A few days ago, Tesla started to allow salvaged cars to use its comprehensive Supercharger network, having previously banned them. Now it has been revealed that once again, salvaged Tesla models cannot use the company’s Superchargers.
Tesla made the controversial decision to ban salvaged models from using its charging network in early 2020. It claimed it did so for safety purposes and added that if any salvaged vehicle was found to have been modified to enable Supercharging or fast-charging through third parties, it could take legal action and seek compensation.
Despite this, last week a number of owners of salvaged Tesla models revealed that they could actually use Superchargers. That doesn’t appear to be the case, suggesting that last week’s development may have simply been a bug that has now been fixed.
It would seem as though Tesla is taking an overly cautious approach when it comes to dealing with salvaged cars. While it’s certainly possible that salvaged Teslas with battery issues wouldn’t be safe to be plugged into a Supercharger, it’s worth noting that a car with a salvage title doesn’t mean that vehicle is in bad mechanical condition. In fact, vehicles are frequently salvaged by insurance companies after suffering just minor bodywork damage and wouldn’t be a risk to the EV charging stations.
Given that Tesla no longer has a PR department, there is no official word about why its view on salvaged vehicles has seemingly changed in just a matter of days.
