On November 22nd, Tesla changed its charging method at some supercharging stations in the United States and is now charging "peak hour surcharge" to car owners.
There are three prerequisites for Tesla to charge this surcharge: firstly, the overcharge site is defined as a "overcharge site in busy areas"; The second is that the overcharging station is in a busy period of the day; The third is that the vehicle's battery has been charged to 90%.
If all three conditions are met simultaneously, Tesla owners will need to pay an additional fee of $1 per minute after charging their electric vehicles to over 90%.
The company also added that Tesla owners who can charge for free cannot be exempted from this additional fee. However, Tesla did not provide a clear definition of "overcharging stations in busy areas".
The change in this rule coincides with the busiest travel time in the United States - a few days before and after Thanksgiving.
In addition, the company also wrote on a page that the "peak hour surcharge" will replace some of the "idle fees" that previously existed at charging stations. The so-called "idle fee" refers to the additional idle fee charged by Tesla to the vehicle owner once the available charger at the charging station is occupied by half after the vehicle is fully charged.
Tesla has previously explained the 'idle fee', 'This is purely to improve customer satisfaction, and we hope never to make money from it.' However, this statement did not appear on the updated page.
Starting from 2019, Tesla has restricted the charging time of car owners at some overcharging stations with busy passenger traffic. By default, the car's battery can only be charged to 80%, and users need to manually confirm that the battery is charged to 100%.
As for why Tesla is imposing this "peak hour surcharge", it may be related to the company's expansion plan for overcharged stations. Tesla is opening up its charging standards for overcharging stations to other automakers' electric vehicles in order to receive federal funding subsidies through the Inflation Reduction Act. And this expansion plan will attract more vehicles to Tesla's overcharging stations, and the surcharge during peak hours will help improve the turnover speed of charging stations.