- Tesla brought back free lifetime Supercharging for the Model S
- It also increased the price of the car by $5,000
- We do some math to see if the promotion is worth it, given the recent price hike
Tesla is really pushing the Model S hard this holiday season. While the car has never been a volume seller like the Model 3 and Model Y, it’s Tesla’s OG luxury sedan—and an impressive one at that. But more and more competition for luxury EVs has entered the market over the last few years, and Tesla’s take-rate is down by an estimated 30% or more. That means that selling customers on the Model S over rivals has been more of a chore for Tesla than before.
Recently, Tesla decided to pull the gloves off and use its biggest asset to its advantage: the Supercharging network. Tesla dug deep into its old playbooks and revived the unlimited lifetime Supercharging perk, which means that the buyer of a new Model S would get—you guessed it—free unlimited Supercharging for as long as they own the Model S. But before Tesla did that, it also raised the price of the Model S from $74,990 to $79,990 ($5,000) late last week. That makes us wonder: is the deal really as good as it sounds?
To figure it out, we did some basic napkin math. Before we dig into the numbers, we need to know just how efficient the Model S is (at least on paper). The EPA efficiency of the 2024 Tesla Model S All Wheel Drive is 3.6 miles per kilowatt-hour. The Model S Plaid with 21-inch wheels is less efficient at 2.8 miles/kWh.
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 86% of EV owners have access to a home charger. Of those owners, the agency estimates that approximately 80% of all charging is performed at home. Looking at my own charging stats for the past year, 83% of my charging was done at home—so let’s assume the DoE’s figures are correct.
The Federal Highway Administration says that the average driver puts around 13,476 miles on their car each year (https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ohim/onh00/bar8.htm), which means that the average Model S would use around 3,743 kWh of electricity. Only 749 kWh of that energy would be from Supercharging, according to the DoE’s figures.
Tesla doesn’t list its average base rate for Supercharging, but a quick look around its map has rates ranging from $0.25 to $0.60 per kWh. Let’s average that out to $0.43/kWh. For 749 kWh of electricity, the average owner would spend around $322 per year on Supercharging. This means that it would take 15.5 years of driving to fully realize the $5,000 cost hike with the lifetime of free Supercharging. Anything after that would be a net positive, as long as you don’t take depreciation into account.
Now, let’s talk about that in miles. For the drivers who adhere to the 80-20 charging split and travel the national average, the cost savings start to kick in when the car hits around 210,000 miles on the odometer. Can a Model S do that? Sure—and then some. But the real value here is for those 14%-ers who don’t have access to charging at home. That $5,000 price hike starts to pay for itself in just 42,000 miles of Supercharger-only driving.
Now, sure, there are going to be some folks who decide that they’ll use this perk to exclusively Supercharge their car. According to the DoE’s projections, that could account for as much as 14% of owners right off the bat. If these owners would charge all 3,743 kWh from Superchargers, it would mean a savings of around $1,610 per year, which achieves cost-neutrality in just over three years. Over the same length of 15.5 years, someone who charges their 2024 Model S AWD would have a savings of around $19,950 after the $5,000 price hike.
So, is it worth it? Well, that’s for you to decide. If you’ve been looking at a Model S and don’t mind paying the extra price for the unlimited Supercharging trade-off, then, sure. But be warned: unlimited Supercharging is bound only to that vehicle under one person’s account, so it won’t transfer with the sale of the vehicle. It also doesn’t include idle fees or congestion fees and Tesla says it can revoke free Supercharging “in the event of excessive charging”—so maybe don’t hinge making your entire car payment on driving for Uber or Lyft.
