Tesla can switch off fast charging on a car it no longer owns, and a New Zealand court has just declined to stop it. In a case the New Zealand Herald reported on 26 October 2026, the High Court dismissed a judicial review brought by Peter Goodricke, an electrical engineer who bought two insurer-written-off Teslas at a Turners auction in 2024, repaired them, and then saw both cars lose access to every fast-charging network, Superchargers included.
How the switch-off happened
Both cars had been deregistered after their former owners' insurers wrote them off. Tesla New Zealand learned that a salvaged Model 3 was being sold at auction, and a few days later saw it listed on the New Zealand Transport Agency register as structurally damaged. It designated the car an "unsupported vehicle" and sent an over-the-air update that blocks DC and Supercharger charging. It did the same to the second car a few days later.
The cars were then repaired, inspected and re-registered, and charged normally while Goodricke used only the key. The updates arrived when he started using the Tesla app. Getting fast charging back takes an inspection that only Tesla performs, which Goodricke said costs more than NZ$1,600. Tesla NZ's general service manager, Michael Belenkij, said the function is switched back on if the test shows the car is safe.
Tesla's reason is fire risk: in rare cases a damaged high-voltage battery can cause a catastrophic fire, and internal cell damage can be hard to detect.
Three rulings, one owner, no lawyer
| Stage | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Disputes Tribunal, September 2025 | Consumer and fair-trading claim dismissed: the policy was public and not misleading, deceptive or unconscionable |
| Tribunal rehearing | Dismissed |
| High Court judicial review, Justice David Boldt | Dismissed |
Goodricke was not legally represented at any stage. The tribunal put the onus on the buyer of a deregistered car to check what that status meant, and said Tesla had a legitimate interest in keeping its cars safe.
The judge's warning
Justice Boldt still found one "immediately troubling aspect" in the case. "Tesla, unlike most car manufacturers, retains the ability to reach into individual vehicles long after their sale and make alterations which limit their functionality," the judge said. "That power is remarkable and may be exercised only in the most tightly constrained circumstances."
Tesla's lawyer accepted that the company has no unilateral right to alter a car's functionality once it belongs to someone else, and that it must be able to point to a lawful entitlement. What decided the case was Tesla's published policy. Goodricke's case rested on the idea that Tesla promises fast charging for a car's whole working life, and the judge said that was wrong, because Tesla makes a clear exception for damaged and deregistered vehicles.
Why a European buyer should care
The policy is not a New Zealand invention. In February 2020, Electrek published the internal memo in which Tesla's Unsupported Vehicle Policy made Supercharging and third-party fast charging "permanently disabled" on salvage-titled cars in the United States. In November 2022 it reported that Tesla was setting up an inspection process to restore access for repaired cars that pass.
Nearly one in five Teslas at US auctions carries a salvage title. For a buyer of a repaired Tesla, a test charge before purchase proves little: Goodricke's cars charged normally until he started using the Tesla app. Nothing in the ruling says how Tesla applies the policy to cars written off in Europe. TeslAnt could not obtain the judgment itself, so this account follows the Herald's court report.