Tesla Motors (TSLA) Free Unlimited Supercharging Offer Extended Till Jan. 15

Electric car maker Tesla Motors announced Sunday it was extending its offer of free unlimited charging for all Model S and X vehicles ordered on or before Jan. 15. Earlier, the offer was only valid on vehicles ordered before Jan. 1.

In November, the company made the first announcement it was going to start charging customers for using its Supercharger network, which is when it mentioned the now-abandoned Jan. 1 deadline, saying customers who ordered their vehicles after that date would be eligible for only 400 kWh (enough to drive about 1,000 miles) of free Supercharger credits every year.

However, Tesla also said at the time that its “Supercharger network will never be a profit center” and that those who ordered their vehicles before Jan. 1 had to also take delivery before April 1 to be eligible for a lifetime of unlimited free charging.

In its Sunday announcement, the deadline for taking delivery also has been extended to April 15 “because of high demand and to give an opportunity to those customers who could not order over the holidays.”

It is still not known how much the company plans to charge its future customers for charging their Tesla vehicles (the price will almost certainly depend on local electricity rates), but three weeks ago, the Elon Musk company announced a “Supercharger idle fee” for customers who leave their vehicles parked at charging stations for over 5 minutes after the cars are already fully charged.

Even that move was not to make any money, though, as the company said it was “purely about increasing customer happiness.” It would apply to all Tesla vehicles, irrespective of when they were bought.

The free charging credits amount to the same thing as being given free gas when buying a new car. A pretty sweet deal.