What charger(s) do I want/need for 2023 MY or M3?

[mknmike]

I'm sure this has been covered somewhere, but my belief is that I should not need a Tesla charger at all bc I should be able to charge these cars while on the road at a non-tesla charge point. Right? So I'm assuming that when I purchase, I don't need to buy the Tesla mobile or wall connector. I think I would buy the mobile connector and assume that I can use an extension cord to charge in my driveway initially. Ultimately, I do plan to put maybe two chargers in, one in the driveway connected to the house, and another in the detached garage. I assume that there are cheaper solutions out there than the tesla offerings (same as a tow hitch from etrailer). I'm looking to keep costs down, but if there are worthwhile features in the Tesla chargers for not much more, I'd like to know that.

Thanks!
Mike

 

[Sophias_dad]

You can charge at a non-tesla charge point, yes. The mobile connector will be fine for home, but may be not very useful on the road unless you are traveling to a campground or your relatives houses. You'll have a j1772a adapter included with the car that will handle most on-the-road charging.

The UMC isn't as good in the weather as the HPWC. It is also very close to the same price, if you don't already have an outlet ready for it. You'll need a GFCI breaker for a new UMC circuit, which will add $100-$150 to your cost.

You also should consider the charging speed you need/want. If you don't drive much, a 120V outlet and UMC will work fine. If you need more than 32A charging, the UMC is right out.

 

[LoudMusic]

Oddly enough, Tesla's connectors are some of the highest quality and lowest price. You probably won't do much better elsewhere.

 

[RTPEV]

I'm sure this has been covered somewhere, but my belief is that I should not need a Tesla charger at all bc I should be able to charge these cars while on the road at a non-tesla charge point. Right? So I'm assuming that when I purchase, I don't need to buy the Tesla mobile or wall connector.

I am assuming (based on your next sentence) that you DO intend to charge at home, so yes, you WOULD need to buy at least the Tesla mobile connector. And personally, I would highly recommend that because chances are you will eventually be traveling to a relative's house or an Airbnb or other rental property that only has a 120V outlet and it will be very convenient for you to be able to plug in. There are not public chargers on every street corner yet!

I think I would buy the mobile connector and assume that I can use an extension cord to charge in my driveway initially.

Okay, but be careful with extension cords. You will need one that is heavy duty enough to meet the needs for continuous 1.4kW. I would recommend at least a 12-gauge extension cord (if you need one at all--you do get about 20 feet worth of cord with the mobile connector). And don't coil it when in use.

My friend actually tried plugging in his (non-Tesla) portable EVSE through a power strip...definitely need to respect the amount of power being pulled, even with 120V!

Ultimately, I do plan to put maybe two chargers in, one in the driveway connected to the house, and another in the detached garage. I assume that there are cheaper solutions out there than the tesla offerings (same as a tow hitch from etrailer). I'm looking to keep costs down, but if there are worthwhile features in the Tesla chargers for not much more, I'd like to know that.

If you have two different locations where you park, maybe that is warranted, but even with two EVs you can easily manage with one charger unless you have really heavy daily driving. My wife and I share a single charger and each of us only plugs in once or maybe twice a week, so it's easy enough to share it.

 

[Soul Surfer]

The mobile connector had saved my bacon more than once. Highly recommended.

 

[RayK]

@mknmike My 2018 mobile connector has not (yet) saved me but it still lives in the sub-trunk, along with 7 or 8 different NEMA adapters. I subscribe to Murphy's Law, which basically says: "If something can go wrong it will". An extension to that Law is that it will go wrong at the worst possible time. Like needing an emergency charge and not having the mobile connector in my car. It was nice when the mobile connector was included with the purchase of the car but now it must be bought separately, which leads to the thinking, "do I really need it?".

I don't charge at home (again, yet). I may in the future. For that I have a Wall Connector (still in its box), bought a few months before I actually got my car. I have a source of cheaper electricity to charge my car than what I can ever get with PG&E, our local energy supplier and utility that almost everybody here in CA hates on, so there's no incentive at the moment to install either connector for home charging. I use a ChargePoint CHAdeMO station near my home and there are Urban and 250kW Superchargers within a couple of miles. I'm retired but if I was still working at my last job, there were about three dozen Level 2 chargers in the employee parking garage. If you have access to such charging at your workplace and there's an abundance of Superchargers in your area, then I understand why a mobile or wall connector may seemed unneeded. As long as you know going in, that you may need to spend some time sitting in your car Supercharging at those places, you could probably survive without home charging.

However, I still would at least get a mobile connector (currently $230 at the Tesla Store). It comes with the usual 120V NEMA 5-15 adapter, the one on all the walls in your house, and the 240V 14-50 adapter. That one, although popular, may not be in your house but an older NEMA 10-30 may be (typically used for electric dryers). That mobile connector could be used in either location at your house, as long as there's an outlet nearby (or easy to install one). If you go that route, be sure not to skimp on the outlet. Stay away from Leviton for any of the 240V outlets. Bryant and Hubbell are the better ones. A mobile connector maxes out at delivering 32A, assuming a properly designed circuit capable of having at least a 40A breaker is used.

If you decide upon installing a Wall Connector ($475), the current Gen3 design can be networked via WiFi. You can specify that only certain cars are allowed to use the charger (Access Control). With Wifi, the Wall Connector can be updated with the latest firmware. The Wall Connector can be provisioned with up to a 60A circuit so the maximum it can provide your car(s) is 48A, given your car(s) can handle that much (RWD is limited to using a max of 32A not matter what you feed it).

 

[mknmike]

Thank you. So the mobile connector is a no-brainer. And if I plan to have a permanent charger at home, it sounds like the wall charger won't be much (if any) more expensive than a generic option. Sound about right?

 

[RayK]

I haven't investigated the costs of the various options out there but I believe that most non-Tesla EVSEs will have a J1772 plug at the end. This can still work for your Tesla since the cars should come with a J1772 adapter (converts the J1772 plug into NACS). With all the auto companies now jumping on the NACS train, future home charging equipment may sprout NACS connectors instead. But that might take some time. Maybe by then the cost of the equipment will drop.

And yes, if you want a more permanent charging solution at home, then a Wall Connector (WC) makes sense. Hard-wired to your electrical panel, it removes one connection point (the wall socket) and could provide more current to your car vs. the mobile connector (UMC), as long as your electrician does a proper load analysis and provisions the wiring appropriately. I don't know why you think you need two places to charge at home. Are you thinking about having two cars? Or just want the flexibility to charge at different locations at home? For my own situation, if I ever install the WC in my garage, essentially right behind the electrical panel, at the same time I envision putting in a 240V outlet which is paired with the WC using a transfer switch. Meaning either the WC is alive or the 240V outlet. That way, if anything goes wrong the the WC, I'd still have an outlet into which I could plug in the UMC.

 

[mknmike]

I guess the important thing is to get only what I will need right from the start when buying a Tesla (M3 or MY). I don’t believe there are chargers in my wife’s work parking garage, and I work from home. I’m pretty confident it will be most convenient to charge at home.

With just my wife and me driving two vehicles, we’ve averaged 10,000 and 8,333 miles per year respectively. I expect that to increase with kids going to 3 different schools now and also starting driving. We obviously aren’t really heavy on the mileage. It kind of seems like Teslas might be more ideal for people who are going to put 100-150,000 miles on a car in the first 8 (warranty) years. I hope that doesn’t make a Tesla a bad choice for someone like us. Clearly we could get by with something lesser. The government incentive is a big factor in the purchase.

Anyway, back to charging. It sounds like some charge stations have a lower charge per kWh than many homes. I wonder if that’s due to even more government subsidies trying to push the technology. If I discover that’s the case, perhaps I will find some places that make sense to charge near me. I can honestly only think of one, a sports stadium where my kids sometimes have sports events. Maybe my wife runs into others when she’s out shopping. I don’t know.

 

[mknmike]

Is there any discount for buying a wall or mobile charger at the time of purchase?


I guess maybe it can be bundled in the financing. I don’t think that’s a huge benefit for us. If it ends up being 6-months or a year before I install a wall charger, paying additional interest on that, plus the feeling of just one more project will be a real negative. So I will most likely put off the wall charger purchase, and maybe investigate if there are benefits to any non-Tesla wall chargers.

 

[RTPEV]

As @LoudMusic indicated, the Tesla wall connector is actually CHEAPER than most permanently installed J1772 options (other than some maybe really low end and under powered units). Other than the fact that non-Tesla units have J1772 connectors (meaning they are compatible with ALL cars and not just Tesla), there is really no advantage to getting a non-Tesla unit these days. Now a few months ago, I would have pushed a J1772 unit given that if you potentially had a non-Tesla in your future, the J1772 unit would be more universally compatible. But all (most, but probably eventually all) car manufacturers going with the NACS (Tesla) connector starting in late 2024 pretty much reverses my recommendation. Now the future proof would be a charging station with a NACS connector, so the Tesla wall connector is a no brainer. If you do ever need to plug in a J1772 vehicle, you can get an adapter for <$100. And if you are really concerned, Tesla now sells a "magic dock"-like wall connector that can charge both NACS and J1772.

That said, I agree with your strategy of just holding off on the wall connector for now. See how it goes with the mobile connector. Even at 120V you can recover about 40 miles overnight (I recover about 70-75 miles per 24 hour period when visiting my in-laws and using their 120V outlet, but I intentionally reduce the charge rate because they have sketchy wiring). If and when you do decide to "power up" make sure you look at any incentives available in your area. My utility for example provides a rebate of up to $1200 for installation of either a 240V outlet or wiring prep for a wall connector.

I'm not sure I understand this comment:

It sounds like some charge stations have a lower charge per kWh than many homes.

I think you are saying that public charging stations, for example, have a charge rate of say 7.2kW or 6.6kW, whereas you could get 11.5kW with a Tesla wall connector.

This is due to a number of things.

First, and this is part of @LoudMusic's comment: Out of the box, the Tesla wall connector is already one of the higher powered charging stations out there, and for a price comparable to lower powered units. Maybe this is because Tesla is not relying on making a high margin on their charging stations like other companies dedicated to charging stations that have to cover all their costs. So Tesla can sell the wall & mobile connectors closer to their cost. I also think that they probably get a better deal on components that go into the wall connector as they are probably common to what's in the car, so they are getting them in really high volume.

So, when you look at public chargers, they are likely to be less capable (and thus cheaper) units capable of only 32A (vs 48A for the wall connector).

Also, there is probably a question of electrical capacity at the site. Particularly if they are installing many charging stations, they may have limited capacity for the whole site and could not support 48A times 6 chargers for example, so they figure that 32A is probably sufficient (I currently have a 30A charging station at home and it is plenty).

Then there is the fact that many public charging stations are on 3-phase power, which delivers 208V nominal, rather than 240V you find at home. I've even seen voltages as low as 199V, which is probably 208V from the panel dropping to 199V in the middle of the parking lot/deck. This has a direct impact on power: 199V times 32A is only 6.4kW. This is pretty common at public chargers.

And then finally you may see dual headed charging stations in public settings that split the power between two cars.

 

[mknmike]

As @LoudMusic indicated, the Tesla wall connector is actually CHEAPER than most permanently installed J1772 options (other than some maybe really low end and under powered units). Other than the fact that non-Tesla units have J1772 connectors (meaning they are compatible with ALL cars and not just Tesla), there is really no advantage to getting a non-Tesla unit these days. Now a few months ago, I would have pushed a J1772 unit given that if you potentially had a non-Tesla in your future, the J1772 unit would be more universally compatible. But all (most, but probably eventually all) car manufacturers going with the NACS (Tesla) connector starting in late 2024 pretty much reverses my recommendation. Now the future proof would be a charging station with a NACS connector, so the Tesla wall connector is a no brainer. If you do ever need to plug in a J1772 vehicle, you can get an adapter for <$100. And if you are really concerned, Tesla now sells a "magic dock"-like wall connector that can charge both NACS and J1772.

That said, I agree with your strategy of just holding off on the wall connector for now. See how it goes with the mobile connector. Even at 120V you can recover about 40 miles overnight (I recover about 70-75 miles per 24 hour period when visiting my in-laws and using their 120V outlet, but I intentionally reduce the charge rate because they have sketchy wiring). If and when you do decide to "power up" make sure you look at any incentives available in your area. My utility for example provides a rebate of up to $1200 for installation of either a 240V outlet or wiring prep for a wall connector.

I'm not sure I understand this comment:


I think you are saying that public charging stations, for example, have a charge rate of say 7.2kW or 6.6kW, whereas you could get 11.5kW with a Tesla wall connector.

This is due to a number of things.

First, and this is part of @LoudMusic's comment: Out of the box, the Tesla wall connector is already one of the higher powered charging stations out there, and for a price comparable to lower powered units. Maybe this is because Tesla is not relying on making a high margin on their charging stations like other companies dedicated to charging stations that have to cover all their costs. So Tesla can sell the wall & mobile connectors closer to their cost. I also think that they probably get a better deal on components that go into the wall connector as they are probably common to what's in the car, so they are getting them in really high volume.

So, when you look at public chargers, they are likely to be less capable (and thus cheaper) units capable of only 32A (vs 48A for the wall connector).

Also, there is probably a question of electrical capacity at the site. Particularly if they are installing many charging stations, they may have limited capacity for the whole site and could not support 48A times 6 chargers for example, so they figure that 32A is probably sufficient (I currently have a 30A charging station at home and it is plenty).

Then there is the fact that many public charging stations are on 3-phase power, which delivers 208V nominal, rather than 240V you find at home. I've even seen voltages as low as 199V, which is probably 208V from the panel dropping to 199V in the middle of the parking lot/deck. This has a direct impact on power: 199V times 32A is only 6.4kW. This is pretty common at public chargers.

And then finally you may see dual headed charging stations in public settings that split the power between two cars.

Sorry I meant lower cost per kWh, not lower charge per kWh.

 

[RayK]

Sorry I meant lower cost per kWh, not lower charge per kWh.

I don't know about the cost of residential electricity in your part of the country, but here in San Jose, CA about the lowest possible cost for off-peak (12m-6am) that I could ever get from PG&E is in the low-thirties ($0.33-$0.34/kWh). The city of San Jose is currently looking into the possibility of running their own power utility, like some neighboring cities already do.

That's the main reason why I'm using a CHAdeMO adapter at the nearby ChargePoint station which is subsidized by the company the chargers are located at (Santa Clara Valley Water District). There, both the Level 2 and DCFC chargers are $0.19/kWh. Of course there's a maximum connect time before "parking" fees are assessed - 4hrs for L2, 1hr for DCFC. As I usually charge the car when it gets to about 50% and stop at 90%, an hour's worth of time at the DCFC is enough to do this. The local Urban Supercharger cost has bounced around over the last couple of years but it's generally in the range of $0.26/kWh for off-peak and mid-thirties for peak. Today it's $0.25 and $0.28 which isn't too bad. Public charging works for my case as I'm retired and have the time to spend.

 

[flixden]

Mike, you got lots of good feedback here.
I personally think that it's worth getting the mobile connector from Tesla, for charging at home for now, and later down the road when you are traveling. Even at relatives houses it can come in handy.
As for a permanent charging solution at home: I am currently using a Chargepoint Homeflex with the J1772 adapter that comes with the car. But that's only because we had a Rav4 Prime before the MY, so the charger was already there. It works just fine, but if the Tesla would have been my first EV (as it sounds like in your case), then I would for sure go with the Tesla wall charger. It's cheaper than the Chargepoint, and does the same or better. It would be nice also to not needing the adapter all the time.
Hope this helps! Sounds like everybody here who has responded agrees on the main points, that doesn't happen too often in forums, but it sure makes it easier for the one having to make the decision!!

 

[stripes]

Thank you. So the mobile connector is a no-brainer. And if I plan to have a permanent charger at home, it sounds like the wall charger won't be much (if any) more expensive than a generic option. Sound about right?

I had a non-Tesla & a J1772 EVSE before I bought my model Y. Technically I have 3 J1772 EVSEs, two are 120V 12A max units so they are mostly useless, and the last was a 240V 32A charger that plugs into a RV style plug. The 240V 32A charger costs slightly more than Tesla's mobile connector. It is more or less capable of hanging around outside in poor weather and had a pretty long cable. The mobile connector charges at the same rate, although I don't think it is rated to leave outside in the rain. They are otherwise pretty equivalent.

For use with a Tesla the Tesla connectors are slightly more convenient to use because you don't need to futz around with the J1772 dongle. I decided that rather than risk accidentally leaving the dongle on the charger at home when I might end up needing it while driving I would buy the mobile connector to replace my J1772. It is a bit of a decadent choice -- it would have been cheaper to buy an additional J1772 adaptor. So basically I payed $200 or so to get a charger with a "open the charge door" remote button on it.

I don't regret it.

Since you don't have an existing J1772 charger I would recommend getting the mobile connector from Tesla if you will be doing the charging inside a garage. The mobile connector is basically the same cost as cheap 3rd party J1772 chargers and it will have the right "tip" for the Tesla and the one button remote. If you are doing charging where you might get rain on the EVSE the more expensive wall connector is likely worth the extra money (I think it is $100 to $200 more expensive, and as it needs to be hardwired it will also need an electrician, and it won't be something you can move from location to location -- it does charge faster then the mobile connector though, like 40 miles of range back per hour as opposed to 25...although I have never found the lower charge rate an issue in the years I've owned EVs -- however your schedule may differ from mine, and you may value different things; the wall connector also has some nifty features for charging multiple cars at once that the mobile connector doesn't). The Tesla wall connector is around what a mid-priced 3rd party J1772 EVSE costs which is a good deal considering it basically charges faster then almost all of the others in it's price range and has most of the features of the most expensive chargers except ones already provided by the car (i.e. other chargers can make graphs and schedule charge times, the wall connector doesn't do that, but the car will let you do schedules with ease and make the same sorts of graphs).

 

[mknmike]

So the mobile connector can’t get wet? Is that true?

 

[RayK]

It can get a little wet. But don't let it sit in a puddle of water, nor allow the water to flow down the cables onto the unit. I have a small box in my sub-trunk which I could use to put the UMC on top of, if I ever need to use it. There's enough cable to the NACS connector that the UMC can sit underneath the car if needed.

What I believe that @stripes was referring to when they said that it's not rated to leave outside in the rain, is that if it's permanently mounted outside. However, note that many Destination Chargers, which are essentially permanently mounted UMCs, are typically not covered. At least here in CA....

 

[mknmike]

Thank you! I wonder if some of these things could add to range anxiety. Like, what if it rains for several days straight, and I haven’t yet cleared a garage space for the car (all the junk in there). I’m trying to get a house ready for sale and haven’t organized the garage at the new house yet. So until I get that all sorted, the car will likely be outside.

My wife today test drove both a MY and a M3, and since I have figured out that it costs less to keep her current car and add a M3 vs swapping her current car for a MY, she says she’s fine with the RWD MY. That’s more range than a RWD MY, but less than a dual motor MY. We will have to see how the next few weeks go, and whether we should go for one of the Y options. More range means less likelihood that we will have a charge issue due to several days of rain (until I can get a wall charger and/or garage space).

 

[RayK]

However, note that many Destination Chargers, which are essentially permanently mounted UMCs, are typically not covered. At least here in CA....

Sorry for the error. I meant to say that Destination Chargers are Wall Connectors. Mobile Connectors are NOT waterproof but they are "weather resistant". Again, don't let a torrential rain beat down on it, nor have water flow onto the unit and you should be okay.

I should also clarify my statement about the possibility of having the mobile connector under the car if charging outside in the elements. Obviously the NEMA adapter that plugs into the UMC is short and will barely allow it the hang off the wall outlet. As my intended use would be for an emergency (no public L2 or DCFC charger in range without adding some miles) and if I couldn't get my car close to the outlet, I would be using an extension cord. That's not something that's recommended for full-time use but it can save ones a$$. I've never had to do this in the 5+ years of owning the car. The lowest I think that I ever got down on my battery was somewhere around 25 miles but my destination was a Supercharger so I wasn't worried.

Given your stated yearly mileage, that works out to about 700 miles a month, or 160 miles a week. That should be covered even with a current RWD which I believe is rated around 270 miles. Even if you actually get half that much, due to traffic/road conditions, weather, elevation changes or lead foot, that's still 135 miles which can be recovered overnight (i.e., a bit over 6 hours) using a 240V 30A source. I was doing about the same amount of driving when I was working; 13 miles one way or 130 miles a week. I ended up charging at work about every third day when I'd use up about 90 miles of range. That was how much I could put back into the car during the 4 hours we were allowed to use the L2 ChargePoint stations for free.

 

[stripes]

Thank you! I wonder if some of these things could add to range anxiety. Like, what if it rains for several days straight, and I haven’t yet cleared a garage space for the car (all the junk in there). I’m trying to get a house ready for sale and haven’t organized the garage at the new house yet. So until I get that all sorted, the car will likely be outside.

Depending on where you plug the mobile connector in you may be able to plug it in inside the garage have the mobile connector's "box" inside the garage and run the cable under the garage door to the back of the car. I use to do this in CA with my J1772 charger for my older car (houses in CA are far to expensive to park a car inside a garage!)

If the mobile connector need to be outside because of where the power is you can probably put it in a open plastic tub (like a cheap underbed storage box from Target), just put it in the back of the car or in the house before you drive away. You might be able to do something like putting at the lid on it if you cut enough of the sides away to run cables through and vent the heat, but I would be cautious about that. The easiest solution is run it under the garage door if that will reach.

Depending on how much of a pain all that is for you this might be a case where getting something like a J1772 Grizl-e classic which is highly weather resistant (and has a very long J1772 end cable!) might be better then the Tesla connector. I think they are around $300 or $350 or so, It was $300 when I bought one almost 3 years ago, but then the "classic" wasn't sole as the "classic" it was the only model! You could even decide the Grizl-e stays with the old house and install a Tesla wall or mobile connector at the new house so long run you get the benefit of the easier connector (and with wall connector faster charging, if that matters to you at home). It would still work out much less expensive then changing which Tesla model or trim line you buy just for this temporary period (if you actually want the other model and this is just an excuse, you can ignore me, rationalizations can be important!!!)