What is the kW rating of the Tesla Mobile charger on 240v?

[MikeRTX]

So I know a supercharger allows me to draw up to 170kW for my M3 RWD, but I'm confused about the kW my 240v L2 mobile charger (TMC) draws at 24A.

How do I figure that out?

 

[Eric33432]

240 x 24 = 5.76 kW

 

[jjrandorin]

So I know a supercharger allows me to draw up to 170kW for my M3 RWD, but I'm confused about the kW my 240v L2 mobile charger (TMC) draws at 24A.

How do I figure that out?

The charging speed / kW is the same for the mobile connector and the wall connector, until you get past 32amps (because the mobile connector only goes to 32amps.)

Thus, you can look at the wall connector charging speed chart that Tesla itself puts out to get these numbers. You can look at the kW number in this chart for the answer. Note that the fastest a model 3 charges is 11.5kW, which is on a 60amp circuit, and 48amp charging.

https://www.tesla.com/support/charging/wall-connector

Wall Connector Technical Details	Charge Speed Max Miles of Range per Hour of Charge*
Circuit breaker (amps)	Maximum output (amps)	Power at 240 volts (kilowatt)	Model S (mph)	Model 3† (mph)	Model X (mph)	Model Y† (mph)
60	48	11.5 kW	41	44	35	44
50	40	9.6 kW	34	37	29	37
40	32	7.7 kW	27	30	23	30
30	24	5.7 kW	21	22	17	22
20	16	3.8 kW	14	15	12	15
15	12	2.8 kW	10	11	9	11

 

[RayK]

Circuit breaker (amps)	Maximum output (amps)	Power at 240 volts (kilowatt)	Model S (mph)	Model 3† (mph)	Model X (mph)	Model Y† (mph)
60	48	11.5 kW	41	44	35	44
50	40	9.6 kW	34	37	29	37
40	32	7.7 kW	27	30	23	30
30	24	5.7 kW	21	22	17	22
20	16	3.8 kW	14	15	12	15
15	12	2.8 kW	10	11	9	11

Note the † in the Model 3 and Model Y columns. The footnote that accompanies that table says: "Maximum charge rate for Model 3 Rear-Wheel Drive and Model Y Rear-Wheel Drive is 32A (7.7kW) - up to 30 miles of range per hour."

What's missing there is any mention of older configurations such as Standard Range vehicles. They are also under the same current limitation (32A).

 

[Tronguy]

So I know a supercharger allows me to draw up to 170kW for my M3 RWD, but I'm confused about the kW my 240v L2 mobile charger (TMC) draws at 24A.

How do I figure that out?

Hokay. Let's get this clear: A Tesla has two ways of getting energy into the battery:

1. Using the Mobile Connector, connect some species of AC power (in the North American market, this is single phase 120 VAC or 240 VAC). This gets rectified by (up to) three 16A capability rectifiers to a DC voltage, which is then used to charge the battery in the car.
2. Connect a Supercharger to the car. A Supercharger is, essentially, a variable DC power supply. It goes, pretty much, directly to the battery, bypassing any and all rectifiers.

Let's get the Supercharging out of the way. I happen to have had nothing but Tesla Long Range cars with 85 kW-hr batteries or some such. When those batteries are near dead empty (like, less than 20% or so), they can be charged at up to 250 kW; that's between the car and what the Supercharger is capable of. Once one gets above 20% state of charge or so, the car slows down the charging rate to keep from damaging the batteries. By the time one is at 80% SOC, the charge rate is down around 30-40 kW or so. The last 10% takes about as long as the first 90%. In any case, any Tesla hooked up to a Supercharger typically goes from 0% SOC to 80% SOC in a half-hour or less. And that's Standard Range cars with a smaller battery as well as the Long Range cars with bigger ones.

Supercharging is often defined as "Level 3" charging.

So, It Is Defined that if one connects 120 VAC to a Tesla, typically using the car's mobile connector or Something Else Similar, then that's defined as Level 1 Charging.

Similarly, if one connects 240 VAC to a Tesla, then that's defined as Level 2. But Level 2 actually covers a bit of ground, as follows:

1. Most North American homes receive something called "Split Phase". Three wires cometh down from the power pole. One wire is Neutral; a second wire is a Hot, let's call it Hot #1, and is 120 VAC with respect to Neutral, as measured with an AC voltmeter. The third wire is also a Hot, let's call it Hot #2. This wire is also 120 VAC with respect to the neutral. But, if one hauls out an oscilloscope and looks at the actual waveforms of Hot #1 and Hot #2 with respect to Neutral, one will discover an Interesting Thing: When the sine wave that is Hot #1 is going Up, the sine wave that is Hot #2 is going down, and vice versa. If one connects a voltmeter from Hot #1 to Hot #2, instead of getting 120 VAC or something, one gets 240 VAC.
2. On the other hand, most business in the US don't get split phase. For various reasons, mostly to do with motors, they get 120 VAC three phase. Yep, there's a neutral, like in split. But the three phases (let's call them A, B, and C) are each 120 VAC to Neutral, but instead of being opposite of each other, they're 120 degrees (as in, say, circles and sine waves) from each other. A voltmeter connected between any of the A, B, C and Neutral gets one 120 VAC; but that same voltmeter connected between A and B, A and C, or B and C will net you 208 VAC.

The reason that #2 is even talked about is that when one goes to a Level 2 charger in a parking lot.. well, I've never seen one of those that wasn't 208 VAC.

So: How much power? Pretty much, it's the current of the socket in question times the circuit voltage.

Additional snivvy: In the North American market, following the National Electric Code, the maximum amount of heavy current one can put on a circuit is 80% of that circuit's rating. "Heavy Current" is definitely what a Tesla draws when it's charging.

So, starting with L1. A standard 120 VAC socket with two parallel blades is a 15A. In fact, time for my favorite graphic, straight from Wikipedia:

The typical home socket is a NEMA5-15 and has a 15A breaker on it. Maximum power is 15A*80%*120VAC = 1440W.
Modern construction often calls for, in the garage, a 20A circuit and socket. You can tell a 20A socket because one of the two parallel openings in the socket can accept a right-angle blade. Maximum power is 20*80%*120VAC = 1920W.

And then, there's the plethora of 240 VAC sockets: NEMA14-20, NEMA14-30, our favorite NEMA15-50, and so on. Tesla will happily sell you adapters for those and others of the 240VAC flavor for about $15 a pop; the Mobile Connector is about $220, I think, and it comes with a NEMA5-15.

Now comes the fun. If you have a Long Range or Performance version of a Tesla, they come, built in, with three (3) 16A AC to DC rectifiers. With all three running, it's possible to charge the car at 48A. At this time, this requires a Tesla Wall Connector (or equivalent) that can be hardwired to a 60A breaker (using 60A capable wire) in a breaker panel. 80% of 60A is 48A; 240 VAC * 48A = 11.52 kW.

If you have a Standard Range Tesla (indication: advertised mileage is less than 300 miles), it comes with but two (2) of those rectifiers. So the maximum current that can be drawn is 32A.

So, working one's way up from the bottom:

NEMA14-20: Capable of 20A, max. 80% of that is 16A. 16A * 240 VAC = 3.84 kW. That's still a lot more than any L1 circuit one can find.

NEMA14-30: Capable of 30A, max. 80% of that is 24A. 24A * 240 VAC = 5.76 kW.

NEMA14-50: Interesting. Nominally would be able to do 40A, but it turns out that's a bad assumption. You may have noticed in the chart above that there's 15A sockets, 20A sockets, 30A sockets, 50A sockets, but there's no 40A sockets. But, as it happens, there are 40A loads, like electric clothes driers and electric stoves. 50A wire.. costs a lot, copper's expensive. So the NEC has made an exception: If one has a 40A load, one can put in a 40A breaker, 40A wire, and a NEMA14-50 socket. One is supposed to put a label on that socket. Yeah, and you tell me: 20 years after that socket's been installed, any bets as to whether that label is still there? So, if one plugged a Tesla into such a thing, and the Tesla drew 40A on a heavy load basis, one would run the significant danger of Catching The House On Fire. (Not joking). Since a Tesla can't tell whether it's a real 50A circuit or a 40A circuit out there, this is thought to be the reason that a Tesla Mobile Connector maxes out at 32A. So, a TMC plugged into a NEMA14-50 gets you 32A, not 40A. Power is 32A * 240 VAC = 7.68 kW.

As a previous poster put up, Tesla has a "Miles of Charge Per Hour" chart that's different for different cars. But how they got it is pretty straightforward: Go to the Mulroney sticker on the car and find the W-hr/mile rating for the car. A Model 3, for example, is around 250 W-hr/mile.

So: Say one has a 30A circuit. That's 5.76 kW. 5.76 kW/(250 W-hr/mile) = 23 miles/hour.

A NEMA5-15, 120 VAC 15A circuit, is 1440W. So, that'd be 1440W/(250 W-hr/mile) = 5.76 miles/hour.

Now, if you have a Standard Range Tesla, the most current it can accept is 32A @ 240 VAC. That's 7.68 kW, so it's 7.68kW/(250 W-hr/mile) = 30.7 miles per hour.

If you have a Long Range Tesla Model 3, you can get 11.52 kW. And that will get you 11.52kW/(250 W-hr/mile) = 46 miles of charge per hour.

There's a percent or so loss of energy going through the rectifiers. But, on my LR cars in the garage, I actually do see 46 miles of charge per hour when they're charging on a TWC hooked to a 60A breaker.

Finally: Note that all my 240 VAC numbers above were based upon, well, 240 VAC. If one is at a Chargepoint or some other public L2 charger, it's not going to be 240 VAC, it'll be 208 VAC. It's pretty common to find 32A, 208 VAC public chargers: Those have a wattage of 32*208 = 6.66 kW, and, for a M3, a charge rate of 6.66 kW/250 W-hr/mile) = 26.6 miles of charge per hour. Using the inevitable J1772 adapter that came with your car.

 

[3sr+buyer]

And then, there's the plethora of 240 VAC sockets: NEMA14-20, NEMA14-30, our favorite NEMA15-50, and so on. Tesla will happily sell you adapters for those and others of the 240VAC flavor for about $15 a pop; the Mobile Connector is about $220, I think, and it comes with a NEMA5-15.

Each plug adapter for a Tesla Mobile Connector is $35 or $45, according to https://shop.tesla.com/product/gen-2-nema-adapters . The Mobile Connector is $250 and includes the 5-15 and 14-50 plug adapters, according to https://shop.tesla.com/product/mobile-connector .

Besides 5-15 (common household) and 14-50 (EVSE or 240V 50A campground outlet for RVs), plug adapters are available for 5-20 (120V 20A household or commercial building), 6-20, 10-30 (old dryer), 14-30 (dryer), 6-50 (welder or some EVSE). Tesla does not sell a TT-30 (120V 30A campground outlet for travel trailers), but there is a third party one available, as well as TT-30 to 14-30 adapters.

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

There's a percent or so loss of energy going through the rectifiers. But, on my LR cars in the garage, I actually do see 46 miles of charge per hour when they're charging on a TWC hooked to a 60A breaker.

The loss is closer to 10%.

For a 2022 Model 3 LR AWD, the energy content per displayed rated mile is about 79kWh/358mi*0.955 = 211Wh/mi.

95.5% accounts for the buffer.

You can always check your energy screen to get the value. Or drive to the rated line and subtract 5Wh/mi. Then multiply by 0.955.

11.5kWh/211Wh/mi *0.9 = 49mi/hr

You might have slightly less than 11.5kW at the car due to voltage drop.

 

[dratcl]

Hokay. Let's get this clear: A Tesla has two ways of getting energy into the battery:

1. Using the Mobile Connector, connect some species of AC power (in the North American market, this is single phase 120 VAC or 240 VAC). This gets rectified by (up to) three 16A capability rectifiers to a DC voltage, which is then used to charge the battery in the car.
2. Connect a Supercharger to the car. A Supercharger is, essentially, a variable DC power supply. It goes, pretty much, directly to the battery, bypassing any and all rectifiers.

Let's get the Supercharging out of the way. I happen to have had nothing but Tesla Long Range cars with 85 kW-hr batteries or some such. When those batteries are near dead empty (like, less than 20% or so), they can be charged at up to 250 kW; that's between the car and what the Supercharger is capable of. Once one gets above 20% state of charge or so, the car slows down the charging rate to keep from damaging the batteries. By the time one is at 80% SOC, the charge rate is down around 30-40 kW or so. The last 10% takes about as long as the first 90%. In any case, any Tesla hooked up to a Supercharger typically goes from 0% SOC to 80% SOC in a half-hour or less. And that's Standard Range cars with a smaller battery as well as the Long Range cars with bigger ones.

Supercharging is often defined as "Level 3" charging.

So, It Is Defined that if one connects 120 VAC to a Tesla, typically using the car's mobile connector or Something Else Similar, then that's defined as Level 1 Charging.

Similarly, if one connects 240 VAC to a Tesla, then that's defined as Level 2. But Level 2 actually covers a bit of ground, as follows:

1. Most North American homes receive something called "Split Phase". Three wires cometh down from the power pole. One wire is Neutral; a second wire is a Hot, let's call it Hot #1, and is 120 VAC with respect to Neutral, as measured with an AC voltmeter. The third wire is also a Hot, let's call it Hot #2. This wire is also 120 VAC with respect to the neutral. But, if one hauls out an oscilloscope and looks at the actual waveforms of Hot #1 and Hot #2 with respect to Neutral, one will discover an Interesting Thing: When the sine wave that is Hot #1 is going Up, the sine wave that is Hot #2 is going down, and vice versa. If one connects a voltmeter from Hot #1 to Hot #2, instead of getting 120 VAC or something, one gets 240 VAC.
2. On the other hand, most business in the US don't get split phase. For various reasons, mostly to do with motors, they get 120 VAC three phase. Yep, there's a neutral, like in split. But the three phases (let's call them A, B, and C) are each 120 VAC to Neutral, but instead of being opposite of each other, they're 120 degrees (as in, say, circles and sine waves) from each other. A voltmeter connected between any of the A, B, C and Neutral gets one 120 VAC; but that same voltmeter connected between A and B, A and C, or B and C will net you 208 VAC.

The reason that #2 is even talked about is that when one goes to a Level 2 charger in a parking lot.. well, I've never seen one of those that wasn't 208 VAC.

So: How much power? Pretty much, it's the current of the socket in question times the circuit voltage.

Additional snivvy: In the North American market, following the National Electric Code, the maximum amount of heavy current one can put on a circuit is 80% of that circuit's rating. "Heavy Current" is definitely what a Tesla draws when it's charging.

So, starting with L1. A standard 120 VAC socket with two parallel blades is a 15A. In fact, time for my favorite graphic, straight from Wikipedia:
View attachment 1055373
The typical home socket is a NEMA5-15 and has a 15A breaker on it. Maximum power is 15A*80%*120VAC = 1440W.
Modern construction often calls for, in the garage, a 20A circuit and socket. You can tell a 20A socket because one of the two parallel openings in the socket can accept a right-angle blade. Maximum power is 20*80%*120VAC = 1920W.

And then, there's the plethora of 240 VAC sockets: NEMA14-20, NEMA14-30, our favorite NEMA15-50, and so on. Tesla will happily sell you adapters for those and others of the 240VAC flavor for about $15 a pop; the Mobile Connector is about $220, I think, and it comes with a NEMA5-15.

Now comes the fun. If you have a Long Range or Performance version of a Tesla, they come, built in, with three (3) 16A AC to DC rectifiers. With all three running, it's possible to charge the car at 48A. At this time, this requires a Tesla Wall Connector (or equivalent) that can be hardwired to a 60A breaker (using 60A capable wire) in a breaker panel. 80% of 60A is 48A; 240 VAC * 48A = 11.52 kW.

If you have a Standard Range Tesla (indication: advertised mileage is less than 300 miles), it comes with but two (2) of those rectifiers. So the maximum current that can be drawn is 32A.

So, working one's way up from the bottom:

NEMA14-20: Capable of 20A, max. 80% of that is 16A. 16A * 240 VAC = 3.84 kW. That's still a lot more than any L1 circuit one can find.

NEMA14-30: Capable of 30A, max. 80% of that is 24A. 24A * 240 VAC = 5.76 kW.

NEMA14-50: Interesting. Nominally would be able to do 40A, but it turns out that's a bad assumption. You may have noticed in the chart above that there's 15A sockets, 20A sockets, 30A sockets, 50A sockets, but there's no 40A sockets. But, as it happens, there are 40A loads, like electric clothes driers and electric stoves. 50A wire.. costs a lot, copper's expensive. So the NEC has made an exception: If one has a 40A load, one can put in a 40A breaker, 40A wire, and a NEMA14-50 socket. One is supposed to put a label on that socket. Yeah, and you tell me: 20 years after that socket's been installed, any bets as to whether that label is still there? So, if one plugged a Tesla into such a thing, and the Tesla drew 40A on a heavy load basis, one would run the significant danger of Catching The House On Fire. (Not joking). Since a Tesla can't tell whether it's a real 50A circuit or a 40A circuit out there, this is thought to be the reason that a Tesla Mobile Connector maxes out at 32A. So, a TMC plugged into a NEMA14-50 gets you 32A, not 40A. Power is 32A * 240 VAC = 7.68 kW.

As a previous poster put up, Tesla has a "Miles of Charge Per Hour" chart that's different for different cars. But how they got it is pretty straightforward: Go to the Mulroney sticker on the car and find the W-hr/mile rating for the car. A Model 3, for example, is around 250 W-hr/mile.

So: Say one has a 30A circuit. That's 5.76 kW. 5.76 kW/(250 W-hr/mile) = 23 miles/hour.

A NEMA5-15, 120 VAC 15A circuit, is 1440W. So, that'd be 1440W/(250 W-hr/mile) = 5.76 miles/hour.

Now, if you have a Standard Range Tesla, the most current it can accept is 32A @ 240 VAC. That's 7.68 kW, so it's 7.68kW/(250 W-hr/mile) = 30.7 miles per hour.

If you have a Long Range Tesla Model 3, you can get 11.52 kW. And that will get you 11.52kW/(250 W-hr/mile) = 46 miles of charge per hour.

There's a percent or so loss of energy going through the rectifiers. But, on my LR cars in the garage, I actually do see 46 miles of charge per hour when they're charging on a TWC hooked to a 60A breaker.

Finally: Note that all my 240 VAC numbers above were based upon, well, 240 VAC. If one is at a Chargepoint or some other public L2 charger, it's not going to be 240 VAC, it'll be 208 VAC. It's pretty common to find 32A, 208 VAC public chargers: Those have a wattage of 32*208 = 6.66 kW, and, for a M3, a charge rate of 6.66 kW/250 W-hr/mile) = 26.6 miles of charge per hour. Using the inevitable J1772 adapter that came with your car.

That’s master class material sir!

 

[MikeRTX]

That’s master class material sir!

Agree! Thanks for lesson!

 

[MikeRTX]

The bottom line for me is that while my RWD M3 apparently tops out at 5.7kW (@24A, of course) with my TMC at home, a supercharger can deliver up to 170kW to my base M3.

So that's almost 30x the amount of kWs I can stuff into my car using a supercharger! And can I assume that equates to 30x the speed at which I can charge (?)

I get 24 mph at home, so I presume (under perfect conditions) I could get as much as 720 mph at a supercharger (30x24) !?!? Since my car maxes out at about 270 miles of range at 100%, I should be able to go from 0-100% in a half hour at a supercharger, right? (except for the inevitable throttle-down of rate-of-charge.) I have seen where Youtuber Out of Spec got a full 0-100% charge in a M3 in about 50 minutes.

You can tell I haven't used a supercharger but once.

 

[3sr+buyer]

A peak of 170kW does not mean that charge rate will be sustained for long.

As a practical matter, I have typically seen an average of 100-110kW when Supercharging from around 10% to 50-60% with a preconditioned (heated) battery.

 

[gsmith123]

So that's almost 30x the amount of kWs I can stuff into my car using a supercharger! And can I assume that equates to 30x the speed at which I can charge

Yup pretty much. Thermal losses are a little higher the faster you charge (more energy goes into heating the battery). Your thinking is sound though

 

[jjrandorin]

The bottom line for me is that while my RWD M3 apparently tops out at 5.7kW (@24A, of course) with my TMC at home, a supercharger can deliver up to 170kW to my base M3.

So that's almost 30x the amount of kWs I can stuff into my car using a supercharger! And can I assume that equates to 30x the speed at which I can charge (?)

I get 24 mph at home, so I presume (under perfect conditions) I could get as much as 720 mph at a supercharger (30x24) !?!? Since my car maxes out at about 270 miles of range at 100%, I should be able to go from 0-100% in a half hour at a supercharger, right? (except for the inevitable throttle-down of rate-of-charge.) I have seen where Youtuber Out of Spec got a full 0-100% charge in a M3 in about 50 minutes.

You can tell I haven't used a supercharger but once.

Not really, because the charging speed tapers off, drastically so as your battery gets over about 80% charged at a supercharger.

 

[Tronguy]

The bottom line for me is that while my RWD M3 apparently tops out at 5.7kW (@24A, of course) with my TMC at home, a supercharger can deliver up to 170kW to my base M3.

So that's almost 30x the amount of kWs I can stuff into my car using a supercharger! And can I assume that equates to 30x the speed at which I can charge (?)

I get 24 mph at home, so I presume (under perfect conditions) I could get as much as 720 mph at a supercharger (30x24) !?!? Since my car maxes out at about 270 miles of range at 100%, I should be able to go from 0-100% in a half hour at a supercharger, right? (except for the inevitable throttle-down of rate-of-charge.) I have seen where Youtuber Out of Spec got a full 0-100% charge in a M3 in about 50 minutes.

You can tell I haven't used a supercharger but once.

Hokay. There's a few interesting tidbits here.

Yep, you're right: At Max Power, a Supercharger blows all those Mobile Connector & Internal Rectifier stuff out of the water in terms of speed. But, as usual, it's not so simple.

The main point here: At any given battery State of Charge (SOC) there's a maximum rate that the battery can be charged without breaking it. The closer the battery is to being full, the lower the safe rate is. The car's internal Battery Management System (BMS) controls this rate.

Here's a quote from elsewhere on The Tesla Motors Club.

A lot of good advice! Here is a chart that perhaps addresses your question

View attachment 682006

I'm not sure where @ATPMSD got his "200 kW" plot from; the modern L3 Superchargers can run up to 250 kW. But there are definitely 120 kW and 150 kW systems out there.

So, the time to charge a 68 kW-hr battery (which is, roughly, what's in a Standard Range Tesla from 0 to 80% isn't just, well, dividing 68 kW-hr by, say, 150 kW and getting 68e3/150e3 = 0.453 hours, or 27 minutes: It's a bit of a complicated function.

The general rule of thumb is solid, though: Show up at a Supercharger with, say, 5% left, and the time to charge to 80% is 30 minutes or less. And it doesn't matter, generally, what kind of Tesla one has, Long Range or Standard Range. To that 80% mark (which is generally, roughly, enforced by Tesla), it's 30 minutes or less.

If one is on a long trip, the 20 minutes or a bit more is just long enough to park, plug in, walk across the parking lot, hit the bathroom, grab something to eat.. and probably not long enough to actually eat the food without having to go and move the car.

There are exceptions. The route planner in NAV will sometimes stare at the route, stare at the available Superchargers, stare at the predicted SOCs, stare at its navel, and sometimes figure if one has an additional 5% of charge or something, one can skip a Supercharger stop and get to one's destination That Much Faster. In which case it might be 40 minutes Supercharger stop rather than 20 or 30. The Mothership over at Tesla definitely also looks at how crowded a Supercharger is, or is predicted to be, and will route accordingly.

Note that nothing in the previous paragraph says that you can't pick and choose Superchargers (so long as you're got the range to the one you want). So, if that Supercharger stop coming up has but one restaurant, you can't stand their food, and the next Supercharger short or long (assuming you can get to the long one) has a plethora of your favorite food, then go ahead and knock yourself out.

One snivvy that's kind of important: To get those 20 to 30 minute charge times, the battery has to be warmed up to an appropriate temperature. This is not a problem when one is in the middle of a trip; some distance short of the next Supercharger, you'll see pop up a message, "Preconditioning for charging", which means that the car's heating the battery up some. (This only works if you've got your destination in the NAV, so it's important to put your destination in the NAV. Even if your destination is some local Supercharger.) If you did like I did one day when the SO and I were traveling.. we parked outside the hotel. It was 20F out when we woke up. The Supercharger was Next Door, so just casually drove the car over there and started charging. It took 20 minutes for the battery to get warmed up to the point where it could charge effectively, taking what would have been 20 minutes the previous evening to a 40 minute+ experience twiddling our thumbs.

(And the above is why there were all those reports of Teslas lined up in NYC and Chicago last winter. All these newbie Tesla owners, mostly Uber drivers and the like, took their freezing sub-zero temperature cars with very low State of Charge straight away from their warm beds to the nearest Supercharger and, Surprise! met up with a very long line of similar idiots Who Really Should Have Charged Last Night When The Car Was Warm, and then had to Wait In Line. And some of said idiots showed up with only 1% to 2% SOC, then Left The Heat On Inside The Car.. and had to get towed when the car ran dry. Don't you be that species of idiot.)

Finally: Yep, Tesla runs all these nifty Superchargers that can charge one's car in very little time. But nothing in life is free and that goes for Tesla, too: They pay rent for the land, they pay money for the electricity, they pay people to fix the things when they break, and they need money to build even more Superchargers. Tesla has stated that they run the system on a slim profit margin, just enough to keep the cash flow fluid, and I believe them. But, during the day, the cost of electricity at a Supercharger is roughly 3X what one will pay at home. Here in NJ, household juice is about $.16/kW-hr; the local Supercharger, during the day is (one can see this in the car or on the app, under Location->Charging, then tap a nearby Supercharger for the number of open stalls and the costs) $0.43/kW-hr, substantially higher. A lot of Superchargers (but not all) have time of day pricing; so, this particular one drops its rate to $0.25/kW-hr between midnight and 4 a.m., good for night owls, I guess.

In general, running around the landscape using Superchargers is still better than driving an ICE, although a modern Prius will give a Tesla doing this a run for its money. Except that a Prius still needs oil changes and all that, and a Tesla doesn't.

Going back to charge rates: When charging at home at, say, 7 kW or something, one doesn't generally have to worry about how cold the battery is. This does crop up sometimes with L1 charging (120 VAC at 12 or 16A), though: The battery does have to be warm enough to charge. If it's 0F outside, though, the 1.44 kW from a standard wall socket isn't quite enough to get the battery warm (all that surface area on the battery, don't-cha-know), so it's not unheard of for somebody to be Badly Surprised when their L1-charged Tesla Won't Charge when it's seriously cold outside. I've personally seen, instead of 5 miles of charge per hour, 1 or 2 miles of charge per hour. Not a problem for our friends in California. And any kind of L2 charging (240 V!) is more than enough to warm the battery to take a charge at the advertised rate.

The same deal about trying to charge to 100% (good for when one is about to leave on a long trip) is true for L2 charging as it is for L3: The last few percent of charge takes, seemingly, forever, as the car's BMS lowers the charge rate at high SOCs. If you are leaving for a trip in the morning, check out the Scheduled Departure feature in the car: You can set it up with a time to leave, and the car will start charging to your set value so that it's done when it is time to leave. Read the manual on this one: There's an option or two to set.

That's enough for one day.

 

[tga]

The general rule of thumb is solid, though: Show up at a Supercharger with, say, 5% left, and the time to charge to 80% is 30 minutes or less. And it doesn't matter, generally, what kind of Tesla one has, Long Range or Standard Range.

As long as it's a modern (<3 year old) car. Those of us who own (or owned) old 85kWh S's will disagree with the second sentence...

 

[DuncanM]

The bottom line for me is that while my RWD M3 apparently tops out at 5.7kW (@24A, of course) with my TMC at home, a supercharger can deliver up to 170kW to my base M3.

So that's almost 30x the amount of kWs I can stuff into my car using a supercharger! And can I assume that equates to 30x the speed at which I can charge (?)

I get 24 mph at home, so I presume (under perfect conditions) I could get as much as 720 mph at a supercharger (30x24) !?!? Since my car maxes out at about 270 miles of range at 100%, I should be able to go from 0-100% in a half hour at a supercharger, right? (except for the inevitable throttle-down of rate-of-charge.) I have seen where Youtuber Out of Spec got a full 0-100% charge in a M3 in about 50 minutes.

You can tell I haven't used a supercharger but once.

Charge curves for the M3 LFP RWD: