Supercharging for an Early Model S - Can't Tesla do the right thing?

[gatomon]

I was an early investor in Tesla (pre IPO).

On April 17 of 2014, I purchased a Model S for $80k+. I currently have 31k miles on the car.

When I purchased the car, I decided to not pay the $2.5k for unlimited Supercharging (SC) since I installed a home charger and was planning on only using the car locally. I was the first Tesla in my small city of Cottage Grove, Oregon and most people at the time had no idea about Tesla. (A few months after I bought the car, Tesla included unlimited SC for free...)

At that time, the Tesla SC network was not fully developed and only offered unlimited SC; they had not implemented pay-as-you-go (PAYG) SC. (I understand Tesla is now trying to eliminate unlimited SC.)

Fast forward 9 years. The Tesla network is mature and PAYG is the standard way to SC. As far as I can tell, all Model X, 3 & Y have SC enabled. So, I decided to see if I could PAYG. It would be nice for me, since I could then drive to Portland OR for the day, charge my car, and return home. I added a credit card to my account and went to a Tesla charging station in Springfield OR to see what would happen. The SC failed and the car tells me SC is disabled (I know the car supports SC, if enabled.) So, I thought I would ask Tesla to enable it.

I tried to call the service center, but I don't think you can talk to anyone without an appointment. So, I made an appointment to enabled SC. This allowed to to chat with a mechanic:

ME: I don't think you need the car to fix the issue...

TESLA Estimate: $2,500

ME: When I bought the car, the charge for unlimited supercharging was $2,500. Are you saying that if I give you $2,500 I get unlimited charging? If not, why is there a large fee at all?

TESLA: That is correct. It is $2,500, then Unlimited Supercharging would be active within 2-4 business days.

ME: If I wanted that, I would have done it 9 years ago. I just want pay as you go. How much is that?

TESLA: Unfortunately, there is not an option for that on this VIN.

...

Am I the only one that thinks this is a crazy situation?

Why would they stop me from paying for energy using PAYG SC? They don't like unlimited SC and I don't need it. I figure I would use maybe $100 a year on SC. Just enable the feature!

There are 100's, or maybe a few 1000, people in this situation. They have sold millions of Teslas and the early adapters should be treated better. I can't see how it would be an issue for Tesla to do the right thing.

I think that for Tesla should ENABLE the SC feature on all the older Model S cars that don't have Unlimited Supercharging.

 

[aesculus]

So if you sold the car back to Tesla and it had unlimited SC what would they do then? If the answer is to turn off USC and make it PAYG SC then that is what they should do for you. If the car retains USC no matter how it is sold or transferred, then you are stuck with the $2500 I think.

 

[gatomon]

So if you sold the car back to Tesla and it had unlimited SC what would they do then? If the answer is to turn off USC and make it PAYG SC then that is what they should do for you. If the car retains USC no matter how it is sold or transferred, then you are stuck with the $2500 I think.

It never had unlimited SC.

 

[Rice&Curry]

Well Tesla is not the best with its customer relation or settings things right in certain situations. However, from what you have described, they have a ground to charge extra for this feature/option as it was not a part of the original purchase. I am not getting into whether is fair or not or how much it will actually cost Tesla to enable it ( whether it is just a firmware update or actual parts required). On a lighter note, since you have purchased pre-IPO Tesla stocks, Tesla has rewarded your initial investment in Tesla stock handsomely- some consolation as Tesla nowadays does not give any freebies unless you purchase a new car.

 

[Crutonius]

Easy solution.

Get the CCS adapter then go to SC stations that have the magic dock. Done!

Cost of the CCS adapter; $175.
The confused stares from other Tesla owners: priceless.

 

[gatomon]

Well Tesla is not the best with its customer relation or settings things right in certain situations. However, from what you have described, they have a ground to charge extra for this feature/option as it was not a part of the original purchase. I am not getting into whether is fair or not or how much it will actually cost Tesla to enable it ( whether it is just a firmware update or actual parts required). On a lighter note, since you have purchased pre-IPO Tesla stocks, Tesla has rewarded your initial investment in Tesla stock handsomely- some consolation as Tesla nowadays does not give any freebies unless you purchase a new car.

I believe there is zero cost to tesla, it is simply a software switch. One time I had to bring the car to Portland for a recall, and I told them I needed the car charged to get home. They forgot to charge it. When I picked up the car and asked, they immediately enabled SC so I could get it charged in a local mall. The SC worked and I got home. I never tried again and at some point they disabled it again. BTW, the description of the car includes supercharging.

 

[gatomon]

Easy solution.

Get the CCS adapter then go to SC stations that have the magic dock. Done!

Cost of the CCS adapter; $175.
The confused stares from other Tesla owners: priceless.

Sounds interesting. Can you explain?

 

[richrootes]

Interesting dilemma

Is your car a 60? If so, there were physical changes required on the car itself, it wasn’t just changing a flag in the software options

There may be some other ‘back door’ things too that might not be on the MCU1, like how to bill you

Personally, I’d pay the money and enjoy it - honestly I can’t believe they’d still offer this, as so many things have been rescinded over the years

Cheers!

 

[Crutonius]

Sounds interesting. Can you explain?

Not sure if your model year is capable of this but there's an option to upgrade the S to be able to handle charging from a CCS charger.

So that's a path to getting fast charging. Except that any other network than Tesla's SC network is terrible. But some SC stations are able to charge CCS enabled vehicles through the Magic Dock.

Very perverse solution but much cheaper than 2500 if possible.

 

[gatomon]

Well Tesla is not the best with its customer relation or settings things right in certain situations. However, from what you have described, they have a ground to charge extra for this feature/option as it was not a part of the original purchase. I am not getting into whether is fair or not or how much it will actually cost Tesla to enable it ( whether it is just a firmware update or actual parts required). On a lighter note, since you have purchased pre-IPO Tesla stocks, Tesla has rewarded your initial investment in Tesla stock handsomely- some consolation as Tesla nowadays does not give any freebies unless you purchase a new car.

I am not asking for a "freebie" the original feature which is unlimited SC; PAYG-SC was not available in 2014! I costs them nothing to let me pay them to charge my car. It is a remotely controlled software switch. It's a matter of bureaucracy at Tesla.

 

[jjrandorin]

Since I am not that familiar with Model S I guess this may be a silly question, but I dont understand at all what you are saying OP. Is your car a salvage title?

 

[Crutonius]

I believe what he's saying is that his car was built in a narrow window of time when the only choices for supercharging was unlimited supercharging or no supercharging. He picked no supercharging.

And as I understand it this is not related to hardware. It's just a value in a database.

 

[Big Dunc]

I think the issue is, when the car was new, Tesla wanted 2,500 for free supercharging for life (no brainer really).
As that box was not ticked, to enable supercharging, they now want 2,500.
I can see both sides of this, but I cannot see how you can enable it without paying.
That said, if you are thinking of keeping the car, unlimited supercharging from now on for 2,500 might not be that bad a deal.

 

[gaswalla]

The 85s had FUSC included. This is probably a 60 or a 40 (yikes). The 40s were priced without supercharger access. I believe there’s more context to the story than as presented in the OP.

 

[MP3Mike]

Easy solution.

Get the CCS adapter then go to SC stations that have the magic dock. Done!

Cost of the CCS adapter; $175.
The confused stares from other Tesla owners: priceless.

I don't think the CCS retrofit, which I think costs $450 and includes the adapter, is available for a 2014 yet.

Of course, then there is the issue that there are no MagicDock Supercharger stations within the range of that Model S. (Though probably plenty of CCS chargers.)

@gatomon you should check in the app to see if it will let you schedule a CCS retrofit/upgrade. Then you would at least be able to charge at Electrify America, or other CCS, charge stations. (And might even get PAYG Supercharging enabled.)

I don't think CHAdeMO was even enabled on vehicles like yours, and they charged something like $1,500 to enable that. So that could be another hurdle in getting the CCS retrofit.

 

[ucmndd]

TESLA: Unfortunately, there is not an option for that on this VIN.

I think that's the crux of the issue and they're probably telling the truth. It's a system limitation in their inventory/service application that they aren't interested in developing a workaround for the tiny handful of people out there remaining that might want such a thing.

If Tesla was a normal company you could maybe keep barking up the chain and escalating until you found someone interested/empowered enough to help, but Tesla is not a normal company and you'll spend far more than $2500 of your time trying in vain to get to yes.

 

[Big Dunc]

I don't think the CCS retrofit, which I think costs $450 and includes the adapter, is available for a 2014 yet.

Of course, then there is the issue that there are no MagicDock Supercharger stations within the range of that Model S. (Though probably plenty of CCS chargers.)

@gatomon you should check in the app to see if it will let you schedule a CCS retrofit/upgrade. Then you would at least be able to charge at Electrify America, or other CCS, charge stations. (And might even get PAYG Supercharging enabled.)

I don't think CHAdeMO was even enabled on vehicles like yours, and they charged something like $1,500 to enable that. So that could be another hurdle in getting the CCS retrofit.

In the Uk it is. We had the CCS (inc the adaptor) on our 2014 MS fitted two years ago. (for a similar price to yours)

 

[brainhouston]

TESLA: That is correct. It is $2,500, then Unlimited Supercharging would be active within 2-4 business days.

ME: If I wanted that, I would have done it 9 years ago. I just want pay as you go. How much is that?

TESLA: Unfortunately, there is not an option for that on this VIN.

I'm genuinely surprised Tesla will actually enable FUSC (if true) while they actively trying to minimize that fleet...
Some ppl are actually really interested in cars with FUSC (SC01 only).
You actually have to make sure its SC01, they could be enabling SC05 (free for current owner only...), unless its really not possible on certain old cars.
You can always purchase it n sell the car (you'll make more on sale because of that single feature).
Also, u can upgrade the battery n it will still retain FUSC.

 

[gatomon]

Since I am not that familiar with Model S I guess this may be a silly question, but I dont understand at all what you are saying OP. Is your car a salvage title?

I bought the Model S new, I still own the car. In 2014, you could pay $2,500 for unlimited supercharging for the life of the car. At that time, the Tesla charging network did not support PAYG-SC. That is what I wanted and still want today. If they simply enable SC remotely, I could pay them for the charge when I use it. I will not pay $2,500 for unlimited lifetime SC for my 9 year old car. Every car they sell today can use PAYG-SC. Just the early adapters are denied this capability. I believe the impediment is the bureaucracy of Tesla If they enable it on my car, they will make money by selling me energy. If they cannot solve this simple issue, I doubt I will recommend, or buy, another Tesla.

 

[MP3Mike]

If they cannot solve this simple issue, I doubt I will recommend, or buy, another Tesla.

Pull out the old: "Do what I want or I will try to make you suffer!" card Eh?

The majority of the $2,500 fee was actually to enable the DC fast charging feature that you didn't pay for. ($1,500 if I recall. So only $1,000 of it was for the free Supercharging.) Would you be happier if they offered you pay-as-you-go for $1,500? (Of course, that isn't an option in their system, so they likely can't.)

So unless they spend a lot of effort/time/money to give you an off-book offering, that it appears not many, if any, other people want you're done with them? I guess that's you're right. (Even after they have gone out of their way to temporarily enable free Supercharging to help you get your car serviced when they didn't have to.)

However, there is a supported path to get your car setup how you want it: pay to get FUSC enabled on your car, buy a new S/X by June 30th and fill out the paperwork to remove FUSC from your S, enabling pay-as-you-go Supercharging, and get 6-years of free Supercharging put on the new S/X. Then sell the new S/X at a premium because of the 6 years of free Supercharging. Yeah, a lot of work, and you would likely come out behind...