Long term airport parking

[Coltcon]

Hello everyone! Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I’ve only ever used home charging or supercharging before. I’ll be parking at the airport (MCO) for a week, where they have ChargePoint chargers. They charge 12¢/kWh. My question is, if I plug in for a week am I going to come back to a surprise giant bill, does it shut off and stop charging automatically? Also, I’m 150 miles from the airport so I’d definitely need to charge somewhere and can’t Uber to the airport. Thanks everyone!

 

[keyguru]

Hello everyone! Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I’ve only ever used home charging or supercharging before. I’ll be parking at the airport (MCO) for a week, where they have ChargePoint chargers. They charge 12¢/kWh. My question is, if I plug in for a week am I going to come back to a surprise giant bill, does it shut off and stop charging automatically? Also, I’m 150 miles from the airport so I’d definitely need to charge somewhere and can’t Uber to the airport. Thanks everyone!

A charging spot is not a parking spot, especially for a week. Charge before you park to a sufficient level to support vampire drain for the time that you are going to be gone (2-3 % per day at the most). Make sure to turn off unnecessary options, such as cabin temperature overheat. Plan you trip with an allowance to stop by the supercharger on your way to the airport.

 

[UncleCreepy]

It won't be a giant bill if you're charged by the kWh and not per hour. Once the car reaches its target level, it will stop charging. Even without being connected to the charger the car shouldn't lose more than about 10% (probably less) in a week, provided you let it sleep.

Personally I'd rather supercharge somewhere nearby if that's an option and not block a public charger for a whole week when I only need it for a few hours. Then again, those spots are marked "EV parking only".

Although, I'm a bit torn on this to be honest. On the one hand, common sense says to move the car once charging has completed. On the other hand, it's an airport. Of course people will want to return to a fully charged car and they can't move it since they are probably out of state. If there are enough available spots (which is likely during Covid) I would possibly just park there. For the record, they have two charging locations there for a total of 10 charging spots.

 

[Candleflame]

just leave your car at the airport. Let it sleep. If you are gone for a month just charge it to 90% beforehand.
a charging spot is not for parking.

 

[duanra]

just leave your car at the airport. Let it sleep. If you are gone for a month just charge it to 90% beforehand.
a charging spot is not for parking.

If you manage to reach the airport with close to 90% and if you turn off the cabin overheat protection, sentry mode etc.. You probably will have enough to drive back.
Now the manual say it burns 1% a day sitting.
Since you are not in a cold place, that is pretty accurate.

 

[bjrosen]

I'd stop at a Supercharger before parking then make sure that Sentry Mode and Smart Summon are off, that will reduce your vampire drain to a manageable level. I would also check Plugshare for the rules about long term parking at a Chargepoint. If they don't have idle fees then it would be OK to leave the car plugged in. Do you know if the chargers are in long term or short term parking? If the chargers are only in short term parking then you wouldn't want to use them anyway.

 

[pt19713]

Expect about 2-3% per week on a LR or Performance model as long as everything is turned off and you have the discipline to not open the app multiple times.

 

[duanra]

I would use abetterrouteplanner to see how it would work. Just be pessimistic with the starting charge to factor "battery leakage" in.

 

[maeEv]

Hello everyone! Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I’ve only ever used home charging or supercharging before. I’ll be parking at the airport (MCO) for a week, where they have ChargePoint chargers. They charge 12¢/kWh. My question is, if I plug in for a week am I going to come back to a surprise giant bill, does it shut off and stop charging automatically? Also, I’m 150 miles from the airport so I’d definitely need to charge somewhere and can’t Uber to the airport. Thanks everyone!

Get a good charge in before you let it sit. I went back and forth about charging at the airport for my vacation. We recently went away for 5 days and I just had my car charged to about 78% and with the warmer weather I barely lost 10% the whole time it was sitting. Now in the winter that would be a different story.....

 

[LoudMusic]

I tend to agree with keyguru, those spots aren't necessarily for long term parking. Though I don't think anyone is stopping you from using them for your purpose.

However, there might be some 15A circuits available in the airport parking garage. The Little Rock airport has this and we're nowhere near as cool as MCO I'm not seeing anything on PlugShare.com though. Might be worth driving around the parking deck looking for outlets on support posts - I've found them in many parking garages. Remember to park in such a way that your mobile connector and cable are not in anyone's way and hopefully as discrete as possible.

As for it continuing to charge or not, the car draws power from the charger. The charger does not push power to the car. The car will stop drawing power when it has reached its charge setting. I recommend 80-85% for long term storage.

As for cost - a parked Tesla even with every parked setting enabled (climate monitoring, sentry, etc) won't use more than probably 20kWh per day. At 12¢/kWh you probably won't have more than $10 for the whole visit. If for some fluke reason your car draws maximum power from that charger the entire time it's plugged in the maximum charger I'm calculating would be about $222. I'd be impressed if you could do that

 

[jjrandorin]

OP, in Southern California, some of the off airport parking companies also have charging spots, and those ARE for people who are parking and traveling (because the entire operation is a parking structure for people who want to save a bit of money by not parking AT the airport).

I would look into that. The last time I got on a plane, I parked at such an off airport parking company and it was very convenient.

 

[pnwadventures]

Agreed, don’t tie up a vital spot for that long. Just charge up sufficiently before parking in a regular spot, then leverage the charger on your way out if you need it. Hopefully someone won’t have parked their car there for a week...

 

[RayK]

I'd stop at a Supercharger before parking then make sure that Sentry Mode and Smart Summon are off, that will reduce your vampire drain to a manageable level. I would also check Plugshare for the rules about long term parking at a Chargepoint. If they don't have idle fees then it would be OK to leave the car plugged in. Do you know if the chargers are in long term or short term parking? If the chargers are only in short term parking then you wouldn't want to use them anyway.

I'd second the idea of hitting a Supercharger before parking at MCO. According to Tesla, there's one at the Wawa at 6500 West Sand Lake Road Orlando. That's a couple of miles west of the airport. Top off to at least 90% and you should be good for the week you're gone, even if you leave Sentry mode on.

As far as using the Chargepoint stations, MCO says they're in Terminal B parking which charges $19/day, along with the $0.12/kWh you mentioned. There does not seem to be any idle fees but as others have said here, it does not "look" right if your car can fully charge in 12-15 hours (using Chargepoint) yet it's going to be sitting there for 7 days. It's a L2 J1772 outlet so if you're going this route, remember to bring your adapter. Using one of those charge adapter locks might be wise if you're worried about somebody coming along and disconnecting you soon after you leave.

 

[UncleCreepy]

Top off to at least 90% and you should be good for the week you're gone, even if you leave Sentry mode on.

Just to have an approximate number: without sentry mode, expect to lose about 1% per day (less than 1 kWh), whereas with sentry mode on, the car won't go to sleep and use about 300 W.

0.3 kW x 24 h/day = 7.2 kWh/day or about 50 kWh per week. That's pretty significant even with the LR battery.

I'd also consider the possibility that your flight gets cancelled and that you might return later than planned.

I'm probably the minority here, but again: with the current low amount of travellers and the fact that there are 10 chargers, I wouldn't feel too bad about leaving the car plugged in for a week, especially not in a long-term parking lot. Only if you want to leave sentry mode on though, otherwise I agree that you should top up at a nearby supercharger.

Safe travels

 

[Candleflame]

If you manage to reach the airport with close to 90% and if you turn off the cabin overheat protection, sentry mode etc.. You probably will have enough to drive back.
Now the manual say it burns 1% a day sitting.
Since you are not in a cold place, that is pretty accurate.

Id say 1% every 3 days or so is more accurate if you have a good 12v battery.

 

[leonar40]

If your airport has FastPark (or a similar company) they have an entire bank of charging spots specifically for EVs that are meant for you to stay plugged into during your trip. I also enjoy looking at what EVs are plugged in there when I ride the shuttle by it.

 

[Candleflame]

He lives in the usa so will have superchargers left right and centre. He can top up before he gets to the airport or on the drive home.

 

[coleAK]

Left my LR AWD for 3 weeks outside in the winter in Alaska temps when never got above freezing. I lost 1-2% over the entire time.

don’t need to plug in and don’t worry about it.

 

[bjrosen]

There needs to be a cheap Level 1 parking solution for long term airport parking. Your car is going to be sitting there for a week which gives it plenty of time to charge at Level 1 speeds. If it weren't for the possibility of theft a plain 120V outlet would be fine but because theft is a real possibility having a Level 1 J1772 EVSE would be the best solution.

 

[dappleton77]

Left my LR AWD for 3 weeks outside in the winter in Alaska temps when never got above freezing. I lost 1-2% over the entire time.

don’t need to plug in and don’t worry about it.

That's awesome. And it started up with no issues right away?