Tesla is no longer offering discounts to new customers or free supercharging for its existing customer through its referral program.
“As of September 18, 2021, we are not offering Referral awards in your region until further notice,” Tesla says on its website.
“To be eligible for previous referral benefits, all referral orders of Model S, Model X and Model 3 must have been placed between Oct 1, 2019 and September 17, 2021.”
If you were lucky enough to order a Tesla with a referral code before the cut-off, your supercharging credits will expire six months after they were added to your account.
In the past, each referral added another six months of free supercharging credit to the owner’s account.
Since its inception in 2015, this referral program was a way for Tesla to boost demand and generate hype. The company does not pay for marketing or advertising.
When a new buyer used a referral code from an existing owner on the Tesla website, both parties would be rewarded. The referral program was never open for Cybertruck and used Tesla orders.
Rewards have varied over the years, but during its peak Tesla was giving away all-new Roadsters (as-yet undelivered) to owners who accumulated enough referrals in other markets.
This was eventually stripped back to solely 1500km of free supercharging for both the existing and new owners.
In other markets where the Tesla solar roof is offered, the company is still offering a $500 reward for referrals. It’s the only product still being incentivised through referrals.
It’s unclear why Tesla is axing this program, but it’s likely profit is a reason. Tesla stopped offering the Roadster due to costs, and briefly ended the program when the Model 3 was rolling out to help maximise profits.
It is also uncertain if this program will ever be revived again.
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