

Edit: it's not always on a per-state basis. In Kansas Tesla switched their Supercharger stations from per-minute to per-kWh a couple years ago. Rivian was using per-minute pricing on the two RAN sites in Kansas until mid-2024. I'm not sure why Rivian deployed the RAN as per-minute originally because Tesla, EA, and possibly others converted pricing years ago.

 

[Billyt1963]

I don’t like the way they charged, it was more of me testing to make sure I could make it work. Tesla will probably be a last resort and if I am on a trip I will probably join for the month.

 

[ndmiller]

Not sure what $/min your chart is showing but 60/61 and 100/101 seem off.

I've seen both in most of the southeast states. Can always join Tesla club for $.30-$.35/KW.

 

[DeafPug]

Not sure what $/min your chart is showing but 60/61 and 100/101 seem off.

I've seen both in most of the southeast states. Can always join Tesla club for $.30-$.35/KW.

My calculations were done based of the pricing table in the very first post of this thread - ie: what the thread is supposedly about.

Tesla says
0-60 kW = $0.31/minute
61-100 kW = $0.63/minute

If you're charging at 60 kW you're paying $0.31/minute. If you were able to charge at exactly 60 kW for a full hour, you would have paid that price for 60 minutes and received 60 kWh of electricity.

Calculate the price you would pay to charge an hour
$0.31/minute * 60 minutes/hour = $18.60/hour
Divide that by the number of kWh you would get in the same time to get price per kWh
$18.60 / 60 kWh = $0.31/kWh

Repeat for charging at 61 kW (just into the next higher band)
$0.63/minute * 60 minutes/hour = $37.80/hour
$37.80 / 61 kWh = $0.61967213/kWh (which I rounded to $0.62/kWh)

Your pricing for $0.30/kWh is great for your state where Tesla charges by the kWh. In Tennessee, they charge by the minute and this is how you convert per minute pricing into the per kWh pricing that you are more familiar with.

For the Tesla sites that charge by the minute, they still give a discount with the $12.99/month Tesla Membership, but the billing is still done per minute. You would need to calculate if it was worthwhile. The discounts when charged by the minute make it where something like 110 kWh in a month is the break-even point for the Membership being "worth it". I picked a Tesla Supercharger just southeast of Nashville and saw this as the Member/Non-Member pricing at that station.

 

[ndmiller]

Got it, I've never seen variable pricing, just $$/Minute flat rate. Usually in Walmart sketchy parking lots.

 

[cmugler]

So in general would it be fair to say charging at a supercharger will be higher than ea or charge point?

 

[Billyt1963]

So in general would it be fair to say charging at a supercharger will be higher than ea or charge point?

In my experience (very small sample), yes. To be fair when I charged at Tesla it was the middle of the day on a weekday.

 

[Zoidz]

I'm wondering if state and local laws might "outlaw" variable pricing?

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

per minute charging. Even at the highest tier, 30 minutes of charging is $49.50 which isn't bad. Would be about $65 to do a 10-80% charge on a Rivian large pack.

Member pricing is less. Now, try paying $0.69 per kWh doing a 10-80% charge on a Silverado EV! Talk about sticker shock. That session put in 161 kWh of energy...I will let you do the math. ??‍

A good way to push slower charging EVs to one station and faster charging ones to another would be to implement this at one station and charge a flat and high rate per minute. It would make it completely impractical for a slower charging EV to charge there and would allow quicker turnover because it would only be worthwhile for faster charging EVs.

 

[jemenake]

My Rivian has been out of commission since late November and of course I got my adapter in that time. I picked the truck up today and went by a Tesla charger to add a little range. The charger charged by the speed of charge. Below is what I took off the app, not sure if it is this site or all, didn’t check.

The per-kWh is still pretty much the same. Suppose you want 60kWh.
That’s…
60 min at 60kW ($0.31 * 60 =$18.60)
36 min at 100kW ($0.63 * 36 = $22.68)
20 min at 180kW ($0.98 * 20 = $19.60)

Looks like they’re trying to charge by kWh but maybe aren’t allowed to, so they have these tiers that approximate it.

if you have the time, limit your charge rate to 60kW (can you do that on DC charging) and turn the tables on them.

 

[DeafPug]

So in general would it be fair to say charging at a supercharger will be higher than ea or charge point?

You have to look at each location to compare.

Comparing the closest EA and Tesla stations with their standard and member pricing, I see

EA nonmember: $0.64/kWh
EA Pass+: $0.48/kWh
Tesla nonmember: $0.43/kWh
Tesla member: $0.33/kWh

Again, this was a single set of EA and Tesla stations located in KS. This has nothing to do with the comparable pricing throughout the rest of the US. You would need to compare pricing at each site to know for certain.

Myself, I prefer Rivian RAN stations if possible, then Tesla stations (using the membership when I do roadtrips), then look for other options if neither of those are available. Outside of the Midwest, I maybe will need to adjust those preferences.

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