Tesla could stand to make $25 billion per year while helping the world's EV owners forget about range anxiety.
For years, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said it's his (and Tesla's) mission to encourage EV adoption.
The mission is much more highly faceted than that, but you get the idea. As part of that mission, Tesla created its own proprietary fast-charging network, which it has offered to share with other EV makers, though it seemed no other companies were interested. Perhaps it comes at a cost that's exorbitant?
Regardless, now that there's a major surge in EV adoption, and many OEMs are producing (and actually promoting and selling) compelling EVs, it makes sense for Tesla to once again offer its vast and powerful Supercharger network to other automakers. And, that's sort of what has been reported.
With that said, it seems that rather than other automakers actually making a deal with Tesla to use its charging network, Tesla simply plans to open the network to other EVs, which would give owners the choice to use the Superchargers. If we understand correctly, those owners would be the ones paying Tesla for the charging sessions.
In fact, Elon Musk himself recently tweeted about it as part of a reply. He says Tesla will make its Supercharger network available to other EVs later this year:
According to a recent report by our friends at Teslarati, Goldman Sachs worked to estimate just how much revenue Tesla could generate if it actually has other EVs charging on its network. The investment firm says the US-based electric automaker could make over $25 billion per year thanks to this upcoming plan. Teslarati writes:
"As part of its computation, Goldman Sachs considered the amount of Level 3 Superchargers in Tesla’s networks. According to the investment bank’s research, Tesla has ~3,000 stations with about 25,000 or more stalls. It also considered the amount Level 2 Destination Chargers Tesla built in partnership with various hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, and resorts."
Check out the details from Goldman Sachs in the tweet below:
While it makes perfect sense that Tesla will stand to benefit from this plan in a big way, $25 billion is incredible. However, some Tesla fans and owners have concerns about the potential impact on the network's wait times. Perhaps Tesla plans to build out the Supercharger network first before adding the option for other EVs to charge?
This is a developing story. We have no idea how or exactly when Tesla aims to implement this plan. We can only assume details will eventually come related to cost, etc.
Regardless, if Tesla can generate huge revenue, it should have no problem building out the network quickly to keep up with the new demand, especially considering its new, more streamlined, pre-fab Supercharger installation efforts.
Nigel H Searle
If we assume 20 million EVs (approximately 10 times more than now) getting ALL their power from Tesla Superchargers, their owners would have to spend $1,250 a year to generate $25 billion for Tesla.