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Man buys used Tesla only to discover it's banned from Supercharger network

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/used-tesla-banned-supercharger-network-daniel-boycott/
25•toomanyrichies•1h ago

Comments

fastaguy88•1h ago
Sounds more like he was scammed by the dealer than a Tesla problem.
CodingJeebus•1h ago
Tesla controls the supercharger network, vehicle registry and vehicle software, and nowhere in the process of acquiring the vehicle did the customer get notice that the car was banned from the network. Tesla has some culpability here since the title was clean.
InTheArena•1h ago
What culpability? Tesla has a inspection process if a car has been damaged.
breve•1h ago
Brand exclusive chargers, or chargers that you can be banned from, are a problem for everyone.

That's not smart infrastructure, that's dumb infrastructure.

mh-•1h ago
I agree with this, but given how much of the value of EVs is tied to the accessibility of a charger network, it seems like this really needs to be reported on the title somehow.

Even if Tesla is the only one doing this right now, I'm sure it'll be a thing in the future with other manufacturers and a proliferation of 3rd party repairs.

crtasm•1h ago
Aren't these cars hooked up to the internet? I would expect the dashboard to tell me such an important piece of information.
guywithahat•1h ago
It was a salvage title; basically he was scammed by a dealer. That said, I had no idea they could or did ban salvage Tesla's from the charging network, that's kind of wild. I suppose third party chargers are getting better but the tesla network is a big perk of Tesla's
galaxy_gas•1h ago
Article says state says it was clean and never salvage title, just privately considered one by Tesla
InTheArena•1h ago
"The term "salvage" was a complete shock, but a deeper dive into the CARFAX vehicle history report, which he didn't pull until after the sale, uncovered a "minor accident."

Photos of the damage made it look more than minor, and a Tesla technician told him the repair work as shoddy.

"It was bad enough where they flagged it," he said. "

larkinrichards•1h ago
Article says "photos of the damage made it look more than minor"

Sounds like buyer was scammed.

> The term "salvage" was a complete shock, but a deeper dive into the CARFAX vehicle history report, which he didn't pull until after the sale, uncovered a "minor accident."

> Photos of the damage made it look more than minor, and a Tesla technician told him the repair work as shoddy.

edlebert•1h ago
It’s confusing, but the “salvage” label here has nothing to do with the title, which is clean in this case. It’s a label used is by Tesla - which means it’s not allowed to use super chargers due to safety concerns. They don’t want a janky Tesla causing serious injury. Honestly it’s a good policy by Tesla and will help incentivize owners to get quality repair work.
aquaticsunset•1h ago
Sounds pretty hostile to consumers. A repair made that compromises the ability to safely charge does represent a huge risk. But what's their process for this? Do they publish this criteria? They say there's recourse for this, but it costs a lot and it sounds like the engineer goes off of "vibes" and not a rubric.
prasadjoglekar•55m ago
Does Exxon stop you from pumping gas because they dislike the repair shop you used? There's a reason salvage titles exist and are regulated by the DMV and police. Tesla has no business being a middleman here and quite frankly some form of public accomodation laws should apply.
lazide•31m ago
Gas stations have zoning rules and extensive safety regulations to stop a run away car fire from doing even more extensive damage. Some supercharger sites I’ve seen are places like inside semi-enclosed buildings and the like - a Tesla catching on fire in that situation would be far more catastrophic.
ninkendo•44m ago
I’d agree with everything you’re saying if the cost of inspecting the car for rejoining the network wasn’t $2000. It should be a relatively simple inspection/test of the relevant systems and should cost 1/10th that.

Also, if the vehicle is flagged by Tesla as being salvaged, it should be made obvious somewhere in the vehicle, in the same vein as a check engine light, or more realistically an error message on the UI screen. It should not be a surprise to the driver that the car won’t charge (let alone an unsuspecting buyer.)

aquaticsunset•1h ago
No, it was a clean title. Tesla decided it was "salvage" according to their own measures. I can imagine a scenario where a poorly done repair absolutely can make rapid charging a dangerous thing. But I would feel extremely swindled if this wasn't disclosed ahead of time.

And how does Tesla know repairs have been made after a minor accident? Or do they just yank your access to the network whenever they want and demand money to have it "recertified"?

breve•1h ago
> Boycott said the network of 70,000 Tesla Superchargers across the country

No, that's wrong. Tesla has 2,817 supercharger sites for a total of 34,197 stalls in the US:

https://supercharge.info/charts

mh-•1h ago
I'm assuming he misspoke* and cited the "Global Superchargers" number from the official page [0] ("70,000+").

(I had no sense of how many there were and googled after reading your comment.)

* Or was misquoted by the writer.

[0]: https://www.tesla.com/supercharger

InTheArena•1h ago
Let me guess, without reading. This is a salvage title, not a car in perfect order.

IIRC, Tesla is willing to reconnect, but only after a really expensive evaluation of the car. It's too risky putting a really big lithium batter up to a really big charger otherwise.

"Fred Lambert, the editor-in-chief of Electrek, a news magazine about electric vehicles, said he's heard of at least one other case where a car with a clean title was labeled "salvage" in Tesla's system and blocked from supercharging. "

ahh. Eletrek is trying to spin up this story again.

toomuchtodo•59m ago
High voltage system inspection and certification was $2k the last time I had one done. Not cheap, but also a potential deficiency that should be able to be identified by a buyer before purchase via VIN.

Take the car to a Supercharger as part of the test drive? You will get an explicit message related to a VIN blacklist when attempting to charge, but if you’re not aware, you won’t know.

hhhhjjj•54m ago
That logic doesn't really hold? I use Tesla chargers all the time and I dont own a Tesla. Can other manufacturer cars be banned? Like, why would I want a tesla with this risk?
Onavo•19m ago
If your other manufacturer's car catches fire while supercharging, they bear the reputational risk. The main charging circuit in EVs is in the car itself, not the charger stand.
dcrazy•12m ago
Isn’t it different for level 3 charging, which Tesla superchargers now support for certain non-Tesla vehicles?
jjmarr•48m ago
According to the article, the car had a clean title besides a "minor accident".
m-hodges•55m ago
Holy moly has CBSNews dot com become unreadable on iOS mobile. Like 3x more ads than content.
ninkendo•48m ago
This feels like it’s basically the whole web nowadays. At least the subset of the web that is funded by advertising.

Reader Mode by default is how I’ve rolled since it was something you could do, and I swear by it. Any site that doesn’t show right in reader, I simply close the tab.

DonHopkins•55m ago
You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
larkinrichards•54m ago
How do you define "minor accident" -- perhaps it was a "minor" accident because no one was injured and no other party was involved?

Last time I bought a car, I found the one I wanted with the note that it had been in a minor accident. I paid for the carfax, and learned that it had some damage and repairs, and had somehow traveled across the country in the process. Limited details, except, the accident had occurred in Florida. $10 later I had the police report. It was a 4wd car and suffered 2 broken axles & broken drive train. not minor in any way.

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