Tesla tries to get owners to give up ‘unlimited free Supercharging for life’

Tesla is trying again to get owners of older Model S and Model X with “unlimited free Supercharging for life” to give up the perk with a new offer.

For the first few years of selling Model S and Model X, Tesla was offering free Supercharging for the vehicle’s life.

It was a really enticing offer since you could technically not have to pay to power your vehicle ever. Of course, that’s if you don’t charge at home and only use the Supercharger network, which is not ideal for most people, but it is an extremely valuable perk for some power users.

In 2018, Tesla ended the perk after claiming that it was unsustainable – though it did temporarily bring it back as a sale incentive at times.

There are still today a few hundreds of thousands of Tesla vehicles with unlimited free Supercharging around the world.

Earlier this year, Tesla made a first effort to try to get those vehicles off the perk by offering owners an extra $5,000 discount if they trade in a Model S and Model X with unlimited free Supercharging.

Now Tesla is doubling down on this effort by launching what it calls a new “Ownership Loyalty Benefit.”

The automaker is offering those owners six years of unlimited Supercharging when buying a new Model S or Model X by the end of the quarter.

The offer makes it clear that the goal is to remove unlimited Supercharging:

Current Tesla Model S or Model X owners with active unlimited free Supercharging are eligible for 6 years of unlimited Supercharging. To qualify, owners must trade in or remove unlimited Supercharging from their vehicle and take delivery of a new Model S or Model X by June 30, 2023.

It sounds like you don’t have to trade in your older Model S or Model X vehicle when taking this offer, but if you decide not to give it back to Tesla, you will have to sign away your right to unlimited Supercharging to get six years of free Supercharging on your new Model S or Model X.

Electrek’s Take

This is an interesting offer. The Model S and Model X have become much better cars since 2018.

You would basically get a much better version of your car and still get free Supercharging for six years. Now that’s not unlimited for the life of the vehicle, but who knows what is going to happen in six years.

It’s interesting that Tesla is just now trying hard to get people off of the unlimited free Supercharging just as it appears to try to make Supercharging a profit center – something it originally said it wouldn’t do.

With non-Tesla EV drivers now getting access to the network, it looks like Tesla is now looking to see what the Supercharger network would look like as a full-scale money-making charging network.