Guide

SC01 vs SC05: only one of them survives the sale

Free unlimited Supercharging can add real money to a used Tesla's price. The catch is that Tesla issued it in two forms that look identical from the driver's seat, and only one follows the car to its next owner.

Why sellers get this wrong honestly

Most sellers are not being deceptive. Open the Tesla app on either car and it says the same thing: free Supercharging, lifetime award. Nothing in the interface distinguishes a benefit that transfers from one that does not. A seller who has genuinely never paid to charge will tell you it is free, and believe it, right up until the title changes hands.

Which cars might have it

SC01 belongs to an early window of Model S and Model X production. The community generally places the boundary around an order date of mid-January 2017, with deliveries running into the spring. Build timing is a screening step, not proof — two cars built the same week can carry different codes depending on how they were ordered and what has happened to the car since.

Three ways to check, from weakest to strongest

1. The app. Tells you free Supercharging exists. Cannot tell you whether it transfers. Necessary but not sufficient.
2. The seller's account. Logged in on a desktop, a seller can view the raw order data for their car, which lists the option codes directly. Reliable, but it needs their cooperation and a little patience.
3. The VIN. The code is recorded against the vehicle in Tesla's own systems. Reading it from the VIN needs neither the seller's login nor their goodwill.

One more thing worth checking

Supercharging entitlements can be removed. If a car was built with SC01 but no longer reports it, that gap matters more than either code on its own — and it is the kind of thing that only shows up when you compare what the car left the factory with against what it carries today.

Related: full option code reference · is that FSD owned or subscribed?