No home charging option for first year of Model Y

[psingh]

Hi All, I have booked my Model Y and estimated delivery is in May 2022. I don’t have home charging available in my condo. So for initial period could be 10-12 months I might be using super chargers mostly. I average 12000 miles during that time so approximately 50 times of supercharging in an year. Do you think it will degrade the battery performance in long run. Service advisor says it’s totally fine but wanted to seek advice from experienced people.

Thanks

 

[thesmokingman]

It's not about the supercharging necessarily, it's the charging habits. Bad charging habits can accelerate degradation so don't do that, don't charge to 100% or avoid it as much as possible. Keep your charging between 20%-80% ideally, then 10%-90%, and avoid charging to max. Regarding supercharging there are many examples of the early Model S that basically lived off of free supercharging and they're still going.

 

[GtiMart]

Some condos have access to a 120V plug. If you do, you could use that as your main charging at home with supercharging when necessary.

Look around for level 2 chargers, maybe there are some in areas where you sometimes shop or eat. An hour or two from time to time will help too.

 

[OniGerry]

It's not about the supercharging necessarily, it's the charging habits. Bad charging habits can accelerate degradation so don't do that, don't charge to 100% or avoid it as much as possible. Keep your charging between 20%-80% ideally, then 10%-90%, and avoid charging to max. Regarding supercharging there are many examples of the early Model S that basically lived off of free supercharging and they're still going.

WRT to best practice, what do you mean by "Keep your charging between 20%-80% ideally, then 10%-90%"? Charge 20%-80% to "break in" the battery then after X miles, charge 10%-90% for the rest of vehicle life?

 

[thesmokingman]

WRT to best practice, what do you mean by "Keep your charging between 20%-80% ideally, then 10%-90%"? Charge 20%-80% to "break in" the battery then after X miles, charge 10%-90% for the rest of vehicle life?

I mean to keep the battery within that operating and charging range to keep degradation to a minimum.

 

[ATPMSD]

There are so many opinions as to what range to keep the battery within! I go with the 20%-80% option. The big 2 rules are:

1. Don’t charge to 100% unless you need too, and then be sure to drive the car as soon as possible if you do
2. Never, never, never let the main battery go to Zero!!!

As to SuperChargers, since you are using them for local chaging, try to avoid the 250 kW ones. At lower levels (below about 40%) you will see charge rates of about 250 kW. High inrush rates shorten battery life.

 

[OniGerry]

As to SuperChargers, since you are using them for local chaging, try to avoid the 250 kW ones. At lower levels (below about 40%) you will see charge rates of about 250 kW. High inrush rates shorten battery life.

Would you still be safe if connect to a 250kW charger and rate limit via settings?

 

[jcanoe]

Hi All, I have booked my Model Y and estimated delivery is in May 2022. I don’t have home charging available in my condo. So for initial period could be 10-12 months I might be using super chargers mostly. I average 12000 miles during that time so approximately 50 times of supercharging in an year. Do you think it will degrade the battery performance in long run. Service advisor says it’s totally fine but wanted to seek advice from experienced people.

Thanks

Install PlugShare on your phone to locate public level 2 charging stations nearby. Best would be to maintain the battery between 50% and not more than 90%. In between Supercharger sessions a few hours of charging at a level 2 charging station can keep your Tesla adequately charged.

You would only be able to charge at the maximum charging rate for the Supercharger when the state of charge of the battery is less than 30% and the battery has been adequately preconditioned before using the Supercharger. To precondition for Supercharging you need to navigate to the Supercharger using the Tesla navigation system. This can take more than 30 minutes so if the Supercharger is close by then the battery will not be fully warmed and you will not be able to charge at the maximum charging rate for the Supercharger.

Public Level 2 charging (the majority are 6kW in my experience.)

Supercharging:

Urban Supercharger stations (commonly found inside parking garages. Maximum charging rate is 72kW, 36kW if the battery is more than 60% charged or if not fully warmed prior to charging.) Tesla manages the Supercharging session to protect the battery. Theoretically charging at a rate less than the capacity of battery pack (approximately the maximum charging rate of an Urban Supercharger) would be less stressful to the battery pack than charging at a higher charging rate.

V2 Supercharger (120kw or 150kW maximum charging rate)

V3 Supercharger (250kW maximum charging rate.)

 

[ATPMSD]

Would you still be safe if connect to a 250kW charger and rate limit via settings?

You cannot set / limit the rate on a SuperCharger

 

[jcanoe]

Would you still be safe if connect to a 250kW charger and rate limit via settings?

Tesla manages the Supercharging charging session. You can't manually throttle down the charging rate when using a Supercharger. Tesla will protect the battery but the objective is for your Tesla vehicle to charge quickly so you can get back on the road.

 

[ElectricAnt54]

Hopefully the hassle of not having a charging option at home won’t irk you & make you give up on an electric vehicle. Assuming you are staying in the condo perhaps you can convince the committee to install some chargers. In the past There were generous incentives given to businesses (condo might be a cOrporation or LLC business entity ?) for adding chargers and updating electrical infrastructure. Not sure what the incentives are like in 2022.

 

[LoudMusic]

I agree with GtiMart - if you can, charge from a 120v 15a wall outlet at the condo.

Charging at home is a huge benefit of electric vehicles. Not taking advantage of that is a huge missed opportunity. My brother-in-law has driven a Leaf for probably 8 years only using 120/15 at home. You can get 30+ miles of range overnight that way. Then top up at a supercharger once a month or so to get caught up if you need to. But likely you won't.

Also there are a lot of charging options around. Often times grocery stores, restaurants, etc, will have a free charger. Those would be a lot faster than 120/15 but nowhere near as fast as supercharging. You can use Plugshare to check your area.

PlugShare - EV Charging Station Map - Find a place to charge

Find EV charging stations with PlugShare, the most complete map of electric vehicle charging stations in the world!Charging tips reviews and photos from the EV community.

www.plugshare.com

You'll want to turn on "Tesla" and "J1772" (your car will come with an adapter for that).

I hope you live near a supercharger - there are several in CT but there's lots of areas where they are far away.

 

[ATPMSD]

ChargePoint is another one to have

Join the ChargePoint Charging Network | ChargePoint

Join the world's largest electric vehicle charging network, with ChargePoint! Click here to learn more about joining ChargePoint today.

www.chargepoint.com

 

[ElectricAnt54]

I agree with GtiMart - if you can, charge from a 120v 15a wall outlet at the condo.

Charging at home is a huge benefit of electric vehicles. Not taking advantage of that is a huge missed opportunity. My brother-in-law has driven a Leaf for probably 8 years only using 120/15 at home. You can get 30+ miles of range overnight that way. Then top up at a supercharger once a month or so to get caught up if you need to. But likely you won't.

Also there are a lot of charging options around. Often times grocery stores, restaurants, etc, will have a free charger. Those would be a lot faster than 120/15 but nowhere near as fast as supercharging. You can use Plugshare to check your area.

PlugShare - EV Charging Station Map - Find a place to charge

Find EV charging stations with PlugShare, the most complete map of electric vehicle charging stations in the world!Charging tips reviews and photos from the EV community.

www.plugshare.com

You'll want to turn on "Tesla" and "J1772" (your car will come with an adapter for that).

I hope you live near a supercharger - there are several in CT but there's lots of areas where they are far away.

They’d want to set the EVSE or car to 12 amp if using 120V. If electric draw is above 12 amp the charge Session will fail due to breaker tripping. did it last month with my tesla y before I learned how to properly set charge rate based on GPS location. Chevy volt and other cars also only supposed 8 or 12 amp for this reason.
On older wiring and old looking plugs I set my Tesla to 8 amp which happens to be the default for Chevy Volt.

 

[LoudMusic]

They’d want to set the EVSE or car to 12 amp if using 120V. If electric draw is above 12 amp the charge Session will fail due to breaker tripping. did it last month with my tesla y before I learned how to properly set charge rate based on GPS location. Chevy volt and other cars also only supposed 8 or 12 amp for this reason.
On older wiring and old looking plugs I set my Tesla to 8 amp which happens to be the default for Chevy Volt.

If you use the correct adapter on the Gen 2 mobile charger for the circuit you are plugging in to it will do this automatically. The adapter tells the car what the circuit is and the car sets itself to 80% of the circuit max. It does it for all circuit types.

 

[boulder.dude]

You might find a Level 2 charger that is walkable from your condo (e.g. public school, library, etc.).
Use PlugShare.

 

[jcanoe]

Also, Google Maps can locate Tesla Destination Chargers, Tesla Superchargers and EV Charging Stations.

 

[ZenRockGarden]

My advice: Find a local SuperCharger that is the 70 KW type. It'll likely be cheaper, and will conveniently cap the charging rate. Then fill from 20% to 80% and just enjoy the car. Tesla makes the best battery packs - and supercharging doesn't seem to bother them much - certainly not enough to affect your user experience in the first few years.

 

[Rocky_H]

Hi All, I have booked my Model Y and estimated delivery is in May 2022. I don’t have home charging available in my condo. So for initial period could be 10-12 months I might be using super chargers mostly. I average 12000 miles during that time so approximately 50 times of supercharging in an year. Do you think it will degrade the battery performance in long run. Service advisor says it’s totally fine but wanted to seek advice from experienced people.

Thanks

It's going to be kind of inconvenient and cumbersome for you, but it should be fine. People are trying to be helpful, but I think are making it sound more scary and intimidating than it needs to be. Sure, look on the Plugshare app or website and see if there are some options near you that really would be convenient, but if there aren't, it's not a big deal. Use the Superchargers--it's fine. Tesla has probably the best battery monitoring and managing systems in the business. It will govern the speed to safe levels and even actively heat or cool the battery pack as needed to keep it to safe charging speeds that are (mostly) not damaging to the battery. It's not completely absolutely the best thing, but should be not very noticeable effects versus slower charging.

And yeah, I didn't really get that "20%-80% and then 10%-90%" either. Avoiding the high and low ends is a good principle, so I think maybe that meant: "Try to keep within 20-80% if possible, but if you can't quite do that, then at least within 10%-90%."

 

[psingh]

Thank you all for your amazing responses and sharing great knowledge. This was the response I received from my service advisor:
In regard to your concerns about charging, you can rely on supercharging but it is not ideal. The main reason for that is convenience and it will accelerate the degradation of your battery pack faster than if you were to use a home charging solution.

It is not recommended to use supercharging as your primary means to charge as over time, your battery back will lose capacity faster than in comparison to using a Tesla wall connector or outlet. However, the frequency of how often you supercharge is a factor as well. If you are supercharging 1-2 times a week versus 4-5 times a week will affect your car differently.

Now it does sound like this will only be temporary but I would recommend getting home charging at your earliest convenience in order to preserve the long term battery back health as much as possible. I hope this was helpful.

But based on your response I think it’s ok to operate on supercharger being mindful of not avoiding high voltage SC and don’t wait for battery to completely drain. So I would operate between 20-80% and charge my batteries from 50-80%. So if I charger 30% every week on SC I can add roughly around 80 miles. For rest I have to search for level 2 chargers. Can anybody verify this approach. Thanks