2020 LFS Model S Trade In

[TFCooper3]

I heard that Tesla was being aggressive in buying back their Lifetime-Free-Supercharging Model S cars. So I looked into trading in my 2020 S LR (25k miles) for a new one. I figured 6 years of free supercharging is the same as lifetime for me, since I don't keep cars that long anyway. Since I don't drive that much, perhaps LFS might be worth more to Tesla than to me?

I'd heard about the $5,000 premium for trading in LFS cars (I must have one of the last ones), but alas it was not to be. The cost of upgrading was around $55,000, which wasn't worth it. Any thoughts?

 

[mswlogo]

Yikes. That does seem like a lot. I upgraded my 2019 X with LFS and 30K miles to a 2022 LR S for about $15K.

I would think you’d be closer to $30K out of pocket.

 

[EVRider-FL]

Most owners don’t do enough supercharging to get a lot of financial benefit from these deals. If you want to upgrade your car, just do it.

 

[PR0FESSOR]

I don’t know about most owners, but trips long enough for me to use a supercharger are few and far between…. Perhaps once every five years. I charge pretty much exclusively from home, with an occasional free work charge at the university. Free Supercharging has close to zero value for me.

Joe

Most owners don’t do enough supercharging to get a lot of financial benefit from these deals. If you want to upgrade your car, just do it.

 

[PCMc]

I don’t know about most owners, but trips long enough for me to use a supercharger are few and far between…. Perhaps once every five years. I charge pretty much exclusively from home, with an occasional free work charge at the university. Free Supercharging has close to zero value for me.

Joe

Supercharger use is highly variable between individuals, depending on a variety of factors. For me, over the 7 years that I've owned my MS, use of superchargers represents about 23% of my total charging sessions, but from a miles traveled or energy consumed perspective, actually represents 45% of my energy use/miles traveled.

And before anyone states I just need to put in home charging and superchargers are not meant to be used so much, I have home charging which represents over 60% of my total charging sessions over lifetime and a similar, 42% of my lifetime charging from a miles traveled/energy use perspective.

I do not claim personal experience to reflect "most", but I believe it's just a realistic and representative use case as those who claim "most" only use supercharger on very infrequent basis or just a couple times a year.