Tesla
- Elon Musk's Tesla plans to offer unlimited overnight home charging for $30 per month to Texans.
- Texas has a lot of wind at night, which serves as energy, Drew Baglino said at Tesla's Investor Day.
- The $30 monthly subscription comes as part of Tesla Electric.
Tesla on Wednesday announced plans to roll out unlimited overnight home charging to customers in Texas for $30 per month.
Drew Baglino, Tesla's senior vice president of engineering, said during the company's Investor Day that customers in Texas would be offered the retail electricity plan in July as part of "Tesla Electric," which provides sustainable energy to homes.
"This is part of reducing the total cost of ownership of our vehicles and the reason why we can do this is because Texas has a ton of wind. And in Texas, the wind blows at night," Baglino said.
Last year, Texas generated the most wind power compared with all other US states, according to a February report by nonprofit news organization Climate Central.
The $30 monthly subscription was a way to incentivize Tesla customers to charge their vehicles in their homes during the night directly via a source of renewable energy, Baglino said.
Charging an EV at home depends on electricity rates and the range of the car.
Per car-buying guide Kelley Blue Book, analyst and journalist John Voelcker said that from October 2022, the US household average was about 16 cents per kWh. This meant it would cost around $56 per month to charge an electric car at home.
Customers can only sign up for Tesla Electric if they have the company's Powerwall energy-storage battery and live in an area of Texas that offers retail choice, per the website.
Tesla's charging subscription was included in a three-hour presentation at Investor Day. Baglino presented data from the company's virtual Tesla Electric powerplant in South Australia, which served 5,000 customers in 2022.
Those who used default utility services paid around $142 a month, he said. Whereas, customers who were using Tesla Solar and Powerwall, which were not interacting with the grid, paid $69 a month.