Enlarge / This is what every Tesla driver wants to see upon arrival at a Supercharger station. (credit: Tesla)
Tesla’s high-speed Supercharger network, and the effect it has in countering range anxiety, has had a lot to do with the company’s success in the electric vehicle marketplace. Who doesn’t appreciate free power-ups in a fraction of the time it takes other EVs? For early adopters, the deal was even sweeter: plenty of plugs and few fellow Model Ses to share with.
But these days there are many more Teslas on the road. Model S production has been flat-out for the past couple of years, and, despite teething troubles, Model Xes are also becoming thicker on the ground.
In EV-dense areas like Southern California, this has meant congestion at some Superchargers, and that in turn has led to frustration among customers who turn up needing juice only to find all the Supercharger spots being hogged by fully charged vehicles. Tesla says things have to change, so it has introduced an idle fee: block a Supercharger port with your fully charged Tesla from now on and you’ll be charged $0.40 a minute (£0.30 in the UK, €0.35 in the eurozone).
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Source: Ars Technica – Tesla says “clog our Superchargers, pay a fee”