Every new Model S comes with 4 years Roadside Assistance included and owners can choose to take an optional 4 year Prepaid Service Plan. This article explains what these provide.
Roadside Assistance
Roadside Assistance comes as standard with every new Tesla. This is just one of the many small things designed to make Tesla ownership easy, ensuring that wherever you are and whatever the time of day or night it is you can always reach out to a helpful Tesla employee who will happily assist you.
Due to the ‘always connected’ nature of the Model S, Tesla are often able to remotely investigate and diagnose the issue, helping to minimise disruption to your day.
Typical issues and queries that Tesla Roadside Assistance can help you with:
- All technical issues associated with the car, such as the car not starting or if the car displays a serious warning message
- Help to find nearby charging locations, or to access some Supercharger locations out-of-hours (as specified on the relevant Find Us entries)
- To arrange recovery services when necessary (including in the case of a flat tyre)
The international contact list for Tesla Roadside Assistance can be found here.
Recovery service
Tesla Roadside Assistance includes free (for the first 50 miles) recovery in the event that your Model S needs to be transported to a Service Centre or other location, even if the cause is tyre damage. Just phone Tesla Roadside Assistance and they will arrange recovery for you.
Service Plan
Tesla offer an option at the time of ordering for owners to take out a 4 year Prepaid Service Plan, which covers them for the first 4 years of ownership or 50,000 miles (whichever comes first). Owners can also choose to add this option within the first 30 days after delivery.
In some locales (such as the U.S.) owners can choose to further extend the Prepaid Service Plan for years 5 through to 8.
The Service Plan includes:
- Annual inspection (or every 12,500 miles)
- Replacement parts like brake pads and windshield wipers (excluding tyres)
- System monitoring
- Remote diagnostics
- Software updates
- New features
Items 1 and 2 are specific to the Service Plan. While items 3-6 while listed on the Tesla Motors website as features included with the Service, these do seem to be standard service levels and we are not aware of them having been restricted to only those cars with an active Service Plan.
If you choose not to take the Prepaid Service Plan you can still have Tesla service your car for a one-off fee. The 4 year plan costs roughly the same as 3 one-off annual services.
Requirement for servicing
Your Model S warranty will not be affected if you choose not to undertake servicing in line with Tesla’s guidance, however following the service routine is required to benefit from Tesla’s guaranteed minimum future value (as offered with their finance packages).
Ranger Service
In addition to services provided by Service Centres, Tesla also offer a Ranger service. This aims to complete regular, small tasks wherever you are; be this at home, work or at the roadside. However, many tasks do still require the car to be brought into a Service Centre so the Ranger service should not be expected to cover all your service needs.
At present in the U.K. the Ranger service is only operating at a fledgling level, primarily based out of the Birmingham Service Centre. The aim is to provide some additional service to owners whilst additional Service Centres are brought online. Tesla aims to increase the service to cover more of the UK but they are still in a start-up phase in the UK, so it’s worth bearing with them at the moment.