Supercharging solely for those who have free access

[YDR37]

For those of us who purchased with free access to supercharging, can I just supercharge each week and not plug into my home? That was one of the reasons I bought it. The manager at the store told me I should be charging it at home and only supercharge on trips. I'm thinking tesla just doesn't want to pay for all my charging.

No, Tesla doesn't want to pay for all of your charging. There is some fine print on the Free Supercharging offer that addresses this; in particular, notice the bolded parts:

Customers who purchase a new Cybertruck Foundation Series are eligible for free Supercharging during your ownership of the vehicle. Order must be placed on or after February 28, 2025. Offer is tied to your Tesla Account and cannot be transferred to another vehicle, person or order, even in the case of ownership transfer. Used vehicles, business orders and vehicles used for commercial purposes (like taxi, rideshare and delivery services) are excluded from this promotion. You are still responsible for Supercharger fees, like idle and congestion fees, when applicable. Order is not eligible for Powershare voucher. Tesla reserves the right in its sole discretion to remove the free Supercharging from your vehicle in the event of excessive charging or unpaid fees related to Supercharging. Free Supercharging only redeemable directly at Tesla-owned Superchargers. Promotion subject to change or end at any time.

Why does Tesla exclude commercial vehicles? Because Tesla doesn't want to pay for all of an Uber driver's charging.

And why does Tesla reserve the right to remove your free Supercharging in the event of "excessive charging"? Because Tesla doesn't want to pay for all of your charging either.

If you always charge for free at Superchargers, and never charge at home, Tesla can track that. Could Tesla consider this to be "excessive charging"? Could Tesla then remove your Free Supercharging privileges? I don't know, but in theory, they have the right to do so.

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[babablacksheep]

Do you know of any actual case of Tesla taking away someone's "free" Supercharging?

 

[Crissa]

5000 miles since Jan 2025. Have only used free supercharging (outside of 50 miles on a home charger) and battery cycles have been 23. No battery issue as you can see from below. *No loss of personal time as very intentional with when and how we charge and what we get accomplished while doing so. With charging costs in the Bay Area close to $0.59 kWh, we’ll end up saving close to $10K this year and probably more every subsequent year.

Dude, offpeak is only 34¢ a kilowatt. Median is 45¢
https://www.pge.com/assets/pge/docs/account/rate-plans/electric-rate-advisory-0125.pdf

If you're paying 59¢ a kilowatt in the Bay Area, you need to check your plan and change it.

-Crissa

 

[YDR37]

Do you know of any actual case of Tesla taking away someone's "free" Supercharging?

No, I only said that it was theoretically possible. I don't know if it happens in practice.

If it ever does happen, I would expect affected customers to be ... unhappy.

 

[YDR37]

I think we can all agree that there are scenarios where free Supercharging privileges could potentially be abused. Like maybe this one:

My Friend's Cybertruck is a Mobile Bitcoin Mine Thanks to Free Supercharging

 

[Gaximus]

Super charging isn’t as bad as it used to be on the vehicle, but leaving the vehicle unplugged is. Also like many others have said, time. One of the best benefits of an EV is skipping the gas station. Swapping that out for sitting at a station for an hour or more a week, seems like a much worse trade off.

 

[Hookalakupua]

I think Tesla should give “free” charging privileges only if you’re over 100 miles out of your zip code.

Out of pure curiosity, what’s the rationale behind that? Freeing up spaces due to overcrowding from owners with free supercharging? I’ve seen it said a few times so just trying to understand.
Thanks

 

[xbeast]

Wow our rates are, peak $.20 to $.27 per kwh, and off peak $.03 to.04 $.04. I schedule off peak.

 

[mongo]

I think Tesla should give “free” charging privileges only if you’re over 100 miles out of your zip code.

That overlooks people returning from road trips.
Along with trips into no charger land. We need to stop twice to charge at a spot 114 miles from us to visit family. If we lived 14 miles closer, we still would...

 

[Shadowmite]

I think we can all agree that there are scenarios where free Supercharging privileges could potentially be abused. Like maybe this one:

My Friend's Cybertruck is a Mobile Bitcoin Mine Thanks to Free Supercharging

Pretty sure things like this are the exact reason for that clause. Tesla isn’t likely to have a problem with people using a proportionate about of kWh vs their odometer mileage.

 

[YDR37]

I think Tesla should give “free” charging privileges only if you’re over 100 miles out of your zip code.

Out of pure curiosity, what’s the rationale behind that? Freeing up spaces due to overcrowding from owners with free supercharging? I’ve seen it said a few times so just trying to understand.
Thanks

Suppose you are a typical EV owner, without any "free Supercharging" perk. You normally charge at home, because this is cheap and convenient. But obviously you can't charge at home when you are traveling, so then you use Superchargers instead. In this case, the Superchargers supplement -- but do not replace -- home charging.

Now let's say that you a lucky EV owner with free Supercharging. Tesla may be expecting you to follow the same pattern: do most of your charging at home, but use the free Superchargers when traveling. So again, the free Superchargers supplement -- but do not replace -- home charging.

Tesla may not be expecting you to do all of your charging at free Superchargers -- in which case free Supercharging does replace home charging. Some people would argue that this is an abuse of the "free Supercharging" perk. The "free Supercharging only when you are at least 100 miles from home" concept is intended to eliminate the potential for this perceived abuse, so that you only use the free Supercharging while traveling, like a typical EV owner.

As far as I know, Tesla has never provided an exact definition of "excessive charging". So it's not clear whether doing all of your charging at free Superchargers, instead of at home, is an abuse or not. However, I wouldn't be shocked if Tesla did define "excessive charging" that way in the future, and started cracking down.

 

[Hookalakupua]

Dude, offpeak is only 34¢ a kilowatt. Median is 45¢
https://www.pge.com/assets/pge/docs/account/rate-plans/electric-rate-advisory-0125.pdf

If you're paying 59¢ a kilowatt in the Bay Area, you need to check your plan and change it.

-Crissa

Unfortunately, our charging times are at peak rates in Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Gatos and Almaden where $0.59 per kWh is the cost.

 

[Hookalakupua]

Suppose you are a typical EV owner, without any "free Supercharging" perk. You normally charge at home, because this is cheap and convenient. But obviously you can't charge at home when you are traveling, so then you use Superchargers instead. In this case, the Superchargers supplement -- but do not replace -- home charging.

Now let's say that you a lucky EV owner with free Supercharging. Tesla may be expecting you to follow the same pattern: do most of your charging at home, but use the free Superchargers when traveling. So again, the free Superchargers supplement -- but do not replace -- home charging.

Tesla may not be expecting you to do all of your charging at free Superchargers -- in which case free Supercharging does replace home charging. Some people would argue that this is an abuse of the "free Supercharging" perk. The "free Supercharging only when you are at least 100 miles from home" concept is intended to eliminate the potential for this perceived abuse, so that you only use the free Supercharging while traveling, like a typical EV owner.

As far as I know, Tesla has never provided an exact definition of "excessive charging". So it's not clear whether doing all of your charging at free Superchargers, instead of at home, is an abuse or not. However, I wouldn't be shocked if Tesla did define "excessive charging" that way in the future, and started cracking down.

Thank you as truly appreciate the response and insight. We personally don’t believe it will be an issue as long as we’re only charging for miles driven and not for home or vehicle sharing but we’re guessing like everyone else. Will definitely report back if we hear from Tesla! Thanks again.

 

[Balthezor]

This is exactly what I wanted to see. Why pay for the electricity when you get this amazing benefit! I listen to audio books while I charge or update my website. Thank you for sharing this!

Because this benefit isn't entirely free. It takes time. If you are ok with wasting time supercharging, then that works. You can work remotely, etc. My time is more valuable than that. Time is money.

 

[Crissa]

Unfortunately, our charging times are at peak rates in Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Gatos and Almaden where $0.59 per kWh is the cost.

Why are you charging at peak rates?

And too bad you're not actually at Palo Alto rates. Those are like super cheap.

-Crissa

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