Anyone else SOLELY relying on supercharging?

[Nguyenning]

I had originally planned on plugging in at home. Then I got a few referral bonuses (18K free supercharging miles) and want to use as much as I can because, well, free is free

I live 2 miles from a supercharger near shops, restaurants etc. and have been solely relying on supercharging once a week since I got the car. Quick research says this does not harm the car.

Anyone else here in the same boat?

 

[P85_DA]

Teslaloop ..had vehicles that exclusively supercharged ..there is a thread here somewhere detailing degradation etc ..

 

[golfpilot]

Don't forget that each additional referral extends the credit 6 months. So if you have 6 referrals you have 3.5 years from the first referral to use them.

 

[mswlogo]

I had free supercharging. I cashed in. It’s less burden to not have to think “use it, because it’s free” mentality. My wife is so happy we cashed in. Not for the money, but we never use a SC anymore. It’s fine for long trips only. And that’s all we’ll ever use it for. It’s fine occasionally, but it gets old and it was costing us more buying food at the SC stops we were going to. Food was fine, it just added up quickly. $20+ for each SC stop

 

[P85_DA]

I had originally planned on plugging in at home.

What’s preventing you from doing ? Cost ? Older house ? ..I supercharge weekly for long trips ..I just find it a hassle to do for normal driving and find more convenient to charge at home ...and I have free lifetime supercharging

 

[golfpilot]

I had free supercharging. I cashed in. It’s less burden to not have to think “use it, because it’s free” mentality. My wife is so happy we cashed in. Not for the money, but we never use a SC anymore. It’s fine for long trips only. And that’s all we’ll ever use it for. It’s fine occasionally, but it gets old and it was costing us more buying food at the SC stops we were going to. Food was fine, it just added up quickly. $20+ for each SC stop

When I bought my car I skipped on the performance because at the time it had free supercharging and was $5k more than it should have been. I pay .11/kw and figured I would have to supercharge ~45k miles to pay for itself. At 500mph thats 90 hours sitting at a supercharger. I didn't like the idea of feeling like I need to use superchargers because I paid 5k for it so I went with the standard dual motor.
My habits have proved I only supercharge about 10% of my miles doing so on a need to basis, on pace to drive 40k miles a year.
Had I known the P3D- buyers were going to get an option to cash in, I would have gotten one...

 

[P85_DA]

At 500mph thats 90 hours sitting at a supercharger

This ^^^

 

[ewoodrick]

I had originally planned on plugging in at home. Then I got a few referral bonuses (18K free supercharging miles) and want to use as much as I can because, well, free is free

I live 2 miles from a supercharger near shops, restaurants etc. and have been solely relying on supercharging once a week since I got the car. Quick research says this does not harm the car.

Anyone else here in the same boat?

This is one of the worst ways to experience a EV in my opinion. Its taking a left-over ICE concept and staying with it. Plugging in at home is a LOT better experience. It's not a money thing, it's a convenience thing.

We've got free fast charging on my wife's 2018 Leaf, it is rarely used. It's so much nicer to just plug in, if it is needed, when she gets home.

And that's with a DC Fast Charger 2 miles from the house and a Supercharger 6 miles. I'd truly hate to out and spend time to charge. I barely spend time charging when on the road. In the last 2 weeks, with four 500+ mile trips, I sat at a Supercharger for less than an hour. All the other stops I was filling the tummy and just happened to be filling the car.

 

[Nguyenning]

Depends on the person. I actually go to this supercharger area ALL the time because it’s where we get groceries, grab coffee/lunch, shop around etc.

So now just plugging in at the supercharger for free before doing those errands is actually not inconvenient. It just makes more sense IMO in my specific situation.

 

[Rottenapplr]

I had originally planned on plugging in at home. Then I got a few referral bonuses (18K free supercharging miles) and want to use as much as I can because, well, free is free

I live 2 miles from a supercharger near shops, restaurants etc. and have been solely relying on supercharging once a week since I got the car. Quick research says this does not harm the car.

Anyone else here in the same boat?

I personally wouldn’t buy it’s a personal choice.

1). In my opinion, introducing a lot of electricity supercharging in a short amount of time may not be good for the long term health of my car. It’s one reason why I don’t fast charge my iPhone XS Max because I charge overnight, battery life is great anyways.

Therefore, $1300 phones gets the same treatment as my $51k car.

2). I aim to keep this car for my self (and maybe give it to immediate family members) for the life of the car.

3). Aside from my house this is my first new car and 2nd most expensive purchase so I take of my stuff. It’s garage, ceramic coated, ppf-ed!

If you are a car owner that will trade cars every few years, I say f-it supercharge if it’s convenient to you. Battery health isn’t a concern if you are gonna trade or sell in 2-3 yrs. but long term ownership I would be mindful of supercharging.

 

[Nguyenning]

I personally wouldn’t buy it’s a personal choice.

1). In my opinion, introducing a lot of electricity supercharging in a short amount of time may not be good for the long term health of my car. It’s one reason why I don’t fast charge my iPhone XS Max because I charge overnight, battery life is great anyways.

Therefore, $1300 phones gets the same treatment as my $51k car.

2). I aim to keep this car for my self (and maybe give it to immediate family members) for the life of the car.

3). Aside from my house this is my first new car and 2nd most expensive purchase so I take of my stuff. It’s garage, ceramic coated, ppf-ed!

If you are a car owner that will trade cars every few years, I say f-it supercharge if it’s convenient to you. Battery health isn’t a concern if you are gonna trade or sell in 2-3 yrs. but long term ownership I would be mindful of supercharging.

And your thought of supercharging harming battery longterm is based on.... iphones?

 

[darth_vad3r]

And your thought of supercharging harming battery longterm is based on.... iphones?

Based on info/behaviour from Tesla alone, you can deduce that Supercharging is not completely without negative effects because they:
a) limit your charge rate to the max rate only within certain bands of SoC and taper the rate otherwise, and
b) limit your lifetime max rate to a lower amount after your battery has received X amount of total lifetime fast charging (google supercharger nerfing/derating/throttling).

FAQ says:

Does Supercharging affect my battery?
The peak-charging rate of the battery may decrease slightly after a large number of high-rate charging sessions, such as those at Superchargers. To ensure maximum driving range and battery safety, the battery charge rate is decreased when the battery is too cold, when it is nearly full or when its condition changes with usage and age. These changes in the condition of the battery may increase total Supercharger time by a few minutes over time.
​

 

[Nguyenning]

Based on info/behaviour from Tesla alone, you can deduce that Supercharging is not completely without negative effects because they:
a) limit your charge rate to the max rate only within certain bands of SoC and taper the rate otherwise, and
b) limit your lifetime max rate to a lower amount after your battery has received X amount of total lifetime fast charging (google supercharger nerfing/derating/throttling).

FAQ says:

Does Supercharging affect my battery?
The peak-charging rate of the battery may decrease slightly after a large number of high-rate charging sessions, such as those at Superchargers. To ensure maximum driving range and battery safety, the battery charge rate is decreased when the battery is too cold, when it is nearly full or when its condition changes with usage and age. These changes in the condition of the battery may increase total Supercharger time by a few minutes over time.
​

Elon and recent studies have proven otherwise

 

[Rottenapplr]

And your thought of supercharging harming battery longterm is based on.... iphones?

Yes it is.

 

[Nguyenning]

This wouldn’t be a dilemma if they didn’t limit supercharging bonus miles to 6 month expirations!

I do agree charging at home is the beauty of owning an EV. But to say supercharging is sooooo inconvenient is not accurate for everyone.

 

[jjrandorin]

Elon and recent studies have proven otherwise

How so? When a car goes through lots of supercharging sessions, tesla eventually slows down the supercharging speed. If there was "no impact" there would be no need to do so.

Also, there is a great primer from someone who posted here that actually works in the field of battery configuration / design, and they stated that one of the most harmful things you could do over time was fast charge the battery. Paraphrasing but that was their statement (and they work in the field, just not for tesla).

Battery Degradation Scientifically Explained

its your car, feel free to believe and do what you want... but where is this "elon and recent studies have proven no harm from repeated supercharing" info?

Sometimes people go to extremes to get "free" stuff. Every time you go there to charge, you either have to plan to go when you were going there to spend money anyway (shopping), or you spend whatever money you are "saving" there in businesses there... so you are not really getting it free, you are just shifting the money somewhere else.

That doesnt even value the time you spend there. Maybe you would normally spend every hour you spend at that shopping center there anyway, but I bet if you actually installed charging at home and stopped worrying about "getting your moneys worth" for the "free" charging, you would find you likely would be there less. How much less I dont know, but likely less.

Of course, if you stopped at that shopping center with the exact same frequency in your ICE car when you had it, then you were spending that money anyway... but I bet if you actually sit down and examine it closely you will find that wasnt the case.

 

[ElectricX]

@Nguyenning
For a while I will have to rely solely on superchargers or destination chargers. My condo's HOA hasn't approved a charging area yet for our building . As I am on the road a lot I look forward to relaxing at a supercharger station. All I need are a few referral bonuses.

 

[Mike18m3]

I have 10k miles on my M3 and 80% of it I charged it at a supercharger (2 roadtrips) and my range and charging speed are still the same. I think that you would be fine supercharging it if it really is convenient, just charge it normally every once in a while and leave it plugged in after it's done charging to allow the battery to balance. In my opinion charging to 100% all the time is what you want to avoid if you're planning on keeping the car forever

 

[Nguyenning]

I have 10k miles on my M3 and 80% of it I charged it at a supercharger (2 roadtrips) and my range and charging speed are still the same. I think that you would be fine supercharging it if it really is convenient, just charge it normally every once in a while and leave it plugged in after it's done charging to allow the battery to balance. In my opinion charging to 100% all the time is what you want to avoid if you're planning on keeping the car forever

That’s a good point about plugging it in normally at home every once in a while. And yeah definitely not charging (supercharging) to 100% unless maybe a road trip.

 

[Shaolin]

I did and it was a miserable experience imho. Charging at home and just "set it and forget it" is far superior. I now have a wall connector and it is incredible.