Ever forgotten to plug in at home?

[Boatguy]

I have a 190 mile daily commute, so obviously it's absolutely required that I plug in when I get home every night. It's pretty much automatic, but on at least one occasion in the last year I was distracted by something when exiting my car and realized in the morning I wasn't plugged in leaving me with 30 miles of range. Fortunately there's a Super Charger 15 miles from home, so I was able to make it to work without having to delay three hours while charging at 28mph at home. What makes this funny is that one of my coworkers asked me, the very day before, what happens if you forget to charge? I laughed and said I plug in every time I get home so it's never a problem.

It occurred to me tonight that it would be almost impossible to forget to plug in if the charging port door opened automatically upon parking at home with a charge status below a user-settable limit. Of course, that assumes you walk to the back of the car past the charging port when exiting, which I do as I always back in.

Has anyone else absentmindedly forgotten to plug in?

Hasn't happened with the MS, but does happen with my i3 which definitely needs a daily charge. Fortunately my EVSE is a JuiceBox which can be set to send out an email if the car is not plugged in by a set time. Such a feature from Tesla would be nice.

 

[Geoff]

I have forgotten to plug it in a few times...but unlike the OP, I only have a 45 mile round trip commute, so I can make it a few days without charging.

 

[mmccord]

My roundtrip is about 150mi, so daily charging is important for me also. In 17 months I've forgotten to plug in once. I got to spend 30 minutes at the SC in Newburgh, about 15 miles from my house. Unfortunately it's in the totally opposite direction as my workplace, so I needed even more miles than usual.

 

[stevej119]

Which is probably why he drives a Tesla. Cost savings must be enormous.

Cost savings definitely factor in, but for me it's more about reducing my carbon footprint. It's hard to reconcile making my living selling bicycles (which in many cases people buy for green transportation) and spewing exhaust while driving 190 miles/day. So I bought a Model S and installed enough solar panels at home to generate more electricity than the car uses.

 

[EdA]

Cost savings definitely factor in, but for me it's more about reducing my carbon footprint. It's hard to reconcile making my living selling bicycles (which in many cases people buy for green transportation) and spewing exhaust while driving 190 miles/day. So I bought a Model S and installed enough solar panels at home to generate more electricity than the car uses.

You could just move closer to work and commute by bike

 

[DarkMatter]

You must really love the job to commute that far. I used to have a 124 mile daily commute. Never again. The current 15 mile round trip feels too long after years of a five block walk for a commute.

 

[stevej119]

You must really love the job to commute that far. I used to have a 124 mile daily commute. Never again. The current 15 mile round trip feels too long after years of a five block walk for a commute.

It's more about really loving my wife and living where she's happy. I've owned a business in the bay area for 37 years so getting a job closer to home isn't really an option, either. I also love coming home to where we live every day and making the drive in a Tesla is pretty much as green as riding my bike to work and quite pleasurable as well. The drive flies by as I have the options of catching up with my kids on the phone, listening to whatever music I might want to hear, listening to the news of the day...

 

[paulkva]

I forget to plug in all the time, but I'm fortunate to have a short commute (10 miles round-trip) so it almost never matters for me. I've been using VisibleTesla (Java-based desktop app, no longer maintained but still works well for many) to remind me to plug in at 10:30pm daily, and that works pretty well. I've forgotten to plug in when it mattered just once, before my most recent trip from DC to Pittsburgh. Thankfully the consequences were minor -- I couldn't make it all the way to the Somerset supercharger, so I had to stop in Hagerstown as well.

 

[mhan00]

Put a night time chime/alarm reminder on your phone/ipad. Problem solved.

I've never ever forgotten to charge (& I charge every day to stay electric - Chevy Volt). It becomes automatic after the last trip of the day - back in, hook up charger, set car alarm (I park outside). Beep beep.

I've got a Volt too, and I have my ClipperCreek EVSE on the wall of my garage, next to where my driver side door opens. So it's easy for me to just grab the plug and plug it in on my way into the house every time. I've never actually forgotten to plug in, even when I had my Leaf because of where I had my EVSE. It was staring at me everytime I got out of my car.

 

[royewest]

I'm on an early schedule, so tend to be asleep (and of course awake) earlier than most. My lovely wife has added checking that the S is plugged in to her routine checking that the home doors are closed and locked before she goes to sleep. I encourage her to take the space ship out whenever I can...

 

[GlmnAlyAirCar]

This happened to me for the first time last week since I got my 70D in June 2015. I have a 100 mile round trip commute but that particular day I also had another 45 mile round trip to take my son to biking practice.

Woke the next morning and had just enough time to add just enough miles to get me to work. Fortunately a hotel near where I work was kind enough to let me plug in at their charge point station. A few hours there gave me enough juice to get home.

 

[Boatguy]

I mentioned this earlier, but I'll add it again. My JuiceBox EVSE (for my BMW) is smart enough to email me a reminder if the car is not plugged in by a specified time. It would not be difficult for Tesla to implement such a reminder.