Was Tesla’s Salvaged Car Supercharger Access A Bug? It’s Now Gone

Salvaged vehicles were only able to use the Supercharger network for about a week.

By: Andrei Nedelea

Aug 17, 2021 at 7:07am ET

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Just over a week ago, it was announced and later confirmed that Tesla had granted access to its Supercharger network for certain salvage title vehicles (formerly deemed a total loss by an insurance company, but repaired and put back on the road). Only Model 3s were allowed to charge, though, but now it seems that they too have been banned yet again.

Tesla never made any official announcement that it reenabled Supercharging for the Model 3, so it may very not have been the company’s intended move - it may very well have been a bug. Back when it disabled the service for salvaged vehicles, the manufacturer cited safety concerns, and it never announced a change of direction in this regard.

Electrek says it got numerous reports from Tesla owners who had Supercharging reenabled in their once totaled but now repaired and running Model 3s, but that it had now been taken away yet again. They apparently noticed it yesterday and now it has been independently confirmed.

What do you think?

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Tesla has provided no official statements regarding this process of reenabling and then disabling Supercharging again. Perhaps this suggests Tesla was either testing the waters to see what would happen if it temporarily did it or it genuinely was not intended, although the bug theory somehow seems less plausible.

We say Tesla should still allow vehicles that have been properly repaired to still Supercharge, because this would keep more existing Teslas on the road, instead of forcing people to buy a new vehicle. Maybe the manufacturer will make some sort of announcement to clarify this, because right now we’re completely in the dark as to what their plans are.