From The Wall Street Journal: Tesla Motors plans to charge for its Quick-Charge Access as Model 3 launch approaches. Tesla scales back how much new drivers can use its fast-charging stations without paying.
Tesla Motors Inc.
next year will stop providing unlimited free access to its
fast-charging stations for new buyers of its electric vehicles, a move
intended to help pay for the charging network and the launch of a cheaper and higher-volume electric sedan.
Tesla
has gained notoriety for free access to proprietary stations that can
recharge its $66,000 and up cars in far less time than a conventional
charger. While the company’s investment in the “Supercharger Network”
has been steep, it considers the cost a replacement for the hefty sums
most auto makers dish out for advertising or sales incentives.
The
Silicon Valley auto maker introduced the perk four years ago and
expanded it to Europe and Asia. But buyers of vehicles ordered after
January 1, 2017, will have to pay for charging after using 400 kilowatt-hours of
charging annually, equal to about 1,000 miles of travel.
How much will it cost to re-charge? "Less than the price to fill up a "comparable gas car." Whatever that means.
The Supercharger network has 734 locations world-wide, according to
the company. Car sales growth has strained the network’s capacity, and
Tesla has worried about its ability to offer service.
Tesla has said it has 373,000 reservations for the Model 3.
“The
increasing number of Model S and Model X vehicles, as well as the
significant increase in our vehicle fleet size that we expect from Model
3, will require us to continue to increase the number our Supercharger
stations significantly,” the company said in a quarterly filing this
month. “If we fail to do so, our customers could become dissatisfied,
which could adversely affect sales of our vehicles.”
Mr.
Musk first hinted at the company’s annual meeting in 2015 that the
charging network could change, noting that some people were “abusing”
the system by using it for daily charging rather than for quick fill-ups
between cities. This was causing congestion at the stations.
“There
are a few people who are quite aggressively using it for local
supercharging,” he said at the time. “We’ll sort of send them just a
reminder note that it’s cool to do this occasionally, but it’s meant to
be a long-distance thing.”
More at the link.
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