How to Charge your Tesla for FREE (The good part of ownership!!)

[Dynamite647]

For the potential buyers or for those who have already purchased a Tesla or any other EV you can in some cases charge your car for free using public stations. In video below I have shown the Chargepoint stations and depending on location it will either give you 2 or 4 hour of FREE charging.

These stations are located at most offices and malls (at least here in Toronto). All you need is the Chargepoint card or app, you just plugin the car and start charging. You will need the J1172 adapter. The station will let you know when your free session is about to end so you can manage accordingly. The speed on these stations varies but most of the FREE ones are around 6kw/30amp.

I think this is great to charge your car for FREE while shopping, or if you are out with friends chilling. This is also useful for those people who might not have a charging setup at home and this is there only option. This is just one example of many stations out there that let you charge for free to a certain degree.

 

[TW14 9LF]

Um, duh??

 

[Feathermerchan]

So I pay 9¢ per kWh (US$). At 6 kW for 4 hours that is 24 kWh or $2.16
I'm tight but...

 

[JaeTheDev]

For the potential buyers or for those who have already purchased a Tesla or any other EV you can in some cases charge your car for free using public stations. In video below I have shown the Chargepoint stations and depending on location it will either give you 2 or 4 hour of FREE charging.

These stations are located at most offices and malls (at least here in Toronto). All you need is the Chargepoint card or app, you just plugin the car and start charging. You will need the J1172 adapter. The station will let you know when your free session is about to end so you can manage accordingly. The speed on these stations varies but most of the FREE ones are around 6kw/30amp.

I think this is great to charge your car for FREE while shopping, or if you are out with friends chilling. This is also useful for those people who might not have a charging setup at home and this is there only option. This is just one example of many stations out there that let you charge for free to a certain degree.

most ChargePoint chargers in the state of Rhode Island are free. Matter of fact, I’ve only been to one that wasn’t. Awesome feature!

 

[jjrandorin]

Um, duh??

(personal opinion inc, not moderation content, or related to TMC moderation in any way)

This is a relatively new poster here, attempting to launch a youtube career by posting various videos here. Just calling it like I see it.

 

[cwerdna]

So I pay 9¢ per kWh (US$). At 6 kW for 4 hours that is 24 kWh or $2.16
I'm tight but...

Which is great compared to Pacific Gouge & Extort rates here in Nor Cal.

Marginal cost for me to charge at home (which I almost never do) is ~31.7 cents/kWh. I posted a bit more about this at Cost of EV charging in Vancouver Yes, I'm well aware of EV2-A here. Sure, it's 17.3 per kWh (was ~16.6 cents/kWh not that long ago) at the cheapest times but they kill you with 34 to 48.5 cents/kWh the rest of the day. See pages 2 and 3 of https://www.pge.com/tariffs/assets/pdf/tariffbook/ELEC_SCHEDS_EV2 (Sch).pdf. I need to WFH until I have a COVID-19 vaccine in me which means I'm working in the day on weekdays.

 

[Feathermerchan]

Texas deregulated electricity differently than Ca. I think that's the main reason its cheaper. We do have lots of wind and now solar is ramping. We also don't have the forests y'all do. I'm retired so I WFH too. Trying not to go anywhere much.

 

[Doggiedog]

Charging at the municipal parking lot in my town is free. You just have to pay $1/hr for parking. Probably cheaper than charging at home for me which I can't do since I live in an apartment building without chargers.

 

[Feathermerchan]

It all depends on how fast you can charge, right? At 10 kW that's 10 kWh per hour and at 10¢/kWh it's a dollar an hour. So you are paying about 10¢ per hour in that example. If you can only charge at 5kW then you're paying about 20¢ per kWh.

 

[KenC]

It may not save a whole lot of money, but it does give you a special parking spot, when it's not being ICE'd.

 

[user212_nr]

Post more videos like this and you'll get a subscriber!

2019 TESLA MODEL X SMART SUMMON FAIL - HITS A POST!!!

Where did you get the Model X from? Did you have an X and now a 3, or both?

 

[ucmndd]

Be sure to like and subscribe, kids

 

[JayNJ]

For the potential buyers or for those who have already purchased a Tesla or any other EV you can in some cases charge your car for free using public stations. In video below I have shown the Chargepoint stations and depending on location it will either give you 2 or 4 hour of FREE charging.

These stations are located at most offices and malls (at least here in Toronto). All you need is the Chargepoint card or app, you just plugin the car and start charging. You will need the J1172 adapter. The station will let you know when your free session is about to end so you can manage accordingly. The speed on these stations varies but most of the FREE ones are around 6kw/30amp.

I think this is great to charge your car for FREE while shopping, or if you are out with friends chilling. This is also useful for those people who might not have a charging setup at home and this is there only option. This is just one example of many stations out there that let you charge for free to a certain degree.

If you don't have charging at home, this is NOT a good option. 11kW or 6kW charging? Good luck.

 

[brkaus]

When I first got my Tesla I hung out at the nearby shopping area with a free charger.

I either spent more money shopping than I saved or I ate more McDonald’s than my blood pressure needed.

I don’t bother anymore.

I don’t even plug in for close parking with the Tesla anymore. My daughter has a 2016 leaf and now I really understand the importance of charging for some shorter range electric cars.

 

[Feathermerchan]

I think level 2 shopping center and work charging charging will soon disappear. I never got free gas at work or at the shopping center.

 

[cwerdna]

I think level 2 shopping center and work charging charging will soon disappear.

In some circles, I don't think it'll disappear at workplaces, esp. in states/areas w/perks for having EVs/PHEVs (e.g. CA HOV lane stickers). There's also competition/peer pressure for companies to provide charging for free or a reasonable price. It can be one of numerous recruiting tools.

My work provides free L2 charging as do numerous other tech companies in the Bay Area (e.g. Apple and Google, at last check).

Some provide charging but at a cost (HP and Oracle, when I last checked). As I mentioned at How do Non-tesla chargers work?, Facebook goes a step further. Not only is their charging free, they have EV valets. EV valets will charge you car for you. That might be why Facebook's campus has numerous DC fast chargers on it (check ChargePoint app in Menlo Park for SAE Combo (CCS) and/or CHAdeMO) to see what I'm talking about.

 

[cwerdna]

Here we go. I counted 17 DC (probably fast) chargers at Facebook HQ. I didn't count how many L2 EVSEs they have but I'd guess from the counts, they have over 200 J1772 handles. This is from ChargePoint looking around their campus and filtering by plug type.

Now that I think about it more, there will probably be increasing pressure to install workplace charging (even if not free) in CA due to the "ban" of the sale of new ICE passenger cars and trucks here by 2013. See page 2 of https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/9.23.20-EO-N-79-20-text.pdf.

That said, as someone who has driven EVs as they primary car since end of July 2013 and has no more ICEVs at home, I feel the target's too aggressive and it's not going to happen. Either it will get delayed or there will be a ton of push back from many parties (e.g. consumers, oil and gasoline industry, automakers, electric utilities, etc.). I could see 50% of new passenger car and truck sales in CA being ZEVs by 2035 being achievable, not 100%.

 

[Feathermerchan]

I'm saying that the only reason free charging is offered is it improves the company's image. Soon everyone will be driving an electric car with at least 200 mile range and there will be no advantage to an employer or retail outlet to offer free charging and it will go away.
Like I said before, your employer does not pay for your transportation needs now except business trips. Besides if they did, the IRS would require that you claim it as income like they do now when you drive a company car back and forth to work.

On the subject of no new ICE cars, that is completely doable and will happen. Old ICE cars will be around a long time and serve those who cannot afford to buy a new car.

 

[jjrandorin]

Now that I think about it more, there will probably be increasing pressure to install workplace charging (even if not free) in CA due to the "ban" of the sale of new ICE passenger cars and trucks here by 2013. .

Pretty sure you ment to say "by 2035" instead of "by 2013" in this sentence above.

 

[cwerdna]

I'm saying that the only reason free charging is offered is it improves the company's image. Soon everyone will be driving an electric car with at least 200 mile range and there will be no advantage to an employer or retail outlet to offer free charging and it will go away.

Interesting idea but I disagree. There are many people who cannot charge at home and depending on public charging can become quite old.

I've been to numerous apartment complexes in the Bay Area. They have no charging in their parking spots and little EV charging, if any.

Like I said before, your employer does not pay for your transportation needs now except business trips. Besides if they did, the IRS would require that you claim it as income like they do now when you drive a company car back and forth to work.

If you're talking about now due to COVID-19, yeah. But, pre-COVID-19, we did have company shuttles that took people to and from work at certain designation locations around the Bay Area. This is quite common amongst larger tech companies in the Bay Area (e.g. Google, Apple and Tesla). Yahoo definitely had them too, for example. Splashy Tactics -- Tech-Shuttle Protester Vomits on Yahoo Bus happened to a Yahoo bus. They're now part of the Verizon family so I don't know if that's still going on.

We also have a program where people can take Lyft or Uber to/from work for commuting as a non-business trip, but when you do those, we employees have to pay taxes on those as the ride expense counts as income.