[jccooper]

They don't claim all their customers forever will get the privilege. Just customers of this car. For as long as they're making the offer. And that's really not that many people. They're trying to do, what, 3000 a quarter?

That's many fewer, I would guess, than could possibly make the charging stations really profitable. And they need some solution to long-range travel, and nobody else is going to fix that for them. So the costs are sunk in pursuit of the real goal (selling cars), and they're not going to make much money selling power anyway, so why not turn it into a unique and reasonably cheap feature?

I would expect that once Tesla and/or electric cars are more established, they'll change the terms. At least they have the option. Note the "Supercharger enabled Model S" phrase--already laying the groundwork for future changes to their policies. Good reason to get in early, if you can.

Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if their long-term plan is to cede charging to the rest of the world. It's not really their focus as a company.