Tesla's Supercharging Plans Explained: Paid Supercharging Access After Jan. 15

If you are planning to buy a Tesla Model X or S, you will have only until Jan. 15 to avail free lifetime access at Tesla’s Supercharging stations. The facility will not be available to cars booked after this date.

After mid-January, Tesla customers will get around 400 kilowatt-hours worth Supercharging credits per year with every Tesla car. Once you cross the limit, you will need to top up your credits if you need Supercharging.

The company revealed detailed Supercharging pricing plans to let customers know how much Supercharging will cost according to their usage. A new frequently asked questions section appeared on Tesla’s website Thursday listing Supercharging prices according to different U.S. states. For example, Kentucky residents will have to pay $0.16 per minute in tier 2 cities and $0.08 for tier 1 cities, while those in California will have pay $0.20 per kWh — Tesla used different measuring systems for different states.

Once customers use up all their free Supercharging credits, they will be billed on their credit card registered with the Tesla website.

According to the automaker, unused Supercharging credits a year from the date of the car's purchase will not be carried forward to the next year — you might have to plan a road trip to utilize your remaining credits.

“To put the affordability of Supercharging into perspective, customers will pay about $15 for a road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles, about $120 from Los Angeles to New York, about €60 from Paris to Rome, and about ¥400 from Beijing to Shanghai,” the company said in a statement to Engadget.