Trying Verify if a Tesla has Transferrable Unlimited Supercharging

[turtlebud]

I am looking at a 2017 Model S 90D, (originally delivered in 2/2017, with single owner) from a dealer who tells me that it has supercharging and it's transferrable. They have verified that it does not get charged when they plug it in at the local supercharger. However, I've read that if the supercharging activity has a price (ex. $0.00) rather than "No Supercharging Activity", then it might not be transferrable supercharging. (Tesla Supercharging FAQ)

The Dealer said that they have sold 5 Tesla recently with supercharging and the new owners have never told them there was a problem with free supercharging. Dealer doesn't have online access for the Tesla so I can't ask them to look for the code in the html for on the Tesla site.

What should I do? I don't want to purchase the car, only to find out that after they transfer ownership that it no longer has free supercharging.

Thanks!

 

[Tam]

I am looking at a 2017 Model S 90D, (originally delivered in 2/2017, with single owner) from a dealer who tells me that it has supercharging and it's transferrable. They have verified that it does not get charged when they plug it in at the local supercharger. However, I've read that if the supercharging activity has a price (ex. $0.00) rather than "No Supercharging Activity", then it might not be transferrable supercharging. (Tesla Supercharging FAQ)

The Dealer said that they have sold 5 Tesla recently with supercharging and the new owners have never told them there was a problem with free supercharging. Dealer doesn't have online access for the Tesla so I can't ask them to look for the code in the html for on the Tesla site.

What should I do? I don't want to purchase the car, only to find out that after they transfer ownership that it no longer has free supercharging.

Thanks!

Ask for a guarantee from those who would sell you one.

The only sure guarantee is if you buy from Tesla website that lists the included features.

Otherwise, it's an educated guess and hope that you'll be alright when it comes to your ownership.

 

[turtlebud]

After I posted this - I found this thread (SC01 FUSC not transferring??). Seems like the $0.00 is not a guarantee that it will not transfer, but if it was purchased from a Tesla auction, then it likely will not transfer. According to carfax report it looks like it was sold from original owner to dealer, but I will confirm with the dealer. I realize it's a crapshoot either way and there's only so much you can verify beforehand though. I did ask the dealer to see if what they could do if I purchased the car and then lost free supercharger and am waiting for them to get back to me on that.

 

[RayK]

@turtlebud Here's some back-of-the-napkin calculations in what it might cost you if you lose FUSC:

• Assume 16,000 miles per year driven exclusively by using Supercharging
• Assume average cost of Supercharging to be $0.42/kWh
• Assume average driving efficiency at 300Wh/mi (don't know what Model S is so I'm guessing here)
• That works out to $2,016 you'll pay to drive those 16,000 miles

 

[gaswalla]

My suggestions:
See if you can get a look at the title that was given to the dealer. if the original owner signed it off to the dealer, it never went to Tesla. You’ll be OK.

Take the Vin to a service advisor, be super nice, and request them to let you know one thing and one thing only. Does the car have SC01 as a code. They know what it means, it’s a quick question that they may be willing to answer if you’re very nice.

As noted above, be realistic about what the value for free super charging is for your personal situation. But don’t let anyone tell you it’s not worth it. The value depends on your oersonal situation. For me, I drive 35,000 miles per year, I have over 300 K on my first Tesla, and super charging Has saved me well over $10,000 so far.

 

[Unclepaul]

Tesla just announced that they will give an additional $5,000 trade in for those trading in Free Supercharging for life S or X on a new Tesla.

There is no guarantee from Tesla that your Free Supercharging for life will remain in effect after purchasing from a dealer. If that is important to you, then you need to get in writing from the dealership that they will compensate you if it is removed during your ownership.

 

[turtlebud]

@turtlebud Here's some back-of-the-napkin calculations in what it might cost you if you lose FUSC:

• Assume 16,000 miles per year driven exclusively by using Supercharging
• Assume average cost of Supercharging to be $0.42/kWh
• Assume average driving efficiency at 300Wh/mi (don't know what Model S is so I'm guessing here)
• That works out to $2,016 you'll pay to drive those 16,000 miles

For my previous Tesla (2013 Model S 85), I drove under 10k miles this year and charged about 5000kWh during that time. Some of the was no doubt due to phantom drain when the car is parked overnight or when I went on vacation and it was parked in the garage for a week or more. Even with local utility rates, it'll be at least $.30/kwh (though I expect those rates to continue to increase), so it would be pretty close to your cost estimate.

 

[RayK]

Ah yes, forgot about the losses due to phantom drains. I had thought about including a charging efficiency (i.e., the amount of energy that goes into the battery, as opposed to keeping the car's computers alive) but I didn't have a good idea on what that percentage is. Same goes somewhat for phantom drains. It's highly dependent upon the amount of time the car is not in use, whether or not the owner has apps which keeps the car awake, and how much Sentry Mode/Dog Mode is used. I was hoping to get some sort of idea what free Supercharging actually is worth.

 

[reserves]

I’m looking at a Feb 2017 registered Model X

Dealer doesn’t have the car in their account.

Car has had 2 owners so could have been sold back to Tesla.

The charging screen says “No Recent Supercharging” which used to be good news and meant SC01.

However a friends Model X with SC01 screens says 0.00 cost.

Any idea what “No Recent Supercharging” means here?

 

[BrisbaneB]

@turtlebud Here's some back-of-the-napkin calculations in what it might cost you if you lose FUSC:

• Assume 16,000 miles per year driven exclusively by using Supercharging
• Assume average cost of Supercharging to be $0.42/kWh
• Assume average driving efficiency at 300Wh/mi (don't know what Model S is so I'm guessing here)
• That works out to $2,016 you'll pay to drive those 16,000 miles

This is super helpful thank you ! I’ll use this figure as a decision aid when a car is promised to have FUSC, am I paying for for $2,016 worth of free charging ?

 

[RayK]

This is super helpful thank you ! I’ll use this figure as a decision aid when a car is promised to have FUSC, am I paying for for $2,016 worth of free charging ?

Note that my calculations are ballpark figures. I assumed that the car is exclusively Supercharged and not using any Level 2 charging. $0.42/kWh may or may not be average in your area. And the $2016 was for one year (16K miles). As they say, "your mileage may vary".

 

[BrisbaneB]

Yeah that makes sense. I guess in my mind, I associated FUSC with tens of thousands of dollars but when I see it calculated- it makes more sense to buy the car I want - at a price I can afford than to calculate additional imagined savings.

 

[RayK]

Yeah that makes sense. I guess in my mind, I associated FUSC with tens of thousands of dollars but when I see it calculated- it makes more sense to buy the car I want - at a price I can afford than to calculate additional imagined savings.

I think that many people assign more value into FUSC than what it actually can be worth. For my earlier calculations I took a somewhat pessimistic view of the values. If I extend those views into semi-outrageous estimates, I get this:

• Same 16,000 miles driven in a year
• 472Wh/mi efficiency (double my own Model 3 RWD LR lifetime average; I still don't know what a Model S / X typically average but I believe EPA says it's around 300)
• That's 7,752kWh worth of power (16000 * 472 / 1000)
• Let's say that the Supercharger cost $0.55/kWh; kind of high but I'm looking at worst case (or best case for the value of FUSC)
• So 7752 * 0.55 = $4263.60 to drive the 16K miles in one year
• Assume that you do this for 5 years (80,000 miles) then FUSC saved you $21,318

There's your 10's of thousands of dollars. But using my original back-of-the-napkin values, 5 years adds up to $10,080. If we use my own real-world values, 236Wh/mi for Average Energy and $0.38kWh (peak rate at a local Urban station I somethimes use), it's only $1434.88/yr.