Where do you charge your Tesla Model S?

[Duffer]

I will have to continue with trying to get lucky and charge at one of the six 16A chargers at work once a week or visiting a nearby SuperCharger until our HPWC is installed on the 2nd.

Yes, I didn't heed the advice from both Tesla and this site to have the home charging installed before we picked up our car.

 

[1speed]

I will have to continue with trying to get lucky and charge at one of the six 16A chargers at work once a week or visiting a nearby SuperCharger until our HPWC is scheduled to be installed on the 2nd.

Yes, I didn't heed the advice from both Tesla and this site to have the home charging installed before we picked up our car.

Mine ended up being ready for delivery prior to my charger being installed. The 110v trickle charging can probably get you by unless you have a really long commute.

 

[wayner]

Same, I was thinking of using supercharger and/or chargers at Whole Foods more, but overnight charging at home in the garage is just so convenient after you get a 14-50 outlet installed.

And even more convenient with an 80A HPWC

 

[appleguru]

I will have to continue with trying to get lucky and charge at one of the six 16A chargers at work once a week or visiting a nearby SuperCharger until our HPWC is installed on the 2nd.

Yes, I didn't heed the advice from both Tesla and this site to have the home charging installed before we picked up our car.

Even a nice slow charge on a regular 120V (12A) outlet can get you 50+ miles of range overnight!

 

[wayner]

Even a nice slow charge on a regular 120V (12A) outlet can get you 50+ miles of range overnight!

Sounds like you live in a warm part of the US. Here in Canada in the winter you need all of that power just to keep the battery warm, never mind add much charge.

 

[appleguru]

Sounds like you live in a warm part of the US. Here in Canada in the winter you need all of that power just to keep the battery warm, never mind add much charge.

Turn on range mode before charging. It disables the battery heater and (almost) all power will go to actually charging the battery... You won't get any regen when you go to drive, but at least you'll have extra range!

(And if you have a 20A outlet and can use the 16A NEMA 5-20 adapter, even better... The extra 4A makes a huge difference to charging speed)

 

[SMAlset]

We primarily charge our 75D at home. However if we are running around all day with the car or maybe didn't charge the previous night/day for some reason, sometimes will Supercharge along the way. I do actually enjoy the Superchargers on road trips be it for stretching your legs, food or bathroom breaks. Always nice to see fellow Telsa owners around. Way more convenient to plug in at home than drive out of the way to Supercharge anyway. My husband's office does offer ChargePoint Level 2 so on those days when he drives in he'll use the charger there too. So very much a combination of charging sources I guess.

 

[WannabeOwner]

I charge mostly at work. Here in UK there is no tax (what we call "Benefit in Kind tax") from electric charging at work, so its a free perk.

I charge at home too, mostly only at the weekend. Here in UK Gas is a lot more expensive than USA, but electricity about the same, so the cost of charging at home "seems" so cheap that its not really worth trying to maximise charging at work.

Apart from Supercharging (once or twice a month) I've charged a couple of times a year at some other charger. What a nightmare! It has typically taken the APP (for one Provider) about 5 minutes to enable the charging, and the location of the chargers on the APP of another Provider are nowhere near their actual location ... and that's assuming they aren't broken, or in use - given that there is typically only one or two at each location,and they are so slow that if in-use it will be ages before they are free again.

So easy to user Tesla Supercharger by comparison ...

 

[henderrj]

40k in less than a year!? Whoa. Mostly business or lots of road tripping?

We're about 20 mins from the Monroe SC so cool to hear you're stopping there. Our go-to's are either Centralia when we're heading South or Burlington when heading North.

Mostly business, I run out to the coast once a week, about 250 miles there, and my son drives the car Uber 3 to 4 days a week. We do this because we bought the car to test an electric charging device we have a patent for. We were supposed to have gotten an investment, but didn't. Neither of us wanted to give up the car so he decided he'd help pay for it by doing that. Still worth it! Love this car.

By the way, we put in Tesla's high power wall connector, and this unit has dual Chargers. Charging at 80 amps, 60 miles an hour, is absolutely amazing! Of course it does make that meter spin like mad. Especially if we are also charging the Kia Soul EV at the same time!

 

[sdorn]

Sounds like you live in a warm part of the US. Here in Canada in the winter you need all of that power just to keep the battery warm, never mind add much charge.

Exactly. I rented a cabin the other weekend and figured I'd be able to add enough extra range over the weekend to not need to charge anywhere else before coming home, even with a trip or two into town, but it was so cold (below 20F) that the car wasn't adding range at all from the 120v/15a outlet. Thankfully I was able to stretch my 20ft 14-50 extension cord, a short 14-50 adapter cord (about 24") and the mobile connector along with a supertight inches to spare parking job to just barely get my car plugged into the dryer outlet that was in the basement of the cabin. That worked like a charm as it was a 220v/30a outlet.

 

[masamitsu]

Like most I charge at home unless on a road trip.

 

[rypalmer]

Great that most can charge at home. But where is Tesla's growth going to come from? There are a lot of city dwellers without dedicated driveways that will want the Model 3.

 

[sdorn]

Great that most can charge at home. But where is Tesla's growth going to come from? There are a lot of city dwellers without dedicated driveways that will want the Model 3.

That's true, but I still think Tesla's core demographic is going to be comprised mainly of home owners. Even in larger cities (other than places like NYC or San Francisco and a few other places where the cost is prohibitive), most middle-class families are homeowners rather than renters. According to Wikipedia 84.2% of all married couples are homeowners and overall home ownership is around 65% of the population in the US.

 

[pschubert61]

95% charge at home with HPWC installed when I bought the Model S. Superchargers for long trips, like the Xmas road trip from Boston to Orlando.

 

[rypalmer]

That's true, but I still think Tesla's core demographic is going to be comprised mainly of home owners. Even in larger cities (other than places like NYC or San Francisco and a few other places where the cost is prohibitive), most middle-class families are homeowners rather than renters. According to Wikipedia 84.2% of all married couples are homeowners and overall home ownership is around 65% of the population in the US.

That's a pretty wide sample area.. i'm sure in rural areas home ownership approaches 100%. But wealth isn't distributed evenly. There's a far higher concentration of wealth in urban areas.

Also - home ownership in larger cities doesn't mean you get your own driveway. Many live in semi-detached houses and are forced to park on the street, or in condo buildings with parking underground. Installing charging in your own underground space can run you $20-30k. It's ugly. Speaking from first hand experience here trying to solve this problem for myself.

 

[WannabeOwner]

There are a lot of city dwellers without dedicated driveways that will want the Model 3.

I think there will be street-infrastructure for that - i.e. wherever they currently park their town-car. We've put Water, Drains, Electricity, Gas, Cable TV, Fibre ... into the street over the years, so must be possible to run some power where chargers are needed I think over here there has been talk of adding them to existing lampposts / street lighting.

But scratch that because Real Soon Now FSD will allow people not to bother to own a car ... just ride-hail one

 

[AndrewTX]

That's a pretty wide sample area.. i'm sure in rural areas home ownership approaches 100%. But wealth isn't distributed evenly. There's a far higher concentration of wealth in urban areas.

Also - home ownership in larger cities doesn't mean you get your own driveway. Many live in semi-detached houses and are forced to park on the street, or in condo buildings with parking underground. Installing charging in your own underground space can run you $20-30k. It's ugly. Speaking from first hand experience here trying to solve this problem for myself.

The US Census Bureau says approximately 60% of American households live in single-family detached housing. Regardless of the wealth distribution there's a very long way to go before Tesla is limited in their growth due to this issue.

That doesn't mean that they shouldn't continue to invest heavily in public charging infrastructure, of course.

 

[henderrj]

I think there will be street-infrastructure for that - i.e. wherever they currently park their town-car. We've put Water, Drains, Electricity, Gas, Cable TV, Fibre ... into the street over the years, so must be possible to run some power where chargers are needed I think over here there has been talk of adding them to existing lampposts / street lighting.

But scratch that because Real Soon Now FSD will allow people not to bother to own a car ... just ride-hail one

Apparently most Street lamps are designed to carry 50 amp up to the light itself, change those puppies to LED and now you have 30 amp or more available. There is a company over there in England it is already doing that, it won't take much for somebody to be doing it over here either. Then we can have access to charging at the street level all over the place.

And once full self-driving is actually working, just send your car out and have it charge itself! Course they all need something to make that work. Are you listening Tesla? I do have a patent for that!

 

[Takumi]

Used to charge at home, but then Tesla was so nice to install a Supercharger at the local 24h supermarket. Now we get to do two things at once! Sweet!

 

[rypalmer]

Apparently most Street lamps are designed to carry 50 amp up to the light itself, change those puppies to LED and now you have 30 amp or more available. There is a company over there in England it is already doing that, it won't take much for somebody to be doing it over here either. Then we can have access to charging at the street level all over the place.

And once full self-driving is actually working, just send your car out and have it charge itself! Course they all need something to make that work. Are you listening Tesla? I do have a patent for that!

Can you cite a source indicating street lamps have 50 amp services? I looked into the specifications for street lighting in Toronto and we have no such capacity whatsoever.