Free charging for life is back at Tesla, but watch out for the small lines

If Tesla sales are doing well, with more than 469,000 electric cars produced throughout the third quarter, everything is not rosy for the manufacturer either. Because the latter must face growing competition from Chinese brands, and particularly from BYD, which is hot on its heels.

An attractive offer

The Shenzhen-based firm has in fact registered 443,426 100% electric cars over the same period, while it has already become the number 1 manufacturer for all energies combined in its native country. Suffice to say that Elon Musk's brand has every interest in doing everything to accelerate its sales, at least in order to end the year on the first step of the podium. And for this, it is banking on a new offer that it recently launched in the United States, in order to attract new customers.

The latter is in fact not completely new, since it had already been proposed at the start of the manufacturer's career, more than ten years ago. What is it about? Actually, Tesla offers to offer charging on Superchargers to all American buyers of a new Model S, since December 13. To benefit from this, customers must place their order now, and no end date has been announced for this promotional offer.

However, it cannot be ruled out that it ends by December 31, once the manufacturer has been able to complete its annual report and has recorded sufficient sales. to stay ahead of its Chinese rival. The general conditions, visible on the site of the brand explain, however, that there are certain restrictions, since “ used vehicles, business orders and vehicles used for commercial purposes (such as taxi, rideshare and delivery services) are excluded from this promotion ».

That's not all, because Tesla also reminds us that “ you are still responsible for Supercharger fees, such as inactivity and congestion fees, if applicable “. The manufacturer “ reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to remove the free supercharging from your vehicle in the event of excessive charging or unpaid fees related to the supercharging “. Finally, he specifies that “ the promotion can be changed or terminate at any time ”, without giving more details on this subject.

A small but

On paper, this offer is particularly attractiveand it reminds us of the one that was offered by the manufacturer in November for us. This time, Tesla offered charging for Model Y buyers for a year following delivery of the car. And this while sales of electric cars have slowed considerably on the Old Continent in recent months. Regarding promotion in the United States, it seems that free charging for life.

But everything is not perfect, as you can imagine. Because in parallel with this little end-of-year gift, the British press agency Reuters announces that the manufacturer raised the price of its Model S in North America. An increase which took place right on the day the offer started, to the tune of $5,000. So the electric sedan starts from 79,990 dollars, or approximately 76,050 euros. A price which, however, remains well below the 92,990 euros in France.

Before getting started, American customers will therefore have to do the calculations to ensure that this offer remains interesting for them. This is especially the case if they drive particularly a lot and use Superchargers regularly. In France for example, this is not necessarily the case, since more than 80% of electric car charging is done at home. But in any case, the manufacturer does not currently offer such a discount with us. And there is no indication that this is planned, since sales of the Model S remain marginal compared to those of the Model Y or the Model 3.