News
Top 3 reasons why having to pay for Tesla Supercharger use won’t deter buyers
The “will they or won’t they?” argument over Tesla providing free-for-life unlimited Supercharger use is finally receiving more clarity. The company announced that it will provide roughly 1,000 free miles of energy before charging a fee for Supercharger use on cars ordered after January 1, 2017.
But is this the end for Tesla? Will people be lining up in throngs to cancel their Model 3 reservations? Boycotting Tesla and running to buy another car? Nope, not even a little bit. Here are some of the top reasons why this new announcement won’t deter buyers.
1. Pay less for your Tesla
I’ll jump right into arguably the best reason first. The vast majority of new cars buyers have a budget. That reality means having to choose carefully on the options to equip your Tesla with. By decoupling Supercharger use from the price of the vehicle, Tesla is theoretically able to reduce the price barrier to entry.
Plus, you wouldn’t necessarily want to incur a pre-estimated Supercharger energy cost, charged by Tesla, on a vehicle that may not see its fair share of long distance travel and Supercharger use.
Tesla is anticipated to publish details for its new Supercharging program by year end. But regardless of what will be announced, crowdsourced Model 3 reservation data captured through Model3Tracker.info suggests that it won’t even matter. Nearly 80% of Model 3 reservation holders said they were willing to pay an extra fee for access to the Supercharger network. This is even prior to Tesla announcing that it would begin charging for Supercharger use after the allotted 400 kWh cap (~1,000 miles).
2. You have to pay for fuel either way
The Tesla team knew and has repeatedly said that in order to further the adoption of sustainable transport, they had to make a car at least as compelling as its gasoline-powered counterpart. Since the Model 3 will be at least as compelling as a comparable gasoline car, would-be buyers aren’t going to ditch a vehicle that will require paying for fueling in favor of another vehicle that, too, will incur a cost on fuel. This is especially true when the majority of your charging can be done at home, which is infinitely more convenient, and more cost effective, than stopping at a gas station.
Charging at home, in most markets, is very favorable to the cost of gas. Charging on the Supercharger network beyond your free credits will also be favorable and “cost less than the price of filling up a comparable gas car”, according to Tesla. Mix that in with a growing destination program and I’m confident your Tesla road trips will still be economical.
3. Supercharger Credits can be rewarded
When I conceded that Supercharger credits may work after all, I talked about how Tesla could have fun with it. It’s your 1 year anniversary of ownership, take a trip on us! It’s Nikola Tesla’s birthday… You just reached 50,000 gasoline free miles… Aside from the ability to award additional free credits at will, Tesla could also decide to increase the amount of free credits they give per year. I truly believe Tesla is a good company that does right by its customers. For that reason, I think they aimed a bit low with the credit amounts to ensure they can afford to meet the promised amount. I also believe that if they use data to analyze the costs (they will) and find out that they can afford more than they are giving, they’ll do that too.
And remember …
At the end of the day, there’s no free lunch. Reasonable buyers know the truth. Free for life was not sustainable and a bit too good to be true. Model 3 is shaping up to be about the coolest and most important car of our lifetimes. For those of us stateside, an ode to the fighting spirit of America. Supporting a little, unknown company fighting against all odds – especially in light of current events – and completely upending an entire industry is worth every penny.
Tesla has expanded its branded ‘For Business’ Supercharger program that it launched last year, as yet another company is using the platform to attract EV owners to its business and utilize a unique advertising opportunity.
Francis Energy of Oklahoma is launching four Superchargers in Norman, where the University of Oklahoma is located. The Superchargers, which are fitted with branding for Francis Energy, will officially open tomorrow.
It will not be the final Supercharger location that Francis Energy plans to open, the company confirmed to EVWire.
Back in early September, Tesla launched the new “Supercharger for Business” program in an effort to give businesses the ability to offer EV charging at custom rates. It would give their businesses visibility and would also cater to employees or customers.
“Purchase and install Superchargers at your business,” Tesla wrote on a page on its website for the new program. “Superchargers are compatible with all electric vehicles, bringing EV drivers to your business by offering convenient, reliable charging.”
The first site opened in Land O’ Lakes, Florida, which is Northeast of Tampa, as a company called Suncoast launched the Superchargers for local EV owners.
Tesla launches its new branded Supercharger for Business with first active station
The program also does a great job at expanding infrastructure for EV owners, which is something that needs to be done to encourage more people to purchase Teslas and other electric cars.
Francis Energy operates at least 14 EV charging locations in Oklahoma, spanning from Durant to Oklahoma City and nearly everywhere in between. Filings from the company, listed by Supercharge.info, show the company’s plans to convert some of them to Tesla Superchargers, potentially utilizing the new Supercharger for Business program to advertise.
Moving forward, more companies will likely utilize Tesla’s Supercharger for Business program as it presents major advantages in a variety of ways, especially with advertising and creating a place for EV drivers to gain range in their cars.
Tesla Cybercab is perhaps the most highly-anticipated project that the company plans to roll out this year, and as it is undergoing its testing phase in pre-production currently, there are some things to work through with it.
Over the weekend, an image of the Cybercab being loaded onto a tow truck started circulating on the internet, and people began to speculate as to what the issue could be.
Hmmmmmm… https://t.co/L5hWcOXQkb pic.twitter.com/OJBDyHNTMj
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 11, 2026
The Cybercab can clearly be seen with a Police Officer and perhaps the tow truck driver by its side, being loaded onto, or even potentially unloaded from, the truck.
However, it seems unlikely it was being offloaded, as its operation would get it to this point for testing to begin with.
It appears, at first glance, that it needs assistance getting back to wherever it came from; likely Gigafactory Texas or potentially a Bay Area facility.
The Cybercab was also spotted in Buffalo, New York, last week, potentially undergoing cold-weather testing, but it doesn’t appear that’s where this incident took place.
It is important to remember that the Cybercab is currently undergoing some rigorous testing scenarios, which include range tests and routine public road operation. These things help Tesla assess any potential issue the vehicle could run into after it starts routine production and heads to customers, or for the Robotaxi platform operation.
This is not a one-off issue, either. Tesla had some instances with the Semi where it was seen broken down on the side of a highway three years ago. The all-electric Semi has gone on to be successful in its early pilot program, as companies like Frito-Lay and PepsiCo. have had very positive remarks.
The Cybercab’s future is bright, and it is important to note that no vehicle model has ever gone its full life without a breakdown. It happens, it’s a car.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that there has been no official word on what happened with this particular Cybercab unit, but it is crucial to remember that this is the pre-production testing phase, and these things are more constructive than anything.
Tesla analyst Andrew Percoco of Morgan Stanley teased the company’s dominance in its self-driving initiative, stating that its lead over competitors is “not even close.”
Percoco recently overtook coverage of Tesla stock from Adam Jonas, who had covered the company at Morgan Stanley for years. Percoco is handling Tesla now that Jonas is covering embodied AI stocks and no longer automotive.
His first move after grabbing coverage was to adjust the price target from $410 to $425, as well as the rating from ‘Overweight’ to ‘Equal Weight.’
Percoco’s new note regarding Tesla highlights the company’s extensive lead in self-driving and autonomy projects, something that it has plenty of competition in, but has established its prowess over the past few years.
He writes:
“It’s not even close. Tesla continues to lead in autonomous driving, even as Nvidia rolls out new technology aimed at helping other automakers build driverless systems.”
Percoco’s main point regarding Tesla’s advantage is the company’s ability to collect large amounts of training data through its massive fleet, as millions of cars are driving throughout the world and gathering millions of miles of vehicle behavior on the road.
This is the main point that Percoco makes regarding Tesla’s lead in the entire autonomy sector: data is King, and Tesla has the most of it.
One big story that has hit the news over the past week is that of NVIDIA and its own self-driving suite, called Alpamayo. NVIDIA launched this open-source AI program last week, but it differs from Tesla’s in a significant fashion, especially from a hardware perspective, as it plans to use a combination of LiDAR, Radar, and Vision (Cameras) to operate.
Percoco said that NVIDIA’s announcement does not impact Morgan Stanley’s long-term opinions on Tesla and its strength or prowess in self-driving.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang commends Tesla’s Elon Musk for early belief
And, for what it’s worth, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang even said some remarkable things about Tesla following the launch of Alpamayo:
“I think the Tesla stack is the most advanced autonomous vehicle stack in the world. I’m fairly certain they were already using end-to-end AI. Whether their AI did reasoning or not is somewhat secondary to that first part.”
Percoco reiterated both the $425 price target and the ‘Equal Weight’ rating on Tesla shares.
Tesla expands its branded ‘For Business’ Superchargers
Tesla Cybercab ‘breakdown’ image likely is not what it seems
