Drive Tesla Canada reports that Tesla has added an in-car payment option for Supercharging sessions. Previously, the only way one would be able to pay for Supercharging was to use your credit card saved in your Tesla account online. A new way will allow you to pay using your in-car display. This was just discovered by Ryan Levenson, host of “The Kilowatts.”
This option appears when you don’t have any payment methods saved in your account. A button pops up on your display that says “Payment Method Requested,” and you can then enter your credit or debit card information and pay for your charging session.
Levenson told Drive Tesla Canada that he removed his credit card from his account to see what would happen when he attempted to use a Supercharger. After he plugged in, he was able to complete the charging session but was prompted on the display for a new payment method.
One thing to note is that it seems one can charge for free (this doesn’t include the free Supercharging miles if one has that), but then future sessions will be cut off. It will show “Supercharging unavailable. Add a payment method to re-enable.” Another thing that is suggested in the article is that this is a great way for those who rent their cars out on Turo to make sure customers don’t use up the vehicle’s free Supercharging miles. Imagine renting your car to someone and they use your payment information for fuel (gas or Supercharging or other means) without your consent. This is a great way to protect the owner of that car from unnecessary charges.
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