If you have a Tesla for work or plan to get one in the future, there’s something you need to keep in mind. The company’s Supercharger stations will no longer be available for use to commercial drivers. Tesla recently released a new policy called Supercharger Fair Use. This policy prohibits new commercial drivers from using the charging ports at the Supercharger stations.
Tesla has been hard at work to expand its network of charging stations. The company in April announced that it had hoped to have more than 10,000 Supercharger stations by the end of 2017. The company hopes that this expansion would help alleviate the heavy traffic seen at the Supercharger stations due to the fact that there’s a lot of congestion. The company has previously announced that it would begin charging drivers an additional fee if they leave their car at the stations when it’s finished charging, among other fees for charging.
The company says that the stations are intended for drivers who don’t have the ready options to charge their car at home or work. When these stations are not used for the purpose, “it negatively impacts the availability of Supercharging services for others.” The new policy being introduced says that for vehicles purchased after December 15th, drivers that plan to use their cars for activities like commercial delivery or transportation, governmental purposes, ride-sharing, or taxi, those vehicles will no longe be permitted to use the free stations.
Think you can get away with using it still? Well, not really. The company tracks usage and driver behavior, and if they find drivers that aren’t complying with the new policy, they will be asked to stop, limit leave block the vehicle altogether from the stations. Tesla’s new policy went into effect on Friday, December 15th, 2017. Tesla spokesperson said that the company “encourages the use of Teslas for commercial purposes,” and that the company will work with drivers to find other means of charging for their Tesla vehicles.