Don't even need that.Who needs a marketing department, when you can lure your competitors' customers into a parking lot, surrounded by your products and driven by people that won't stop talking about how awesome it is?
It's a stupid business term to describe the thing that maintains their position, typically a defense against their (business) advantage. Business(men) bloviating and picking their navel lint might then compare that to a competitive advantage, blah, blah, blah, zzzZZZzzz.Not sure what a MOAT is...but pretty sure I'm not one! BK
Every time a SC is used Tesla gives away electricity for less than it costs them to deliver it. That's called a "loss"I think this is up there with "Tesla doesn't make money selling cars". Aside from the OG unlimited Supercharger Teslas, every time we use a Supercharger, profit is generated.
"We lose a little on each sale but we make it up in volume" is the old joke but here the answer is they will never break even until they start selling juice at a profit to the buyers of other OEMs vehicle.The big question is how many hours of charging does it take before a Supercharger breaks even.
I think you mean $0.08/kWh. Could you share with us the source of that number? In any case they used to give it away free for the life of the car but that was costing them too much so they decided to recoup some of the expense. Every time they have changed the pricing we are assured that they are not making a profit. Are they lying? The fact that in, for example, Newburg, NY, Tesla charges 28¢/kWh whereas EA charges 43 ¢/kWh suggests that they are probably telling the truth.I'm sure expanding the Supercharger network is more expensive than what they bring in by a large margin. But they are buying power for $0.8/ kWh and selling it at $0.28-0.31/ kWh.
Maybe someday but in order to be one they will have to sell electricity for more than 28¢/kWh. Doesn't matter whether it is to you all (I get it free) or Rivian drivers but it doesn't appear there is any profit in 28 ¢ killowatt hours.Tesla is playing the long game here. The Superchargers are a compliment to their cars, but they will be a big profit center.
It is a tremendous advantage in that to sell cars you have to have it and Tesla is the only company that has it. For this reason it does not matter if it loses money. That money is a good investment in the future success of the company.For example, the supercharger network is completely attackable - albeit slowly and since there is little to no profit margin in the SC network, it's not really a competitive advantage that lots of defenses should be put into.
It's easy to put up a charger station. Putting up 50 or 100 charger stations is also easy. Creating a network where someone can drive from town to town and seamlessly plug into your network is extremely difficult.For example, the supercharger network is completely attackable - albeit slowly and since there is little to no profit margin in the SC network, it's not really a competitive advantage that lots of defenses should be put into.
This gets us back to the joke about losing a little on each transaction but making it up in volume. The service right now does not make money.I mean... its a service that makes money, the more often its charging cars at near full capacity the more money they make.
Through this mechanism it sells more cars thus Tesla is willing to lose some money in order to get the sales.plus, the less people are worried about charging issues, the more people are willing to get into ev's.
If it's so easy why does it take years to install one? And there is a huge investment involved too, Eight stalls ~ 2 Mil?It's easy to put up a charger station. Putting up 50 or 100 charger stations is also easy.
If installing a station is easy then networking them is a trifle too. Satoshi Nakamoto created the whole Bitcoin network with one page of C++ source.Creating a network where someone can drive from town to town and seamlessly plug into your network is extremely difficult.
Your electric utility sells electricity for typically 4 - 6 times what they paid for it. Nevertheless the margins are pretty thin.Consolidation of these networks is inevitable. Eventually we're going to have 2-3 big networks each making fairly fat margins reselling power at 2-3x what they pay for it.
They buy power at $0.08/ kWh. They sell it at $0.28/ kWh. The margin/ profit on that sale is $0.20 per kWh. How about when Tesla has solar panels installed at Superchargers and pays $0.00/ kWh but sells power for $0.28/ kWh. Again, that is profit.I think you mean $0.08/kWh. Could you share with us the source of that number? In any case they used to give it away free for the life of the car but that was costing them too much so they decided to recoup some of the expense. Every time they have changed the pricing we are assured that they are not making a profit. Are they lying? The fact that in, for example, Newburg, NY, Tesla charges 28¢/kWh whereas EA charges 43 ¢/kWh suggests that they are probably telling the truth.
You can charge at other networks, I've done it. It's just a pain in the ass because their infrastructure sucks.I do 99% of my charging at home but i sure hope this will mean that other networks will also be open to tesla! Around here i've seen several tesla owners use a chademo adapter but i'd like to see one big open network, i don't care about branding.
Extra-market sales have the problem of no third-party intervention in cases when one of the partners renegs on the agreed upon deal. You even have this problem when buying something on Craigslist!I wonder if the MachE driver selling drugs at the Supercharger will realize that all the Teslas around him are recording lol
Divide by miles of range, compare feature sets, etc - always shows Tesla as priced competitively.Teslas aren't more expensive? They sure seem to be when you look at the prices.
Musk has said that they intend to and do run the Superchargers revenue neutral, and don't internally charge the build-out against the Supercharger network internally, just replacement/repair. This is pretty visible on their kWh prices at the point of charge.If you think Tesla is running the Superchargers with no plans for profits, maybe you figure they are going to open source their Full Self Driving software too?
What happens when US Government airdrops $7b worth of subsidies into the mix?Musk has said that they intend to and do run the Superchargers revenue neutral, and don't internally charge the build-out against the Supercharger network internally, just replacement/repair. This is pretty visible on their kWh prices at the point of charge.
Apple does not give away their OS or other services to third parties. (Mostly not anyhow)This is like how Apple doesn't charge for its operating systems, downloads, or basic web support. It means users can use what they bought without any worry that they'll go out of support until long after the hardware's expected lifetime. (Of course if you need repair, want to sell software, want personalized support...)