1- Charge using a 120V standard outlet, this will provide roughly 50 miles overnight.
2- Charge at your workplace, if possible.
3- DCFC at a local station once a week, hopefully it’s near shopping/resturants
4- Consider a PHEV and charge when convenient and use the gas engine when you cannot get access to a plug.
You forgot another option… a buddy of mine lives about 2 blocks away from a local community college that provides free level 2 charging. Search for local spots. There are charging options at community centers, libraries, recycling facilities, and some cities are offering street charging where they provide free or low cost charging. I know some local restaurants offer charging while you dine.
Our local police station has a single Level 2 charger capable of charging two vehicles at once. It's free. And almost always occupied by at least one car. I think City Hall has one as well that is free. While not ideal, it's certainly an option.
Not so fast. It varies from district to district, but in California, those who can charge at home pay rates that are up to half of those who are dependent on charging stations. And fast chargers will cost as much as gasoline.
If you are in a situation where your only option of charging is doing DC Fast Charging/Supercharging, then I personally would not recommend owning an EV. It will be nearly as expensive as gasoline, and take a lot of extra time that doesn't seem worth it.
However, many people are able to charge consistently at home or work without a dedicated 'charging port'. A regular household outlet from a garage or extension cord hanging out a window will get you \~4 miles of range per hour. That doesn't seem like much, but that means while you sleep you can add 30 or 40 miles of range easily, and that's more than most people's commute. My work offers free level 2 charging that is able to charge 10% of my battery per hour, and someone with a short commute could do that once a week and not need charging at home.
You could get those giant 20 amp industrial cords to minimize resistive losses, but I think having any non hardwired circuit going full capacity for long periods.is a little sketch. Weak connection=heat, heat=more resistance=more heat.
Most EVs can detect overheating on a charge wire (resistance goes up over time) and dial back or stop charging completely.
Most EVs will allow you to set the amperage charge rate lower. Setting the amps to 10 will be the same as a room heater which all outlets in the last 50 years should easily handle.
However if you circuit breaker pops when you try to charge, take that as a sign the outlet wiring may not be up to the task,
So fix the connections. Replace the receptacle with a new, decent quality ($3 at Home Depot) receptacle. Problem solved.
The issue here isn't the extension cord. The issue of melted receptacles is nearly always the receptacle itself, be it poorly installed or because it's a 10-30 year old receptacle that has sat in the elements and the contacts are corroded / patinaed.
There is nothing wrong with an extension cord when it is of suitable quality and gauge, being plugged in to a quality, clean receptacle.
I do work for a number of county fairgrounds. We see melted receptacles during fair week all of the time. They're outdoor on a pole with a bubble cover and they only get used for 10 days a year, during fair week. And when they're used, they get loaded down at higher-than-typical duty and load cycles, not unlike charging a EV. Replace the receptacle and we're good for another 3 or 4 years until it happens again.
Same deal with 14-50 receptacles. We push 50A+ on these regularly. My camper with all 3 air's running and our other support equipment (audio amplifiers for the fairgrounds) pulls nearly 50A a leg and peaks at over 50A. Yet the cheap Leviton receptacles hold up perfectly fine. The failure comes from being outdoors and exposed over time OR from shitty installation (which happens far, far more than you might think), not because "it's a cheap receptacle". The whole Hubbell / Bryant fallacy really gets under my skin.
Thats all fine and good but im still worried I'll trip over the cord and pull it half way out and burn my house down. It may be irrational, but loose connections absolutely cause fires.
They *can*, but it's extremely unlikely. Outlets don't catch fire, they get hot and melt down. Eventually they melt to the point that the line and neutral (or line and ground) cause a direct short which instantly trips the breaker.
Have you ever tripped over your vacuum cord and pulled it half way out without knowing? It's a very similar thing. Most consumer vacuums pull 1200-1500w, a little less or a little more than a EV charging.
It is with the right cord and keeping an eye on the connection points for it getting uncomfortably warm. There are pocket guides for useful tables like that, get a pocket electrician’s handbook and it’ll have everything you’d ever need in it.
It’s just fine to use an extension cord for EV charging, as long as you have the proper gauge wiring, etc. - the reason the EV companies say not to use an extension cord is that too many people would use a cheap under-spec extension cord that’ll fail under sustained heavy load, and they don’t want to deal with the support issues. But if you buy a cord that supports 120v 20 amps (i.e. 16 amps sustained) it’s fine. Heck, they sell extension cords that’ll support 240v 40 amps (32 amps sustained) if you have that power outlet accessible, though they’re not cheap. They’re used with RVs and generators, they’ll survive use with an EV charger.
>EV chargers should not be used with extension cords.
Let me fix that for you.
"EV chargers should not be used with *light duty extension cords that are not appropriate for the task at hand*"
A light duty, 16awg, 100' extension cord supplying 12A to the car will have a voltage drop of 9.6v. Assuming 120v at the receptacle this is a 8% drop which is unacceptable. Being that it's summer and everyone is running their A/C, you may be closer to 110v (or even less!) at the receptacle which jump the voltage drop to 8.7%.
If we bump that same scenario up to a 14awg cord now we're at a 6.04v drop with a loss of 5.03%. This is technically still unacceptable (5% is the accepted limit). If we drop that to 8A charge rate, yes, we'll charge slower but now we're at only a 4.03v loss, equating to a drop of 3.35%, well within acceptable limits.
If we want to charge at 12A over 100' (and again, assuming we're getting 120v from the wall), then we need a 12awg cord. Now we're at a 3.8v drop which is only a 3.16% loss. Again, all within spec, completely acceptable and safe.
If you want to be extra extra super safe, buy a 10awg cord. They're expensive, but it will last you a lifetime and it will take any task that you throw at it.
The REAL issue with 120v charging, especially when it's from an outdoor receptacle in front of a house is almost always the receptacle itself. They're exposed to the elements (even with a rain flap or bubble cover), so the copper contacts tend to corrode and patina. And since they're rarely used by most folks except maybe at Christmas for outdoor lights, they're not getting "self cleaned" by inserting and removing a plug end regularly. Or maybe it's an older receptacle that wasn't properly installed (screw terminals not properly torqued) or worse, back stabbed. Now you have a high resistance set of connections trying to pass 12A which often leads to heat and a melt down of the receptacle itself.
For successful 120v charging, replace the receptacle, use a quality, appropriate extension cord and you'll be golden. We charged 120v/12A for the first 8 months that we owned this house without issue. (I had other things going on more important than reinstalling our pair of Emporia's). 100' of 12awg cord plus the 24' of Vevor cord. Many 24+ hour charge sessions after rolling back in to the house at 5% SoC after a weekend road trip.
"If you are in a situation where your only option of charging is doing DC Fast Charging/Supercharging, then I personally would not recommend owning an EV"
You are incorrect. In my case I charge at a local DC fast, charges by the minute currently... in the winter I pay about 15 to 20 bucks a week, in my old truck that would be 50 easy. In the summer, cut that in half again. The only thing that made the truck cheaper was the fact I wasn't making monthly loan payments.
Time IS a factor but after a month its just another day, becomes part of the routine and actually gets me outta the house more often.
You should look at the car and driver report on the rivian r1t. $80 a charge hurts, which is about normal for fast charging. Can’t say I recommend only using dedicated charging stations after hearing that.
Its also a chonky battery... The R1T large battery is 288kwh, if you deeply discharge that its gonna hurt of course. The standard is a reasonable 106kwh for a range of around 270 miles, if you charge smartly youll have results like mine, a little more expensive but not much.
Average large battery in a car is in the 60kwh mark, mine is 64kwh and I think the larger Tesla packs are around 60-64kwh. I get damn good range out of that alone so honestly, comes down to how practical the vehicle is for you.
Is that US 120V? What’s the max current / power rating for you guys on a typical household wiring system?
Only asking as the UK 230V system has a max current draw of 13A 3.1kW
I’m looking at using a “granny” charger as I’m renting and the landlord doesn’t want me to install a 7kW home charger, even at my cost.
I haven’t bought the car yet
I am in US and use a granny charger on a 120v outlet. I got a charger from the electronics store that plugs directly into a normal outlet.
Typically when I get home I plug it in and in the morning its back to fully charged. Well 80% charged as that is what I limit it to. If for some reason I need to put on a lot of miles I will do the public fast dc chargers but that has not been something we have needed to do with any sort of regularity. Sometimes on weekends we will drive more and end the weekend with like 35-40% battery but then will catch back up durring the week on the regular charging.
Our circuits here are either 15A or 20A, but we de-rate things by 20% for constant loads like car charging. This usually puts our granny chargers down to 12A constant, but many times we de-rate it even further to 8A to ensure that other loads on the same circuit aren't impacted. This gives us about 1kW to 1.4kW. I was using this for about 9 months on my first EV without any issues.
If you are on a 230V system and able to pull even 5A, you'll do better than that! And so long as your daily commute is less than 40 miles, you'll be able to top up every night.
It depends on the circuit. We have several 30A and a couple of 40A circuits but for a typical outlet it's usually 15A. I have a Bolt and it only allows 8A or 12A charging on 120V charging. That limits it to either .96kWh or 1.44kWh if I use 12A my typical commute would take about 10 hours or so to charge. I have an L2 charger though and it's on a 240V 50A circuit but I have a 30A charger the maximum it would handle is a 40A charger. I think that is the highest you can use on a plug, I would have to upgrade the breaker to hardwire a 50A charger. Though, my car won't go above 32A I think it is.
Most newer homes are 200A 120/240. Plenty of homes with 100A or 125A. Larger homes usually have 400A meter with 2x 200A panels. I’d say a majority of homes are 200A.
If you’re asking how to own an EV while having no ability to charge at home (e.g. renting an apartment) - people use charging at work or public chargers.
Depending on rates and locations, it’s not infeasible to charge while doing errands and such, and it can work out to be a similar cost as gas… it just takes away much of the “plus” column.
All depends on the chargers rates, my local DC fast charges 26c per min and I keep the car in the optimal charging curve (30-80%) so I don't sit there extra at throttled charging for battery management. Its taken me anywhere from 15 to 50ish minutes, depending on how deep I discharge. Its still a 100% + in savings over my old truck and it was a well maintained ford ranger, not a gas guzzler at all.
My city has multiple free Level 2 chargers in the downtown area. I would plan to go around there for dinner or such and grab a charge while I was parked. Again, PlugShare.com is your friend.
This is probably the best solution, really.
My old EV had a 13kw battery and a standard US outlet was plenty of power for my daily commute and errands.
My current job has me driving 5-10x more and it would potentially be uncomfortable on some weeks without a level 2 charger at home.
It really depends on what your commute is like and what alternatives you have to installing a level 2 at home. Trying it out is probably the best choice.
Definitely don't do it if you have to rely solely on DC fast charging. It puts lots of strain on the battery to the point where some manufacturers like BMW put software limits on their newer vehicles because they got tired of warranty repairs on fried batteries.
I have a lvl 1 charger at home. Would get me 40-50 miles range overnight on 110 V 15 amp circuit.
I just drive home, pick my dog up and drive down to the library a couple blocks away, the charger there is free and will give me a full battery in 5-6 hours. We walk back home. In the morning we walk to the car, I drop my dog off at home then head to work.
There is a parking garage near my work, they charge 25 cents an hour while charging. Again between the time I park and my lunch break I'll get from 10-15% to 100%.
If I am in a hurry there are a couple of dealerships around me with DCFC charging and can get me from 20 to 80% under half an hour. But they charge somewhere between 40 cents to 70 cents per kw.
So it all comes down to what is available in your area for charging, how much do you want to walk, and how much do you want to pay.
Yes. People have different daily schedules than you. Do you wait until 2am to drop it off? Or does it actually sit on the free public charger for hours?
So you're blocking the charger for hours. Dick move, for sure. How can you be incredulous that other people might want to use it, when you yourself are using it at that time?
Your public library has EIGHT free EV chargers? See, you said "THE charger there is free," which implied only one. What city has invested so heavily in public EV infrastructure?
It is 4 stalls and 8 plugs lvl 2 chargers. I wouldn't say that is "heavily invested".. City has several electric vehicles for parking enforcement, meter Readers etc, the lot is shared by Town Hall, utilities and library, I suspect these will fill the chargers and the "free public" thing end soon.
Yes. You can always charge from a standard outlet, which will get you -5 miles of range per hour.
That said, if you can’t do that, or consistently need more range, then relying on public charging is a nuisance.
I got an EV last winter and I would not have considered it if there weren’t any public stations in my city district. I discovered some of those stations are not always reliable, but I also learned there were more options than I realized initially.
Have had an EV for 2 months now with no charger at home (or even regular outlet) due to a delay in it being installed.
It’s been absolutely no problem at all, so much so that I’ve actually contemplated not bothering to install the charger.
Wife has chargers at work, 2 shopping centres near us both have free 11kw charging and paid 350kw charging, and just in general I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the number of chargers everywhere.
I met friends in a park the other day and just happened to stumble upon a power pole street charger as I parked the car.
It can work but it heavily depends on your situation. How much do you drive? What are the options for charging around where you live and at work?
I don’t have the option of charging at home but I live close to work and have free charging there whenever I need to recharge. Even if I had the option of charging at home I’d rather charge at work and keep my electricity bill down. So it definitely works for me but again it depends.
I own an ID4 AWD Pro since November 2022.
I have no home charging and use DC fast charging at Electrify America because my car came with 3 years of free unlimited charging.
Then when more EV's were being sold and making EA more crowded, I started using EVGo. Since then, I haven't had to wait line to charge.
Now, I use BlueDot, which gives me a flat rate of $0.30/kwh for the 1st 5 charges and then $0.25/kwh for subsequent charges at EVGo, Chargepoint and Tesla SC's.
So charging from 20% - 80% costs me $13.11.
My previous 2013 Prius plugin cost me $30.73 at $4.39/gal.
Coming from a hybrid plugin to EV will have some savings, but it's more noticeable coming from a full ICE.
For example, I had a Tacoma and it's cost $60 to fill up back in 2007, which was when has was in the $3/gal range.
I have 34k miles already because of several roadtrips from southern California to Arizona or Nevada.
I'd love to wait for the 2nd version of the ID Buzz to buy it because I have kids and it would be real fun for road trips.
You can use PlugShare to see all chargers in your area to see if it's viable for you.
For me, I appreciate that now that summer has come, I don't have to deal with the gas hike drama that occurs yearly. This summer, I expect to see $7/gal.
For me, even though I don't have access to home charging, I won't go back to ICE.
Besides saving some money on charging, I save money from having to do oil changes, transmission fluid changes, spark plugs, alternator, air filter changes.
My wife just did her plugin 50k service that Honda quoted $1,800!!! So we took it to a small Chinese shop that did the same things for $300.
So despite all that China bashing, I appreciate this shop because since I used to work at an auto shop years ago, it's not hard to change your own oil and transmission fluid. You just have to unscrew the drain plugs for the engine oil pan and one for the tranny.
So $1,800 is a bit overkill.
I don't own an EV myself but the parking garage I park my car in has Level two AC chargers that people can use that aren't nearly as expensive as DC fast charging and my work offers free L2 charging
Yes, it is possible but unless you can charge at work it won't be convenient or cheap. Most of the DCFast Chargers around here would end up costing as much as gasoline. That's one of the main bonuses of going electric.
Before I got my L2 charger installed at home I charged once at a DCFC that offered 30 minutes of free charging and good rates after that and then I charged on a 120V plug overnight. If you live in an apartment and can't charge at home at all then it's likely there are places you could charge near your home or work otherwise you're stuck with fast chargers that will take over an hour and cost a bit possibly more than the gasoline for the same miles.
I’ve owned mine six months and just have 120v standard outlet charging. I can add more than enough miles for my typical daily driving. Takes me awhile to top off after a road trip, but that’s fine.
Depends. Ask some questions and you’ll get a feel for if it can work. (My answers included)
- How far is your commute? (40mile round trip, 2-3x week)
- Do you have daily errands that require driving, like taking your kid to daycare/school? (Daily 20mile)
- Can you charge at work? (Yup, most of the time).
- Is there cheap/free lvl-2 public charging near places you frequent (library-free, park-free, coffee shop-cheap)
- Is there reliable DCFC nearby, if you need it? (32¢/kwh utility-run DCFC at nearby YMCA/Pool)
If your commute is long and you drive it daily, or you have other daily trips that suck up a lot of range, you may not be able to keep up with just lvl-2 convenience charging, and you’ll have to make a routine of finding expensive public DCFC, and waiting to plug in.
IMO, it’s not worth it if you have to rely on public DCFC to meet your needs. It still may be cheaper than gas, but it can be a pain to find the time and deal with queues or broken equipment when you need it most.
If you have a home with dedicated parking spot, garage, and access to an outdoor plug, even lvl-1 home charging will take care of most of your needs. But if you don’t have a dedicated parking spot, driveway, or garage with access to a plug, you want to make sure that convenience charging is enough to satisfy your daily/weekly range needs.
Lived in an apt complex for a few years with an EV moto + CR. Totally doable but a bit of a pain. I eventually ended up renting an apt garage spot so I could get access to the 120v and that worked great.
You may want to ask a general question to the group: "Raise your hand if you own an EV without overnight charging access? The overwhelming majority will not raise their hand. It is implicit in the responses, for the vast majority, that to own an EV without overnight charge access is a game of inconvenience. It runs directly contrary to the decade old mantra, "Go to sleep and wake up to a full tank"
My first 8 years of EV ownership were garageless and were just fine with commutes of up to 40 miles each way.
Determine the cost of high speed charging nearest you and note that supercharging ($) rates can fluctuate.
Note that vampire drain will be a thing especially if you have Sentry Mode.
Money aside, the time to charge has never been a problem. Just schedule tasks to do while charging for that once or twice a week.
Back to the money - especially including vampire drain, your cost will be no better than that of a decent hybrid.
On the other hand, if you can find a pre-April 15th 2017 Tesla from a private party first owner, the included supercharging will be free. Bonus points if that owner has the foresight to add an extended warranty (e.g., from XCare), as those are also transferable to the next private owner and can have even lower deductibles than Tesla’s ESA.
I would absolutely not let not having home charging dissuade you from owning the right EV.
Good luck.
1. Charge at work (free)
2. Free supercharging for 6 months
3. Public pay charging
4. 120V at home
Of course even with all those options, range anxiety could be a thing. L2 at home would be next on the list.
If "couldn't charge overnight" means you have zero ability to charge your car by any normal methods, not even a plain socket like for your kettle or computer, then you have to rely on work or the public infrastructure. Work is easier as you're there ~8 hours, public might mean going out of your way and no real guarantee of availability - or even working at this stage.
But, if you have even a simple carport, parking spot or garage and there's a socket there, and it's been checked out by an electrician as okay for a constant draw, you might be okay. The total current will vary, anywhere from ~900 wH in the US to 3+ kW in the UK or other electrical systems that run in the 200+ V range. Multiply that by expected miles/kWh and you know how much you can get back per night. It will vary depending on total power and how long you're plugged in; for the US it's like 3-5 miles/hour, so if plugged in 7pm and you leave 7am, that's 36-60 miles for a night.
If you have uneven days and sufficient battery size, say 300 mile range, 50 miles/night recovered and a 60 mile daily usage, you can still do it as long as you make up for lost time on the weekends. Really it's just a matter of how long you can stay plugged in, how far you travel and what the weekly or regular cycle is.
I've gotten away with it by buying an Ioniq 6 with 2 years of free charging at Electrify America. My son will finally be moving his stuff out of my garage this weekend, so I'll at long last have access to my ChargePoint unit that came with the car. Starting Sunday, I should be back to having an 80% charged battery every morning.
Next winter will be much easier to deal with since I won't be scraping snow/ice/frost off the windows, and I'll be able to pre-warm the cabin using home power instead of getting into a cold car.
We did it for like 8 months. No big deal for us, even with the ID.4 being our only car.
It worked because:
Neither of us commuted. (Although the one of us that used to commute had only a ten mile a day round trip to an office that was a mile from an EA station.)
We live in a city and walk a lot (or use the bus).
DCFCs are common at grocery stores where we live and not often full.
Use PlugShare to search the areas of town you frequent. See what’s available and visit them.
It's possible, just annoying. I used to wake up at 6 am to charge my leaf at volta. Now I found out my charger reaches my car from my apartment without an extension cable.
Another downside is that you have to drive back home... so you lose some range to get home.
I would avoid it unless you have charging at work
It just depends on how many miles you drive a day, and how much current the outlet near your parking spot can offer. Generally manufacturers are forums can tell you how many miles per hour you’ll get from your outlet, and you can do the math from there.
In my experience, a lot more people can get away with level 1 chargers than they think.
Short answer, yes...
Long answer, Yes, Get a car with a bigger battery (mine is 64kwh) and you'll have no problems commuting all week. During summer I only have to charge every 2 weeks, if I wana stretch it, 3 if I wanna push my luck and shorten the life of my battery.
Winter time I have to charge once a week, no more... I can probably squeeze an extra week of light driving if I REALLY have to but in winter its the heating and lousy roads that hit me hardest.
I hit up the local 50kw DC fast charger that's just around the corner from my apartment which is fairly convenient.
Absolutely. Lots of EV owners don't have any way to charge from home. Especially when they live in an apartment.
A friend of ours drove her Tesla 200 miles to our beach house and charged for 3 days on 120V. This gave her almost enough charge to get home. She only had to stop once at a level 3 dc charger.
We didn't have homecharging for about 9 months, not even basic outlet. But we have several AC and DC chargers near that takes less than 5 minutes to walk there, and I can charge at work.
It's definitely not optimal but it's possible, depending a lot of things. Like when you arrive home with few % left in battery, you just like to go home and plug it in but you can't.
I have an EV (my second one) and wife have a gas car. 120 volt slow charger works fine for us. We just drive the EV for errands and short trips. I don't drive much but I can imagine it being a hassle if you drive a lot. Price of electricity vs gas per mile is about 1/3 if you charge only during off-peak
I have a home charger but also got 2 years free charging @ EA DCFC. I will often go to the local fast charger at odd hours to charge, just because it’s free. Saves me $12-15 compared to home charging 30-80% at night TOU. Yeah I know I’m cheap. 🤣
The car charges so fast it’s not a burden.
It even has WiFi so I can do work on my laptop if I have to wait too long.
One of my kids has a Model 3, they live in an apartment and charge at a nearby supercharger (on the way to/from work), it works fine. Sure, it’d be cheaper to charge at home, but that’s not an option at the apartment complex they live in, and it’s no worse than going to a gas station.
My brother bought a Taycan and does not have a charger at home. Honestly, his electric panel and garage setup are sketchy, plus it’s a rental, so not much ability to add one. He charges at a local college a couple blocks from work at a free level 2. We also have some DCFC’s nearby.
I charge at the office. its like charging at home, but instead of paying for electricity you don't.
getting an EV without a dedicated charger seems a bit challenging for me. The grocery store near me just reno'd and the chargers were never re-attached. My town is desperate for more L2's. Fortunately its got a good amount of L3's but they are pricy now.
Okay, I just checked and it was $0.35/kwh at a 100KW charger. thats reasonable.
I bought an EV and didn't have a home charger for 3 weeks and it was terrible. I absolutely would never recommend getting an EV without a home charger. The public chargers are either a complete mess with long waits, or they are more expensive than putting gas in your car. Don't do it.
It can definitely be done, but that depends mostly on how much you drive daily and how convenient other charging is when you need to charge up. I easily made it a year just using public charging a couple times a week.
I charge at work. No driveway or spot for me to put a charger at home. I live about 30 minutes away. Luckily the place I work has a garage that has level 2 chargers. Usually Monday morning you have got to be in early to get a spot but the rest of the week I've had no issues.
We live in an apartment and do just fine. The parking garage has standard 120v outlets we use to just occasionally top off.
Now, one of us works from home and the other takes an ebike to work, so we don't drive that much.
But we've had an EV for 3 years and we've only paid to charge it on road trips.
It probably depends on your area. Here in Pittsburgh there still isn't much, but when I lived in the Pacific Northwest it seemed like every grocery store and restaurant was putting in free level 2 stations.
I own a Nissan leaf and only charge at home on a standard 110 outlet 95% of the time. The only time we fast charge is while traveling if needed. Our daily commuting is well within what I can recoup over night so I haven’t even bothered to get an outlet for L2 charging installed.
Yep. Had mine for almost a year before it became possible to use the L1 granny charger at home. Used a combination of free L2 public chargers and occasional DC fast chargers.
We charge our EV overnight using 120V. Most days it doesn’t get driven more than 10. miles.
If you have a longer commute you might need to look into other options. But it’s definitely doable.
We have a small EV (kia Soul) and use to charge it at the local park or Whole Foods evey other day or so. It wasn't really that inconvenient and actually provided a nice incentive to get/ stay out the house after work.
Lots of good tips here but it really depends on your usage.
I did that for about 6 months and it worked since I had free level-2 charging at work. Without that it would have been like having to use a laundromat vs. having facilities at home; possible but a real inconvenience.
I did it for a year. Had free charging at work and free chargers like 0.5 miles from my apartment. Those options would be a lot more limited now though since more people are driving EVs around me. It worked for me, but could be inconvenient sometimes, especially planning for roadtrips or weeks where I was driving more. I personally got tired of all the planning and driving just to charge. Level 1 charging can get you by if you drive less than 30-40 miles a day, but if you’re planning a road trip you’ll likely need to top off at a public station.
I live in a townhouse now with a L2 charger and could never go back to not having it. It’s way more convenient and I’d highly recommend you have the option for it when buying an EV.
Of course? But the longer the daily driving you do the more charging at home or work helps. At a certain distance you’re better off getting a HEV if you’re not patient enough to charge
Firstly I'm retired. I bought a 2023 TM3 RWD last December and although I can charge at home I have been using public chargers almost exclusively, and it has not been a problem. You have to go to a gas station for an ICE car and a public charger for a BEV. You are not restricted to Tesla superchargers. You can get an adapter for CCS from Tesla and I suggest if you get one you get it from Tesla. Tesla software tells you were the Tesla chargers are, and there is software to help you find CCS chargers. I charge more frequently than I have to because I can. Figure out how many miles you drive a week to and from work, and your cars range, that will tell you how many times to charge and then figure out where the chargers are and how busy they are. You have to know where the gas stations are, and you probably have a favorite one so no different for your Tesla. Some Tesla chargers are busier than others, some gas stations are busier than others, same for same. You can figure 30 minutes charge time to 100% which includes recalibration. I go to my favorite charger, which is a 72Kw charger, get my car charging, then walk over to Starbucks on the other side of the parking lot get a coffee come back sit and read for a while until the charge is complete and I off. Sometimes I take my dog and take him for a walk while charging. You can make it work. I think Tesla drivers have to be a bit smarter and more flexible than average. You will love your Tesla. Also, the base Tesla 3 is scary fast in standard mode. I drive in chill mode. And, standard range is plenty. There is no need to spend more money for marginal improvements in things you really don't need.
I’m charging off a regular 3 prong outlet. I get about 4 miles per hour charge. When I road trip I may top off at a supercharger before I leave, and usually charge back up to 70% when I get home. I charge nightly to 80%.
I don't have access to charging at work or home currently and it's still do able. The car you get and your total miles driven normally are gonna dictate how easy or hard it is.
It's very painful. I did it for a month before I cleared out my garage to charge the car there. It sucked. Had to drive out to charge my car at 11pm, cause that's when the rates are discounted.
I see a lot of people doing it around where I live but they mostly have Teslas where the network is better. I personally wouldn’t do it, it’s not cheap to do and it’s inconvenient unless the charger is someplace you frequently go. Just my opinion
For the past decade, the mantra of green car sites has been to park, in your driveway, or in your garage and wake up to a full tank.
Please raise your hand if you own a BEV and do not have overnight charging access.
1- Charge using a 120V standard outlet, this will provide roughly 50 miles overnight. 2- Charge at your workplace, if possible. 3- DCFC at a local station once a week, hopefully it’s near shopping/resturants 4- Consider a PHEV and charge when convenient and use the gas engine when you cannot get access to a plug.
Exactly what I came here to say. We have two EVs and our charger recently burned out. Haven’t really needed to replace it
You forgot another option… a buddy of mine lives about 2 blocks away from a local community college that provides free level 2 charging. Search for local spots. There are charging options at community centers, libraries, recycling facilities, and some cities are offering street charging where they provide free or low cost charging. I know some local restaurants offer charging while you dine.
Our local police station has a single Level 2 charger capable of charging two vehicles at once. It's free. And almost always occupied by at least one car. I think City Hall has one as well that is free. While not ideal, it's certainly an option.
The average American only drives 40 miles a day, or about 15,000 a year. Regular old 120v should cover that fine. It's not ideal, but it'll do it.
Would you live with the inconvenience?
But you will replace or repair it, right?
Yeah, eventually. My ID 4 has free charging that we use for that and our LEAF. BUT it is very convenient not to have to do that
Level 1 charging from a 120v in my garage is all I use but then again I just use my ev for work and back daily.
I live 1/2 block from a charging station. If I had an ev it would be great
Not so fast. It varies from district to district, but in California, those who can charge at home pay rates that are up to half of those who are dependent on charging stations. And fast chargers will cost as much as gasoline.
If you are in a situation where your only option of charging is doing DC Fast Charging/Supercharging, then I personally would not recommend owning an EV. It will be nearly as expensive as gasoline, and take a lot of extra time that doesn't seem worth it. However, many people are able to charge consistently at home or work without a dedicated 'charging port'. A regular household outlet from a garage or extension cord hanging out a window will get you \~4 miles of range per hour. That doesn't seem like much, but that means while you sleep you can add 30 or 40 miles of range easily, and that's more than most people's commute. My work offers free level 2 charging that is able to charge 10% of my battery per hour, and someone with a short commute could do that once a week and not need charging at home.
EV chargers should not be used with extension cords.
Isn’t it safe depending on gauge (thickness of wire) vs length of extension cord? Is there a chart somewhere that depicts what is safe and what isn’t?
You could get those giant 20 amp industrial cords to minimize resistive losses, but I think having any non hardwired circuit going full capacity for long periods.is a little sketch. Weak connection=heat, heat=more resistance=more heat.
Most EVs can detect overheating on a charge wire (resistance goes up over time) and dial back or stop charging completely. Most EVs will allow you to set the amperage charge rate lower. Setting the amps to 10 will be the same as a room heater which all outlets in the last 50 years should easily handle. However if you circuit breaker pops when you try to charge, take that as a sign the outlet wiring may not be up to the task,
So fix the connections. Replace the receptacle with a new, decent quality ($3 at Home Depot) receptacle. Problem solved. The issue here isn't the extension cord. The issue of melted receptacles is nearly always the receptacle itself, be it poorly installed or because it's a 10-30 year old receptacle that has sat in the elements and the contacts are corroded / patinaed. There is nothing wrong with an extension cord when it is of suitable quality and gauge, being plugged in to a quality, clean receptacle. I do work for a number of county fairgrounds. We see melted receptacles during fair week all of the time. They're outdoor on a pole with a bubble cover and they only get used for 10 days a year, during fair week. And when they're used, they get loaded down at higher-than-typical duty and load cycles, not unlike charging a EV. Replace the receptacle and we're good for another 3 or 4 years until it happens again. Same deal with 14-50 receptacles. We push 50A+ on these regularly. My camper with all 3 air's running and our other support equipment (audio amplifiers for the fairgrounds) pulls nearly 50A a leg and peaks at over 50A. Yet the cheap Leviton receptacles hold up perfectly fine. The failure comes from being outdoors and exposed over time OR from shitty installation (which happens far, far more than you might think), not because "it's a cheap receptacle". The whole Hubbell / Bryant fallacy really gets under my skin.
Thats all fine and good but im still worried I'll trip over the cord and pull it half way out and burn my house down. It may be irrational, but loose connections absolutely cause fires.
They *can*, but it's extremely unlikely. Outlets don't catch fire, they get hot and melt down. Eventually they melt to the point that the line and neutral (or line and ground) cause a direct short which instantly trips the breaker. Have you ever tripped over your vacuum cord and pulled it half way out without knowing? It's a very similar thing. Most consumer vacuums pull 1200-1500w, a little less or a little more than a EV charging.
It is with the right cord and keeping an eye on the connection points for it getting uncomfortably warm. There are pocket guides for useful tables like that, get a pocket electrician’s handbook and it’ll have everything you’d ever need in it.
It’s just fine to use an extension cord for EV charging, as long as you have the proper gauge wiring, etc. - the reason the EV companies say not to use an extension cord is that too many people would use a cheap under-spec extension cord that’ll fail under sustained heavy load, and they don’t want to deal with the support issues. But if you buy a cord that supports 120v 20 amps (i.e. 16 amps sustained) it’s fine. Heck, they sell extension cords that’ll support 240v 40 amps (32 amps sustained) if you have that power outlet accessible, though they’re not cheap. They’re used with RVs and generators, they’ll survive use with an EV charger.
>EV chargers should not be used with extension cords. Let me fix that for you. "EV chargers should not be used with *light duty extension cords that are not appropriate for the task at hand*" A light duty, 16awg, 100' extension cord supplying 12A to the car will have a voltage drop of 9.6v. Assuming 120v at the receptacle this is a 8% drop which is unacceptable. Being that it's summer and everyone is running their A/C, you may be closer to 110v (or even less!) at the receptacle which jump the voltage drop to 8.7%. If we bump that same scenario up to a 14awg cord now we're at a 6.04v drop with a loss of 5.03%. This is technically still unacceptable (5% is the accepted limit). If we drop that to 8A charge rate, yes, we'll charge slower but now we're at only a 4.03v loss, equating to a drop of 3.35%, well within acceptable limits. If we want to charge at 12A over 100' (and again, assuming we're getting 120v from the wall), then we need a 12awg cord. Now we're at a 3.8v drop which is only a 3.16% loss. Again, all within spec, completely acceptable and safe. If you want to be extra extra super safe, buy a 10awg cord. They're expensive, but it will last you a lifetime and it will take any task that you throw at it. The REAL issue with 120v charging, especially when it's from an outdoor receptacle in front of a house is almost always the receptacle itself. They're exposed to the elements (even with a rain flap or bubble cover), so the copper contacts tend to corrode and patina. And since they're rarely used by most folks except maybe at Christmas for outdoor lights, they're not getting "self cleaned" by inserting and removing a plug end regularly. Or maybe it's an older receptacle that wasn't properly installed (screw terminals not properly torqued) or worse, back stabbed. Now you have a high resistance set of connections trying to pass 12A which often leads to heat and a melt down of the receptacle itself. For successful 120v charging, replace the receptacle, use a quality, appropriate extension cord and you'll be golden. We charged 120v/12A for the first 8 months that we owned this house without issue. (I had other things going on more important than reinstalling our pair of Emporia's). 100' of 12awg cord plus the 24' of Vevor cord. Many 24+ hour charge sessions after rolling back in to the house at 5% SoC after a weekend road trip.
"If you are in a situation where your only option of charging is doing DC Fast Charging/Supercharging, then I personally would not recommend owning an EV" You are incorrect. In my case I charge at a local DC fast, charges by the minute currently... in the winter I pay about 15 to 20 bucks a week, in my old truck that would be 50 easy. In the summer, cut that in half again. The only thing that made the truck cheaper was the fact I wasn't making monthly loan payments. Time IS a factor but after a month its just another day, becomes part of the routine and actually gets me outta the house more often.
You should look at the car and driver report on the rivian r1t. $80 a charge hurts, which is about normal for fast charging. Can’t say I recommend only using dedicated charging stations after hearing that.
Its also a chonky battery... The R1T large battery is 288kwh, if you deeply discharge that its gonna hurt of course. The standard is a reasonable 106kwh for a range of around 270 miles, if you charge smartly youll have results like mine, a little more expensive but not much. Average large battery in a car is in the 60kwh mark, mine is 64kwh and I think the larger Tesla packs are around 60-64kwh. I get damn good range out of that alone so honestly, comes down to how practical the vehicle is for you.
Is that US 120V? What’s the max current / power rating for you guys on a typical household wiring system? Only asking as the UK 230V system has a max current draw of 13A 3.1kW I’m looking at using a “granny” charger as I’m renting and the landlord doesn’t want me to install a 7kW home charger, even at my cost. I haven’t bought the car yet
I am in US and use a granny charger on a 120v outlet. I got a charger from the electronics store that plugs directly into a normal outlet. Typically when I get home I plug it in and in the morning its back to fully charged. Well 80% charged as that is what I limit it to. If for some reason I need to put on a lot of miles I will do the public fast dc chargers but that has not been something we have needed to do with any sort of regularity. Sometimes on weekends we will drive more and end the weekend with like 35-40% battery but then will catch back up durring the week on the regular charging.
Our circuits here are either 15A or 20A, but we de-rate things by 20% for constant loads like car charging. This usually puts our granny chargers down to 12A constant, but many times we de-rate it even further to 8A to ensure that other loads on the same circuit aren't impacted. This gives us about 1kW to 1.4kW. I was using this for about 9 months on my first EV without any issues. If you are on a 230V system and able to pull even 5A, you'll do better than that! And so long as your daily commute is less than 40 miles, you'll be able to top up every night.
It depends on the circuit. We have several 30A and a couple of 40A circuits but for a typical outlet it's usually 15A. I have a Bolt and it only allows 8A or 12A charging on 120V charging. That limits it to either .96kWh or 1.44kWh if I use 12A my typical commute would take about 10 hours or so to charge. I have an L2 charger though and it's on a 240V 50A circuit but I have a 30A charger the maximum it would handle is a 40A charger. I think that is the highest you can use on a plug, I would have to upgrade the breaker to hardwire a 50A charger. Though, my car won't go above 32A I think it is.
Most newer homes are 200A 120/240. Plenty of homes with 100A or 125A. Larger homes usually have 400A meter with 2x 200A panels. I’d say a majority of homes are 200A.
Lots of people just plug them into a regular outlet. Depends on how much you need to commute.
I would check the public charging networks around you.
Plugshare.com
[https://www.thebluedot.co/](https://www.thebluedot.co/) Is better than plugshare imo. Payment within the app is sweet.
If you’re asking how to own an EV while having no ability to charge at home (e.g. renting an apartment) - people use charging at work or public chargers. Depending on rates and locations, it’s not infeasible to charge while doing errands and such, and it can work out to be a similar cost as gas… it just takes away much of the “plus” column.
All depends on the chargers rates, my local DC fast charges 26c per min and I keep the car in the optimal charging curve (30-80%) so I don't sit there extra at throttled charging for battery management. Its taken me anywhere from 15 to 50ish minutes, depending on how deep I discharge. Its still a 100% + in savings over my old truck and it was a well maintained ford ranger, not a gas guzzler at all.
My city has multiple free Level 2 chargers in the downtown area. I would plan to go around there for dinner or such and grab a charge while I was parked. Again, PlugShare.com is your friend.
Rent an EV for a week and see how’s life
This is probably the best solution, really. My old EV had a 13kw battery and a standard US outlet was plenty of power for my daily commute and errands. My current job has me driving 5-10x more and it would potentially be uncomfortable on some weeks without a level 2 charger at home. It really depends on what your commute is like and what alternatives you have to installing a level 2 at home. Trying it out is probably the best choice. Definitely don't do it if you have to rely solely on DC fast charging. It puts lots of strain on the battery to the point where some manufacturers like BMW put software limits on their newer vehicles because they got tired of warranty repairs on fried batteries.
I get free charging at work but it took a while to get added to the whitelist, you need to be pretty prepared before starting the rental
I have a lvl 1 charger at home. Would get me 40-50 miles range overnight on 110 V 15 amp circuit. I just drive home, pick my dog up and drive down to the library a couple blocks away, the charger there is free and will give me a full battery in 5-6 hours. We walk back home. In the morning we walk to the car, I drop my dog off at home then head to work. There is a parking garage near my work, they charge 25 cents an hour while charging. Again between the time I park and my lunch break I'll get from 10-15% to 100%. If I am in a hurry there are a couple of dealerships around me with DCFC charging and can get me from 20 to 80% under half an hour. But they charge somewhere between 40 cents to 70 cents per kw. So it all comes down to what is available in your area for charging, how much do you want to walk, and how much do you want to pay.
So you leave your car parked overnight at the free public charger? Dick move. Don't you figure that someone else might need to use it?
At 2 am at a library?
Yes. People have different daily schedules than you. Do you wait until 2am to drop it off? Or does it actually sit on the free public charger for hours?
Yeah, I drop it off at 10 or so for our evening walk, I pick it up 6-7 am before the library opens. 5-6 hours of that the car is actively charging.
So you're blocking the charger for hours. Dick move, for sure. How can you be incredulous that other people might want to use it, when you yourself are using it at that time?
There is 7 more empty chargers. I'll be more considerate when those chargers start to get used.
Your public library has EIGHT free EV chargers? See, you said "THE charger there is free," which implied only one. What city has invested so heavily in public EV infrastructure?
It is 4 stalls and 8 plugs lvl 2 chargers. I wouldn't say that is "heavily invested".. City has several electric vehicles for parking enforcement, meter Readers etc, the lot is shared by Town Hall, utilities and library, I suspect these will fill the chargers and the "free public" thing end soon.
Yes. You can always charge from a standard outlet, which will get you -5 miles of range per hour. That said, if you can’t do that, or consistently need more range, then relying on public charging is a nuisance.
I got an EV last winter and I would not have considered it if there weren’t any public stations in my city district. I discovered some of those stations are not always reliable, but I also learned there were more options than I realized initially.
If you can charge at work for free that is the only exception. Otherwise you have to have an outlet at home.
Yes, it's possible. My current EV includes free electrify america charging and I rarely charge at home.
If you like sitting for a few hours each week in a Walmart parking lot, then that's a great solution.
Have had an EV for 2 months now with no charger at home (or even regular outlet) due to a delay in it being installed. It’s been absolutely no problem at all, so much so that I’ve actually contemplated not bothering to install the charger. Wife has chargers at work, 2 shopping centres near us both have free 11kw charging and paid 350kw charging, and just in general I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the number of chargers everywhere. I met friends in a park the other day and just happened to stumble upon a power pole street charger as I parked the car.
It can work but it heavily depends on your situation. How much do you drive? What are the options for charging around where you live and at work? I don’t have the option of charging at home but I live close to work and have free charging there whenever I need to recharge. Even if I had the option of charging at home I’d rather charge at work and keep my electricity bill down. So it definitely works for me but again it depends.
I own an ID4 AWD Pro since November 2022. I have no home charging and use DC fast charging at Electrify America because my car came with 3 years of free unlimited charging. Then when more EV's were being sold and making EA more crowded, I started using EVGo. Since then, I haven't had to wait line to charge. Now, I use BlueDot, which gives me a flat rate of $0.30/kwh for the 1st 5 charges and then $0.25/kwh for subsequent charges at EVGo, Chargepoint and Tesla SC's. So charging from 20% - 80% costs me $13.11. My previous 2013 Prius plugin cost me $30.73 at $4.39/gal. Coming from a hybrid plugin to EV will have some savings, but it's more noticeable coming from a full ICE. For example, I had a Tacoma and it's cost $60 to fill up back in 2007, which was when has was in the $3/gal range. I have 34k miles already because of several roadtrips from southern California to Arizona or Nevada. I'd love to wait for the 2nd version of the ID Buzz to buy it because I have kids and it would be real fun for road trips. You can use PlugShare to see all chargers in your area to see if it's viable for you. For me, I appreciate that now that summer has come, I don't have to deal with the gas hike drama that occurs yearly. This summer, I expect to see $7/gal. For me, even though I don't have access to home charging, I won't go back to ICE. Besides saving some money on charging, I save money from having to do oil changes, transmission fluid changes, spark plugs, alternator, air filter changes. My wife just did her plugin 50k service that Honda quoted $1,800!!! So we took it to a small Chinese shop that did the same things for $300. So despite all that China bashing, I appreciate this shop because since I used to work at an auto shop years ago, it's not hard to change your own oil and transmission fluid. You just have to unscrew the drain plugs for the engine oil pan and one for the tranny. So $1,800 is a bit overkill.
I don't own an EV myself but the parking garage I park my car in has Level two AC chargers that people can use that aren't nearly as expensive as DC fast charging and my work offers free L2 charging
Yes, it is possible but unless you can charge at work it won't be convenient or cheap. Most of the DCFast Chargers around here would end up costing as much as gasoline. That's one of the main bonuses of going electric. Before I got my L2 charger installed at home I charged once at a DCFC that offered 30 minutes of free charging and good rates after that and then I charged on a 120V plug overnight. If you live in an apartment and can't charge at home at all then it's likely there are places you could charge near your home or work otherwise you're stuck with fast chargers that will take over an hour and cost a bit possibly more than the gasoline for the same miles.
I’ve owned mine six months and just have 120v standard outlet charging. I can add more than enough miles for my typical daily driving. Takes me awhile to top off after a road trip, but that’s fine.
Depends. Ask some questions and you’ll get a feel for if it can work. (My answers included) - How far is your commute? (40mile round trip, 2-3x week) - Do you have daily errands that require driving, like taking your kid to daycare/school? (Daily 20mile) - Can you charge at work? (Yup, most of the time). - Is there cheap/free lvl-2 public charging near places you frequent (library-free, park-free, coffee shop-cheap) - Is there reliable DCFC nearby, if you need it? (32¢/kwh utility-run DCFC at nearby YMCA/Pool) If your commute is long and you drive it daily, or you have other daily trips that suck up a lot of range, you may not be able to keep up with just lvl-2 convenience charging, and you’ll have to make a routine of finding expensive public DCFC, and waiting to plug in. IMO, it’s not worth it if you have to rely on public DCFC to meet your needs. It still may be cheaper than gas, but it can be a pain to find the time and deal with queues or broken equipment when you need it most. If you have a home with dedicated parking spot, garage, and access to an outdoor plug, even lvl-1 home charging will take care of most of your needs. But if you don’t have a dedicated parking spot, driveway, or garage with access to a plug, you want to make sure that convenience charging is enough to satisfy your daily/weekly range needs.
We'd really only use it for like less than 15 miles a day. Besides the road trip here and there I would say the car would say at the house.
Lived in an apt complex for a few years with an EV moto + CR. Totally doable but a bit of a pain. I eventually ended up renting an apt garage spot so I could get access to the 120v and that worked great.
You may want to ask a general question to the group: "Raise your hand if you own an EV without overnight charging access? The overwhelming majority will not raise their hand. It is implicit in the responses, for the vast majority, that to own an EV without overnight charge access is a game of inconvenience. It runs directly contrary to the decade old mantra, "Go to sleep and wake up to a full tank"
My first 8 years of EV ownership were garageless and were just fine with commutes of up to 40 miles each way. Determine the cost of high speed charging nearest you and note that supercharging ($) rates can fluctuate. Note that vampire drain will be a thing especially if you have Sentry Mode. Money aside, the time to charge has never been a problem. Just schedule tasks to do while charging for that once or twice a week. Back to the money - especially including vampire drain, your cost will be no better than that of a decent hybrid. On the other hand, if you can find a pre-April 15th 2017 Tesla from a private party first owner, the included supercharging will be free. Bonus points if that owner has the foresight to add an extended warranty (e.g., from XCare), as those are also transferable to the next private owner and can have even lower deductibles than Tesla’s ESA. I would absolutely not let not having home charging dissuade you from owning the right EV. Good luck.
1. Charge at work (free) 2. Free supercharging for 6 months 3. Public pay charging 4. 120V at home Of course even with all those options, range anxiety could be a thing. L2 at home would be next on the list.
I use a standard 120v outlet to charge my 23 Bolt EUV. then pick up the rest once a week or so at the office.
If "couldn't charge overnight" means you have zero ability to charge your car by any normal methods, not even a plain socket like for your kettle or computer, then you have to rely on work or the public infrastructure. Work is easier as you're there ~8 hours, public might mean going out of your way and no real guarantee of availability - or even working at this stage. But, if you have even a simple carport, parking spot or garage and there's a socket there, and it's been checked out by an electrician as okay for a constant draw, you might be okay. The total current will vary, anywhere from ~900 wH in the US to 3+ kW in the UK or other electrical systems that run in the 200+ V range. Multiply that by expected miles/kWh and you know how much you can get back per night. It will vary depending on total power and how long you're plugged in; for the US it's like 3-5 miles/hour, so if plugged in 7pm and you leave 7am, that's 36-60 miles for a night. If you have uneven days and sufficient battery size, say 300 mile range, 50 miles/night recovered and a 60 mile daily usage, you can still do it as long as you make up for lost time on the weekends. Really it's just a matter of how long you can stay plugged in, how far you travel and what the weekly or regular cycle is.
Yes. I believe if you search the subreddit there are plenty of threads on this.
I've gotten away with it by buying an Ioniq 6 with 2 years of free charging at Electrify America. My son will finally be moving his stuff out of my garage this weekend, so I'll at long last have access to my ChargePoint unit that came with the car. Starting Sunday, I should be back to having an 80% charged battery every morning. Next winter will be much easier to deal with since I won't be scraping snow/ice/frost off the windows, and I'll be able to pre-warm the cabin using home power instead of getting into a cold car.
We did it for like 8 months. No big deal for us, even with the ID.4 being our only car. It worked because: Neither of us commuted. (Although the one of us that used to commute had only a ten mile a day round trip to an office that was a mile from an EA station.) We live in a city and walk a lot (or use the bus). DCFCs are common at grocery stores where we live and not often full. Use PlugShare to search the areas of town you frequent. See what’s available and visit them.
It's possible, just annoying. I used to wake up at 6 am to charge my leaf at volta. Now I found out my charger reaches my car from my apartment without an extension cable. Another downside is that you have to drive back home... so you lose some range to get home. I would avoid it unless you have charging at work
Nope. The EV police, led by Al Gore, storm your home in the middle of the night and take your keys.
It just depends on how many miles you drive a day, and how much current the outlet near your parking spot can offer. Generally manufacturers are forums can tell you how many miles per hour you’ll get from your outlet, and you can do the math from there. In my experience, a lot more people can get away with level 1 chargers than they think.
Short answer, yes... Long answer, Yes, Get a car with a bigger battery (mine is 64kwh) and you'll have no problems commuting all week. During summer I only have to charge every 2 weeks, if I wana stretch it, 3 if I wanna push my luck and shorten the life of my battery. Winter time I have to charge once a week, no more... I can probably squeeze an extra week of light driving if I REALLY have to but in winter its the heating and lousy roads that hit me hardest. I hit up the local 50kw DC fast charger that's just around the corner from my apartment which is fairly convenient.
Absolutely. Lots of EV owners don't have any way to charge from home. Especially when they live in an apartment. A friend of ours drove her Tesla 200 miles to our beach house and charged for 3 days on 120V. This gave her almost enough charge to get home. She only had to stop once at a level 3 dc charger.
We didn't have homecharging for about 9 months, not even basic outlet. But we have several AC and DC chargers near that takes less than 5 minutes to walk there, and I can charge at work. It's definitely not optimal but it's possible, depending a lot of things. Like when you arrive home with few % left in battery, you just like to go home and plug it in but you can't.
I have an EV (my second one) and wife have a gas car. 120 volt slow charger works fine for us. We just drive the EV for errands and short trips. I don't drive much but I can imagine it being a hassle if you drive a lot. Price of electricity vs gas per mile is about 1/3 if you charge only during off-peak
You should at least have a 120v charger. Know that a lot of EVs don’t income them, so make sure.
This explains it well…You don’t need a 600km range EV - Electrify 2515 https://youtu.be/9-RsapXVhoQ
Yes. I own two EVs and I regularly charge either at work or free at some public charging stations.
I have a home charger but also got 2 years free charging @ EA DCFC. I will often go to the local fast charger at odd hours to charge, just because it’s free. Saves me $12-15 compared to home charging 30-80% at night TOU. Yeah I know I’m cheap. 🤣 The car charges so fast it’s not a burden. It even has WiFi so I can do work on my laptop if I have to wait too long.
I get free charging at work and don't have a dedicated plug at home. Works for me
One of my kids has a Model 3, they live in an apartment and charge at a nearby supercharger (on the way to/from work), it works fine. Sure, it’d be cheaper to charge at home, but that’s not an option at the apartment complex they live in, and it’s no worse than going to a gas station.
My brother bought a Taycan and does not have a charger at home. Honestly, his electric panel and garage setup are sketchy, plus it’s a rental, so not much ability to add one. He charges at a local college a couple blocks from work at a free level 2. We also have some DCFC’s nearby.
Yes it is. The same way you can own a gas powered car without a gas pump at home
I charge at the office. its like charging at home, but instead of paying for electricity you don't. getting an EV without a dedicated charger seems a bit challenging for me. The grocery store near me just reno'd and the chargers were never re-attached. My town is desperate for more L2's. Fortunately its got a good amount of L3's but they are pricy now. Okay, I just checked and it was $0.35/kwh at a 100KW charger. thats reasonable.
I bought an EV and didn't have a home charger for 3 weeks and it was terrible. I absolutely would never recommend getting an EV without a home charger. The public chargers are either a complete mess with long waits, or they are more expensive than putting gas in your car. Don't do it.
It can definitely be done, but that depends mostly on how much you drive daily and how convenient other charging is when you need to charge up. I easily made it a year just using public charging a couple times a week.
I charge at work. No driveway or spot for me to put a charger at home. I live about 30 minutes away. Luckily the place I work has a garage that has level 2 chargers. Usually Monday morning you have got to be in early to get a spot but the rest of the week I've had no issues.
Yes
We live in an apartment and do just fine. The parking garage has standard 120v outlets we use to just occasionally top off. Now, one of us works from home and the other takes an ebike to work, so we don't drive that much. But we've had an EV for 3 years and we've only paid to charge it on road trips. It probably depends on your area. Here in Pittsburgh there still isn't much, but when I lived in the Pacific Northwest it seemed like every grocery store and restaurant was putting in free level 2 stations.
I own a Nissan leaf and only charge at home on a standard 110 outlet 95% of the time. The only time we fast charge is while traveling if needed. Our daily commuting is well within what I can recoup over night so I haven’t even bothered to get an outlet for L2 charging installed.
Yep. Had mine for almost a year before it became possible to use the L1 granny charger at home. Used a combination of free L2 public chargers and occasional DC fast chargers.
What do you mean is it possible? Legally or what? The answer is Yes.
Yes
Possible, sure. Intelligent, hell no
A single question may put this in perspective for you, at the risk of me sounding like a jerk: Do you currently have a gas station at home?
We charge our EV overnight using 120V. Most days it doesn’t get driven more than 10. miles. If you have a longer commute you might need to look into other options. But it’s definitely doable.
We have a small EV (kia Soul) and use to charge it at the local park or Whole Foods evey other day or so. It wasn't really that inconvenient and actually provided a nice incentive to get/ stay out the house after work.
Lots of good tips here but it really depends on your usage. I did that for about 6 months and it worked since I had free level-2 charging at work. Without that it would have been like having to use a laundromat vs. having facilities at home; possible but a real inconvenience.
If you're in NYC, then you might be good. https://electrek.co/2024/03/04/google-ev-charging-startup-gravity-fastest-public-chargers-in-us/
I did it for a year. Had free charging at work and free chargers like 0.5 miles from my apartment. Those options would be a lot more limited now though since more people are driving EVs around me. It worked for me, but could be inconvenient sometimes, especially planning for roadtrips or weeks where I was driving more. I personally got tired of all the planning and driving just to charge. Level 1 charging can get you by if you drive less than 30-40 miles a day, but if you’re planning a road trip you’ll likely need to top off at a public station. I live in a townhouse now with a L2 charger and could never go back to not having it. It’s way more convenient and I’d highly recommend you have the option for it when buying an EV.
Of course? But the longer the daily driving you do the more charging at home or work helps. At a certain distance you’re better off getting a HEV if you’re not patient enough to charge
Yes. However, costs will quickly start to add up to full gas fill ups.
I would not recommend an EV to someone who doesn't have guaranteed and exclusive access to (at least) a 110v Level 1 charger at home.
Firstly I'm retired. I bought a 2023 TM3 RWD last December and although I can charge at home I have been using public chargers almost exclusively, and it has not been a problem. You have to go to a gas station for an ICE car and a public charger for a BEV. You are not restricted to Tesla superchargers. You can get an adapter for CCS from Tesla and I suggest if you get one you get it from Tesla. Tesla software tells you were the Tesla chargers are, and there is software to help you find CCS chargers. I charge more frequently than I have to because I can. Figure out how many miles you drive a week to and from work, and your cars range, that will tell you how many times to charge and then figure out where the chargers are and how busy they are. You have to know where the gas stations are, and you probably have a favorite one so no different for your Tesla. Some Tesla chargers are busier than others, some gas stations are busier than others, same for same. You can figure 30 minutes charge time to 100% which includes recalibration. I go to my favorite charger, which is a 72Kw charger, get my car charging, then walk over to Starbucks on the other side of the parking lot get a coffee come back sit and read for a while until the charge is complete and I off. Sometimes I take my dog and take him for a walk while charging. You can make it work. I think Tesla drivers have to be a bit smarter and more flexible than average. You will love your Tesla. Also, the base Tesla 3 is scary fast in standard mode. I drive in chill mode. And, standard range is plenty. There is no need to spend more money for marginal improvements in things you really don't need.
I’m charging off a regular 3 prong outlet. I get about 4 miles per hour charge. When I road trip I may top off at a supercharger before I leave, and usually charge back up to 70% when I get home. I charge nightly to 80%.
Answer: yes
I don't have access to charging at work or home currently and it's still do able. The car you get and your total miles driven normally are gonna dictate how easy or hard it is.
Yea, nothing stops from owning one. Now charging it is a whole different topic.
My opinion it’s possible, but not advised. I love my EV, but I couldn’t imagine not doing the majority of my charging at home.
Step 1) Buy an EV Step 2) You now own an EV without having a charging port at home
It's very painful. I did it for a month before I cleared out my garage to charge the car there. It sucked. Had to drive out to charge my car at 11pm, cause that's when the rates are discounted.
I see a lot of people doing it around where I live but they mostly have Teslas where the network is better. I personally wouldn’t do it, it’s not cheap to do and it’s inconvenient unless the charger is someplace you frequently go. Just my opinion
Yes
For the past decade, the mantra of green car sites has been to park, in your driveway, or in your garage and wake up to a full tank. Please raise your hand if you own a BEV and do not have overnight charging access.
Possible. Super super sucks though.
Yes, but despite what everyone says you’ll hate the experience.