Gary Zhou 
A Model 3 owner in China faced a shocking Supercharger bill after using Tesla’s proprietary rapid charging system in Shanghai. After receiving an alert on his Tesla Mobile App that he has been blocked from using Superchargers, the Model 3 owner decided to check what was causing the error — and found out that his car had accumulated RMB 3.8 million (over $600k) in charging fees.
Screenshots shared on Weibo showed that the Tesla Model 3 owner was listed with RMB 3,846,306 in Supercharging fees. A look at the vehicle’s Supercharging history shows that the Model 3 driver has been using free charging miles since September last year. After a charging session on February 27, however, the Tesla app showed that the driver ended up using his car’s remaining 2,285 km worth of free Supercharging that day.
What’s worse, the Model 3 incurred idle fees equal to 1,923,720 kWh at a rate of RMB 2 per kWh. Considering that the vehicle involved was a base Model 3 with a 60 kWh battery, the 1,923,720 kWh listed in the app was equivalent to the car charging from 0-100% over 32,000 times. That, of course, is absolutely insane.
Fortunately for the Model 3 owner, Tesla China thought so too. Sharing the Model 3 owner’s experience, the @滤镜粉碎机 group on Weibo posted screenshots of the EV maker’s local branch communicating about the issue. Tesla China confirmed that the mammoth Supercharger fees generated by the Model 3 were due to an error in the backend systems of some vehicles. The company is aware of the issue, and is in the process of fully addressing it.
With this in mind, Tesla owners in China who received strangely large Supercharger fees as of late should best communicate with the company. Extra charges and idle fees are things that are never enjoyable after all, especially among those who are very particular with their electric vehicle charging habits.
The Tesla Model 3 owner from China’s erroneous $600k idle fee is arguably one of the largest accumulated Supercharger bills to date. While the rollout of Supercharger idle fees was reasonable considering that they incentivize electric car owners to be responsible with their charging sessions, the charges could easily pile up. Back in 2019, a Tesla owner from New York shared with Teslarati how his Model X’s Supercharging charges ballooned to $1,147.16, thanks in part to idle fees. The Model X in that scenario incurred the charges since the vehicle was parked by a valet and was not unplugged despite its batteries being fully charged.
