You'll Pay to Juice Up Your Model 3, Musk Tells Tesla Buyers

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk plans to turn off the free electricity taps at his company’s Supercharger stations for owners of the upcoming Model 3.

Musk made the announcement last night during a question and answer session at the company’s annual shareholders meeting.

Paying to use the Tesla-financed recharging network isn’t something the roughly 373,000 reservation holders want, but the decision comes down to basic economics, said Musk.

Model S and X owners already pay for the privilege of fast (and free) roadside fill-ups, he said, because it’s built into the lofty purchase price of their vehicles. Having the network in place was key to making the models viable.

The Model 3 starts at $35,000, and that price doesn’t allow for many gee-gosh perks. We’re Tesla, but we’re not friggin’ wizards, people.

“I don’t want to make this some big news headline, but the obvious thing to do is decouple (the network) from the cost of the Model 3,” Musk said. “In order to achieve the economics, we must have users pay for charging stations.”

Model 3 buyers will be able to buy an option package for free Supercharger access.

Musk’s history-heavy speech, which was long enough to allow online viewers to cook and eat dinner, saw the CEO fire back at his critics.

For starters, Tesla is sticking with its plans to ramp up production to 500,000 units per year by 2018.

“We’ve made much higher leaps than this in the past,” Musk said. “It’s certainly going to be a challenge with the Model 3. It’s going to be hard … but it’s something we can make happen.”

All those government incentives? “(They’re) tiny in proportion to what Tesla receives from investors and people buying vehicles,” explained Musk, adding that the company doesn’t inflate vehicle prices to turn those incentives into profit.

The billion-plus dollars in tax incentives offered to Tesla’s Gigafactory by the state of Nevada amount to “a one percent discount for us,” said Musk. Those incentives are essentially equal to the sales and use tax on the battery factory’s equipment, he added.

Throughout the speech, Musk acknowledged the embarrassing problems faced by Model X owners, and said that imminent software updates should stop that model’s doors from going Maximum Overdrive on its owners. Going big on technology in the first version of the vehicle was a big mistake, he said.

“We should have taken those ‘awesome’ features and tabled them for a future version,” said Musk. “It was a case of being overconfident. The door system was complex and difficult to refine. I think we’re almost there in making the doors useful.”

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Chocolatedeath Chocolatedeath on Jun 01, 2016

    Its odd that every Tesla article I read on TTAC has some many folks defending everything Musk does. Just a thought.

    • VoGo VoGo on Jun 01, 2016

      It's also odd that so many folks attack everything Musk does.

  • Rudiger Rudiger on Jun 02, 2016

    If it's true that the vast majority of EV owners charge at home (and that would include Tesla owners), why would Musk care if Model 3 owners get free charging? That doesn't make any sense, particularly since it's the kind of perk that would sway more than a few to buy the things. All I can do is guess he doesn't want to run the risk of alienating the more expensive Tesla drivers if the anticipated huge throngs of Model 3 drivers begin flocking to the free chargers and the pricier Tesla guys have to start waiting to get their turn. Frankly, I'm thinking that when Model 3 sales turn out to be a whole lot less than what Musk predicts, he'll quickly change his tune on shutting them out of the free charging.

  • ToolGuy North America is already the greatest country on the planet, and I have learned to be careful about what I wish for in terms of making changes. I mean, if Greenland wants to buy JDM vehicles, isn't that for the Danes to decide?
  • ToolGuy Once again my home did not catch on fire and my fire extinguisher(s) stayed in the closet, unused. I guess I threw my money away on fire extinguishers.(And by fire extinguishers I mean nuclear missiles.)
  • Carson D The UAW has succeeded in organizing a US VW plant before. There's a reason they don't teach history in the schools any longer. People wouldn't make the same mistakes.
  • B-BodyBuick84 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport of course, a 7 seater, 2.4 turbo-diesel I4 BOF SUV with Super-Select 4WD, centre and rear locking diffs standard of course.
  • Corey Lewis Think how dated this 80s design was by 1995!
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