Tesla boosts referral program by 500% for a limited time

Just over a month after completely revamping its referral program, Tesla is now boosting it by 500% for a limited time ahead of the end of the quarter.

Earlier this year,  Tesla ended its original referral program citing concerns with the cost after having to give away over 80 new Roadsters.

Last month, the automaker decided to relaunch the program with a completely different structure based on giving free Supercharging miles and chances to win a Model Y and new Roadster.

Tesla started giving 1,000 miles of free Supercharging to both the owner giving the referral and the new buyer receiving the referral.

Today, the company updated the program to give it a ‘500% Supercharging boost’.

They wrote in the ‘Loot box’ section of the Tesla app for owners:

“You and anyone using your referral code to buy a Tesla will receive 7,500 free Supercharger kms! On May 28, this will revert back to 1,500 kms.

Each referral now also gives you five chances to win a Founders Series Model Y or Roadster supercar! Tesla owners who already have free Supercharging get ten chances to win.”

Here’s a screenshot of the updated loot box section in the Tesla app:

Tesla says that the first Model Y drawing is going to happen “on/around May 1, 2019” and the first Roadster drawing will follow “on/around July 1, 2019.”

Electrek’s Take

The great thing with this version of the referral program for Tesla is that they can boost it like that without increasing the cost by much.

Increasing the number of chances per referral changes nothing for them since the number of vehicles being given away is the same.

As for the Supercharging miles, it definitely does have a cost for Tesla, but it is fairly minimal, especially since there’s a 12-month limit to use the credits and most Tesla owners don’t use the Supercharger network that much.

On the other hand, it also doesn’t incentivize owners to refer people much more, but it might be enough for some.

Either way, it sounds like an attempt at boosting orders by the end of the quarter since the end of May would give enough time for Tesla to deliver most vehicles by the end of June.

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