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posted by mrpg on Monday September 17 2018, @07:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the electrons-want-to-be-free dept.

Submitted via IRC for Fnord666

Tesla's offer of free, unlimited Supercharger access was supposed to have ended in early 2017, but it's been on a form of life support since then. Unless you were buying a regular Model 3, you could get the no-cost charging by ordering your EV with a referral code from an existing owner. Now, however, even that exception appears to be coming to an end. Elon Musk has pointed out that the referral program is about to end. After September 16th, owners will only get to hand out $100 in Supercharging credit to Model S, Model X and Model 3 Performance buyers -- just enough for a few top-ups.

While there is a chance this isn't a permanent end (this is the company that brought back the Roadster), we wouldn't count on it given the finality of Musk's statement. Previous referral programs started the day after their predecessors ended.

The end to the offer isn't surprising, even with Tesla's repeated extensions. Superchargers may cost you less than filling up a gas-powered car, but they're still expensive to operate -- Tesla had to factor the cost of Supercharging into every sale when the perk was free for every buyer. And when the automaker is still bleeding cash, it's likely determined to cut costs and boost revenue whenever possible.

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/09/16/tesla-ends-lifetime-free-supercharging-offer/


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @03:08PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 17 2018, @03:08PM (#735998)
    If you charge outside your home you are already better off with a gas car. Charging is too expensive ($1.29 .. $1.49 per hour at the nearest location.) I choose to live in an apartment because it fits my life better (no maintenance of the house, I live alone.) But only new buildings may have a charger per parking space due to high electrical load. And even then the charger company can ask whatever it wants for a unit of time. It's a captive market for them. Utilities, once the mass charging starts, will invent a fee for "loading the grid" that will effectively rise the price of kWh for home EV users. The gas industry already went through that and settled on an average price that the drivers are ready to pay. This process will also happen with EV charging energy.
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