Tesla owners will pay US$1 per minute to charge beyond 90% as new congestion fee arrives for busy Superchargers

The rumored Supercharger congestion fee is now a fact as Tesla announced its implementation in the next few weeks via the mobile app. It has also updated its charging support page to reflect that Tesla owners in the US will have to pay $1/minute if they try to linger on with the cable plugged after their battery capacity reaches 90% charge.

This new Supercharger congestion fee is double the typical US$0.50/minute idle fee and is designed to avoid, well, congestion at busy stations in peak times. As for the conditions that have to be met in order to be charged the extra dollar a minute, Tesla says that you will only "pay when a Supercharger is busy, and your vehicle’s battery is above a certain level," though it doesn't really specify the criteria that will render a charging station "busy" in the eye of the algorithm.

Even then, however, the Tesla driver will get a 5-minute grace period after the Supercharger congestion fee prompt appears on their screen, during which they can decide whether to chill and pay to charge beyond 90%, or go on their merry way. "This increases the availability of Superchargers so that everyone has access when they need it," argues Tesla.

Earlier this year, Tesla started showing its app users the wait times at Supercharger stations and how the cost per kWh there may vary depending on the time of day. It's precisely at those peak hours that Tesla's new $1/minute fee will likely be enforced in a dynamic manner. Station location, as well as current and historical pile occupancy might be taken into account by the algorithm before it starts considering a Supercharger "busy" for congestion fee purposes at certain periods throughout the day.

Initially, the Tesla software update code indicated that the automaker may start charging congestion fee beyond 80% battery capacity, but from the idea to the implementation the upper limit got changed to 90%. Thus, the new Supercharger congestion fee will probably apply only to that small percentage of Tesla drivers who like to charge their EV to full despite that the process slows significantly after the 80% threshold is hit.

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