Tesla pulls the plug on free supercharging on cars bought after 1/1/2017

supercharger-teslaTesla Motors announced that starting in 2017 for Teslas ordered after January 1, 2017, only 400 kWh of free Supercharging credits (roughly 1,000 miles) will be included annually ending the perk of free Supercharging for Tesla vehicles.

After that, there will be a small fee to Supercharge which will be charged incrementally and cost less than the price of filling up a comparable gas car. All cars will continue to come standard with the onboard hardware required for Supercharging.

The changes will not affect current owners or any new Teslas ordered before January 1, 2017, as long as delivery is taken before April 1, 2017.

Elon Musk previously announed that the Tesla Model 3 would not come with free Supercharging.

Four years ago, Tesla introduced the Supercharger Network – – to enable convenient long distance travel. Today, more than 4,600 Superchargers allow over 160,000 Tesla owners to drive across the continental U.S., from the Arctic Circle to the south of Spain, and across all of the population centers in China and Japan, among many other places.

There have been reports that Tesla owners use the Superchargers not for long distance travel but for daily charging needs.

The change allows the company to reinvest in the network, accelerate its growth and improve the Supercharging experience.

Musk also continaually states that the best places to charge your vehicle are at home and at work.

Tesla announced has entered into an agreement to acquire Grohmann Engineering, a world-renowned engineering company in Prüm, Germany, which will become Tesla Grohmann Automation to egineer the automated manufacture of Telsa cars.

The Model X has been awarded the Golden Steering Wheel (Das Goldene Lenkrad). The Golden Steering Wheel jury is composed of professional race car drivers, accomplished technicians, editors, designers, and digital and connectivity experts, then spent three days judging Model X.