Tesla Goes For The CASH By Drastically Increasing Supercharging Prices

Bait and switch?

This must mean that cash flow is getting bad AGAIN.

As a business strategy it was silly to offer free electricity at the Supercharging stations. There were no poor people buying ModelS or ModelX vehicles. None would have expected free electricity. They could have charged for it from the beginning and nobody would have complained. Convenience is the key selling point and Tesla owners will be happy to pay for it. Better late than never.

This bait and switch is yet another example ofTesla's unethical business practices.

@MD - It's just business. Like GM closing plants after being bailed out. The numbers work or they don't. So you make changes to right the ship as best you can.

"None would have expected free electricity" and "convenience is the key selling point" Really. People who buy S Classes care little about gas prices but how many more do you think Mercedes would sell if with free gas...twice as many more I suspect.

That huge $900M convertible is coming due in March, and with the stock around $300 and not at the $357 strike point, that means they won't be able to roll it into equity. If they have to roll it into a new note the interest rate will be higher. Thus it will be using the cash they need to fix the model 3 production line to improve quality and lower costs to get the magic $35000 price. It's going to be a tight squeeze.

Tesla is screwed, tick tock tick tock goes the potential bankruptcy clock.

02/06/2019 Tesla, Inc. is estimated to report earnings on 02/06/2019. The upcoming earnings date is derived from an algorithm based on a company's historical reporting dates.Our vendor, Zacks Investment Research, might revise this date in the future, once the company announces the actual earnings date.

The only question people should be asking now is from their outside auditor, PWC-PriceWaterhouseCoopers - "Going Concern" Audit Opinion or NOT?

Tesla's stock price hinges on two words - "Going Concern".

The going concern principle is the assumption that an entity will remain in business for the foreseeable future. Conversely, this means the entity will not be forced to halt operations and liquidate its assets in the near term at what may be very low fire-sale prices.

By the way, when Tesla goes T*ts-Up, a lot of this BS stuff like the Supercharger Network will be worth zero.

The Tesla stuff is too proprietary to have any value outside of the Tesla cosmosphere. Hopefully cash flow is good and Tesla survives, but if not, people will be shocked at how fast it just vaporizes.

Fisker Karma (Bob Lutz purchase notwithstanding) and DeLorean are the models for carmaker insolvency vaporization and if Tesla meets the same fate, the same result will occur.

#VAPOR

Fingers crossed. Tesla needs to go.

Tesla Bankwupt 2019!

A new crystal ball. How many crystal balls have been smashed ?

Tesla needs to survive. They sure did bring competition and alternative to gas. There is nothing out there like Tesla. They may not be cheap or beautiful but they do have a lot of technology. It is trying to get other companies out of their comfort zones and innovate. It will only get better for us consumers.

I give that a 0% chance of happening, but to address mre30's comment... the superchargers can all be converted to CCS chargers, which is exactly what they are doing in Europe right now. The European Model 3 uses CCS instead of the proprietary cable. They may do something similar in the US if CCS really takes off.

But how many would be dumb enough to believe it would be free forever? My guess is zero. You don't rise to the position of being able to afford an S-Class or a Model S by being foolish or unable to see this coming from a mile away.

Like @runbuh pointed out above, the change applies to new orders while the FREE charging offer will be honored according to the terms set out for each case (some free for a limited time, some "forever" which actually means "for as long awd you own your car and is not transferable).
When I bought my Model 3, free supercharging "forever" was included in the Performance upgrade package, but I was then offered to keep it as is or get a $5K refund. I opted for the latter.

It's still cheaper than gas on a normal 30mpg car, but it's obviously not great news for Tesla owners. At least they could have timed the rate increase with the Supercharger V3 launch so we can see what the extra costs will go towards.

Most locals I know would rather slow-charge at a free station, so the Superchargers are used mostly for travel.

If there is a silver lining, it probably means more people will charge and home and it will be easier to find a free spot. (Doesn't impact me much, I have spent $1.90 total in supercharging since getting the 3).

Most charge at home, but a lot of people live in apartments now that Silicon Valley prices have gotten out of control. Most of my coworkers are using free chargers now.