Electric Vehicles

I don’t think typical residential supply would support level 3 charging, and i don’t think the equipment providers that make level 3 chargers sell retail. But level 2 charging is something most residences, especially late 20th cen and newer houses can do. It depends on how much of your electric service is already committed. If you need a new panel/fusebox, that’s expensive, as is additional power from supply/additional meter. If you are running a new circuit, the cost of having a pro do it will depend on how accessible the space is, as well as material cost. 6/3 wire is about $410 for 125 feet, which would be a long run. All the rest of materials would be less than $100 (assuming modern circuit panel). I have no idea what electricians charge nowadays.

I am guessing you can just plug in to an 220v outlet and don’t need a charger. It will be much more efficient to heat just the battery rather than the entire garage.

I also have no experience with cold weather loads on Teslas and whether 110v charging can keep up.

Have you switched off sentry mode?

Sentry mode isn’t supposed to come on when I am home.

It is 10.53 hours since the start and I have added 50 miles to get up to 246, which is 4.75 mi/hr. It says I still need 1h50m more which would get me to 255.

I wonder if it needed more time than usual to warm the battery and when it wasn’t adding any charge the first few minutes it assumed it would stay that way?

It will be interesting to hear how you go this winter. Certainly on very cold days some of your charge will be taken up to keep the battery warm. Hard to know how much. I imagine your garage will be a bit warmer than outside as long as there’s no drafty bits.

If you’re out and about you may be able to get a top up at a fast charger if you’re finding it hard to charge fast enough at home for your usage.

Do you need the charge now or soon?

If not, no worries.

Also, Mathman is your guide.

I don’t have a car and will be in the market next month. I wasn’t going to buy a Tesla (don’t need to explain that right) but this has been informative.

I understand why you are thinking about it. I worry a lot about efficiency and optimisation. Just how I am.

Save money and buy a 3 year old one.

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I am likely getting a Chevy Equinox in the next few days. It is relatively inexpensive for a new car, especially post-tax. I can’t remember if you are in the US or not.

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I am/was a partial resident of the USA but from next month I will be a full time in Indianapolis.

My neighbor is tech savvy and got a Polestar a year ago. He didn’t have any problems charging it from a standard outlet in the cold of winter, and he was surprised to hear I get 4.7 miles/hr as he gets less than 4. So I think my fears were premature, and yes I could always Supercharge in the short term if I needed to implement a Level 2 solution.

Can you be more specific?

I don’t regret purchasing new with the $7,500 discount but absent that I would seriously consider used.

Eh. That was for busy bee, and the depreciation will exceed the rebate. You’re already in for the long haul.

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Anecdotally, last Christmas we took my Y to see family and just plugged into the 110v. It was cold, and I was definitely getting poor charging performance. Thankfully I went to Joplin, MO for something one day and swung by the Tesla Supercharger, so it was fine. I don’t recall my charging stats but I remember plugging it in one night, and the next morning I was very disappointed with the results, lol.

I’ve got the best of both worlds, a Level 2 charger and a finished and heated garage, my car doesn’t really spend much time below about 50°F.

No brake fade will appeal to the racers. This is a pretty big step forward, like the idea of also being able to do whatever you want with wheel design knowing you don’t need to factor in brake cooling.

The downside, of course, if anything goes wrong, it’s gonna cost ya.

My vehicle (Hyundai) is like that. The fuel economy resets either everyday or everytime I start the vehicle. Getting started, driving through parking lots and city streets, my mileage is atrocious. Once I get going on the highway, my fuel economy gets better and I can gain a lot of range according to the computer.

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Drove down to rural southeast Kansas for the holiday. Stopped last night for a restroom break, charged for a few minutes at $0.16 per kWh, then hooked up to the 8kW charger at the hotel overnight at no cost. We will only drive about 70 miles today, charge up again at the hotel, then it’s about 145 miles home so we won’t need to stop.

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Passed by the same Cybertruck 3x during our Tday road voyage. I guess the guy was going ~60mph to extend his range and get where he needed to go. His speed, while above the minimum, caused enough traffic around him that it seemed like a safety issue.

We stopped 2x about 100 miles apart, driving low 70s.

Most places that I’ve been there will be a lot of vehicles going 60 and I’ll often be one of them. As long as you’re not hanging out in the far-left lane, what’s the problem?

Being an outlier speed in either direction can make accidents more likely. This was on a two lane rural interstate with a 70 posted limit. I wouldn’t fault anyone for sticking to the limit or just under. The last time we passed him he was also holding up an oversized load.

I guessed at the 60, it may have been lower, regardless, it was one of the slowest vehicles out there.

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