Using only superchargers

[LoudMusic]

You're missing the point. Yea you could live off a 110v, as my cousin has. But would you...? Charging at a silly slow speed literally makes live around the lengthy charge sessions.

No I think you're missing the point. If you have a full charge, go drive your daily errands and use ~45 miles of range, then plug in at 15A overnight, you'll be back to full the next day. It's not like you're actually waiting around for it to do the charging so you can run your next errand.

Even if you are using 60 to 80 miles of range each day and only charging 40 miles most days, there will be a couple days a week where you don't drive that much and the charging gets ahead of the usage again.

I lived on 15A for a month in below freezing weather and it was plenty more than adequate. My brother-in-law has been living on 15A with his low range Leaf for like 8 years with no problems.

So long as you're charging as much as you're using each day it doesn't matter how slow it is. It's not like you're sitting there watching it charge. Plug in. Walk away.

 

[thesmokingman]

No I think you're missing the point. If you have a full charge, go drive your daily errands and use ~45 miles of range, then plug in at 15A overnight, you'll be back to full the next day. It's not like you're actually waiting around for it to do the charging so you can run your next errand.

Even if you are using 60 to 80 miles of range each day and only charging 40 miles most days, there will be a couple days a week where you don't drive that much and the charging gets ahead of the usage again.

I lived on 15A for a month in below freezing weather and it was plenty more than adequate. My brother-in-law has been living on 15A with his low range Leaf for like 8 years with no problems.

So long as you're charging as much as you're using each day it doesn't matter how slow it is. It's not like you're sitting there watching it charge. Plug in. Walk away.

Ok I see where this is going, contrarian battle royal. Don't be silly, 80mi used means 3mi/hr equals 26.6 freaking hours to recharge.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

I'm usually the first person to say home charging is almost a "must", but if you had extremely low use, and a very convenient SuC, every 3 weeks might be OK a majority of the time. Where it will be an issue, is being at the end of a long use cycle, and suddenly having an immediate need for a long[er] drive at a very specific time, though even that might not be a huge issue to hit the SuC for 30 minutes.

Like I work from home, and outside of very specific and planned for trips, I might do 30-40 miles a week. I could start at about 80%, and run down to ~20%, and using about 60% of the available range, 160-180 miles (depending on weather, etc.), I could do 3 weeks between charges, even factoring in the small vampdrain.

To be clear: this is not something that I would do personally (even with 2 charging locations < 10 miles away), SuC cost vs. home charging is a notable difference (in my area), and I don't like surprises, so I'm alway charged and ready (which in my mind is a huge perk with a BEV).

 

[pipp]

You're missing the point. Yea you could live off a 110v, as my cousin has. But would you...? Charging at a silly slow speed literally makes live around the lengthy charge sessions.

I don’t know what your cousin‘s driving habits are that force his family to plan everything around level 1 charging, but for most of the past 4 months I never had to plan anything beyond plug it in when I get home and unplug it before I leave. I also got 6 mph on level 1, which then meant I could go 70 or 80 miles on a full night’s charge. The reason I finally got a 14-50 outlet a couple weeks ago was that there appears to be an enormous amount of loss taking place with level 1 charging where I was putting in 100 kwh of power but the car was only actually storing 64 kwh of the 100. That, and the ability to charge faster allows me to discharge the battery a lot lower while still being able to “fill it up” within 8 hours…

 

[webwarmiller]

You're missing the point. Yea you could live off a 110v, as my cousin has. But would you...? Charging at a silly slow speed literally makes live around the lengthy charge sessions.

Yes, I would. By that I mean if I didn't have an at home option for 240V charging but did for 110V then I would still own a Tesla. If I didn't have an option for home charging of any sort there is no way in hell I would .

 

[zannman]

You're still in your investigating phase. Check out plugshare.com to see what charging options are around other than Superchargers. There might be a convenient Level 2 close to you that can provide 30-40mph charging that you won't mind if you're off doing something else.

There are some documented cases on older Model S where maximum supercharging rates are restrained after a certain total - say 10 MWh of supercharging. I don't think I've seen similar for 3 or Y.

For reference, my 54,000 mile Model 3 has AC charged a little under 12MWh and Supercharged a little under 4MWh.

 

[thesmokingman]

I don’t know what your cousin‘s driving habits are that force his family to plan everything around level 1 charging, but for most of the past 4 months I never had to plan anything beyond plug it in when I get home and unplug it before I leave. I also got 6 mph on level 1, which then meant I could go 70 or 80 miles on a full night’s charge. The reason I finally got a 14-50 outlet a couple weeks ago was that there appears to be an enormous amount of loss taking place with level 1 charging where I was putting in 100 kwh of power but the car was only actually storing 64 kwh of the 100. That, and the ability to charge faster allows me to discharge the battery a lot lower while still being able to “fill it up” within 8 hours…

He's one of those that thinks about things for a really long time. There was no reason to not get a 30a-50a or hpwc There's even the sce rebate which is like 30%-40% forget exactly. Yea charging over iirc 20a puts you into the efficiency sweet spot. I tried explaining to him why he should get one. That's part of the luxury not having to go to a gas station and then charging up however much you want in a few hours and you can go anywhere. I hope he's gotten off his ass and done it as the rebates expired this dec but you never know.

 

[thesmokingman]

Yes, I would. By that I mean if I didn't have an at home option for 240V charging but did for 110V then I would still own a Tesla. If I didn't have an option for home charging of any sort there is no way in hell I would .

That's not really a choice then lol. I don't think anyone would choose to stay on 110v vs 240v-250v. *Except my cousin lol who has a choice but procrastination turned into like a decade...

 

[webwarmiller]

That's not really a choice then lol. I don't think anyone would choose to stay on 110v vs 240v-250v. *Except my cousin lol who has a choice but procrastination turned into like a decade...

But that proves the point since your cousin has the choice. If it were enough of an inconvenience to him he would get the 240 outlet installed. Procrastination is easy if what you are procrastinating about doesn't really present a problem.

I had mine installed before I took delivery. For me it was an easy decision. I had an open pair of spots on my breaker and a good friend who is an electrician who offered to install it for next to nothing. But as I look back on how our car is used, I can say that we could have lived with charging via 110V as we would still have started most mornings with a 'full' charge.

 

[thesmokingman]

But that proves the point since your cousin has the choice. If it were enough of an inconvenience to him he would get the 240 outlet installed. Procrastination is easy if what you are procrastinating about doesn't really present a problem.

I had mine installed before I took delivery. For me it was an easy decision. I had an open pair of spots on my breaker and a good friend who is an electrician who offered to install it for next to nothing. But as I look back on how our car is used, I can say that we could have probably lived with charging via 110V as we would still have started most mornings with a 'full' charge.

His wife begged me to get him to do something. She complains to me they literally park the X for what seems like days and end up taking the Camary around town. Yea he has a choice, but it's not a sane or logical one.

Help me understand the math. Spend 90K on a Model X and slow charge at 3 mi/hr. Clearly one can afford the 500-800 for a socket.

 

[Silicon Desert]

It's reported that Supercharging causes the battery capacity to degrade more quickly.

It's also kind of a hassle to charge an EV this way for regular use. You're not going to get the same range per fill up from the Tesla that you've experienced in the past, and the recharge time is going to be massively longer for a full tank.

While that general statement might be true for some, for me, that information is incorrect. One of my cars is almost 5 years old and I use supercharging 85% of the time according to my records, mainly because it is free and contrary to your "hassle" statement, it is very convenient for us since one is right outside where we shop and eat every couple weeks. In 50,000 miles and over 400 charges, I've seen only a 14 mile reduction off of my original 300 mile range which is better than average.

It was sounding like your opinion and usage applies to everyone. Maybe I misunderstood that. It is just as convenient for us to charge where we shop than at home even if it weren't free.

So bottom line, I think it depends on an individual situation.

 

[webwarmiller]

His wife begged me to get him to do something. She complains to me ...

She's complaining to the wrong person; most spouses can complain enough to eventually get the other to relent just to keep them quiet . And I agree that in your cousin's case it seems like a no brainer to get a 240 installed.

 

[LoudMusic]

Ok I see where this is going, contrarian battle royal. Don't be silly, 80mi used means 3mi/hr equals 26.6 freaking hours to recharge.

Well if you're driving 80 miles per day then yes you need faster charging. But we're specifically talking about half that. But even if you do an 80 mile trip one day and very little the next day then it's still fine.


If you're doing 80 miles every day then obviously yes the math doesn't work out. Even if you had weekends to catch up. But that specifically isn't what we were talking about.

 

[LoudMusic]

While that general statement might be true for some, for me, that information is incorrect. One of my cars is almost 5 years old and I use supercharging 85% of the time according to my records, mainly because it is free and contrary to your "hassle" statement, it is very convenient for us since one is right outside where we shop and eat every couple weeks. In 50,000 miles and over 400 charges, I've seen only a 14 mile reduction off of my original 300 mile range which is better than average.

It was sounding like your opinion and usage applies to everyone. Maybe I misunderstood that. It is just as convenient for us to charge where we shop than at home even if it weren't free.

So bottom line, I think it depends on an individual situation.

That's a fair assessment. I certainly wouldn't tolerate supercharging as my regular source, unless it was at a location that I could go do something else while it was parked, and I wanted to do whatever that was on a regular basis. Such as grocery store or movie theater or such.

 

[Silicon Desert]

That's a fair assessment. I certainly wouldn't tolerate supercharging as my regular source, unless it was at a location that I could go do something else while it was parked, and I wanted to do whatever that was on a regular basis. Such as grocery store or movie theater or such.

yup, definitely agree with that. It's got to be really convenient or I don't do it. Fortunately the places we go, it is really convenient right now.

 

[lexapro]

I went 3ish months without any home charging solution. Just using the SC 15 minutes away, and public L2 charging 5 minutes away. It seemed “fine” at first but quickly got old. I could not imagine someone doing this for the lifetime of their car, regardless of their “low” usage.

 

[noline]

That's a good situation if home charging isn't an option. It will become even better for Tesla owners when the CCS adapter is available in North America because there are a lot of Electrify America stations at places like Walmart.

Even still, I personally would not own an EV if I was unable to charge at home overnight.

Agreed - I can charge at home as well so it's a luxury to have easy access to a supercharging.

 

[DayTrippin]

I can't say who the M3 might compare to my MY LR, but supercharging costs me more per mile to drive than our hybrid car when on a trip. I realize it is a convenience but it blows away the cost savings of an electric car with respect to the energy costs. Based on a recent 1100 mile trip, it worked out that I spent more on electricity at superchargers than when I took our hybrid that got about 34 mpg on the same trip for what I paid in gas. Just something else to think about.

We were also considering a place to live where we would have to be about 95-99% of the time on superchargers, it really limits what you can do like preconditioning the batteries and taking advantage of cooling/heating the car up before use. I think the climate control aspect is what my wife likes the best. I'd be looking at some way to run any sort of extension cord to keep some charge going to it all the time even if a 110v.

A plugged in Tesla is a happy Tesla as the saying goes.

 

[terranx]

I can't say who the M3 might compare to my MY LR, but supercharging costs me more per mile to drive than our hybrid car when on a trip. I realize it is a convenience but it blows away the cost savings of an electric car with respect to the energy costs. Based on a recent 1100 mile trip, it worked out that I spent more on electricity at superchargers than when I took our hybrid that got about 34 mpg on the same trip for what I paid in gas. Just something else to think about.

Well that assumes all of us would be driving an economy car if we didn't have a model 3. Personally, the only ICE vehicles that interest me over the model 3 would average more like 20 mpg (my current daily driver is a BMW M3 and I get more like 18 mpg). Even for a daily driver, I can't bring myself to drive a prius or something along those lines.

 

[Gargola11]

I have a 2016 Model S with nearly 150,000 on it. Most (75-80%) of the charging has been on superchargers through travel. I have about 7% battery degradation. Some cooling issues may have contributed to that. I charged to 100% on few necessary occasions and drove immediately ; the battery has never been below 5%.

While I don't know your driving habits it's difficult to say whether to sit there and charge to 90% once-in-a-while or just charge between 10%-50% more frequently. On an individual basis that would be quicker but on an additive basis who knows. You could also check Plug Share and see if there is somewhere nearby to charge on a Lvl 2 charger while making shopping runs, dinner, etc.

that's nice! is that your original battery? I got a 2016 Model S 90D a few weeks ago. Would love to know how batteries are lasting. Mine has only 40k miles