Tesla will charge drivers who hog its Superchargers
Tesla is sick of ya'll hogging their Supercharger stations. You've already got a Tesla, don't be greedy.
The electric car company announced in a blog post Friday that owners who use Telsla's power stations will face charges if they don't move on fast enough. Drivers who fail to remove their car within five minutes of completing charge will pay a penalty of $0.40 (A$0.55) per minute.
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"A customer would never leave a car parked by the pump at a gas station and the same thinking applies with Superchargers," Tesla said. "We understand that it can be frustrating to arrive at a station only to discover fully charged Tesla cars occupying all the spots."
Drivers get smartphone notifications when their car is nearing full, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep track. Superchargers can typically top up a Telsa in 30 minutes.
On Twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk chimed in, adding that drivers will only pay if the Supercharger bays are busy.
@TeslaMotors We are going to modify this so that people only pay a fee if most bays are occupied. If the site is basically deserted, no problem to park.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 17, 2016
Seems like this is basically about making drivers get snappier. As the company says, "we hope to never make any money from it."
Tesla said in November that it has more than 4,600 Superchargers globally, but that free power free-for-all is coming to an end. The company recently announced that from 2017, using the stations will cost "a small fee" for Teslas ordered after Jan. 1, 2017.
The change comes just in time for the release of the Tesla Model 3, which promises to be a more mass-market car. Seems like Tesla is still figuring out the economics of how to build an electric car market.
