Tesla Extends Free Unlimited Supercharger Access Offer Until January 15

January 3, 20178 years ago James Ayre 0 Comments

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Despite earlier plans for January 1st to mark the end of unlimited free Supercharger access for buyers of new Teslas, the company has gone ahead and postponed the change until January 15th, according to a statement from the company.

What this means is that if you want unlimited free access to Tesla’s Supercharger network to be included in your purchase, then you now have until the 15th to complete the order, rather than until the end of 2016 (which is now past).

Here’s the tweet that the company sent out for those who want to see the exact words:

If you couldn’t finalize your purchase by 12/31, you can still order a Model S or X until 1/15 to receive unlimited Supercharging.

— Tesla (@Tesla) January 1, 2017

As we reported previously, following the passing of the deadline (the new January 15 one now), buyers of new Teslas will instead of unlimited Supercharging be granted a yearly stipend of 400 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of Supercharger use. Essentially, enough free use to allow those who use the network for occasional road trips to continue to do so without much cost. Those who use the Supercharger network for regular recharging, though, will now be paying their way.

Teslarati provides more: “Tesla is expected to announce details for its paid charging model, referred to as Supercharger Credits, early this year which will enact ‘a small fee’ that will be ‘charged incrementally and cost less than the price of filling up a comparable gas car’, says the Silicon Valley-based electric car maker. All vehicles coming off of the production line will be equipped with the necessary hardware required for Supercharging, including Tesla’s upcoming mass market Model 3.”

In related news, Tesla also recently made a move to deal with Supercharger users who leave their cars in the charging bays long after charging has finished (which can greatly delay those looking to use the network). Those who do so will now be fined at a rate of $0.40 per minute after charging has finished, following a 5 minute grace period. This fining system will apparently not apply to vehicles parked at empty Superchargers, but only to those at busy locations/times.