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Newbie alert... [pre owned Model S]

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SimonP

New Member
Jan 26, 2021
4
1
UK
Hey folks, after much deliberation (3 years and counting) I’ve taken the plunge and have today stuck a deposit down on a 2017 model s. I’m so excited to pick it up in few weeks and I feel a bit like my 5 year old son waiting for Xmas!

I’ve got a couple of questions I’m hoping you might be able to help me with before I make a fool of myself on my collection and drive home from the garage (about 100 mile trip)...

1. The car I’ve bought doesn’t come with free supercharging so, if I stop at a supercharger on my way home how do I pay to top up the car? Do I need a Tesla account or pre-pay somehow?

2. Do I need to download the Tesla app in advance of collecting the car and how do I go about pairing the app to the car?

3. any other general advice people can offer as this is my first foray into EVs! I shall be saying goodbye to a smelly diesel SMax shortly too!

Thanks in advance :)
Simon
 
Welcome :)

I think the current owner still needs to tell Tesla who the new owner is?

create an account on tesla.com and add your credit/debit card to it, you can do that now.

That will be the tesla account you also need to give to the current owner to transfer the car to. Only then will the app and supercharging work.
 
Traditionally, the new owner must submit, driver's license, proof of insurance and registration of ownership to Tesla so the car is added to your account. Then when you log into the app, the car shows up.

Look up ownership and transfers under tesla.com/support

Supercharging will probably be charged to the CC under the current owner's account until the car is removed from current owner's tesla.com account.
 
Traditionally, the new owner must submit, driver's license, proof of insurance and registration of ownership to Tesla so the car is added to your account. Then when you log into the app, the car shows up.

Look up ownership and transfers under tesla.com/support

Supercharging will probably be charged to the CC under the current owner's account until the car is removed from current owner's tesla.com account.
if the current owner is a 3rd party garage as is implied in the ops post, and the car has been moved to an account they own. They may not have a valid payment method associated to the account. In which case might supercharging be a problem until the transfer?
 
if the current owner is a 3rd party garage as is implied in the ops post, and the car has been moved to an account they own. They may not have a valid payment method associated to the account. In which case might supercharging be a problem until the transfer?

It will allow you to charge once without a payment method setup before blocking the car (same if your card fails) assuming no one else tried to supercharge since the last successful charge you’ll be fine :) it will then block you until you setup a valid payment method in your Tesla account.

The previous owner has an option in their Tesla account to transfer ownership - I assume clicking that asks for the email address of the new owner and will transfer the car to the new account (perhaps with some verification) but obviously I haven’t clicked it :)
 
1. The car I’ve bought doesn’t come with free supercharging so, if I stop at a supercharger on my way home how do I pay to top up the car? Do I need a Tesla account or pre-pay somehow?

Just make sure the person you are buying from knows in advance that you have a long journey home and charges the car for you. Then you can call at a Supercharger subsequently to check it's working OK for you.
 
As others have said, make sure you ask the garage to charge your car before you get there.

Might also be a plan to check it has a 'type 2' charging cable with it, as you will likely need one if you ever need to charge up at a public charger either on this trip or at some point in the future. Also worth asking if it has had the CCS update done - if so, you should have an adapter. If not, probably worth looking into - see here (bottom of the page); Supercharging

Enjoy your car.