Trade-in your gas-powered car, get free supercharging from Tesla (sort of)

After the federal tax credit of $7,500 for new electric vehicles is no longer active, manufacturers are thinking of other creative ways to lure buyers into their showrooms. Tesla, being the biggest American EV manufacturer, has a new promo that lets you trade your current non-EV for free Tesla supercharging for 2000 miles in the USA. Check out how here.

The offer is aimed towards people who currently own an ICE or hybrid vehicle and want to swap for an electric Tesla. Your vehicle cannot be pre-owned, making the offer sound way less appealing than at first glance. However, the offer applies to all of Tesla’s models currently available - from the cheapest Model 3, all the way to the mighty Cybertruck Cyberbeast.

Moreover, you need to sell your current car to Tesla. This seems fair, although it has to be mentioned rivals like Lucid only require proof of ownership of the qualifying vehicle. Adding to that, the miles expire after two years and cannot be transferred to other accounts, while idle and congestion fees must be paid independently.

What do 2000 miles mean?

The concept itself is ludicrous as the Tesla Superchargers operate in kWh, not in miles. So this means you will get different kWh values based on the consumption of your vehicle. The most efficient Model 3 consumes about 4 mi/kWh based on EPA ratings. This equates to around 500 kWh in total. Given the average cost of electricity in the USA of roughly $0.40/kWh, this means that customers are getting a whopping $200 worth of charging.

Things don’t become much better with the significantly less efficient Cyberbeast, whose EPA rating stands at 2.3 mi/kWh. Still, all you’ll get as a bonus is around $350.

This whole trade-in procedure seems appealing at first glance, yet once you look at the numbers and details you realize it isn’t much of a deal at all. But hey, you’ll get a popup window on your Tesla app, informing you that you have “free” miles ready to spend.

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