Tesla introduces a new Supercharger congestion fee
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Tesla's Supercharger network offers a fast and convenient way for Tesla vehicle owners to charge their cars. However, with the growing number of Tesla vehicles and other supported EVs on the road, some Supercharger stations may experience high levels of congestion. To address this, Tesla has implemented a new, congestion fee at certain busy locations. Thanks to updates to Tesla's owner's manual, we now have some additional details on this new fee.
Congestion Fees: Purpose and Application
Congestion fees, similar to idle fees, are additional charges that apply under specific circumstances at busy Supercharger stations. The rationale behind these fees is to encourage drivers to move their vehicles promptly and discourage charging to a higher percentage, where charging speeds are drastically slower.
When Do Congestion Fees Apply?
Congestion fees only incur at select, often busy, Supercharger locations.
As opposed to idle fees, which apply when the Supercharger is 50% or more occupied, congestion fees will only apply when the station is 100% full, and your vehicle's battery charge exceeds the "congestion limit."
Similar to idle fees, there's a grace period of five minutes before congestion fees will apply. After five minutes you'll then be for congestion fees until your vehicle is either moved or reaches its charge limit. If your vehicle reaches the charging limit, at which point it stops charging and the vehicle hasn't moved, idle fees would then apply until the Supercharger falls below 50% capacity.
According to the latest owner's manual, Tesla isn't being specific about what the congestion limit is. It's presumed to be 80%, although it's possible that it could vary depending on the level of congestion, change over time or even vary depending on the model's charging curve.
Tesla recently changed the recommended daily charging level for most of their vehicle from 90% to 80%, which could be partially due to these new congestion fees. Since most owners will now have their vehicle charge level set to 80%, they won't accrue surprise congestion fees at these Supercharger locations.
Supercharger Information
Tesla does an great job of laying out Supercharger wait times, prices and fees. They recently also starting predicting Supercharger wait times based on your time of arrival.
Tesla introduces a new Supercharger congestion fee
LuizFl/X
The Supercharger's rate structure, including whether idle or congestion fees apply, can be seen on the Supercharger's pop-up on the vehicle's screen (update 2023.38+).
While congestion fees are another fee on top of the already high Supercharger prices in a lot of areas, this change is expected to decrease Supercharger congestion by discouraging owners from charging at slower speeds.
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Tesla’s Vice President of Vehicle Engineering, Lars Moravy, recently took to X and opened the floor for user input. There, he asked the community for features and improvements they’d like to see to make Teslas better heading into 2026.
This post generated thousands of suggestions - and we recapped the best of them. There were also a few that Lars responded to, giving owners hope for some much-requested future changes, so let’s take a look at what may be coming
Lumbar Profile Support
Today, lumbar support is one of the few items that is not saved in the Tesla profile. That means if you have multiple drivers who use the same vehicle, you’re often left adjusting this setting manually, as it retains the setting that was last used. One community member suggested saving your lumbar setting to your profile just like Tesla does for other seat settings.
Lars said making this change seems doable, but it’ll take some engineering magic. The lumbar support isn’t tied to an absolute sensor like the other seat settings. This suggests that Tesla does not have an exact value to save, as it does with other seat functions, but Lars believes Tesla can find a way to save lumbar preferences. Tesla could potentially time how long the motor runs to get to the user’s lumbar setting and save this value.
With that said, it seems the vehicle engineering team may take a look at this one, and we may see it included in a future update.
Model 3 Signal Stalk Retrofit
The move away from traditional stalks in favor of the steering wheel buttons on the Refreshed Model 3 has been a point of debate. While the author is squarely in the camp of steering wheel buttons (at least with the Cybertruck), many dissent and say that the buttons on the Refreshed 3 aren’t as satisfying or easy to use.
Many other drivers also prefer the tactile feel and muscle memory of a physical stalk for signaling. Tesla appears to favor stalks, as they retained the turn signal stalk with the new Model Y. There are also rumors that Tesla is going to reintroduce the turn signal stalk to the Model 3.
If Tesla adds stalks back to the new Model 3, current 2024+ Model 3 owners are still left without stalks. However, a user suggested adding stalks as a retrofit option. Lars said that he would try to consider a retrofitted signal stalk for the Refreshed Model 3, similar to the simplified version in the Refreshed Model Y.
While less definitive than the lumbar support response, it appears that Tesla may at least consider offering a stalk retrofit for the new Model 3. If you’re a lover of signal stalks and can’t wait for Tesla to get an official one - we recommend the Enhauto S3XY Stalks, which are customizable and feel very close to Tesla’s original fit and finish.
With that said, it’s nice to see Tesla incorporating more community feedback into its vehicle design these days. Perhaps one day, they’ll address the infamous auto wipers. They have gotten better, but they’re still not as reliable as what’s available in most other vehicles. With that said, we look forward to the changes that will emerge from these recent conversations.
Sometimes, even with Tesla’s intensive bug-testing regime, bugs manage to make it out into the wild. In this particular case, a European user (@darkwaffle48484 on X) noticed that their 2024 Model 3 was using up more battery than normal while parked. Normally, they noted that the vehicle would lose about 1-2% per week; however, recently, they noticed much larger drops of 3-4% per night.
They monitored their Tesla widget and noticed the car wasn’t entering deep sleep. The widget consistently showed a recent connection time—usually within the past 45 minutes.
Fix Inbound
After discussing the issue with other Tesla owners and realizing it was somewhat widespread, they contacted Tesla Service. The service team confirmed that it was a firmware bug affecting the Telematics Control Unit (TCU), which prevented the vehicle from entering deep sleep mode.
The TCU is essentially the communications hub of your Tesla - and is mounted on the ceiling of newer vehicles such as the Model 3 and the new Model Y. It enables cellular and location services (via GPS) and also handles Wi-Fi and Bluetooth services. Tesla Service stated that this bug is planned to be fixed in update 2025.14.6, although the exact version number could change. However, they confirmed that they are aware of the issue and it is being addressed.
@darkwaffle48484
When the user reached out to Tesla Service, Tesla Service responded with the following (translated from Dutch):
“It has been confirmed that this is a firmware bug. The fix is in one of the next updates. Currently, it is planned for 2025.14.6 (subject to change). Do you have any more questions?”
Potentially Region-Specific
This bug could potentially be region-specific. TCUs often require specific hardware components, such as modems, as well as specific firmware versions that support different regions and cellular providers. These enable Tesla to comply with local cellular standards and regulations and ensure that your vehicle can connect to the networks available in that particular region.
At this point, it’s not clear when the fix will roll out, but given that update 2025.14.1 has practically stopped rolling out, Tesla may be waiting to resume the rollout with update 2025.14.3 or this 2025.14.6 version.
If you’ve noticed this issue and are in a non-European nation, let us know.
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