The Tesla Model 3’s are coming — eventually. In the next year, at least 450,000 new owners will be looking for places to charge up.
Where will they go? Maybe to Sheetz.
The luxury electric vehicle startup has begun creating its own chain of high-speed “supercharger” stations — leveraging hotels, gas stations, grocery stores and fast-food restaurants. Superchargers deliver energy to a car’s battery more quickly than a regular charging station.
So far, Tesla’s “destination charging locations” — marketed as an opportunity to attract the brand’s loyal drivers to a given business — include a slew of Sheetz gas stations in the Mid-Atlantic region.
At least two are near Pittsburgh: in Franklin Park and North Huntingdon.
The companies involved aren’t saying much about the project, but the fans are already plugged in.
“I believe Tesla is adding superchargers now to basically fill the gaps and provide options on major routes,” said Matt Simmons, a 43-year-old video editor from Marshall, who also runs the TeslaPittsburgh.com blog. “With our 2014 car, we can now cross the state and skip over multiple superchargers on several stretches, whereas in the past, you had to take your stops where the chargers were.”
That doesn’t mean the supercharging stations are packed with Teslas. During a two-hour midday period on a rainy Thursday at the North Huntingdon convenience store, gas guzzlers hogged the spaces for parking, not re-charging.
Across North America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, Tesla has installed 1,032 supercharger stations with 7,320 charging ports, according to the company’s website.
Details about new locations are shrouded in secrecy outside the California-based company’s locator map. Tesla owners water at the mouth on blogs dedicated, in part, to spotting the unicorn charging hubs.
Altoona-based Sheetz referred media requests to Tesla. A company representative declined to elaborate on the superchargers, referring questions to the Tesla website.
While it’s unclear the exact financial incentives that the various partners are trading, it’s clearly an exercise in co-branding.
“When two brands come together, they’re pooling their strengths to create something that is greater than the sum of their parts,” said Vanitha Swaminathan, a professor of marketing and business economics at the University of Pittsburgh.
Tesla owners swoop into the gas station and maybe purchase a snack or made-to-order sub. Tesla’s brochures for supercharger applicants claim the chargers “enhance the aesthetics of your property.”
While the Tesla Model 3 costs $35,000 without modifications, the earlier Model S and Model X usually start around double that and can sail past six figures, depending on customizations. A new Model X 100D costs $110,750.
The handshake process
According to the company’s website, Model S and X owners receive 400 kilowatt-hours in supercharger credits each year, or about 1,000 miles worth. Model 3 owners will pay for each use.
If a qualifying vehicle isn’t used often, the charging is free. Otherwise, the charging stations will bill a user’s Tesla account based on usage through a “handshake” authentication process that verifies the car is authorized to use the supercharger.
On Friday, Darren Schilberg, 44, of Ross, plugged his red 2016 Tesla Model S 90D into a pod at a Sheetz along Nicholson Road in Franklin Park. The systems analyst for Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC said he has taken multiple cross-country road trips, stopping at superchargers along the way.
He pulls the nozzle from the charging station and attaches it to the car’s charging port, hidden beneath the left tail light.
Mr. Schilberg said his 90 kWh battery costs about $11 to fully charge at home, giving him about 275 miles of range. That’s 4 cents per mile.
He added, though, that most Model S and X owners, himself included, don’t have to pay for superchargers at all; only new purchases are subject to the 400-kWh rule, per the Tesla website. For that reason, Mr. Schilberg could actually go months without paying for power if he leverages superchargers.
Supercharger stations offer two speeds of refueling and two costs. When the car is charging quickly — above 60 kW — it costs 20 cents per minute to use a supercharging station in Pennsylvania. That’s halved if the car is charging more slowly, which tends to happen as the battery gets closer to capacity.
Happy for the convenience, Mr. Schilberg usually stops inside Sheetz to grab a bite.
‘Not a profit center for Tesla’
According to Tesla’s website, charger pricing creates a net loss for the company.
“Our costs vary based on both operational and electricity costs, but supercharging is offered to our customers below the price that it costs us to provide the service. Similar to our service centers, this will not be a profit center for Tesla.”
So what might look like a bid to expand charging services to become a main player in the electric car powering space could actually be an incentive for consumers to buy a Tesla, rather than a competitor car like the Nissan Leaf.
That is, unless Tesla decides to one day open up the supercharging stations to other brands of electric vehicles — perhaps manufacturing and selling adapters for non-Teslas, similar to the wall outlet adapters that U.S. residents need when visiting Europe.
For other electric cars, there are already generic charging sites in parking garages, stadiums and even storefronts. But they’re slower and costlier.
In Crafton and West View, Dunkin Donuts offers charging stations as part of a relationship with EVgo, a network of retail charging stations.
There is a flat fee of $5.95 per session plus an additional charge of 20 cents per minute.
Tesla superchargers near Pittsburgh
There are seven within about a 75-mile radius of Pittsburgh and some — such as in Morgantown, W.Va. — are not so close.
Fear, uncertainty, doubt
Charging electric vehicles is still a chicken-and-egg problem.
Consumers might avoid switching from gas to electric until there are enough charging stations. At the same time, there may not be enough charging stations until there’s appropriate demand, said Ms. Swaminathan, who is also the director at Pitt’s Katz Center for Branding.
“We call this the fear, uncertaintly, doubt [model]. There is a certain period where you have to convince consumers to make the switch,” she said. “You have to build to capacity to generate demand.”
The co-branding works because Tesla doesn’t have to invest in the construction of its own buildings with restrooms and food, and Sheetz gets the first two charging stalls for free.
The market for electric vehicles is shifting rapidly. Earlier this month, General Motors announced it would manufacture 20 new electric models by 2023. That might mean a future where Tesla loses more potential customers than it maintains, since more electric vehicles will be on the road than ever before.
If the company doesn’t adapt to increased demand, it could fall behind a company offering power to all brands.
It’s like going to a gas station and seeing it only offers Honda-brand gasoline, Ms. Swaminathan said.
Tesla has maintained that its network is only for its own customers, but the company recently joined the Charging Interface Initiative, or CharIN, an organization seeking to standardize charging standards.
And Sheetz, among Tesla’s other partners, probably wants to use those superchargers to entice more electric vehicle owners into the store, Ms. Swaminathan said.
That way, the spaces will be filled by electric cars — and not gas-powered cars just looking for a convenient parking spot.
“Sheetz is probably doing this as a way to stay ahead of the game ... over time we expect electric vehicles to be a larger part of overall transportation.”
Courtney Linder: clinder@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1707. Twitter: @LinderPG.
Correction, posted Oct. 31: A previous version of this story misstated the type of chargers at Dunkin Donuts. They are regular electric charging stations.
First Published: October 31, 2017, 10:30 a.m.
