In a surprising move, Tesla is now extending free Supercharging to all current vehicles.
Tesla had previously announced the change of the program to a paid model after 400 kWh per year, which was supposed to take place starting January 1st. It later extended the deadline for two weeks before making the change and it is now retroactively extending the deadline to today.
The move seems to be due to the new referral program incentive which enables owners to give free Supercharging through five new referrals of the Model S and Model X.
Tesla sent us the following statement about the new program:
“We heard from our customers that free, unlimited Supercharging was one of their favorite reasons to refer a friend to buy a Tesla, so we’re bringing it back for Model S and Model X owners through our referral program, which we update periodically. Beginning today, existing owners can give free, unlimited Supercharging to up to five friends by sharing their referral code, and all existing Tesla owners who purchase a new Model S or Model X will receive free, unlimited Supercharging too.“
They confirmed that it extends to all current owners. The Supercharger credit page for Tesla owners on the paid program has been removed from their MyTesla page.
Update: we clarified with Tesla and all Tesla owners who ordered before 1/15/17 have access to free supercharging for the life of their vehicle, while all Tesla owners from then to now (who were on the paid program) have now access to free supercharging for the ownership of their vehicle.
I made a new post to clarify all the different current models of Supercharger access: Understanding Tesla’s new Supercharger access for Model S and Model X
It’s not clear how many owners are affected by this change since the limit to order was January 15 and a delivery before April 1st – meaning all vehicles delivered over the past 2 months were under the paid model and now they are not anymore. At the very least, it should have made about 10,000 owners very happy.
Therefore, the only way to get free Supercharging going forward will be to get a referral code from a current owner, which is limited to 5 per owner until the end of the year.
As we previously reported, the 400 kWh of Supercharger Credits annually is likely to be enough for most people’s driving habits, but if you plan to often use your Tesla for long distance travels, then unlimited free Supercharging is definitely worth it.
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