For a long time, Tesla owners were not required to pay anything at the company’s superchargers. However, with time the service was terminated.
The major reason behind this was that the company needed resources to expand its Supercharger setup globally.
While the system developed by the company for these superchargers is normally pretty good, there are some instances in which bugs affect the experience.
However, the one mentioned here is special because according to recent reports, a Tesla owner located in China has recently been billed an amount that translated to more than half a million euros.
The amusing part about it is that the EV owner only had a brief stay at the supercharger and didn’t even charge his Model 3 to 100%.
So What Exactly Happened?
The owner’s Tesla app showed that the free miles that he previously had were all utilized during his last charging session. Here is the screenshot of the owner’s Tesla app screen.
As evident from this image, the bug made Tesla’s system think that the EV owner had consumed around 2 GWh of energy at the charger.
This is an outrageously high figure. In fact, so high that an ordinary Tesla Model 3 can be charged 32,000 times with this much energy.
However, the app demonstrated that the owner had driven his Model 3 around 2286 km in the last trip which is over five times the range of the Tesla Model 3.
Why Was The Bill So High?
According to Tesla, the free miles of the EV owner had been exhausted and thus his vehicle was blocked from the Supercharger.
However, when the vehicle was connected to the charger, it started adding up idle charges at an exceptionally high rate.
The idle fee is Tesla’s mechanism of penalizing EV owners who park their cars at Tesla superchargers for long durations.
The company has adopted this mechanism to ensure that the supercharger can get free quickly so it can be used by the next EV owner.
How To Use A Tesla Supercharger?
A Tesla supercharger is fairly simple to use. The owners just need to plug in their vehicle with the help of the charging cable.
Upon plugging it in, the light on the car’s charging terminal starts blinking and the speed of blinking reflects the charging speed.
Methods Of Billing
There are two methods in which Tesla vehicles are billed which are:
– Billing per kWh;
– Billing per minute.
The first method is preferred by Tesla so wherever it is possible, the billing is in kWh. However, when charging per minute, there are two tiers in which charging takes place:
– Tier 1: At or below 60 kWh;
– Tier 2: Above 60 kWh.
How Much Does It Cost To Charge A Tesla?
The price for charging each Tesla vehicle is different. This is because of the varying battery sizes on these vehicles.
So here is the detail of how much it will cost to fully charge the different Tesla models from 0 to 100% while taking into account the inefficiency of the chargers:
– Model S Long Range & Plaid: €88;
– Model X: €14,88;
– Model 3: €7,44;
– Model Y: €11,16.
Final Verdict
Tesla has the most advanced and the most widespread EV supercharging network in the world.
The company is expected to offer its charging services to EVs from other brands as well. However, it is expected that the charging rates for these vehicles will be relatively higher.
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