Tesla offers free Supercharging for life with its most powerful vehicles like in the good old times

When Tesla introduced free lifetime Supercharging for the Model S, it proved a very popular proposition, despite that its charging network was still in its nascence.

Even now, many years after the fact, those Model S units which come with free Supercharging for life are still commanding higher prices at the second-hand market, regardless of the fact that the early model years up until the end of 2015 had a battery housing design defect that made their packs fail prematurely.

If the battery was replaced under warranty, or by the previous owner, with the unfortunate valve placement already fixed, then the Model S with free charging became an even hotter commodity, and ditto for the Model X which was sold with free transferable Supercharging until March 2017.

Tesla is now trying to entice American and European buyers of its more expensive high-performance vehicles, the Model S and Model X, with the same free Supercharging offer to drum up sales.

Free Tesla Supercharging for life now comes with caveats

The Model X and Model S represent only a small fraction of its overall sales, so Tesla isn't losing much on the deal, and it just bumped the pricing of the Model X, too, pushing it over the federal tax credit threshold. Elon Musk probably knows full well that the Trump administration will chuck the EV tax credit program anyway, like it just did with the nationwide EV charging network program, so Tesla could be positioning its incentives accordingly.

Moreover, the free lifetime Supercharging deal for the Model S and Model X is not exactly the same one that Tesla offered in the beginning of the life cycle of those two vehicles. The original offer was transferrable, for instance, whereas the fine print of the current gratis charging for life offer stipulates the following:

Customers who purchase or lease a new Model S are eligible for free Supercharging during your ownership of the vehicle. Offer is tied to your Tesla Account and cannot be transferred to another vehicle, person or order, even in the case of ownership transfer. Used vehicles, business orders and vehicles used for commercial purposes (like taxi, rideshare and delivery services) are excluded from this promotion. You are still responsible for Supercharger fees, like idle and congestion fees, when applicable. Stackable with other promotions. Tesla reserves the right in its sole discretion to remove the free Supercharging from your vehicle in the event of excessive charging or unpaid fees related to Supercharging. Promotion subject to change or end at any time.

In other words, while the free lifetime Supercharging for your Model S or Model X is valid for the duration of the ownership of the vehicle, which recent analysis showed may be up to 20 years, it is tied to the buyer's Tesla account and can't be gifted to the next owner, thus keeping the second-hand value of the car higher for longer.

Tesla has been doing this for essentially all of its free Supercharging for life deals lately, including the one it has for the Cybertruck, or the time-limited offers it introduced to move inventory in the past two quarters. 

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