Tesla To Charge Owners For Supercharger Network Access, Will It Impact Model 3 Buyers? Buyer Prior To 2017 Will Still Get Free Access

Tesla has decided to end the free access to supercharger access to the new buyers. All model 3 buyers and buyers who will take the delivery after April 2017 will have to pay for the supercharger access. Tesla had started the free supercharger access about four years ago to address a pain point of electric cars, long distance travel. Car buyers are hesitant to buy electric cars are long distance travel in not feasible. Tesla developed Superchargers that could charge cars for about 300 miles in 30 minutes, as reported by Wired.

At present there are 4,600 Superchargers that allow over 160,000 Tesla users in long distance travel. Tesla claims travelers have used this facility to travel across continents and even around the world.

The prices have not yet been revealed for accessing the supercharger networks. It is believed that cost will fluctuate based on the regions and over time. The cost will still be far cheaper compared to a gas car.

Tesla maintains the amount would be used to accelerate its growth and to further enhance the experience of the users. The supercharger networks won't be used as profit centers.

For all the existing Tesla orders the customers would get free access provided the delivery is taken before April 2017. As reported by Forbes, All the new customers including the Model 3 customers will get a free 400 kWh of free Supercharging credits annually. All the new cars will be equipped with the standard super charging equipment.

The prime reason for the change is speculated to be long queues resulting from non-travelers' using Supercharger networks to charge their cars. According to Tesla, "Just as you would charge your cell phone, we believe the best way to charge your car is either at home or at work, during the hours you're not using it."

Supercharger Networks incur costs and Tesla's move is targeted at achieving the economics for the future models. Will this impact the sales of Model 3?