Not so surprising. Car sales have flattened out, and Musk has positioned the Supercharger network to become his REAL cash cow for the foreseeable future. I, too, noticed some .10 to .15/kWh increases in MD recently. What's really surprising to me is that even the early generation, much slower stations, have had their pricing adjusted to be at the same level as the faster ones. They used to be far cheaper. But he knows that with everyone pretty much adopting NACS over the next year, his future success is in the charging end, instead of sales of vehicles.
Since charging at the Supercharger becomes much slower above 80%, it's in his best interest, revenue-wise, to limit Supercharger charging to 80% whenever possible. A surcharge on rates when charging above 80% is one way to do this. You just watch, eventually, he'll update the software so the car will automatically CAP at 80% charging at Superchargers, unless you specifically order it to go higher.
In a post long ago, I lamented opening the supercharger network to other brands, fearing it would take away the only real competitive advantage he has over the competition, and the biggest reason why I purchased a Tesla over other brands, and was generally flamed for my opinion. Well, now your going to see the true results over the next couple years. Not just crowds, but higher prices as he tries to monopolize the charging industry, and reductions on how much you can charge. As the charging network becomes his bellwether business, not car sales, you'll see him continue to find ways to increase revenue at the Supercharger, often to the detriment of what Tesla owners have gotten used to.
That's what the whole 80% recommendation is. Down the line, more revenue for Elon Musk, not the health of your battery. The Battery warranty already covers Tesla very well, as the degradation has to be extreme to get a replacement battery only because of capacity loss.
Since charging at the Supercharger becomes much slower above 80%, it's in his best interest, revenue-wise, to limit Supercharger charging to 80% whenever possible. A surcharge on rates when charging above 80% is one way to do this. You just watch, eventually, he'll update the software so the car will automatically CAP at 80% charging at Superchargers, unless you specifically order it to go higher.
In a post long ago, I lamented opening the supercharger network to other brands, fearing it would take away the only real competitive advantage he has over the competition, and the biggest reason why I purchased a Tesla over other brands, and was generally flamed for my opinion. Well, now your going to see the true results over the next couple years. Not just crowds, but higher prices as he tries to monopolize the charging industry, and reductions on how much you can charge. As the charging network becomes his bellwether business, not car sales, you'll see him continue to find ways to increase revenue at the Supercharger, often to the detriment of what Tesla owners have gotten used to.
That's what the whole 80% recommendation is. Down the line, more revenue for Elon Musk, not the health of your battery. The Battery warranty already covers Tesla very well, as the degradation has to be extreme to get a replacement battery only because of capacity loss.
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