Earlier this month Tesla introduced a new fee structure for how owners are billed when plugging in at a Supercharger in Canada.
Under the new system there are now four tiers for charging speeds from below 60kW, 60-100kW, 100-180kW, and above 180kW.
The rates for tier 4 are the most expensive, with the most expensive rate in Canada that we have found being $2.45 per minute at the Charlottetown Supercharger.
The premise with these new tiers is that you are at tier 3 and 4 for the shortest amount of time before your charging speed tapers off to the lower tiers.
Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way in the real world as the new system resulted in owners seeing their bills double, or even triple compared to what they were paying before, bringing the cost to Supercharge close to the equivalent of using a fuel efficient gas-powered car.
Fortunately CEO Elon Musk is now aware of the situation and in response to a tweet from Harsimran Bansal (@harsimranbansal) said he will be looking into it, adding that Tesla’s goal is not for the Superchargers to be a profit center, but only to “make a modest return vs the fully-considered price of Supercharging.”
UPDATE March 30 7:14am PST: Musk has commented again, appearing to place the blame on Canada requiring Tesla to bill by the minute, and not by the amount of energy used. Musk said Tesla is “working to get that changed,” but provided no timeline on when that will happen. Measurement Canada announced in December 2020 it was working towards transition to per-kWh billing for EV charging. At that time the government agency said it would take 18 months to implement.
Canada requires charging by the minute vs kWh. We’re working to get that changed.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 30, 2022
Let us know in the comments below if you have any examples of increased Supercharger bills compared to before the recent price change.
Will find out. Our aspiration is just to make a modest return vs the fully-considered price of Supercharging.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 30, 2022
