News
Tesla Superchargers are now over 3x cheaper than their biggest competitor
Tesla’s Supercharger Network just undercut one of its biggest competitors by over three times, and the company did not even have to lower its prices. In a recent announcement, IONITY, the rapid charging network that is considered as VW, BMW, Daimler, and Ford’s answer to the Tesla Superchargers, revealed that it would be updating its pricing structure by the end of the month — and what an update it is.
In a press release, IONITY stated that it would be launching a kilowatt-hour-based pricing scheme for customers across its established pan-European network starting January 31, 2020. The new rate is simple, with the company charging customers per kWh. The only issue is that IONITY will be charging electric car drivers 0.79 EUR ($0.88) per kWh.
That’s a substantial premium compared to the Tesla Supercharging Network, which has a rate of about 0.25 EUR ($0.28) per kWh. Thus, with this new pricing structure in place, an Audi e-tron or Porsche Taycan owner would end up paying about $80 to charge the all-electric SUV from zero to 100%. Considering that these vehicles are capable of traveling just over 200 miles on a charge, IONITY’s updated prices will make long trips on electric cars far more expensive than before.
IONITY boss Michael Hajesch, for one, noted that he does not think the new pricing strategy will turn customers away from using the network. In an interview with Handelsblatt‘s EV publication Edison Media, the IONITY executive explained that the rapid charging network’s advantages would likely be worth it for electric car drivers.
“I don’t have that fear. It is important to mention that the connected mobility service providers – and in this case, also include the Porsche charging service and BMW ChargeNow – offer attractive end customer offers. Direct customers without a contract benefit from the IONITY service promise, such as high availability, a Europe-wide HPC charging network, top locations directly on the motorway, and responsible operation of the charging stations with green electricity.”
He also argued that such price adjustments would likely not deter the advent of electric mobility. While he admitted that IONITY’s new pricing is high compared to its rivals in the market, Hajesch stated that the decision to raise the network’s prices was not difficult at all, even among its owners, VW, BMW, and Daimler.
“The discussion was not fierce or difficult at all. The price will not deter customers from buying, on the contrary. The overall service promise of the European IONITY HPC network already gives an answer to the key criticisms of the past regarding availability, charging power, green electricity supply, and range anxiety. We are therefore convinced that we are making a significant contribution to the market acceptance of electromobility.
“The purchase decision will not only depend on the IONITY price point on the long-haul route, which only accounts for five to ten percent of the annual charging needs. You also have to take into account the other use cases at home/work and public charging, which can already result in advantages over diesel and gasoline,” he said.
Despite the IONITY boss’ arguments, the fact remains that EV owners now need to pay far more to charge their vehicles using the rapid charging network. This will likely deter electric car owners who are budget conscious, and it might very well incentivize the ownership of internal combustion cars once more. After all, why buy an Audi e-tron that takes about $80 to fill up when a comparable gas or diesel-powered SUV can fill up for far less?
That being said, this update in IONITY’s pricing also highlights the practicality of Tesla’s Supercharger Network, which charges about $0.28 per kWh. Tesla’s Superchargers currently top out at 250 kW, which is less than IONITY’s peak of 350 kW, but considering the price difference, electric car owners will likely take the slightly slower charging speed and be charged a rate that is several times more affordable.
It’s unfortunate, but for now, at least, it appears that the only rapid charging network that is seriously going for petrol’s jugular is Tesla and is Superchargers.
In Pennsylvania, we got between 10 and 12 inches of snow over the weekend as a nasty Winter storm ripped through a large portion of the country, bringing snow to some areas and nasty ice storms to others.
I have had a Model Y Performance for the week courtesy of Tesla, which got the car to me last Monday. Today was my last full day with it before I take it back to my local showroom, and with all the accumulation on it, I decided to run a cool little experiment: How long would it take for Tesla’s Defrost feature to melt 8 inches of snow?
Tesla’s Defrost feature is one of the best and most underrated that the car has in its arsenal. While every car out there has a defrost setting, Tesla’s can be activated through the Smartphone App and is one of the better-performing systems in my opinion.
It has come in handy a lot through the Fall and Winter, helping clear up my windshield more efficiently while also clearing up more of the front glass than other cars I’ve owned.
The test was simple: don’t touch any of the ice or snow with my ice scraper, and let the car do all the work, no matter how long it took. Of course, it would be quicker to just clear the ice off manually, but I really wanted to see how long it would take.
Tesla Model Y heat pump takes on Model S resistive heating in defrosting showdown
Observations
I started this test at around 10:30 a.m. It was still pretty cloudy and cold out, and I knew the latter portion of the test would get some help from the Sun as it was expected to come out around noon, maybe a little bit after.
I cranked it up and set my iPhone up on a tripod, and activated the Time Lapse feature in the Camera settings.
The rest of the test was sitting and waiting.
It didn’t take long to see some difference. In fact, by the 20-minute mark, there was some notable melting of snow and ice along the sides of the windshield near the A Pillar.
However, this test was not one that was “efficient” in any manner; it took about three hours and 40 minutes to get the snow to a point where I would feel comfortable driving out in public. In no way would I do this normally; I simply wanted to see how it would do with a massive accumulation of snow.
It did well, but in the future, I’ll stick to clearing it off manually and using the Defrost setting for clearing up some ice before the gym in the morning.
Check out the video of the test below:
❄️ How long will it take for the Tesla Model Y Performance to defrost and melt ONE FOOT of snow after a blizzard?
Let’s find out: pic.twitter.com/Zmfeveap1x
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 26, 2026
Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor is proving to be a difficult task, according to some riders who made the journey to Austin to attempt to ride in one of its vehicles that has zero supervision.
Last week, Tesla officially removed Safety Monitors from some — not all — of its Robotaxi vehicles in Austin, Texas, answering skeptics who said the vehicles still needed supervision to operate safely and efficiently.
BREAKING: Tesla launches public Robotaxi rides in Austin with no Safety Monitor
Tesla aimed to remove Safety Monitors before the end of 2025, and it did, but only to company employees. It made the move last week to open the rides to the public, just a couple of weeks late to its original goal, but the accomplishment was impressive, nonetheless.
However, the small number of Robotaxis that are operating without Safety Monitors has proven difficult to hail for a ride. David Moss, who has gained notoriety recently as the person who has traveled over 10,000 miles in his Tesla on Full Self-Driving v14 without any interventions, made it to Austin last week.
He has tried to get a ride in a Safety Monitor-less Robotaxi for the better part of four days, and after 38 attempts, he still has yet to grab one:
Wow just wow!
It’s 8:30PM, 29° out ice storm hailing & Tesla Robotaxi service has turned back on!
Waymo is offline & vast majority of humans are home in the storm
Ride 38 was still supervised but by far most impressive yet pic.twitter.com/1aUnJkcYm8
— David Moss (@DavidMoss) January 25, 2026
Tesla said last week that it was rolling out a controlled test of the Safety Monitor-less Robotaxis. Ashok Elluswamy, who heads the AI program at Tesla, confirmed that the company was “starting with a few unsupervised vehicles mixed in with the broader Robotaxi fleet with Safety Monitors,” and that “the ratio will increase over time.”
This is a good strategy that prioritizes safety and keeps the company’s controlled rollout at the forefront of the Robotaxi rollout.
However, it will be interesting to see how quickly the company can scale these completely monitor-less rides. It has proven to be extremely difficult to get one, but that is understandable considering only a handful of the cars in the entire Austin fleet are operating with no supervision within the vehicle.
Tesla has given its biggest hint that Full Self-Driving in Europe is imminent, as a new feature seems to show that the company is preparing for frequent border crossings.
Tesla owner and influencer BLKMDL3, also known as Zack, recently took his Tesla to the border of California and Mexico at Tijuana, and at the international crossing, Full Self-Driving showed an interesting message: “Upcoming country border — FSD (Supervised) will become unavailable.”
FSD now shows a new message when approaching an international border crossing.
Stayed engaged the whole way as we crossed the border and worked great in Mexico! pic.twitter.com/bDzyLnyq0g
— Zack (@BLKMDL3) January 26, 2026
Due to regulatory approvals, once a Tesla operating on Full Self-Driving enters a new country, it is required to comply with the laws and regulations that are applicable to that territory. Even if legal, it seems Tesla will shut off FSD temporarily, confirming it is in a location where operation is approved.
This is something that will be extremely important in Europe, as crossing borders there is like crossing states in the U.S.; it’s pretty frequent compared to life in America, Canada, and Mexico.
Tesla has been working to get FSD approved in Europe for several years, and it has been getting close to being able to offer it to owners on the continent. However, it is still working through a lot of the red tape that is necessary for European regulators to approve use of the system on their continent.
This feature seems to be one that would be extremely useful in Europe, considering the fact that crossing borders into other countries is much more frequent than here in the U.S., and would cater to an area where approvals would differ.
Tesla has been testing FSD in Spain, France, England, and other European countries, and plans to continue expanding this effort. European owners have been fighting for a very long time to utilize the functionality, but the red tape has been the biggest bottleneck in the process.
Tesla Europe builds momentum with expanding FSD demos and regional launches
Tesla operates Full Self-Driving in the United States, China, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.
Tesla winter weather test: How long does it take to melt 8 inches of snow?
Tesla Robotaxi ride-hailing without a Safety Monitor proves to be difficult
