Free Supercharging for the Model 3, Not So Fast

Tesla held its annual shareholder meeting this week. After about 5 minutes of official business Elon Musk and JB Straubel got on stage and went through a not so brief history of the company. The full video is here and well worth the time going through the early trials and tribulations of Tesla.

Fast forward to present day and the interesting bit of information from Musk was about Supercharging capabilities in the Model 3. Since the Model 3 launch in March there has been rampant speculation on rather supercharging will be free or come at a cost. Musk finally confirmed that Supercharging for the Model 3 will come at a cost.

Free supercharging fundamentally has a cost. The obvious thing to do is decouple that from the cost of the Model 3. So it will still be very cheap, and far cheaper than gasoline, to drive long-distance with the Model 3, but it will not be free long distance for life unless you purchase that package.

This decision is not without precedent as Tesla once upon a time charged a fee to enable Supercharging for the Model S. They have since bundled it into the price of the vehicle.

This all well and good but the issue still remains with 500,000 additional vehicles (Model S, X, and 3) on the road will there be enough Superchargers to satisfy demand? There are already reports of lines and issues charging at many of the popular southern California Superchargers. Will this spread to other areas of the country as the popularity of Tesla increases?

What do you think will Tesla be able to rollout additional Superchargers to meet demand?