That’s enough to charge over 32,000 Tesla Model 3s from 0 to 100 percent.
(Image credit: CnEVPost)
Tesla’s high idle fee has raised a lot of eyebrows in China recently, and now a bug has put it in the spotlight by exposing one owner to a hefty bill.
Information shared today by Weibo user @滤镜粉碎机 shows a Model 3 user who says he received an alert today from the Tesla app about his vehicle being banned from using Tesla’s Supercharger, showing that he has RMB 3,846,306 ($608,708) in charging fees to pay.
The user said he last used a Tesla Supercharger on February 27, when he charged his Model 3 for 20 minutes.
The charging history he shared shows he is from Shanghai and has been enjoying free charging miles since at least September 6 of last year.
The February 27 record shows that the user used the remaining 2,285 free km on that day.
On top of that, he had to pay RMB 3,846,306 for 1,923,720 kWh at the rate of RMB 2 per kWh.
This is obviously a bug, because based on the 60-kWh pack in the 2020 entry-level Model 3, that’s enough power to charge 32,062 packs from 0 to 100 percent.
Weibo user @滤镜粉碎机 cited a response from Tesla customer service saying that there was an error in the back-end systems of some vehicles and that technicians were fixing it.
Tesla previously had a referral program to boost demand, offering 1,500 km of free overcharge credit in China for both referrals and buyers, and 1,000 miles in the US. On September 18, 2021, Tesla canceled the program.
Yesterday, @科技新一, a well-known tech blogger with over 6 million followers, expressed surprise to see Tesla charging an idle fee of up to RMB 6.4 per minute in China, saying that means RMB 384 per hour.
Local media then cited a response from Tesla‘s customer service, saying the move was to improve the utilization of charging piles.
