Tesla Extends Free Supercharging Window By Two Weeks

If you want to get in on that free supercharging deal offered to current Tesla owners, you have two weeks left. The company has extended its free superchaging offer by two weeks, after that, you'll have to pay up like everyone else.

Anyone who orders a Model S or Model X before January 15 will be grandfathered into unlimited, lifetime access to the Supercharger network, which currently clocks in at over 4,600 stations. Those who tarry and order later will receive that 400 kWh annual allocation, which Tesla indicates is good for roughly 1,000 miles.

Wow that's amazing!

I originally figured the offer was only good for Model S buyers and not Model 3. Times have changed, but two week offer to boost flat lining sale numbers?

400kwh = a thousands miles per a year? that's an insanely low amount.

Steve said:

If you want to get in on that free superchaging deal offered to current Tesla owners, you have two weeks left. The company has extended its free superchaging offer by two weeks, after that, you'll have to pay up like everyone else.

Anyone who orders a Model S or Model X before January 15 will be grandfathered into unlimited, lifetime access to the Supercharger network, which currently clocks in at over 4,600 stations. Those who tarry and order later will receive that 400 kWh annual allocation, which Tesla indicates is good for roughly 1,000 miles.

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Superchager.

viscountalpha said:

400kwh = a thousands miles per a year? that's an insanely low amount.

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Most customers charge at home.

For the small percentage of those that travel long distances out of town on a regular basis the cost to recharge is still much cheaper than gasoline if those free miles get used up.

They're also trying to discourage people from leaving the cars at the charging station for hours after charging completes. Some were using the chargers like personal parking lots, so these are an attempt at cleaning such issues up before Model 3 production begins.

EngrChris said:

Times have changed, but two week offer to boost flat lining sale numbers?

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I'm surprised they are selling as well as they are, considering how gas prices are at an 11 year low.

Then again, when you ask people how much they are spending per mile, most don't have a clue and never bother to do the math even though its the second most expensive purchase they make in their lives, outside of a home.

In fact, a coworker made me facepalm when she was complaining that her Volvo S60 is expensive to fill up... its like, that's a good thing, its because you have a huge fuel tank, but the fuel economy is actually great, so you just enjoy really good cruise range between fillups. But I bet if you gave her a microcar like the Scion IQ with its 8 gallon fuel tank, she'd feel like gas cost nothing since she'd be filling 10 gallons less gas each time at the pump, lol!

so 400kwh only gets you 1000 miles? just think what would happen to our power grid if ev cars take off.

tunatime said:

so 400kwh only gets you 1000 miles? just think what would happen to our power grid if ev cars take off.

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Not sure what the average is for a (much) heavier Tesla, but my 2017 Volt averages about 4 miles per kWh. For the Tesla, being 5000lbs (1500 more than mine) I can see how you would get around or a little more than 1000 miles if you had the AC or heater going and did some spirited driving.

I know if you are heating the car off battery power it sucks electrons like nobody's business.



the overall state of our power grid in the US is pretty crappy. There are some parts that are of course pretty new and able to handle crazy situations, but our electrical infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired.

One person recorded his annual use and he used about 5000 kWh in a year for 15k miles, or 3 miles per kWh. In my opinion, these changes aren't a big deal. You might save $600 in electricity per year if you only filled up at the free charging stations, but you could also invest the difference into getting a solar panel and charge at home. However, if you were going to take a Tesla on a long road trip, you'd have to charge 45 minutes every 3 to 3.5 hours on the highway, at which point I'd rather spend $225 in gas to drive 2000 miles and get to my destination 7 hours earlier.

-PK- said:

One person recorded his annual use and he used about 5000 kWh in a year for 15k miles, or 3 miles per kWh. In my opinion, these changes aren't a big deal. You might save $600 in electricity per year if you only filled up at the free charging stations, but you could also invest the difference into getting a solar panel and charge at home. However, if you were going to take a Tesla on a long road trip, you'd have to charge 45 minutes every 3 to 3.5 hours on the highway, at which point I'd rather spend $225 in gas to drive 2000 miles and get to my destination 7 hours earlier.

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I usually rent when I travel long distances, it's cheap and I don't like putting miles on my personal vehicles. But I wouldn't mind renting an EV really, I stop for half an hour every 200-300 miles which is close to what I'd get from a next gen EV.

If anything I think owners of traditional cars may also benefit (indirectly) from EVs coming out:

Putting positive pressure on gas prices. I think the oil barons will probably be thinking twice about hiking up gas prices too high if it means pushing too many customers away from the gas pump, they can't recklessly treat them as "captive customers" anymore.

So that means a better balance of supply vs demand down the line to keep prices in check, one would hope.