Tesla has launched a new referral program in the US that pays owners in Full Self-Driving (Supervised) instead of rewarding car sales. A referred owner gets one free month of FSD, and the referrer gets a free month or a $99 Tesla Credit if that person starts paying.
📌 The Core Development
At the same time, Tesla’s Refer and Earn terms no longer list any vehicle as a qualifying purchase for buyer or referrer rewards. Buy a Tesla with a friend’s code today and neither of you gets anything.
To share a link, you need to be paying for FSD (Supervised) monthly or own it outright from before Tesla stopped selling it, according to Tesla’s FSD referral support page . Owners who got FSD through a one-year grant can’t participate. The link lives under “Refer and Earn” in the Tesla app, version 4.62.0 or later.
🔍 Background & Sector Context
The person on the other end has to own a registered Tesla with compatible hardware, can’t have paid for FSD in the past 12 months, and can’t have bought it outright. There’s also a catch for recent buyers: anyone who got a free FSD trial with a new car is locked out of referral links until 12 months after that trial ends.
If the friend converts, subscribers get a free month and outright owners get a $99 credit, the same as one month of the subscription. Credits expire after 12 months and can’t be cashed out. Tesla caps it at 12 rewards per calendar year, so the most anyone can earn is a year of FSD or $1,188 in credits.
📊 Industry & Real-World Impact
Tesla’s own pages don’t quite agree on timing. The FSD page says the referrer is rewarded when the friend subscribes during the trial, while the main Refer and Earn page says after it.
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🔮 Strategic Outlook & What Lies Ahead
The bigger change is buried in Tesla’s Refer and Earn page . Buyer benefits now apply to solar panels only. Referrer benefits cover solar, first demo drives (up to 30 over an account’s lifetime) and the new FSD referral.
Model 3, Model Y and Cybertruck only show up under loyalty benefits, for existing owners buying another Tesla product. Model S and Model X aren’t listed at all.
