Tesla Referral Scheme to change again

[Mr Miserable]

I've just read a report that the 1000 free supercharging miles is to be binned because it's costing too much. Seriously?
It works out as about £100 per car and an awful lot of the miles go unclaimed or expire before they can be claimed.
Apparently the scheme cost $23 million last quarter. Bizarrely the one thing Tesla are not short of at the moment is cash and this is a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things. It's not as if he is rewarding his shareholders with his cash bonanza either (but he seems to be doing rather well personally).
I think Elon needs to take the bean counters aside and remind them it may be more cost effective to scrap the bean counters.

 

[NorfolkMustard]

the $23m number quoted doesn’t distinguish between free miles from referrals and free miles for “the life of the car” incentives and old-timers.
I’m guessing the latter is the vast bulk of it as 1000 miles (400 kWh) is only about £100 ?

 

[freekie]

Disappointing to change sthg that is relatively straightforward to make it more complicated through an app and test drives! Appears it’s not being abolished totally - will just stop ‘influencers’ from accumulating a million miles which they could never use anyway.

 

[HenryT]

Disappointing to change sthg that is relatively straightforward to make it more complicated through an app and test drives! Appears it’s not being abolished totally - will just stop ‘influencers’ from accumulating a million miles which they could never use anyway.

Ironic too that Fred Lambert himself (Electrek) still promotes his own referral code in a banner ad accross the page in an article in which he says he can't use the million miles he already has. Surely better he encourages new buyers to use a referral code from another Tesla driver.

 

[FlatSix911]

I've just read a report that the 1000 free supercharging miles is to be binned because it's costing too much. Seriously?
It works out as about £100 per car and an awful lot of the miles go unclaimed or expire before they can be claimed.
Apparently the scheme cost $23 million last quarter. Bizarrely the one thing Tesla are not short of at the moment is cash and this is a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things. It's not as if he is rewarding his shareholders with his cash bonanza either (but he seems to be doing rather well personally).
I think Elon needs to take the bean counters aside and remind them it may be more cost effective to scrap the bean counters.

I agree... and it's still not clear how the new reward program with owner test drives will work.

Now even the free Supercharging miles are apparently starting to become a bit too expensive for Tesla. Sources familiar with the matter told Electrek that Tesla spent over $23 million in free Supercharging miles last quarter alone. It is prompting the automaker to do even more changes to the referral program.

According to a source familiar with the matter, Tesla plans to eliminate referral links, which owners often spam on social media, and instead turn to an app-based referral program promoting in-person referrals. The plans are still not entirely clear, but Tesla plans to update its mobile app to have more features for non-Tesla owners. It is going to facilitate test drives and current owners can link their account to the new user’s app to give test drives and if those new users end up ordering a Tesla, the current owner will be rewarded.

 

[HenryT]

Tesla plans to update its mobile app to have more features for non-Tesla owners. It is going to facilitate test drives and current owners can link their account to the new user’s app to give test drives and if those new users end up ordering a Tesla, the current owner will be rewarded.

I wonder if the sub-plot here will be to encourage current owners to offer prospective buyers test drives in their cars, thereby saving Elon even more 'coin'?

 

[Durzel]

Ironic too that Fred Lambert himself (Electrek) still promotes his own referral code in a banner ad accross the page in an article in which he says he can't use the million miles he already has. Surely better he encourages new buyers to use a referral code from another Tesla driver.

Weren't there other kickbacks for a certain number of referrals, including wheels, etc? Or was that stopped?

 

[Mperkins28]

I wonder if the sub-plot here will be to encourage current owners to offer prospective buyers test drives in their cars, thereby saving Elon even more 'coin'?

From an insurance perspective I just can’t see that happening. Way too much hassle for the owner if you ask me.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

"Insider", "Speculated", "Maybe"

Given Tesla don't seem to be very good at "Defintiely", "3 Months" and "this year" I think its best to just avoid click bait articles.

 

[FlatSix911]

Weren't there other kickbacks for a certain number of referrals, including wheels, etc? Or was that stopped?

Yes, that program ended in 2017... it was great while it lasted.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

Weren't there other kickbacks for a certain number of referrals, including wheels, etc? Or was that stopped?

Stopped a couple of years ago. Home chargers, wheels, powerwalls, you could even get "preferential software roll out" which made no difference and having your name put into space as if you could check! It got stupidly lucrative after 5 referrals with a 2% discount on a roadster so worth £4-5k a time which is why so many pushed so hard giving out their codes (like Fred who wrote the article), but those days are long over and many are still waiting for their rewards.

 

[KennethS]

Weren't there other kickbacks for a certain number of referrals, including wheels, etc? Or was that stopped?

Reportedly some people even were awarded free Tesla Roadsters:

Fred & Seth Roadster Rewards

 

[HenryT]

Reportedly some people even were awarded free Tesla Roadsters:

Fred & Seth Roadster Rewards

Ben Sullins and Bjorn Nyland (both of YouTube fame) both have entitlements to 2 Roadsters.

 

[imstitch]

Seems like penny pinching to me. It's such a small amount of money and it gives people a reason to promote the car. I guess from Tesla's point of view demand is so high that perhaps they think they don't need to offer it.

 

[T3SLAROD]

“Influencers” pretty much screwed up the program for those of us who don’t record….. however they also did Tesla a big favor by being their marketing arm

 

[Zakalwe]

There isn't enough salt in the world to take with a Fred Lambert (Electrek's seemingly sole writer) article.
I

 

[Jason71]

Ben Sullins and Bjorn Nyland (both of YouTube fame) both have entitlements to 2 Roadsters.

They had better watch what they say then. Rich Rebuilds also had entitlement to a roadster but he had a dispute with Tesla over them not allowing Rapid charging on an MS he rebuilt and they cancelled his referral code out of spite. bye bye Roadster. Would not surprise me if they withdrew them all. I'm sure there will be some small print somewhere that lets them do it.

 

[Jason71]

I've just read a report that the 1000 free supercharging miles is to be binned because it's costing too much. Seriously?
It works out as about £100 per car and an awful lot of the miles go unclaimed or expire before they can be claimed.
Apparently the scheme cost $23 million last quarter. Bizarrely the one thing Tesla are not short of at the moment is cash and this is a drop in the ocean in the grand scheme of things. It's not as if he is rewarding his shareholders with his cash bonanza either (but he seems to be doing rather well personally).
I think Elon needs to take the bean counters aside and remind them it may be more cost effective to scrap the bean counters.

The purpose of the program is to spread the word and sell more cars. However much or little it costs if they don't think they need it anymore, the word is pretty much out me thinks, then why spend the money. If they spend that $23 million per quarter on Superchargers instead I would fine with that.

In reality though it wont save them as much as that. I assume that $23 million figure is based on the cost and lost profit on those KW that they gave away. The truth is that some of that supercharging only happened because it was free and without the free miles some of it would have taken place at home. I am also fine with that. The less people using Superchargers who don't really need to the better. Since they are one of Telsa's greatest assets and overcrowding is really bad PR why do something unnecessary that aggravates it?

 

[Jason71]

“Influencers” pretty much screwed up the program for those of us who don’t record….. however they also did Tesla a big favor by being their marketing arm

As you say Influencers do most of the marketing but under the current program quickly end up with more miles than they can use so most go to waste. They are a bargain for Tesla. It's those of us with one or 2 referrals who actually use the miles that are the "problem"

 

[Mrklaw]

if they simply expired the free miles after 6 months rather than re-up the entire allocation every time you get a referral, big influencers wouldn't have massive backlogs of miles