As fears continue to rise amid the increasing number of cases of Coronavirus in China and around the world, Tesla has begun notifying Chinese Tesla owners about free Supercharging at any of the Superchargers across China.
First shared by @Ray4Tesla on Twitter, Tesla sent messages directly to Chinese Tesla vehicles informing them of the free Supercharging to help owners travel easily and quickly away from affected areas.
BREAKING: @teslacn is notifying #Tesla owners across China about first-ever temporary free supercharging during #coronavirus outbreak. @teslacn says it’d like to help owners get thru difficult time in a small way it can. I can’t think of any other OEMs more considerate than Tesla pic.twitter.com/o1mzD8yaCJ
— Ray4️⃣Tesla⚡️🚘☀️🔋 (@ray4tesla) January 28, 2020
“To make it easier for you to travel during the coronavirus outbreak, effective today we will temporarily open all Tesla vehicles to be free to charge at the Supercharging station until the epidemic is resolved,” notified Tesla to its customer across China. “We hope that during this extraordinary period, you will be able to replenish electricity efficiently and use your car smoothly when needed. After the epidemic ceases, we will notify you again before resetting your vehicle to its original configuration. We hope to provide you with a modest effort so you can spend this time smoothly. Tesla reserves the right to make the final decision in this event.”
Tesla has offered free Supercharging in the face of natural disasters before. In Florida in 2019, free Supercharging was offered to Florida Tesla owners trying to leave the areas to be impacted by Hurricane Dorian.
In similar situations, Tesla has also sent software updates to vehicles in impacted areas to unlock additional range in the batteries for a limited time to help make travel easier.
So far over 100 people have been killed by the virus and at least 4,500 infected in China. In Canada, there has been only 1 confirmed case, and a second presumptive case of the virus after a couple from Toronto recently returned from China (via CBC).