Tesla is rolling back its Supercharger rates, which had made recharging an electric car more expensive than filling up a regular petrol car. The price per kilowatt-hour at Tesla Superchargers has dropped significantly, according to reports from Tesla owners in high-cost areas like California and Germany.
At one point, due to increasing energy inflation, particularly during summer heat waves, and Tesla’s reduction of the off-peak hours charging window, the cost of charging an electric vehicle in California was comparable to that of filling up a typical gas-powered vehicle. With a Model 3’s average power use of 0.25 kWh/mi, charging costs approached parity with filling the tank of an average 40 MPG gas engine car at US$6 a gallon when Supercharger prices exceeded US$0.60 per kWh during peak times.
Two months ago, Tesla owners paid as much per kWh as if they were using a gas guzzler, but as power costs have begun to fall, Tesla has begun to react by dropping its EV charging pricing in various places. From 0.55 EUR to 0.35 EUR per kWh, a reduction of over 40% has been reported across the board from drivers using Superchargers, with Germany and the Netherlands leading the way. In contrast, the price hike for using a Supercharger during California’s peak hours was only a penny or two.
Germany was hit the worst by the geopolitical energy price inflation because it relied heavily on Russian gas and its electricity rates were related to it. This explains why the prices at the time for using the Tesla Supercharger network in Europe were so astronomically high. Now that the energy market has started to adjust, Tesla owners all throughout the United States, from Florida to New York, are reporting that the price of using a Supercharger has gone down.
