I can’t tell if this is a major issue
No - it's linked to someone else's account but Tesla can switch it over for you.
More than likely it’s from 1 unpaid charge. Would make it being paid off as part of the deal if you go to buy it. When I got my 3 I got that message after a supercharger visit even though I had a card tied to my account because I didn’t approve it for charging.
No. The car just has an unpaid charging balance.
Would I have to pay it off?
It means the current owner has an unpaid supercharging balance. I'm unsure if this clears when it switches over to your account, but worst case you can pay it (Unless it's an absurd amount, but that seems unlikely)
Pretty descriptive error, if you read it
Nah just had that on mine and it went away when I switched accounts
Maybe. Is this from a car dealer or a private party?
A Chevy dealer
I am sure this is something you can negotiate with them. Let them know there is currently an unknown balance against the car and either get them to commit to take care of it or have them give you some more money off. You can go to settings and charging and see how much the last charge session was and hopefully that is all that is left
Oh great thanks for your advice
Are you able to access the car? You really should focus on the software tab to understand if the car has FSD or acceleration boost and whatnot
It should be gone once the vehicle is transfered to your name/account. In the worst case, which is super duper unlikely you are stuck with a bill between 10 - 30$ to clear it.
I got this after supercharging when I got my 2022. Once my account got linked to the car it got waived. They allow one charge usually in between transfers. There is also no way to pay this balance lol I tried
I would be more worried about the playback error.
Mine was from Carvana and had this. Once I added the car to my account with A payment form, it went away. I did not have to pay anything.
Once you provide paperwork in the app that you’re the owner the error will go away, my car said the same thing from Carvana.
No. It just means its not linked. As far as I'm aware all of them say that
I had the same and it cleared just fine. I was somehow expecting the unpaid balance to (unfairly) transfer with ownership but it didn't.
I had the same on my car. Cleared on transfer of ownership, nothing to pay.
Nah when you buy the car you won't be responsible for their balance. I had this as well when I bought my model s. The car had about 20% charge and I had over an hour drive home. To sing the praises of tesla, I was able to put the newly purchased car into my name and account on the app, in like 30 seconds by taking pictures of papers saying that I bought the car and my ID. I was very impressed when it was approved within like 5 minutes and I was able to supercharge with no issues.
My model 3 had the same error when I was looking at it, when I transferred ownership it went away. Since it charges the account automatically I don't think its a concern
The previous owner or driver didn’t pay for a charging session.
You’re not responsible for someone else’s charge. Once the car is moved to you, it clears out and starts clean under your account.
I’m worried for our future. This is the most descriptive error I’ve seen, which plainly outlines the issue. The only thing ambiguous is what type of paid charging, but it is safe to assume the Tesla super charge network. Argh. Questions like these really bug me for some reason.
It is not a problem! It happens when you buy it from a dealership and they have not taken control of the app ownership. Once you buy it, you will have to call (takes 30 min- 1hr) for human assistance to get it transferred to you, so that you can start using the superchargers. Make sure you instruct the dealership to charge it to 100%, so that you can drive home. Hoping you don't live too far. The dealership can also get it transferred to themselves before you buy it, but typically they don't do that. You can call Tesla support, provide the VIN and check about the issue.
The error message is fine, like others have said. But I would be asking myself the question, why is this 2026 on a Chevy dealer lot?
No my car shows it every day cause I only home charge and the last time I charged I did not have my updated card on file so it just has the 12$ balance with the error until I pay it/ need to supercharge
Curious how much they are asking for this. Would be difficult to justify used 2026 when new is offering 0.99% financing.
If someone is new to Tesla they may not understand how you pay for supercharging. It’s a question I have been asked more than once.
After having Apple Pay linked to my app, it turns out you need to add payment separately for supercharging (at least it worked this way in 2023). I did my first session, mainly to check that it worked, ran up a $2.50 bill. Got a nastygram from Tesla later that day about an unpaid balance. Easy enough to fix, but jeez.
Every single used Tesla I've seen for sale at a non-Tesla dealership has had this error. Don't worry about it, once you transfer the car to your account it will go away. You will not be responsible for any previous charging payments.
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