Current studies counsel Tesla has began to ship its EVs with a battery state-of-charge that is lower than 50%. This can be a safer apply than delivery them totally charged. To compensate for the lack of miles of vary, Tesla is giving the brand new house owners 150 free Supercharging kilometers. 

If you happen to’ve purchased an electrical automobile up to now, our hope is it was totally charged on the time of supply, identical to each new automobile offered ought to have a full tank of gasoline. Nonetheless, attributable to an absence of charging infrastructure and know-how within the business, we have heard tales about folks choosing up their new EVs solely to be taught that the battery is nearly useless. It is not like they’ll simply cease in rapidly to the gasoline station and alleviate the issue.

Tesla makes a degree to make sure that each EV it delivers is totally charged on the time of supply. After all, there are doubtless exceptions, but it surely’s objective to have. Typically, if the corporate is simply delivering too many vehicles directly, it might should cope with delivering some which might be shut to totally charged, however not on the max capability. Nonetheless, try to be ready since Tesla has introduced that it’ll ship some vehicles with lower than a 50% state of cost. The announcement from Tesla reads by way of Electrek:

“Resulting from a brand new business coverage, your automobile have to be shipped with a max 50% cost – that means your Mannequin [*} 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.

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:

“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.