Why the Tesla Model 3 Chicago man bought was banned from all 70,000+ Supercharger stations

This Tesla owner in Chicago bought a Tesla Model 3 and later found out his EV is banned from using Supercharger stations.

We’re not talking about a local or regional ban, but a total blanket ban.

And the reason might surprise you.

It certainly surprised the owner.

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The reason why his Model 3 is ‘banned’

Imagine buying a Model 3 with a clean title only to find out your car isn’t eligible to use a Supercharger anywhere in the world.

That’s what happened to Daniel Boycott, a Tesla owner from Chicago.

He bought a used Tesla Model 3 from a dealership, but was hit with a bad surprise just a few days later when he headed to a Supercharger to charge his EV and noticed the charger didn’t work.

He tried other chargers, but none of them worked.

At that point, he got in touch with Tesla, and the company confirmed the vehicle was ‘unsupported for Supercharging’ due to it being a ‘salvaged’ vehicle.

Speaking to CBS, Boycott expressed his frustration and pointed out he had no idea, because no one told him.

“I was told it was clean. The CARFAX said it was clean, and I trusted that,” he told the news channel.

Unfortunately for him, a deeper dive into the report revealed that the car had indeed been involved in an accident.

It was a minor one, but still enough to convince Tesla to mark this particular Model 3 as ‘unsafe’.

According to the automaker, connecting a damaged EV to its powerful Supercharger network presents a safety issue. 

This was one of the key reasons he bought a Tesla

Boycott told CBS that access to Tesla’s extensive Supercharger was one of the key reasons he bought this car.

So Boycott has three options now.

He can either spend a significant chunk of money to fix the car and make it Supercharger-friendly again, or he can sell it and buy another Tesla.

The third option is buying a different EV altogether.

After all, the Supercharger network is open to other brands, from Mercedes-Benz to Honda and even Lucid.