Survey Do You Need a UMC?

[Jason71]

There have been a couple of threads about the removal of UMC's. Tesla's reasoning is supposedly Its a waste to include with every car when "utilisation is very low".
I get that and maybe it is but low utilisation and not being bothered about having one for occasional / emergency use are not the same thing so lets have a poll to see how many UMC's Tesla will be selling if they stop including for free.

 

[Dilly]

I used it once to test and make sure it works. I take on holiday just in case. Otherwise, unless my Zappi breaks down, I wouldn’t use it.

 

[bc1979]

In holiday in Devon this week and have used it all week for a nice (but slow) free charge all week.

 

[spooksman]

I answered "Yes: I never use it but like to have it for emergencies" as it came with my car - as a new EV owner I saw it as important.

However, I wouldn't get one next time if it becomes an option.

My UMC has to go back BTW, it's a lease car...

 

[Kansalis]

I answered "Yes: I never use it but like to have it for emergencies" as it came with my car - as a new EV owner I saw it as important.

However, I wouldn't get one next time if it becomes an option.

In that case, I think you answered incorrectly for the purposes of this poll. You only have one because it was included, but wouldn't have bought one if it was optional.

I think a sizeable percentage of the complainers on this subject are just reacting to the fact that something was previously free & will no longer be in future. Not that they actually need or ever use the UMC. There are very few "emergency" situations where a UMC would save the day. The only scenario I can think of would be driving to a destination that's not your own home and arriving with 0% battery, then being fortunate to be close enough to a house to be able to plug in to a 13 amp plug. If you run out of traction battery charge in a random street somewhere are you going to knock on doors until a kind stranger lets you plug in your car for enough hours to get sufficient charge to drive somewhere? Other scenarios are not "emergencies" but are planned use cases.

Planning for occasional use like charging overnight at a relative's or charging on a camp site are obviously different & I can see how some people may want to do that. Personally I find it more convenient to just go to a nearby rapid than to mess around with trailing cables. Definitely shouldn't be using an extension lead with a UMC either, that's asking for trouble (but an off-topic conversation).

 

[browellm]

I think a sizeable percentage of the complainers on this subject are just reacting to the fact that something was previously free & will no longer be in future.

17 out of 19 and your man here, so far. Interesting take.

 

[spooksman]

In that case, I think you answered incorrectly for the purposes of this poll. You only have one because it was included, but wouldn't have bought one if it was optional.

I think a sizeable percentage of the complainers on this subject are just reacting to the fact that something was previously free & will no longer be in future. Not that they actually need or ever use the UMC. There are very few "emergency" situations where a UMC would save the day. The only scenario I can think of would be driving to a destination that's not your own home and arriving with 0% battery, then being fortunate to be close enough to a house to be able to plug in to a 13 amp plug. If you run out of traction battery charge in a random street somewhere are you going to knock on doors until a kind stranger lets you plug in your car for enough hours to get sufficient charge to drive somewhere? Other scenarios are not "emergencies" but are planned use cases.

Planning for occasional use like charging overnight at a relative's or charging on a camp site are obviously different & I can see how some people may want to do that. Personally I find it more convenient to just go to a nearby rapid than to mess around with trailing cables. Definitely shouldn't be using an extension lead with a UMC either, that's asking for trouble (but an off-topic conversation).

You're probably right on my answer...

Thing is, I WOULD have bought one 2 years ago as I thought it would be good for emergencies.

However, I think I've learnt that is not the case for me.

 

[Louis0w]

The UMC has been my main method of charging since 2019 as I have a 32a commando set up. In fact, it was so critical I bought another (off eBay) as a backup. I also regularly use the UMC when visiting parents and when staying at a cottage. That said, I’ll be moving to a TWC later this year.

 

[aq42]

The Model 3 is on order. For the past 5 years I have run a 2014 Leaf, and home charging has been exclusively from the socket we put in by the front door for lawnmowers, power washers and Christmas lights etc when we rewired about 10 years ago.

Now, though, we're keeping the Leaf and moving on my wife's diesel Pug, so we're going to have two to charge. We could, if we staggered things, do both from the single socket as my wife does a significantly lower mileage than I do, but I suspect we're going to have to put in a charger or two.

During those 5 years there were only a handful of occasions when I charged using the Granny away from home, but there was always a feeling of last-resort security having it in the boot. Occasionally I would go somewhere where there were no public charging facilities on route for the last 40 miles home, and it was reassuring to know that my in-laws were 10 miles nearer than home was if things went really pear-shaped.

 

[ACarneiro]

For me it’s a bit like insurance.
You hope you never need it but when you do need it you’ll regret it if you don’t have it.
Removing it is a bad move, IMHO.

 

[Jason71]

Planning for occasional use like charging overnight at a relative's or charging on a camp site are obviously different & I can see how some people may want to do that. Personally I find it more convenient to just go to a nearby rapid than to mess around with trailing cables.

"A nearby Rapid"
Clearly you have never been to Wales

 

[GlynG]

The Granny is my main source of charging and fits my circumstances perfectly. I'm retired so all journeys are pleasure drives and in the last year I've used a supercharger twice - never used any other charger network either - so i would buy a Granny if they were to become an optional accessory, wouldn't be buying from Tesla though as i would source one via Ebay and get a bargain.

I don't do a lot of miles so charging from home via Granny means the car is generally charged to 90%. Cant see any benefit in routinely charging at superchargers paying their rate when my home supply is much cheaper and most of my charging costs me nothing at all.
I have solar and storage battery's of 13.5Kwhrs, the maximum output of the panels is 3.68Kws (limited by the inverter) Base load of the house is 350watts, when the solar generates over 2.5 Kws I know plugging in the car that the solar is charging it for free and covering the base house load, as the system gets to its maximum of 3.68KWs the excess is also charging the house batteries - so for 8 months of the year my electricity bills are mainly the daily charge and perhaps 30Kwhrs per month - and the Kws I pay for is in effect being covered by the FIT payments. There would be no benefit to me going commando or a 7KWhr dedicated charger as i would start paying to charge the car - when retired its easy to manage it all .

 

[Terry F]

When I bought my M3 RWD (LFP) I had planned to buy a charger and have this installed, but now I am not so sure I will need one. I am retired and only drive 100-120 miles per week so get to about 50% SoC after a week's use. I have only ever used the UMC so far, its just plugged into my garage and charges at 10A overnight (for 12-14 hours) once per week and I am back to 100% ready for another week. If Tesla stopped providing a UMC as standard, then knowing what I know now I would expect to order a UMC to come with a new car, and I would certainly stick with LFP.

Plus, having around 50% SoC left at the end of each week before I plug it in means I have no range anxiety, if a sudden trip arises I have the range for that (living in NI means I will not need to drive more than 50-60 miles) and so I can defer charging for a day or two if necessary. I may not be typical but there will be some people that do make a lot of use of the UMC.

 

[doats1]

The car has been the primary mode of transport for holidays since we got it. Whenever we stayed at holiday apartments and cottages, we used the UMC. So up until recently it’s been a valuable accessory.

This year though, everywhere we go there are charge points. Even the cottage we stay at every year are installing one for guests with EV’s. And virtually all of the hotels we’ve stayed at in the past 6 months or so offer free charging. So I think they won’t be as useful for us in the near future.

 

[Pants]

"A nearby Rapid"
Clearly you have never been to Wales

Or the North Yorkshire Moors. I’m an avid walker and like to stay in remote farmhouses. The UCM is the only option. To suggest topping up at “a nearby Rapid” is just laughable.

 

[Doudeau]

I have a house in Northern France and need to use it there. I’d have no benefit of installing a faster charger as I wouldn’t be able to heat the house or get hot water at the same time .

I think they should discount the cost of the car and make it optional tho. Why give it to everyone when some don’t need it(?)

 

[MrT3]

I think they should discount the cost of the car and make it optional tho. Why give it to everyone when some don’t need it(?)

The problem with that is at the volume they order them it would cost Tesla way under £ 100 per unit. Even if they take £ 100 off the list price of the vehicle, you then need £ 300 to order one from their shop. You could get a Masterplug equivalent with a longer cable for £ 200, which is much better value, but you are still down on the deal.

 

[Matt125]

I used it several times on my SR+ when staying at friend's houses and at small hotels/B&Bs with no charging facilities. Can't tell you how gratifying it was to call up a place beforehand and ask if I could plug in my car to a wall socket by threading the cable through a window and hearing "Sure".

Making these things an extra means they will be in shorter supply, and a lot of new owners won't realise how useful these things are and possibly get range anxiety when going out to places without dedicated EV charging - which is still the overwhelming majority of places.

It's a great backup too for when you inevitably arrive at a hotel to find the charging point not working or blocked by a fossil vehicle.

I know the direction of travel. Next, the type 2 cable will be an extra too. Have fun using Podpoints and other cable-less chargers without one of those! Tesla have become a greedy, nickel-and-diming company like Porsche and the others where everything is an extra. I was astonished and angered when they removed carpets from the SR+, and everyone I told about it was shocked that they would be so cheap with a car that costs over £42k when a car one quarter of that price comes with them as standard.

 

[Billbrown1982]

Had my car a year and only used the UMC once when I was at a holiday home in Devon. They did have one single slow destination charger on the site that I possibly could have gone and used (it was a fair walk away from our van) but would not have been anywhere near as convenient as trickle charging right outside our pitch.

That said, my bigger concern with all this is, much like phone chargers, they will remove the UMC but the price will not reduce at all.

IF they wanted to deduct £300 off the cost of the car and give those who want one the option to add one to the order for a charge, thats one thing.

But removing it, while the cost of the car keeps going up and up is a totally different issue.

 

[Adopado]

When the day comes that so many UMC type charge points have been provided with EVs that there’s one lying around in every household (like USB chargers) then it’s fair enough to stop routinely providing one. The reality is that we are a long way from that situation so they still should be provided.