Tesla Punishes You If You Overcharge Your Car

To ease the burden on charging stations, Tesla plans to charge $1 per minute for customers who recharge their cars beyond 90%.

The measure, in its simplest interpretation, is based on common sense. How many times a year do you run your gas tank to reserve in your internal combustion engine car? It’s exactly the same with the last 10% of an electric vehicle battery. If you don’t stop every day at the pump to fill your tank, you naturally tend with an electric car to always try to fully charge the batteries, risking clogging charging stations unnecessarily. Tesla, which hosts over 50,000 supercharger stations worldwide for electric vehicles, is deploying a new urban toll system that, it hopes, will free up charging traffic at its stations.

Unlike inactivity fees, which charge drivers per minute when their car remains parked at a charging station after it has already been fully charged, congestion fees are intended to prevent people from fully charging their vehicle at the most crowded stations. Congestion fees will only apply when the charging stations are occupied and a vehicle’s battery exceeds 90%. Drivers will be able to see when these fees start to apply on their vehicle’s touchscreen, and there will be a five-minute grace period to avoid minor charges if someone is only a few minutes late. The new system will apply to certain stations across the United States, with a fixed cost of $1 per minute. Tesla has not yet reviewed its pricing or deployment strategy outside the United States.

Electric vehicles generally do not recharge extremely quickly, typically reaching about 80 to 90%, after which the charging rate slows significantly. The goal of the congestion tax is to shorten recharge sessions during peak times, allowing more users the opportunity to recharge.

As more automakers adopt the North American Charging Standard (NACS) used by Tesla Superchargers, more EV drivers have access to high-speed charging networks. While the availability of charging stations is a crucial factor in increasing electric vehicle adoption among US drivers, Tesla considers congestion a major issue and is taking measures accordingly.

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