Measured by revenue less cost of operations (opex) and cost to carry capex (interest or opportunity cost) is there any proof that non-Tesla DC fast chargers are making any money from charging? Breaking even?
If they are, why aren’t more companies getting into installing chargers for profit?
If they aren’t, how do we ever get to sustainable, operational infrastructure that meets consumer expectations like the gas stations they’re used to?
I’m not sure there’s any proof Tesla chargers are making money.
Tesla doesn’t break out the revenue and costs of their Supercharger network- they bundle those numbers with other services. In a tweet, Elon Musk once said Tesla “shoots for 10% profit” on charging, implying it was a target they hadn’t hit yet.
Public charging is necessary for EV adoption, but it’s probably still far too early in the transition for anyone to be making money at it yet.
It makes sense for Tesla to treat charging as a loss leader
At first, sure. It was a necessary cost center to promote vehicle sales.
I suspect its close to profitable now (if not perhaps already profitable) so expanding it to other EVs now makes sense.
I don’t care about whether Tesla is or isn’t profitable with their superchargers. They are executing regardless. They’re rapidly installing new chargers. They repair their chargers. Their chargers work. So whether they’re doing what they’re doing and losing or making money doesn’t matter much. They’re doing it.
Others really aren’t. I wanted to discuss whether profitability (or lack thereof) was the potential motive for not expanding, not repairing, and not caring. Or why others aren’t aggressively swooping in to claim territory and carve out more than their fair share.