Tesla Motors will likely charge owners of the upcoming Tesla Model 3 to use the company’s network of supercharging stations.
Currently Tesla operates several hundred ‘supercharges’ around the world, which are able to provide enough charge for 170 miles in half an hour. Up until now, this facility has been free for all Tesla drivers.
Tesla has previously mentioned the free supercharging facility as method of overcoming ‘perceived’ range limitations, including at the Motor Finance Europe 2015 conference, and last year’s Frontline Solutions F&I Conference.
However now Bloomberg has reported that Tesla’s chief executive officer Elon Musk said: "Free supercharging fundamentally has a cost," at the company’s annual shareholders meeting.
"The obvious thing to do is decouple that from the cost of the Model 3. So it will still be very cheap, and far cheaper than gasoline, to drive long-distance with the Model 3, but it will not be free long distance for life unless you purchase that package," he was reported as saying. No prices of the package were revealed.
