I wonder when the free charging is over. That energy still has to be produced somehow somewhere.
Also, consider that tesla essentially owns the largest amount of electric stops in the US. They've got their foot in the door, no other manufacturer is going to come close. When electric cars really kick into gear, tesla controls the gas pumps, and can charge everyone else, while still giving free to their own cars, which is a pretty good incentive.
(it's never been "free", just added on to the purchase price as an option, and later as a standard feature)
Ignore the editorialized headline. The actual quote is:
>The obvious thing to do is decouple the Supercharger Network from the cost of the Model 3. So it will still be very cheap—and far cheaper than gasoline—to drive long-distance with the Model 3, but it will not be free long distance for life unless you’ve purchased that package. -- Elon Musk http://www.plugincars.com/model-3-owners-will-pay-access-tes...
Tesla has the technical capability though to sell Supercharger access in time-limited slots (unlimited Supercharger access for the next 7 days, good for that coast-to-coast trip one is planning), on per-kWh basis (plug in, have your credit card on file with Tesla app, start charging), as well as introduce variable pricing (more expensive kWh during periods of heavy use and long lines at Superchargers, cheaper and/or free access during periods of low activity). Historically they've been very driver-friendly, so if I had to guess, they might make all of those options available, as they each cover a specific use case.
I'd be much more concerned they have to keep warranting so many batteries and engines. This guy got a new battery and engine at 75k miles, so they are pretty much down >$10k on his car alone. And he's far from the only one who casually mentions having the most expensive part of the car exchanged for free.
It's pretty clear that to get supercharger access in the Model 3 you're going to need to tick that option too.
As for existing cars, never. Free charging is part of what you get with the car, and they'd be breaking that contract if they changed it unilaterally. Fortunately, electricity is usually pretty cheap, and on average the money they set aside from each car for running the Superchargers will match or exceed the cost of running them.
Of course, it's never really free, us customers pay for it one way or another. "Included and unlimited" is probably a better way to describe it.
>will pay for it by charging to charge
will subsidize supercharger access for Tesla vehicles via selling access to non-Tesla Electric vehicles