EVWire brief: Tesla is now piloting charging based on live site utilization for off-peak and on-peak pricing, instead of just the static estimations.
Tesla says you’ll always see the price before your session begins, and prices do not change mid-session. A small-scale pilot is launching at 10 sites and will expand based on feedback and success.
Tesla, in their recent article on X, gave us a little history of their approach to Supercharger pricing:
“Since 2016, we have advocated with regulators globally to allow kWh-based billing versus time-based billing. This is the fairest way to pay for the exact energy used. We also never add a charging session fee, as such fees lack transparency and mask higher per-kWh costs.
In 2017, we introduced idle fees to address customers leaving their vehicles plugged in at busy sites after fully charging. This increased availability and improved the experience for all users. Idle fees have since become an industry standard.
In 2019, we implemented an automatic 80% state-of-charge limiter at busy sites. The final, slower 80% to 100% charge can often be skipped without impacting travel, freeing up Superchargers. Customers can manually override this if needed.
In 2020, we launched on-peak and off-peak pricing based on estimated times when Superchargers are busy. This reduces the cost of ownership if you can charge off-peak and ensures availability during peak demand. It also increases total utilization per Supercharger, making charging more affordable. This approach has now become common across fast-charging networks.
In 2023, we simplified pricing with congestion fees, combining idle fees and the high state-of-charge inefficiency. At busy sites, congestion fees apply when charging is complete or nearly complete. This principle is being adopted across the industry. Customers are notified via their touchscreen and app and receive a 5-minute grace period. Our goal is to avoid profiting from congestion fees, which exist solely to improve availability when a site is getting crowded.
Today, we are piloting on-peak and off-peak pricing based on live Supercharger utilization rather than estimations. The average price remains unchanged, but this live feedback loop improves accuracy. This corrects off-peak pricing during times of congestion, or on-peak pricing when Superchargers are plentiful. You’ll always see the price before your session begins, and prices do not change mid-session. A small-scale pilot is launching at 10 sites and will expand based on feedback and success.”
Tesla says that on average for Tesla customers, their Superchargers in Europe and North America are 30% cheaper than other fast-charging options.
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