Tesla to end current referral benefits later this month

By Zachary Visconti

Posted on April 20, 2024

Tesla has announced plans to end its current referral program benefits at the end of this month, ahead of launching new benefits later this year.

On Friday, the Tesla North America account wrote on X that the company’s current referral program benefits will end after April 30 in all markets. Following some questions about whether this would affect peoples’ current referral credits, CEO Elon Musk clarified that this will simply mean customers won’t be able to accrue new credits until Tesla launches a new set of referral benefits—which he adds won’t happen for a few months.

No, just that new credits would not be earned until we launch a future referral program, which is a few months away

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 20, 2024

First-time Tesla buyers can use a current owner’s referral link to kick back referral points to the referrer. These points can then be redeemed for a number of things, like free Supercharging miles, discounted products, and even the potential to win one of the company’s vehicles.

As another example, Tesla allowed owners use 30,000 referral credits to get an invite to the Cybertruck delivery event last year. The company also added demo drives to the referral program last year, offering credits to referrers when others use their link to schedule a demo drive.

Tesla details how the program works on its refer and earn page:

When you purchase a qualifying Tesla product through a referral link, you may receive buyer benefits and exclusive referral benefits, and your friend may receive referral credits. The referral cannot be added after the order is placed. Benefits are determined by the date of the qualifying order.

To purchase with a referral link:

Visit your friend’s referral link.
Purchase the Tesla product of your choice from the referral link.
After you place the order, credits will appear as ‘pending’ for the referrer until the Grant Date.

Last month, Tesla added a new referral benefit to the current program, offering a year of free premium connectivity and three free months of Full Self-Driving (FSD) to those who purchase a vehicle through a referral link. While Tesla has since removed the ability to get free connectivity with the referral, those using a referral link still get three free months of FSD.

Currently, referrers earn 7,500 credits when someone uses their link to make a vehicle purchase, down from 10,000 before this month.