Can the Model S and I make things work?

[Robert.Boston]

It'll work.

When I bought my Model S, I lived in a house with private parking. Easy enough to install a NEMA 14-50, and like most owners, just didn't think about charging.

Last summer I moved to a condo in Portland ME. I'm now parking in a garage with no charging whatsoever, not even a 120v plug. There's another garage nearby with 240v 80A charging (but they're full up for monthly parkers, with a long waiting list). I pay a monthly charge to park there evening/weekends and charge there when I need to. It's less than ideal, but it works.

As others have said, the 120v plug will mostly cover your needs. Given that you live in NoCal, I doubt you often have really cold weather, so you'll probably net about 3 miles-charged/hour. The charger at the gym makes miles to/from free, but not much more: it's probably 208v 30A = 6kW ~= 20 miles-charged/hour.

Having the Supercharger so near is really the icing on the cake, especially if it's in a useful direction.

 

[AMPd]

I'm gonna be the voice of contrariness here for a moment. It sounds like you can make the Model S work, and if you've got your heart set on one, then go for it. However... The Model S is one car. A great one, yes, but there is no one car that's best for everyone. I wonder if you considered a Chevy Volt? You could keep it charged at Level 1 (household current), do a lot of driving on electricity, and yet whenever that's not enough you can still put some gas in it.

Obviously the Volt is not in the same class as the Model S in a lot of ways (which is reflected in the price tag), but it's nonetheless a well-engineered car that has garnered its own awards, and reputedly has the highest customer satisfaction of anything GM has ever produced. It's no lemon.

I have considered the volt and i3 with REx
but they're not for me, I want pure electric. No more dealing with ICEs.

Plus the model s is just awesome and I'd love to support tesla and stand behind everything they have planned!

I am also going to be a bit of a contrarian here. And caveat: I am not an owner yet!


But that said, given your young age and how you have been struggling to make this dream come true, let me give you some unsolicited advice. Make sure you are meeting your long-term financial success goals too. For instance, if you are NOT saving for retirement, have an emergency savings built up, and have your financial life on-track, then I would not recommend moving forward with this purchase. The car has value, but it should not be purchased at the expense of your long-term goals.


Now, having said that, if you are saving for the future and have any other financial goals being worked on successfully, then I also agree with the others that you could make this work.


In my personal scenario, I will also only have 110v charging at home at first, but I am not worried. There are L2 public chargers around me, a supercharger on the other end of town, and a service center within 6 miles of my house (one-way). I travel 200 miles a week on average, so L1 charging will work just fine. Totally doable and like you, I am happy to hear others have made this work too!

Thank you for your advice, don't think of your advice as unsolicited, I created this thread for the sole purpose of soliciting advice!
Ownership of the car will in no way impact my emergency savings fund contribution.
As for retirement I do not have anything other than calPERS, which is California's public employee retirement system- and my contribution to that is taken out of my paycheck.

 

[Robert.Boston]

Random idea: given that you work for the state, see if you can get them to install charging at your office. It might take some time to push that idea to fruition, but it would be highly consistent with Gov. Brown's goals that he articulated in his inaugural address last month.

 

[a0128]

So . . . you are 24ish and can buy a $100K car? I am assuming you are fully contributing to your 401K, have at least 6 months of emergency living expenses saved and can afford the car insurance. Assuming you are not paying for the car with cash you are going to have a monthly payment equal to what some people's monthly mortgage is. I am more than a little skeptical but it's your life.

It is great to live your dream, but not at the expense of your future.

 

[RyanT]

I have considered the volt and i3 with REx
but they're not for me, I want pure electric. No more dealing with ICEs.

Plus the model s is just awesome and I'd love to support tesla and stand behind everything they have planned!

+1
Even after buying the Volt I felt the same way. Now getting a 85.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Thank you for your advice, don't think of your advice as unsolicited, I created this thread for the sole purpose of soliciting advice!
Ownership of the car will in no way impact my emergency savings fund contribution.
As for retirement I do not have anything other than calPERS, which is California's public employee retirement system- and my contribution to that is taken out of my paycheck.

Hmm. Before you take the S leap, have you looked into your state's 403(b) offerings? It's like a 401(k) for non-profit (gov, schools, religions etc), without the matching, but with more generous terms for emergency retrieval of funds.

Also, I'd encourage you really, really, really to figure out S running and insurance costs compared to your current transportation. If you're charging on 120V you'll be hammering it every hour, which means TOU is out.

 

[AudubonB]

AMPd - as one who never shies away from suggesting people take second, third and fourth looks at their priorities - just so you know where I'm coming from and that I'm not picking you out especially:

Have you given consideration to biting the bullet for the time being and waiting for the debut of the Model 3? Have you asked yourself whether, if right now you could choose between delivery of a Model S and a Model 3, which one would you select?

Would your life be more wretched/fantastic if you held out for the 3 or so years that is likely before the Model 3 appears than, conversely, it would be if you spent the considerably extra funds now on a Model S and forego the (likely) $50-80K difference between jam today and jam tomorrow?

All the best and good luck!

 

[Scotty]

AMP'd,

I'm not sure where in NorCal you are, but I'm in the Lodi area. You, no doubt, know where the Superchargers are located. While I do 95% of my charging at Superchargers, I also can 240V charge at home. I use the home charging when necessary, but so far, it's not that much of a requirement. I ordered mine with the 2nd on-board charger, and wouldn't think of buying it without. Under the wrong circumstances and with little range left, you might look for one of the Tesla partner sites that have a Tesla wall connector with 240V 80 Amp service. Tesla has been 'recruiting' locations for the 80A wall connector, and while they usually come with the requirement for 'hotel guests only', plugging in for an hour could yield almost 60 miles of range.

I think your daily commute is a consideration, but once you have it, you'll look for excuses to do additional driving. What I would recommend is seeing how far away the nearest SC is, and once a week, (or more, if required), drive to the nearest SC and charge to 90-100%. The charge will drop as you head home, but then opportunity charging on 110 will keep your charge up. Maybe, towards the end of the week, or for the weekend, you can get out, explore, and SC as needed.

If you're looking for a great car, and can afford it, go for it. Charging will work it's way out, once you work out your charging strategy, and explore additional options.

Scotty

 

[AMPd]

Thank you all for the replies, I really do appreciate different opinions and points of view!

Itsnotaboutthemoney I have not looked into any other retirement systems.

I do have a healthy emergency reserve and I'm fully confident I will not be getting laid off from my job. (of course things still come up, that's why we have a rainy day fund

My specific location is sacramento

 

[sickfox]

Do it! You don't want to be hunchback and that's the only time you drive your dreamcar because you saved all of your money for retirement. :tongue:

"There's nothing more powerful than a made up mind."

 

[David_Cary]

Back to the unsolicited financial stuff....

I didn't feel comfortable buying an S until my net worth was 7 figures and I put $30k a year away in retirement. Even then it took a real lease that I can run through my business. I'm not sure Gov. Brown has a good enough income for an S but I'm certainly sure that no state employee short of a legislator does (but CA surprises me). I know 5 people with an S and average net worth is over $5M and incomes average $1M. While you might be able to afford payments, it doesn't "seem" like a wise use of money (although I obviously don't know all the details). Very few people make wise financial decisions. Very few people make it to a truly comfortable financial situation.

Relying on a CA pension is not saving for retirement. While political climates may allow for federal bailouts sometimes, they may not in other times.

I'm not sure why a Leaf isn't an option given your listed driving unless I missed something. More efficient so can survive on L1 a lot easier. Or perhaps a used S?

 

[PlanB]

Check plugshare to. I have a free charger 2 blocks from my house. I've never seen anyone using it as it's just kind of in a neighborhood. I didn't even notice it until I checked plugshare.. go figure.

Where is this exactly?

 

[Kraken]

wow, and out comes the holier than thou crowd.

AMPd, fun to get financial advice from someone going by "Itsnotaboutthemoney" as a name... isn't it?

It sounds like some just can't get over the fact that someone so young can afford this car.

I'm 28, I put my deposit in over 2 years ago, and I would have taken delivery before my 27th birthday if a trip to the desert hadn't intervened. Along with my first house, the car has been one of the best purchases I've made.

I am also a gov't employee, and I think one thing a lot of people don't comprehend is that the car is more affordable than most give it credit for. I've got fellow "kids" I work with driving Vipers, Lotus's, and other fun cars, yet for some reason this car seems to blow their mind. The car has some huge benefits in fuel savings, and isn't as expensive if you don't go all out.

Anyway, it sounds like the finances of the situation aren't really what have you worried since you barely mentioned it other than to say that you have saved up for the car, and it sounds like you have a pretty good financial planning ability. As long as you have thought it through, I'm sure your plan will be fine. You could save every penny until you were 70 if you really wanted to make sure you had a ton of money when you are old and had no fun for your whole life. The car won't be an investment, but not everything needs to be as long as you do have some investments.

Anyway, as for the car, I'm sure you'll make it work. I've visited the Roseville and the Vacaville (multiple times) superchargers this week during prime travel times. There has been a total of 1 car other than mine. I'm sure if you really needed to, those are perfectly good options, especially since the Roseville supercharger with 8 stalls is about to be teamed up with the Rocklin SuperChargers (another 8 stalls). Also, the Folsom Chargers are just a few more miles away. There will be more charging around here than we know what to do with (especially once you add in all the bay area and Tahoe super chargers...).

I was just in Guam, the whole time I was hoping to see a Tesla... about a week before I left, I saw one on base just blocks from where I had been living for 4 months. It was a roadster. I talked to the owner a bit, and he's making it work on 110v just fine. Granted, he doesn't have far to go, but if you don't either, you'll be just fine. If you do need to go far, being in Sacramento is a great place to start.

Anyway, go for it! I'll see you around town when we pass in our Model S's.

 

[PlanB]

When I bought my first Tesla two years ago I did not have any place to charge for 3 months, not even a 110. I relied on public charging, friends houses and a supercharger 30 miles away. I was constantly worrying about where I was going to charge and had range anxiety. It was pretty stressful. The 110 is nice but is it really worth now?, probably not. I would suggest you wait until you have your own charging. And as for the + you desire, so overrated. Can you really afford to be replacing tires every couple thousand miles?

 

[Kraken]

When I bought my first Tesla two years ago I did not have any place to charge for 3 months, not even a 110. I relied on public charging, friends houses and a supercharger 30 miles away. I was constantly worrying about where I was going to charge and had range anxiety. It was pretty stressful. The 110 is nice but is it really worth now?, probably not. I would suggest you wait until you have your own charging. And as for the + you desire, so overrated. Can you really afford to be replacing tires every couple thousand miles?

It's about 15k for the rears and 35k for the fronts. The first rear tire blew out at 5k due to a pot hole. The other side needed replacing at 15k, the pothole side then needed re-replacing at 25k. We'll probably replace all of them here soon (35k) because the fronts are finally starting to show enough wear to replace them, but we might go to 19s with snow tires (new house is above the snowline... but I don't think it's seen snow yet, maybe not this season).

 

[wraithnot]

When I originally bought my S85, I had a 50 mile round trip commute and installed a 14-50 the fist workday after taking delivery. In April we moved to San Rafael and I now only have a 26 mile round trip commute and have been getting by just fine with a 120 v outlet in the garage. We also added a second EV (BMW i3 BEV) and we are now doing just fine with 120 V and two EVs (although luckily we have two separate circuits in the garage). 240 V charging is more efficient as well as faster so we'll get the garage wired in conjunction with a kitchen remodel in a few months. But since things are working so well, it's not a priority.

The only time not having faster charging at home is an issue is when returning from a road trip late at night and having to go somewhere after work the next day. But if you can hit a nearby supercharger on the way back from most road trips then you should be fine. I rigged up a 50 amp extension cord to run through the kitchen and into our dryer outlet, but it's so cumbersome that I only bothered using it twice after long road trips.