Free-Energy, for real!, but can someone explain how it works? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 03, 2025, 11:32:45 pm
content: Free-Energy, for real!But can someone explain how it works?Specifically, how the 'free fuel for life', mentioned throughout the following video, including in the first ten or twenty seconds, of it.N.B. YES, I'm twisting the definition of 'Free-Energy', from its normal definition, to FREE as in no cost/charge, for the energy you use.So to clarify. How come if someone bought this car for around £5,000 (perhaps $7000 or so) + some repair work. Can get free fuel (charges) for life, from Tesla. Because someone has to pay the electricity bill.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 03, 2025, 11:42:42 pm
content: it sounds like a promotion kind of like infinite free air fare the advertising will pay it off.Look at a pie chart of a big public facing companies budget. you will see something strange like many percent per year goes to doing that. It's a great model because essentially it has zero logistics cost increase, you don't need to deliver a product, its just like letting someone go through without paying.They might spend5 to 25 percent of TOTAL revenueper YEAR on marketing. That means TV commercial, banner adds, flyers, spokespeople, and all sorts of other things that deliver ZERO immediate revenue.Every time some guy in public states that he has free stuff from company "Tesla" to basically anyone it will cause a stir and probobly pay for the whole year's planned budget.It's always interesting because its very difficult to figure out if they are basically throwing money into the wind or effectively reaching customers. Usually there is a board of high power corporate soothsayers behind evaluating the effect of these efforts.For instance,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAirpass

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 03, 2025, 11:52:52 pm
content: Quote from: MK14 on July 03, 2025, 11:32:45 pmHe is not the only one. Somebody I know also bought an older Tesla with unlimited free charging from the Tesla chargers. The cost is included in the original price of the car. See it as a return on investment by investing in the Tesla super charger network by the person who bought the car new.

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 03, 2025, 11:56:11 pm
content: also there is a 'extra' for tesla, they have very distinct bodywork for the cars. the more that weird glitch car is on the road the more people see it, and it might as well be a rolling advertisement because of how unique it is. so there is very clear benefit to it driving around as much as possible and the benefit from it driving around is way more then what it costs for the fuel in this early stage of EV adoption.There is likely a model that shows how much money a tesla car is making for 'marketing' per hour while driving around in specified regions.Engineers are not too familiar with this sort of math because it has similar 'mathematical logic' to those pesky 'risk matrix' analysis which only your boss can figure out after meeting with sales.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 04, 2025, 12:00:00 am
content: Hmmm. Add a reverse inverter cable from the car's battery to your house and have Elon cover your home electricity, heating, hot water, free for life. Might be an excellent deal if you have a heated swimming pool.I kinda like that, though, you will need to temporarily disconnect and charge quite often.Anyone care to do the number of charges per week calculations?

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 04, 2025, 12:02:29 am
content: Thanks for the responses so far. Yes, that makes sense. The initial sales of the early model(s), is a relatively limited and possibly relatively small number. But, it would be a great advertising scheme, as people love to tell others, if they seem to have got hold of a bargain.Such as free charging for life.Also, they (Tesla) can figure on ploughing some of the money back. Because of geting repair/servicing work, and potentially selling (possibly) overpriced, or high-profit, anyway. Spare parts, and maybe other services, such as full automatic self-driving (or whatever Tesla calls it), when it eventually becomes a reality (or more so, than it already is).

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 04, 2025, 12:07:23 am
content: Quote from: BrianHG on July 04, 2025, 12:00:00 amI think (IIRC), some of the youtube comments on the video I opened with, says similar things. But the verdict seems to be, they (Tesla) don't allow that.Presumably, the Tesla cars computers, keep a careful eye on the car being running and the mileage increasing, plus what the load is from the motors etc. Hence it can 'see' if the electricity, is *ONLY* used, for legitimate purposes. I.e. actually driving the car, and NOT for external drain, while the car is stationary.Also (presumably), it would notice, if you tried to 'steal' the electricity, via the connectors in the car, as the computers could probably sense that too much electricity, was disappearing to external connectors, rather than being used to drive the car.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 04, 2025, 12:15:15 am
content: Quote from: BrianHG on July 04, 2025, 12:00:00 amDepends on your house.In 2024 I used 5000kWh of which I had to pay for 4000kWh because the rest was in my power company's "free hour of power" each day.The non-free part was 11kWh/day, so an 80kWh or larger Tesla could do me for a week.80kWh is the largest battery in Model 3 and Model Y. S and X have 100kWh available.Tesla might well raise an eyebrow if you abuse the free charging system, but one (extra) charge a week probably wouldn't faze them.Grok estimates that 0.25m out of 7.25m Teslas have free lifetime charging.The benefit is not supposed to be transferrable to a new owner.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 04, 2025, 12:19:16 am
content: Quote from: MK14 on July 03, 2025, 11:32:45 pmMoney upfront, then company goes bankrupt? Provided that takes more than two years, the marketing geniuses won't care since they will have got their bonuses. (Think Hoover)You have to drive the car in "full self driving (beta)" mode? That will limit the lifetime.There's a max miles limit?The car reaches some lifetime limit, and is disabled? Or Tesla takes a leaf out of Stellantis' playbook and issues a "stop-drive" recall.Insurance company refusing to insure an obsolete car due to the training set is no longer updated, or when the bumper is nudged and the sensors cannot be calibrated afterwards. Check your Ts&Csverycarefully!

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 04, 2025, 12:22:08 am
content: Quote from: brucehoult on July 04, 2025, 12:15:15 amThey changed the rules, as I researched it (and/or read youtube comments), after watching that video (in the OP), originally, very soon after it was published.So, if you have an old enough tesla, on that scheme, it is fully transferable, with no catches. Then later, they changed the rules, to make it that it didn't transfer when the ownership changed hands. The actual full set of rules, are much more complicated, but that is a summary of it.Later still, they dropped the free charges, entirely.

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 04, 2025, 12:31:55 am
content: Quote from: tggzzz on July 04, 2025, 12:19:16 amYes, those points could apply. They could also be relying, on the fact that, usually after around 10 to 15 or so years, UK cars tend to be scrapped. Because they are not economically viable to keep on the road, perhaps some level of rust, from a rather wet UK and stringent annual road worthiness checks (MOT), can expensively fail older cars. E.g. New suspension all round, plus all new brake pipes, crack in headlamp, needing expensive new replacement etc.I'm also, wondering if by offering the free scheme, it can help prevent the competition, from offering their own electric car charging points. Allowing Tesla, to end up with a monopoly of chargers, in some countries. Allowing them to be able to up the prices and profit, from a possible future monopoly on charging stations.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 04, 2025, 12:58:04 am
content: They've done some recently like cybertruck free lifetime supercharging, model S free lifetime in Canada, and model Y free 5 year in Japan. The prices are so high right now though.Quote from: MK14 on July 04, 2025, 12:07:23 amIn the terms its not allowed yeahhttps://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/cybertruck-lifetime-supercharging-is-here.339056/QuoteCorrect you can see how much energy is used for A/C, driving, etc. its monitored internally.They might have it set up to flag any heavy users, but I doubt many people bother abusing this. Maybe if you are close to a supercharger and have very high electricity costs in your area.In terms of worst case "approved" use, say you have some commute 100 miles per day, 250 days per year, in an expensive location 30c/kWh. Around 33kWh * 250 * 0.3c = $2400 per year.

author: MK14
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 04, 2025, 01:26:42 am
content: Quote from: thm_w on July 04, 2025, 12:58:04 amNow you mention it, you have reminded me. Yes, they did say (IIRC, the youtube comments), they do still do it occasionally (rather rarely), when (it is rumored), sales are flagging too much and they want to increase the sales.So, some people, wait until they include the free for life, fuel (charges) offers, before buying.But as previously stated, they have wised up and limit it to the original owner/purchaser, and very carefully check against owners secretly being swapped, type of fraud.I suspect, when it is the original owner/purchaser, who can afford such an expensive car. They are (statistically) much less likely to want to be interested in abusing the system. By trying to gain free electricity for other uses. If they can afford such expensive vehicles, brand new, why bother trying to save, some money on their electricity bills.Assuming you have access to the room and are allowed to do it, where you live. You might as well get solar energy (and perhaps wind), plus battery storage, rather than trying to 'steal' electricity from Tesla. Which, after the initial purchasing overhead, is then free, plus some annual maintenance and occasional repairs.Also with some determination. Such as extensive home insulation and use of very low energy appliances, such as LED lighting and other things. The energy consumption can be brought down a lot.On the other hand, I would have thought, extremely hot countries, which may therefore put a high desirability, to have extensive air-conditioning at home. Can use up a lot of energy. But, maybe solar energy, produces its peak power, when it is hottest, so it sort of partially cancels out, if done right.I'm fortunate to be in the UK, where the temperatures, are fairly sensible, throughout the year, so air-conditioning at home, is usually not necessary. Just opening windows and/or fans etc, are enough.