How We Charge Our Tesla Without a Charger
In March of 2019, Lida and I purchased a Mid-Range Tesla Model 3. When we purchased the Model 3, we were living in a condominium complex that utilized a shared parking garage with a strict HOA stern on not allowing individual chargers to be installed. That meant we had to look elsewhere to give our car the juice it needed.
One route we looked at was public charging in various parking locations. In the extremely EV friendly confines of Southern California, many parking structures and workplaces have ChargePoint units installed.
Aside from home charging, you should also consider what your options are at your place of employment. Bigger companies often have 60+ chargers located on their parking lots free for their employees to use. While California ultimately is an anomaly in the EV adoption picture, our situation is not as unique as it once was as EV owners have populated across countries at rapid rates.
If you don't have access to home charging, you have to figure out how you're going to work around this. Our solution was to utilize free charging at our place of work. In our case, we would rotate daily commutes in our Model 3 nicknamed Grayson. My commute consisted of about 40 miles per day round trip. That’s actually about an average commute range for American drivers. This was where we had to do a little bit of math to configure our weekly game plan.
Grayson, at 90% max battery, gave us about 220 miles of range. Commuting with it on my drive for 3 days would take up about 120 miles of range. Since my office didn’t have charging facilities, Lida and I would switch off cars on a scheduled day every week. Lida would take Grayson to her office to charge over a ChargePoint level 2 charger on Mondays where the battery would usually be further depleted due to prolonged use over the weekend.
A full workday usually charges the car back up to 90%. Occasionally you have to compete with coworkers even in a large workplace housing 60 chargers. After the Monday electric buffet, I take Grayson back until Thursday where Lida takes the Model 3 again to charge up before the weekend thus continuing the cycle.
We have this routine and it works rather well. On weekends we do end up supercharging the car depending on the events we have marked on the calendar. The Tesla supercharging ecosystem is also a great failsafe. There's so many supercharger stations within our city and they keep opening new ones. One even popped up randomly across the street from our condo. After the new supercharger 1 mile away from our home appeared, we haven’t had to worry about charging at all.
I cannot stress how beneficial it is as an EV owner to be on team Tesla because of the supercharger ecosystem. While a majority of people wake up to a fully charged car ready to depart from their homes, having that quick charging backup option out there readily available, absolutely helps move the needle when deciding to adapt into the EV lifestyle.
Honestly, I don't know where the other level 3 charging options are located other than the Tesla superchargers. I’m glad to see Electrify America and others expanding throughout the country, but it's the abundance and ease of use the Tesla’s superchargers bring to the table that make it feel so much more reliable.
In an odd way, superchargers almost feel like what we were accustomed to for gas stations. Ultimately, because of the superchargers and also the infrastructure around my neighborhood, I don't feel stressed about not having a home charger.
For those EV owners out there who are not able to charge at home or at work, I can see how that's a stressful situation. Charging in public might be frustrating if you can't readily leave your car alone for 8 hours. This seems to be the main cause of concern for people considering purchasing an EV. Owning a Tesla without any daily charging infrastructure is inconvenient, but still accomplishable as long as there is an understanding that a routine must be in place. It all depends on your car, your neighborhood and your workplace. There are plenty of EV owners out there who survive without a home charging infrastructure and even thrive just like I have for an entire year.
Alex
Caught in between the conundrum of his fascination with retro and the future, Alex has a very unique taste in technology. Never one to follow trends like his millennial peers yet constantly desiring to get ahead of the curve, he sees technology like he does his other love: comic books. Always looking for the best value or a hidden gem, his collector mindset reflects on some of his favorite gadgets: the Moto X (2015), HTC U11 and the Google Pixelbook. If there’s a good tech deal out there, Alex is on the hunt!