Tesla Plays It Safe, Ships EVs With Lower Charge, Compensates Buyers

Tesla will ship the cars with less than a 50% state of charge, but give the new owners a Supercharger credit to make up for it.

glovis shipping vessel for exporting Tesla EVs from China

Steven Loveday

By: Steven Loveday

May 31, 2023 at 2:06pm ET

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Recent reports suggest Tesla has started to ship its EVs with a battery state-of-charge that's less than 50%. This is a safer practice than shipping them fully charged. To compensate for the loss of miles of range, Tesla is giving the new owners 150 free Supercharging kilometers.

If you've bought an electric car in the past, our hope is it was fully charged at the time of delivery, just like every new vehicle sold should have a full tank of gas. However, due to a lack of charging infrastructure and know-how in the industry, we've heard stories about people picking up their new EVs only to learn that the battery is almost dead. It's not like they can just stop in quickly to the gas station and alleviate the problem.

Tesla makes a point to ensure that every EV it delivers is fully charged at the time of delivery. Of course, there are likely exceptions, but it's a good goal to have. Sometimes, if the company is just delivering too many cars at once, it may have to deal with delivering some that are close to fully charged, but not at the max capacity. However, you should be prepared since Tesla has announced that it will deliver some cars with less than a 50% state of charge. The announcement from Tesla reads via Electrek:

"Due to a new industry policy, your vehicle must be shipped with a max 50% charge – meaning your Model [*} charge status may be lower than our usual standard at your delivery appointment."

Electrek notes that while there is no obvious information out there about whatever "industry policy" Tesla is referring to, there are many shipping companies that require EVs to have between a 20 and 50% state of charge upon being loaded onto the vessel for export.

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Tesla goes on to explain that it will make sure that new owners of these vehicles get 150 km of free Supercharging to make up for the lack of initial EV range, as well as the inconvenience. The company writes:

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"We are giving you 150 km of free Supercharger for the inconvenience. You will be able to redeem your Supercharging credits a few days after delivery in the Loot Box in your Tesla app."

If you live in the US, this won't likely impact you. However, folks that live in Canada are now taking delivery of China-made Tesla EVs, so they may have a lower state of charge at the time of delivery.

Source: Electrek

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