In an effort to increase turnover at the company’s supercharger stations, Tesla has announced it will begin charging owners $0.40/minute for leaving vehicles thereafter they are done charging.
It seems like it’d be obvious to remove your car from the charger once it’s finished, but this has been an increasing problem as more and more Teslas are being sold, leading to crowded supercharger stations.
Owners will have 5 minutes to remove their vehicles from the charger before the fee kicks in for every additional minute.
Elon Musk began responding to complaints from Tesla owners last week on Twitter in regards to people leaving their cars at the stations for hours on end.
@loic You’re right, this is becoming an issue. Supercharger spots are meant for charging, not parking. Will take action.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 11, 2016
As far as the fee is concerned, Tesla says it “is purely about increasing customer happiness and we hope to never make any money from it.” But there will be exceptions:
@TeslaMotors We are going to modify this so that people only pay a fee if most bays are occupied. If the site is basically deserted, no problem to park.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 17, 2016