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# In 2012 Tesla Promised Model S Owners Free Long-Distance Travel Indefinitely on Pure Sunlight. By 2023 It Was Offering Free Supercharging on a New Car to Owners Who Agreed to Have the Old Promise Switched Off.
- URL: https://whywecanthavenicethings.info/tesla-free-supercharging-revoked/
- Published: 2026-10-13T10:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-13T09:59:59.000Z
- Author: The Complaints Department
- Tags: Revoked

On 24 September 2012, Tesla Motors unveiled its Supercharger network under a press release headed "Drive the Model S electric car anywhere in the country on pure sunlight for free." The arithmetic was presented as simple. Tesla had built the charger itself, cheaply, out of components it already used in the car. The electricity would come from solar carports supplied by SolarCity, at what the release called "almost zero marginal energy cost after installation." Combining the two, it said, "Tesla is able to provide Model S owners free long distance travel indefinitely." Six stations in California were open on the day. A footnote explained that the Supercharging hardware was standard on the 85 kWh Model S and optional on the 60 kWh version.

"We are giving Model S the ability to drive almost anywhere for free on pure sunlight," Musk said in the release. Engadget, summarising the event for prospective owners, put it more plainly: "You will always be able to charge at any of the stations for free." The intended use was long-distance travel, and the release said so repeatedly. What it did not do was make that a condition. The entitlement belonged to the car. Nothing asked who was driving it, how often, or why.

## The High-Mileage Customers

The people who drove the most miles worked out the economics first. Tesloop, a ride service in southern California, sent its cars up to 17,000 miles a month in and around Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County and Palm Springs. In August 2017 Jalopnik reported that its Model S, nicknamed "eHawk", had passed 300,000 miles, and that Tesloop could use the Supercharger network "at a cost of basically nothing." The car's total maintenance bill came to about $10,500, against the $70,000 to $86,000 Tesloop estimated a Lincoln Town Car or Mercedes S-Class would have needed. Electrek later described Tesloop as one of the services that "largely rely on Tesla's Superchargers."

In Amsterdam, a large Tesla taxi fleet served Schiphol airport. Some private owners complained that commercial operators were abusing the network, according to Electrek, sometimes by leaving their cars at the stations overnight. Electrek's own summary was that the free access "also resulted in some abuse." The press release had promised that the Supercharger system would "always generate more power from sunlight than Model S customers use for driving." It had not anticipated a single car doing 17,000 miles a month.

## The Credits

On 7 November 2016, the Tesla Team published "An Update to Our Supercharging Program." By then, it said, more than 4,600 Superchargers served over 160,000 owners. "Our intention has always been for Supercharging to enable long distance travel," the post explained, and so cars ordered after 1 January 2017 would receive "400 kWh of free Supercharging credits (roughly 1,000 miles)" a year, after which there would be a fee costing "less than the price of filling up a comparable gas car." The network, Tesla added, "will never be a profit center." Existing owners would keep unlimited charging, as would new orders placed before 1 January 2017 and delivered before 1 April 2017\. "Just as you would charge your cell phone," the post concluded, "we believe the best way to charge your car is either at home or at work."

The next problem was not distance but time. In December 2016 Musk warned that Tesla would "take action" against owners who left their cars plugged in once charging was over. "Supercharger spots are meant for charging, not parking," he said. On 16 December Tesla introduced a fleet-wide idle fee of $0.40 for every minute a fully charged car stayed connected, waived if the car was moved within five minutes. "One would never leave a car parked at a gas station right at the pump," the announcement observed, "and the same rule applies with Superchargers." It added: "To be clear, this change is purely about increasing customer happiness and we hope to never make any money from it." Because the cars were permanently online, Electrek noted, Tesla could track the fees and collect them at the owner's next Service Center visit. The following day Musk amended the policy on Twitter: "If the site is basically deserted, no problem to park."

## The Fair Use Policy

On 15 December 2017 Tesla added a Supercharger Fair Use Policy to its legal page. Any new or used Tesla purchased from that day could not use a Supercharger anywhere in the world if the car was being used "as a taxi; for ridesourcing or ridesharing (through Uber, Lyft or similar services); to commercially deliver or transport goods; for government purposes; or for any other commercial venture." Owners who did not comply could find Tesla would "limit or block their vehicle's ability to use Supercharger stations." Existing fleets, bought before the cut-off, were unaffected. Tesla said it would offer commercial operators other ways to charge.

In October 2018 a taxi driver at Schiphol took the question to a civil court in Amsterdam. He had bought an 85 kWh Model S in 2014, and the judge accepted his argument that Tesla had known at the time the car would be used as a taxi and had still committed to free and unlimited charging. He was allowed to continue charging his taxi at the Superchargers for free.

## The Exchange

By then unlimited Supercharging had stopped being a feature of the car and become a marketing instrument. It was handed out through the owner referral programme, and Tesla changed the rules in 2017 so that, as Electrek put it, the perk "became linked to the ownership of the vehicle — making it non-transferable." The car that had once carried the promise from owner to owner now lost it on sale. In September 2018, as the referral offer was being wound down, Musk explained: "Sorry, it's not really sustainable at volume production & doesn't incent optimal behavior. We probably should have ended this earlier." Tesla then brought free Supercharging back during several periods to help sell inventory cars and the Model 3.

In July 2019 Electrek reported that Tesla had sent a memo to sales staff: older Model S and Model X cars that Tesla bought back and resold would no longer come with free Supercharging, even where it had been attached to the car. Electrek's Fred Lambert noted that Tesla had originally sold those cars "while allocating some cost to 'Free Unlimited Supercharging' being associated with the vehicle for the life of the vehicle," and was now removing it before selling them again. "That's tricky," he wrote.

In October 2023 Tesla offered owners whose cars still had unlimited free Supercharging a Supercharging Exchange Agreement. An owner who took delivery of a new Model Y, Model S or Model X between 19 October and 31 December 2023 could receive free Supercharging on it in return for forfeiting the unlimited Supercharging on the old car. "Tesla will remove the free, unlimited Supercharging from your current Tesla vehicle up to one week before delivery of the new vehicle," the agreement explained. The new entitlement would last only while the owner kept the new car; on resale it "will be removed from the vehicle and the vehicle will be defaulted to pay per use Supercharging." The forfeiture could not be reversed, "even in the event that the new vehicle is deemed a total loss." Idle fees still applied, and unpaid ones would cost the owner Supercharger access altogether. Vehicles used for commercial purposes were not eligible. The exchange was allowed "this one time." An owner who failed to sign but used a Supercharger anyway would be assumed to have agreed.

The 2012 promise had fitted into a single sentence and a footnote about battery sizes. Its replacement ran to seventeen numbered conditions. The last one dealt with the old car, which could still be sold on to someone else. In that case the seller had to tell the buyer that the car "is equipped without free, unlimited Supercharging."

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*Filed from public reporting:*

- [Engadget — "Tesla reveals Supercharger network it says will cover the US in two years; Model S fills up for free, always"](https://www.engadget.com/2012-09-24-tesla-supercharger.html)
- [Electrek — "Tesla officially announces end of unlimited free Supercharging, new 'Supercharging credit program' starts in 2017"](https://electrek.co/2016/11/07/tesla-end-of-free-supercharging-new-supercharging-credit-program-2017/)
- [Electrek — "Tesla introduces $0.40/minute idle fee for Superchargers to incentivise owners to move when charging is over"](https://electrek.co/2016/12/16/tesla-supercharger-idle-fees/)
- [Jalopnik — "This Is What Happens When You Put 300,000 Miles On A Tesla Model S"](https://jalopnik.com/this-is-what-happens-when-you-put-300-000-miles-on-a-te-1798662230)
- [Electrek — "Tesla introduces new 'Supercharger Fair Use' policy to focus on long distance travel and deter commercial use"](https://electrek.co/2017/12/15/tesla-supercharger-fair-use-policy-deter-commercial-use/)
- [electrive — "Dutch taxi driver defies Tesla to use Superchargers freely"](https://www.electrive.com/2018/10/23/dutch-taxi-driver-defies-tesla-to-use-superchargers-freely/)
- [Electrek — "Tesla removes 'free unlimited Supercharging' from its used cars"](https://electrek.co/2019/07/22/tesla-removes-free-unlimited-supercharging-used-cars/)
- [Tesla — "Supercharging Exchange Agreement"](https://digitalassets.tesla.com/image/upload/v1698423933/Digital-Email-Deployment/Miscellaneous/EN%5F-%5FUnlimited%5FSupercharger%5FExchange%5FAgreement.pdf)