Tesla Inc. is planning to offer unlimited overnight home charging in Texas for $30 a month in a move that echoes the transformation in mobile-phone billing.
(Bloomberg) — Tesla Inc. is planning to offer unlimited overnight home charging in Texas for $30 a month in a move that echoes the transformation in mobile-phone billing.
While Tesla isn’t alone in contemplating such a plan, the automaker’s announcement Wednesday during its investor day underscores a pivot in home charging.
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Power traders have long opined that electricity could become so cheap that profits will be driven more by selling the services rather than the megawatts themselves. That may be starting to happen now in Texas, and mirrors a long-ago shift in the mobile-phone market, from specific numbers of minutes per month to unlimited plans.
That Tesla is focused on Texas isn’t surprising. Electricity on the state’s grid is often very cheap at night, when wind power tends to be robust, sometimes creating a scenario in which supply exceeds demand.
The other benefit: Utilities typically prefer that homeowners charge their EVs overnight, when power demand tends to be low.
“Seeing auto companies get more involved with how home charging works (and when) is a positive shift to avoid overloading the grid as the EV fleet grows,” Corey Cantor, an analyst at BloombergNEF, said in a Bloomberg blog Wednesday.
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