Newbie Charging Questions

[mikeash]

120V charging sucks, but it can get the job done. It depends, of course, on just how long you can be plugged in, and how much charge you need. If you're just staying one night then it's probably just a bonus that saves you a little time. If you stay longer then it can fill you back up if you're patient.

As far as actually locating an outlet, I've had pretty good luck so far. Not every place I've stayed has had one, but most have. My experience is that you can't just ask them, though. They'll usually just say no, they don't have one, sorry, because they're just not familiar with what they actually do have. I scout the perimeter of the hotel myself, then if and when I locate one, I ask if I can use it. Check the building itself, as well as in the landscaping and at the base of light poles. So far I haven't found any that required running the cord across a sidewalk, so there haven't been any problems with the physical setup.

I've never had anyone tell me "no" after I found one myself and asked if I could use it. I did have one place that should have told me "no," because it turned out that the outlet I had found was on the same circuit as their waffle maker, and the combined load tripped the breaker in the morning. Oops!

For other options, check out PlugShare to see what else is available where you'll be staying. CHAdeMO chargers make for decent Supercharger substitutes, and even L2 chargers can solve the problem if you're going to be spending many hours at that location.

 

[sgopal2]

Hello - I'll give you my perspective as a Model S owner for the past year. I've put about 25K miles on my MS, and travelled as far south as DC and as far north as Boston, many of these trips were overnight. Never once have I felt any range anxiety.

Some of my overnight trips required some planning on the plugshare app to find hotels that I could charge at overnight. If not I am always able to get by with superchargers. There aren't many hotels that offer access to EV plugs. But there are enough on the east coast that its not a huge problem. The extra planning only takes me an extra 5 mins or so for each trip. I typically like to find a hotel that has built in charging, or where I can park during the day and charge.

Supercharger availability is definitely harder to get than when I first got my MS in 2015. The worst supercharger is the one on Merritt Parkway in Greenwich. There are only 4 stalls on each side, and they are frequently filled with ICEers. The parking lot is quite small, and apparently non-Tesla owners are allowed to park in the supercharging slots for up to 15 mins so they can go into the rest stop. Almost each time I reach the Merrrit supercharger, I always have to wait for an ICE vehicle to move out of the way. They also have a Chademo charger, but I usually like to wait for the supercharger to open up. The New Haven supercharger on Rt 95 is also filled with ICErs because they placed the chargers in premium parking locations. One woman actually told me she parked in the Tesla slot and didn't realize it was an EV spot because she thought the SC was a vacuum cleaner!

There are other superchargers which are often completely empty (Providence RI, and Edison NJ) come to mind. So this varies depending on the route you are taking. The number of supercharger slots that I've seen open up over the past year has been dramatic, and I see this only increasing over time as the popularity of EVs increases.

So bottom line: Don't worry about the lack of places to charge. This is almost non-existent. Just be ready to spend a few extra mins planning out your trip. The tesla software won't let you run out of charge if you use it properly.

 

[mspohr]

I've charged with 120v. It's slow but you can get 50 miles range overnight. Often enough for the next day's travel.
Also, many hotels have 240 volt plugs for their individual window A/C - heating units. I've made an adapter for these from an air conditioner extension cord. This will give you about 10 MPH of charge or over 100 miles overnight. Again, enough to get you on the road the next day.
Lately, however, I haven't needed any of this. The Supercharger network has become ubiquitous in the West so I can just SC and don't have to worry about overnight charging at hotels.

 

[Stiction]

No. Never. But I've never been to California

I live near San Francisco and have done two trips to LA : one on 101 the other on I5, one trip from LA up the backside of the Sierras and through mountains to Jackson, Ca and home, and one trip to Portland via I5 and a trip to Hood River via I5 to Mt Shasta and then up through Klamath falls to Bend -> Dalles, etc and back.

All of this with supercharging. Never had to wait..yet.

 

[RedP85+]

Ok, that's non-viable, then, with a typical 10-12 hour hotel stay.

Not thrilled to shrink my hotel choices to those with charge stations.

I've resolved that buying a Tesla would work for me while at home - I realistically never drive more than 200 miles, even with frantic errand-running. But road trips would indeed be tricky, whether staying at friends houses or in motels. That's a problem.

I have used 120 V only a couple of times and the few extra miles just give me the ability to go a little faster without getting too low before the next Supercharger but I never count on 120V or worry if there is one.

 

[Rocky_H]

Non-owner here, couple quick questions about charging while on road trips:

1. How do you handle charging while staying at hotels (ones that don't have fancy garages that might include chargers)? I've seen threads here where people report that they can usually connect, as a last resort, via 110v sockets in and around hotel/motel parking lots. Is that really a viable route?

2. How often does it happen that you arrive at an essential en-route charging station and find it full? Is this a problem that's increasing as the number of electric vehicles sharing the roads increase?

(1) People new to it ask this hotel question starting with the wrong assumption: "What if the hotel I'm staying at doesn't have....?" No. It's an amenity you want, so you pick a hotel based on that. That is how this gets propagated. It wasn't too long ago that some hotels started to offer wi-fi as an amenity. People wanted it and stayed there, and hotels that didn't offer it lost business and saw the light. Voting with your dollars is what makes this happen. But getting it in their ear helps this happen too. Feel free to go ahead and call a few hotels that don't offer charging, ask if they do, and when they say "no", just say, "Oh, well, then I guess I will need to find somewhere else to stay then." That will get their attention.

(2) That is such a very very isolated issue, mainly on the left coast. I just went on a several hundred mile trip this past weekend, and I hit up 7 Superchargers along the way. At 6 out of the 7, I was the only car there the whole time. At the other one, I was the only car when I arrived, and then two others did show up while I was there. These are Superchargers in Nevada, Utah, and Idaho, so obviously not very heavily populated with Teslas yet. But guess what? That's what most of the middle of the country is like, too.

As to your wish that there was a network or people sharing their home chargers, yes, that is Plugshare. I listed my 14-50 outlet in my garage as soon as I got my car 2 and a half years ago, and I have gotten to host a few Tesla travelers before the Superchargers were built on the interstate highway through my city. I have also gotten to charge on someone else's garage outlet on a trip I took. It's pretty cool.

 

[Hugh Mannity]

Just did a drive from Ottawa to Vancouver and stayed in 9 hotels along the Detroit, St. Louis, KC, Denver, Salt Lake City route. Many of the Hampton Inns had super chargers in their parking lots, was perfect. Wake up, plug in the car. By the time you have crappy hotel brekky and pack up your stuff the car has enough juice to make it to the next charger or beyond

 

[Racerx22b]

I've only ever traveled within the state of FL but I do travel (via air) all the time. Since ordering the Tesla I am always scoping out free outlets at hotels just in case I ever do travel via my Tesla... You'd be surprised how many outlets are out there and free to use if you pay attention. 3mph seems slow but when you're parked for 10hrs it starts to add up. Plus, nearly all exterior outlets at commercial buildings are 20amp (see pic). I'd suggest having that adaptor in your car at all times. It charges at 5mph. I've actually never used the standard 110v adaptor as every outlet I've ever found was the 20amp variety. Look for the horizontal line to get the slightly quicker charge.