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Supercharging - Elon's statement that Daily Supercharging Users are Receiving Notes

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I was at the shareholder meeting and heard Elon say in effect

Elon clarified that superchargers are really for long distance trips. He acknowledged that there are some people using them for daily driving, and mentioned that a few are getting notes to that effect. An owner can technically and legally use only superchargers for daily driving.

What did he exactly mean?

Has anyone received one of these notes?

What about apartment dwellers without access to any plug?

My original post received two comments on this very quickly.
 
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I was at the shareholder meeting and heard Elon say in effect

Elon clarified that superchargers are really for long distance trips. He acknowledged that there are some people using them for daily driving, and mentioned that a few are getting notes to that effect. An owner can technically and legally use only superchargers for daily driving.

What did he exactly mean?

Has anyone received one of these notes?

What about apartment dwellers without access to any plug?

My original post received two comments on this very quickly.

- - - Updated - - -

Okay... bad thread title.... should be

Elon's statement that Daily Supercharging Users are Receiving Notes

I thought he was quite clear: Supercharging is intended for long-distance travel, some people are abusing it (it's fine to charge locally occasionally), and those who do abuse it will receive a friendly note reminding them of the intended use.
 
I was at the shareholder meeting and heard Elon say in effect

Elon clarified that superchargers are really for long distance trips. He acknowledged that there are some people using them for daily driving, and mentioned that a few are getting notes to that effect. An owner can technically and legally use only superchargers for daily driving.

What did he exactly mean?

Has anyone received one of these notes?

What about apartment dwellers without access to any plug?

My original post received two comments on this very quickly.

I think it's pretty obvious that he meant that people shouldn't be using it when they don't need to use it.
 
So does this mean that if you live in a situation (say an old apartment or condo building) and work somewhere (where you have to park in a large outside lot), using the supercharger daily / weekly is not really an option?

I think you're trying to find a problem here where there isn't one. Some superchargers have been put in population-dense areas expressly for this purpose. Elon was quite clear he was talking about the people who were abusing supercharging - to be perfectly clear, those who COULD charge at home but choose to use up time at a Supercharger to save a few bucks.

I don't understand where your confusion is coming from, honestly.
 
Gosh, I am confused.

I don't see how Tesla would know if someone COULD charge at home or not.
Do they know if someone lives in a home or in a joined building?
What if someone was going through a divorce / breakup of some kind?
I don't see how Tesla would know. I have gotten zero impression that they are the type to find out this information.

My confusion is that has it been really made clear to multiple building dwellers that you can't use the superchargers regularly? If I had not already talked to 3 extensively, I might feel differently. What do they do now? Are these three people (who seemed so far to be lovely well intentioned folks) now struggle to find another way to charge?

And for any true "abusive types", a little note likely won't change any behavior.

I think you're trying to find a problem here where there isn't one. Some superchargers have been put in population-dense areas expressly for this purpose. Elon was quite clear he was talking about the people who were abusing supercharging - to be perfectly clear, those who COULD charge at home but choose to use up time at a Supercharger to save a few bucks.

I don't understand where your confusion is coming from, honestly.
 
Gosh, I am confused.

I don't see how Tesla would know if someone COULD charge at home or not.
Do they know if someone lives in a home or in a joined building?
What if someone was going through a divorce / breakup of some kind?
I don't see how Tesla would know. I have gotten zero impression that they are the type to find out this information.

My confusion is that has it been really made clear to multiple building dwellers that you can't use the superchargers regularly? If I had not already talked to 3 extensively, I might feel differently. What do they do now? Are these three people (who seemed so far to be lovely well intentioned folks) now struggle to find another way to charge?

And for any true "abusive types", a little note likely won't change any behavior.

Done playing. I'm sure you'll get someone to bite.
 
Supercharging - Elon's Shareholder Comment About the "Notes"

My take on the comments is that Tesla is thinking of introducing a usage fee for SuperCharging close to home. This would both prevent abuse and solve the problem of how to accommodate owners who don't have access to a home charge station.

By qualifying "free" as referring to long distance travel only, I think Elon is setting direction for policy and warming everyone up to the idea of paying for local SuperCharging.
 
My take on the comments is that Tesla is thinking of introducing a fee for SuperCharging close to home. This would both prevent abuse and solve the problem of how to accommodate owners who don't have access to a home charge station.

By qualifying "free" as referring to long distance travel only, I think Elon is setting direction for policy and warming everyone up to the idea of paying for local SuperCharging.

Elon said absolutely nothing about fees. I suspect he hopes that common sense will prevail & those abusing things will stop when asked. To bill people would be costly to Tesla on all sorts of levels.
 
I think the notes are the 'asking politely' step. I would hope that most who receive a note would get the message and comply. For those that don't, Tesla will have to consider options, like possibly disabling charging at your local SC, but allowing it everywhere else... still free for life. As to those who don't have many options, perhaps an arrangement can be made or something.
 
The "arrangement" was already made when I purchaed the car...it was "free supercharging for life", not "free remote supercharging for life". I don't partake in or condone habitual local supercharging. But after all, "free" supercharging was included in the price of the 80KWh option and the 60KWh-80KWh upgrade that those owners PAID for. If Tesla wants to change that policy for new owners that's up to them, but it seems a little disingenuous to go all ex post facto on current owners.
 
I'm thinking this concern is not about $ / kWh but about stall availability (and their respective cost)

Once on a trip I was topping off as I was reading email or something to that effect. i was 100 miles away from home and really didn't need the last bit of charge, but wanted to read my email. I saw another car show up at the station (Vacaville) and pulled out for them to have my spot.

After I pulled away, another driver left and I took their spot and charged at a slower rate for another 10 minutes or so.

So maybe the concern is more about having charger availability for those who need it, not the cost of incremental juice.
 
Tesla had set up multiple "city" supercharger stations in certain cities that is primarily intended for daily charging by those without home charging. If you happen to live in one of those cities, then I would imagine you won't receive such a notice. I believe the only ones in the US are the LA stations; some have said the San Mateo/Mountain View stations are also "city" superchargers but I'm not convinced that they aren't just filling in HWY 101.

Another easy solution is just to include in the notice that people without home charging access are an exception and send the notice regardless.
 
I thought there were two primary reasons that you didn't want to use a supercharger daily or even weekly.

A.) Supercharging is harder on the battery.

B.) It was made clear to me at least, that the superchargers were only intended for trips, and that's why they put them OUTSIDE of cities. I haven't seen or heard anything from Tesla to indicate that a supercharger was ever intended for daily charging. Even if they do put one in the city it doesn't mean that's the intention. It could be for destination charging for a city.

From everything I've seen I got the impression that the superchargers were for road trips. As an owner I wouldn't be too happy with people using them as daily charging because it's a bit abusive. It's why we can't have nice things.

There are plenty of other charging options for those who live in an apartment/condo. You can pay a monthly fee and charge elsewhere.

As owners it's not in our best interest to have people using them as daily charging because it's going to lead to overcrowding. It's also not in the best interest of the companies who have arrangements with Tesla. A hotel owner is going to feel cheated if half the people charging at the supercharger at his hotel are locals who never have any intention of staying there.
 
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I consider this somewhat similar to the "fair Internet use policies" that have -more or less- regulated DSL, Cable and 3G/4G internet connections. E.g. with respect to "unlimited downloads" that really are not when people are pushing things to the extreme... Or when it comes to "unlimited text messages"...

Initially, the definition from the providers was fairly soft. This became more "crisp" over time also as technology advancements enabled providers to better measure use and thereby also further define "fair use" and discourage abuse (e.g. through techniques like "throttling").
 
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