American electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla Motors will allow owners of Tesla Model 3 to use its ‘supercharging’ stations for free on long trips, reports news website Electrek. “Model 3, from the beginning we said free charging is not included in the Model 3 – free unlimited charging is not included, so, free long distance is, but not free local,” Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, was quoted as saying.
Separately, Tesla Motors has started selling its cars in New Zealand, reports news website Otago Daily Times. The citizens of New Zealand will be able to order a Tesla Model S and Model X directly from company’s website. Model S has been priced at NZD109,300 (USD76,572) while the Model X starts from NZD145,200 (USD101,723).
Significance: Recently, Tesla had scrapped its lifetime free charging feature for its Model S and Model X cars booked after 2017 or delivered after April 2017. The owners will only get 400kWh of free charging credits every year. However, questions were raised about the bookings of Tesla Model 3 which will be delivered only after April 2017. Lifetime free charging was a major attraction for prospective Tesla owners and it remains to be seen how this will impact the sales figures in the future. Tesla has maintained from the beginning that it will use supercharger network for profit. At present, Tesla has a network of nearly 4,600 superchargers operating.
