I was planning on driving my model 3 from Toronto to Montreal sometime so I was checking out different charging options. There is many superchargers along the way including in Montreal but then I noticed there's tons of third-party charging stations in Montreal as well. They have a whole network where you have a membership that you can use them with. It says it's $1 per hour of charge and that that gives you 30 kilometers roughly. I'm just trying to understand when anyone would use this, as that that seems so low? Even if I wanted to charge half the battery I would have to leave it there all day when I could just drive to a supercharger that's just outside of downtown. It shows some startions are fast charging but says model 3 doesn't support that. Just curious when it's best to use these, if at all?
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Using 3rd party chargers, they seem so slow what's the benefit?
- Thread starter psykobunny83
- Start date
My office building has ChargePoints in the garage. We get about 25mi/hr off them. I have a 40 mile 1-way commute so I usually top off every morning. Luckily a group of us at work have lobbied hard enough to get actual Tesla wall chargers installed, which is going to be awesome.
Around town, I'll stick to the ChargePoint network. Really easy to use, and the app works similar to Tesla's supercharging maps (shows available ports and charging speed).
The mentality for 'filling up' has definitely changed for me. I top off whenever possible now, because non-supercharging networks are so slow around town, and non-supercharging public Tesla chargers are still very hard to find.
Around town, I'll stick to the ChargePoint network. Really easy to use, and the app works similar to Tesla's supercharging maps (shows available ports and charging speed).
The mentality for 'filling up' has definitely changed for me. I top off whenever possible now, because non-supercharging networks are so slow around town, and non-supercharging public Tesla chargers are still very hard to find.
swaltner
Active Member
While traveling in your Model 3, simply pick a place to stay that is listed as being part of the Destination Charging program. Tesla provides these companies with free charging stations and helps cover the installation cost. In most cases, otherwise paying customers are allowed to use the Destination Charging equipment for free. You can find these places at Find Us | Tesla (You can toggle off all the stores, service centers, and superchargers on the map). These sites are ones that would let you easily stay topped off overnight while one travels. There are over a dozen Destination Charging sites listed in what looks like the heart of Montreal.
If you're staying with friends/family on your travels, grab a suitable adapter from Model S/X/3 Gen 2 NEMA Adapters (you might need to update that URL to get to the page with Canadian pricing) and plug in at whatever outlet is nearest their garage/driveway.
If you're staying with friends/family on your travels, grab a suitable adapter from Model S/X/3 Gen 2 NEMA Adapters (you might need to update that URL to get to the page with Canadian pricing) and plug in at whatever outlet is nearest their garage/driveway.
For normal day-to-day use, we charge overnight at home and third-party charging stations are not relevant to us.
On road trips, slower charging is relevant whenever it's available at places where we spend time. Overnight charging at hotels or campgrounds is the most obvious example because it's great to start the next day with a full charge. We've also found it useful to charge while shopping. For example, we recently passed through Santa Cruz, CA and wanted to stop at Trader Joe's and Target for some items. There were free non-Tesla charging stations within easy walking distance of both stores and we added about 35 miles / 56 km of range while shopping. While this wasn't much, it was enough additional range to enable us to get past the congested Bay Area before we had to stop at another Supercharger on our way north.
On road trips, slower charging is relevant whenever it's available at places where we spend time. Overnight charging at hotels or campgrounds is the most obvious example because it's great to start the next day with a full charge. We've also found it useful to charge while shopping. For example, we recently passed through Santa Cruz, CA and wanted to stop at Trader Joe's and Target for some items. There were free non-Tesla charging stations within easy walking distance of both stores and we added about 35 miles / 56 km of range while shopping. While this wasn't much, it was enough additional range to enable us to get past the congested Bay Area before we had to stop at another Supercharger on our way north.
rhumbliner
Member
PlugShare - Find Electric Vehicle Charging Locations Near You has a more complete list since it includes J-1772 chargers (and others) as well as destination chargers.
Convenience?
If you are going to a movie, dinner, shopping, and there is a charger available, why not add a few miles?
This is much less of a factor for long range BEVs than it is shorter range BEVs.
Personally, I have never used a public car charger due to need. Only superchargers and my UMC.
If you are going to a movie, dinner, shopping, and there is a charger available, why not add a few miles?
This is much less of a factor for long range BEVs than it is shorter range BEVs.
Personally, I have never used a public car charger due to need. Only superchargers and my UMC.
Thanks everyone, if they are free that def makes sense, just all the ones I saw were $1 an hour and said you'd get 30km on it an hour. So I guess my thing is if I'm driving to a movie or something, I'd be coming from my home and therefore a full charge, driving maybe 10km to get downtown. So to pay $2-3 for 2-3 hours while at a movie, when the car only lost 10-15km driving there to begin with. It seems like they are more popular with smaller electric vehicles that don't have a large capacity. To do a 100km trip I'd need to have it charging for more than 3 hours, when it's rare I'd ever be in one place for that long.
I can definitely see when they could be useful, was more just curious when Tesla owners use them. Even if I drive to Montreal, if my battery is low and I want a full charge to drive back to Toronto, it still seems like it would make more sense to hit a Supercharger 20 minutes out of downtown to fill up in an hour, hour and a half, vs parking at a public 3rd party charging station downtown and having to leave the car there for potentially 15+ hours to go from low to full.
I can definitely see when they could be useful, was more just curious when Tesla owners use them. Even if I drive to Montreal, if my battery is low and I want a full charge to drive back to Toronto, it still seems like it would make more sense to hit a Supercharger 20 minutes out of downtown to fill up in an hour, hour and a half, vs parking at a public 3rd party charging station downtown and having to leave the car there for potentially 15+ hours to go from low to full.
Also just to add, almost all these public chargers are inside of parking garages, where it's already usually $3 for 30 minutes just to park there, so I guess it just seems weird to pay say $25 for overnight parking just to then have to pay to charge as well. There's a charger across the street from my condo dt Toronto but it's in a hotel which has $40 a night parking, so seems like many of these public chargers are inside paid parking lots or hotels.
They may be in garages where you are, but most aren't in the SE US. From what I've seen, when in a garage, they are free, because of the double whammy that you reference.
Level 2 chargers, are very widespread and outnumber Tesla chargers by a large amount. They vary in capacity, but are similar to Tesla destination chargers. Many are free, and even when not, they are relatively cheap. These chargers are what every non-Tesla vehicle uses. But they are destination equivalent, not fast chargers.
For fast chargers, The CHADEMO and CCS chargers are available that charge most vehicles to 80-90% in less than an hour. (that depends on battery size). They aren't compatible with the Model 3, but they are more abundant than Superchargers.
The Level 2 chargers have a big advantages over Tesla chargers, they are much more abundant. They will charge a Model 3 overnight and will add a fair amount of miles in an hour. Like Tesla Destination chargers, they vary in how much current they can provide.
Remember, why are you even interested in them? That's because they fill a gap.
This is because you're thinking about this from the wrong perspective. You're thinking about it from a "fill up and go" paradigm, hence your reference to a "trip". These kinds of charging stations aren't intended for that. For most cars for daily use, they are driven maybe 2 to 3 hours a day. People drive to work--the car sits for hours--they drive home--the car sits for a lot more hours. For 80%+ of most cars' time they are just sitting around parked. So the point is that if a car is going to be sitting around some place for many hours anyway, near someone's workplace or overnight in parking garages, it absolutely makes sense to have slow chargers there. You wouldn't actually want a really fast charger for a car that is sitting for 8 hours. That's a huge waste of cost, and the spot is just being blocked because the car is done in the first hour.
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