Gone are the days when people used to go looking for Chevy’s economy cars to save costs in the long run! It is all about EVs, rideshare options, and anything that can be associated with the words ‘green’ or ‘sustainability.’
Thanks to the growing concern for the environment and Tesla’s capabilities, the auto manufacturer has managed to sell close to 500K EVs in 2020 alone. Now, what does Tesla do differently to leave competitors like Chevy, Nissan, and BMW behind by a mile?
The answer lies in its charging stations - the flagship Superchargers! Read on to understand how it is impacting Tesla’s sales significantly.
Origins
We haven’t seen a Chevy, Volkswagen, or Ford build and operate gas stations in the US. Similarly, petroleum companies like Exxon and Chevron are not in the business of making cars.
So why is Tesla so keen on running charging stations and manufacturing EVs?
For starters, Tesla realized early on that there is a lack of charging infrastructure in the country and ramped it up - even more than its car production division.
The brains behind the organization laid the foundation stone for its charging network in 2003, and nine years later, the first-ever Supercharger was introduced to the world.
At the time, many other electric vehicle manufacturers had their cars and concepts ready, but there were no public chargers to support them.
As a consequence, owners of other EVs had to go for a hybrid option or limit their trips to under 250 miles to avoid being stranded.
On the other hand, Tesla owners didn’t face as many problems since the chargers were up and running.
Competition
For a long time, Tesla had a virtual monopoly when it came to charging their cars. While it still owns the lion’s share of the 50,000 charging points available in the US, a good number of competitors are ready to get a piece of the pie.
Blink Charging, Chargepoint, Electrify America, and EVgo are the major companies that could give Elon Musk’s company a run for its money.
The race became intensified after EV-market contender BMW, the rideshare platform Uber, and few others inked deals with plug-in service providers for their respective users.
In addition to this, Budget cuts forced Tesla to roll back its free supercharging offer for the Model S and Model X - it means owners of these cars have no incentive to look for a Supercharger station now.
In the aspect of pricing, there is no match for Tesla since they offer the lowest charging rates of 60 cents a minute. Besides, proprietary stations mean that a Nissan Leaf or a Chevy Bolt can never make Tesla owners wait for their Supercharger!
Challenges
It isn’t easy to sell a disruptive idea, and as an early-mover in the battery-operated vehicles market, Tesla had to convince people that charging the car is not all that difficult.
We can say that the company has been partly successful in making people hop on the EV bandwagon, but the USA continues to be a gasoline dominated country.
People need a bigger incentive to accept a change that will change the way they move around and lifestyle to a certain extent.
Many individuals who are toying with the idea of owning a Tesla aren’t entirely convinced with their charging network’s reach. The number of charging points sure seems to be high, but most of them lie in the state of California.
Other big regions like Texas, Montana, and Missouri barely have a thousand chargers to make it viable to drive an EV.
Lastly, like most automotive giants, Tesla also hasn’t been free of rows with ex-employees, shareholders, and government officials. While such issues haven’t impacted the big picture and future plans of the company, it does cause a snag from time to time.
Future
Tesla is already flirting with the idea of launching rideshare options, and if that materializes, the company would have more incentives for expanding the Supercharger network.
More recently, it unveiled a beast in the form of a 250 kW charger that can add upwards of 250 miles in just 15 minutes. It points out the fact that the EV manufacturer is prepared for a day when cars would be able to go from zero to a hundred percent within a matter of minutes.
In summation, it’s a no-brainer that the growth of Tesla is directly linked to the growth of its public charger network. Now that the company has set its aim at selling ‘20 million units by 2030,’ it’s safe to say that their charging stations are here to stay.
Such revolutionary products from Palo Alto’s 3500 Deer Creek Road makes us believe that Elon Musk is well on his way to becoming the Henry Ford of this era!
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