Tesla begins to implement updates on some of its supercharging stations today that will limit the amount of charge allowed up to only 80%. The imposed limit will be lifted to select high traffic stations.
For now, these implementations are only confirmed for the United States. Out of these Tesla supercharging stations, many will only implement the 80% limit in some occasions depending on the demand and volume of Tesla cars in their stations and only a few Tesla supercharging stations will have these limits permanently applied.
It is expected that only 17% of Superchargers in the country will be affected, for now, as it is expected that Tesla will roll this out to all Tesla supercharging to avoid stations getting too crowded especially during festive times and holidays. Some of the most common complaints that Tesla gets are overstaying cars in Tesla supercharging stations as well as long waiting time to 100% battery into Tesla cars.
Tesla has been implementing new rules and promotions on their Tesla supercharging stations to test on the best possible solution to improve the charging experience. They ended their offer of free lifetime charging for new car owners last year and only brought it back recently, but limited to new car buyers of Tesla Model S and Tesla Model X owners pre-hardware upgrades, obviously to get rid of inventory cars. They lower their charging referral program to 1000 miles instead of the original 5000 miles. These limitations were implemented in order to considerably improve the entire loading experience and to increase customer satisfaction of Tesla owners.
This limit doesn't come without any good news. According to a Tesla representative, the new 80% limit to Tesla supercharging stations become even more effective as it will be combined with the recent On-Route Battery Warmup feature and improvements in Supercharger (V2) charging stations. It could be recalled that the new feature allows the car to detect that it is heading for a charging point, preparing its battery to receive a high capacity charge.
However, there is a fairly simple way to 'trick' these limitations. The manufacturer itself informs that if Tesla has plotted a route in which the Supercharger is not the final destination, it will be able to load up to 100%. However, this is only possible if the car calculates that it takes more than 80% battery to reach the final destination.
