[HN Gopher] Man buys used Tesla only to discover it's banned fro...
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Man buys used Tesla only to discover it's banned from Supercharger
network
Author : toomanyrichies
Score : 31 points
Date : 2025-10-04 20:37 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cbsnews.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cbsnews.com)
| fastaguy88 wrote:
| Sounds more like he was scammed by the dealer than a Tesla
| problem.
| CodingJeebus wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| What culpability? Tesla has a inspection process if a car has
| been damaged.
| breve wrote:
| 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- wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Aren't these cars hooked up to the internet? I would expect the
| dashboard to tell me such an important piece of information.
| guywithahat wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Article says state says it was clean and never salvage title,
| just privately considered one by Tesla
| InTheArena wrote:
| "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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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.)
| pengaru wrote:
| > janky Tesla
| aquaticsunset wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| > _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- wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Isn't it different for level 3 charging, which Tesla
| superchargers now support for certain non-Tesla vehicles?
| jjmarr wrote:
| According to the article, the car had a clean title besides a
| "minor accident".
| m-hodges wrote:
| Holy moly has CBSNews dot com become unreadable on iOS mobile.
| Like 3x more ads than content.
| ninkendo wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas.
| larkinrichards wrote:
| 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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(page generated 2025-10-04 23:01 UTC)