Driving a Tesla without your own charging facility at the house?

Question

We are considering buying a Tesla. The question that comes up is how do I charge the car?

We have no possibility to charge the car at home (more family house)

How do you do it or do you must have a home with a socket?

Answer 1

I don't charge at home either. With the Tesla you will surely have no problems charging if you get involved with the "e-charging" yourself.

Of course, that depends on you and where you live, or how it looks with you. How many charging stations are there with you and where can you charge, or what is your driving profile.

Can you charge at work or do you have a possibility nearby that the car is full when you finish work. You can't judge this as general, you have to reveal more about yourself.

How much do you drive a day? How many charging stations do you have in your area? Can you charge at work?

One can say in general, yes, with a Tesla, there is no problem if you cannot charge at home.

Answer 2

I wouldn't personally advise against this. I already know some e-car drivers who do well without their own charging facility - as already mentioned, it really depends on their own infrastructure in the area and how they use the vehicle.

If you go shopping every few days and maybe have supermarkets with quick charging stations nearby, then that can work very comfortably. Of course, the number of options should ideally be larger, because a station can sometimes fail or be occupied. Search online for all charging options available for you.

The most comfortable is (still) but undisputed with charging at home. Therefore I would like to point out again (because many new EV buyers are not aware of it) that even a normal socket can be sufficient if you don't have a particularly high daily mileage. In most cases, a socket is also much easier to install in rental situations (or easier to convince the landlord) than, for example, a three-phase wall box.

Answer 3

I have been driving a Model 3 LR since September and I still have no way of charging at home, so far I have only driven 3 times to charge because we have planned a long distance.

As a rule, I charge near my work place (2-5min walk) with 11kW and on weekends and on vacation at various available charging stations. So far, this has not been a big problem, but you should still briefly consider the available charging options at the destination.

By the way, a blue 16A CEE socket is better than a Schuko socket, so you can easily charge it with 16A, with a Schuko socket you should limit this to 10-12A, otherwise it can get “a bit” warm.

Answer 4

I also have no charging facility at home, but there are three charging stations nearby (8 minutes' walk). This works well, but sometimes all the loading spaces are occupied or there is a defect. You have to plan more and be flexible.

It is absolutely feasible, but of course not so convenient.

Comments

In 2019, I charged around 3,000 kWh at home. That was enough for a mileage of almost 25,000 km that year. The rest came from public charging points.

If you assume that the car is 50% in the home garage (in truth, probably even more), it is a massive watts with which you would have to charge on average every year. Every Schuko socket easily manages that and the charging current in the Tesla (at least 5 amps) cannot be set so low.;)

I wouldn't dare to go over the matter without a charging facility, but my experience has shown that an ordinary socket is still sufficient, even for medium mileage.

Answer 5

If you are an absolute enthusiast and absolutely want to drive a Tesla, then it is doable. But of course you have to be prepared for restrictions. Whether this is really worth it is rather questionable.

If you see the car more as a commodity, you should definitely not make it. You do a lot of work and face problems without any real big advantage.

Everyone has to decide for themselves whether Tesla driving is worth the restrictions. It can also be expected that public charging stations will be more frequent in the near future, which will lead to further bottlenecks.

The idea of ​​an electric car is actually that you can charge at home and always start with a full battery. Everything else is gimmick in my view.

I decided against a Tesla with a heavy heart because of my long driving distances and the lack of charging options at home. I'm a huge fan but it would be really unreasonable.

My neighbor also drives a Tesla Model 3 - he is enthusiastic but often has charging problems because the public station near us is constantly parked by Mercedes and Volvo hybrids that charge their mini-batteries for hours.

Answer 6

Well, the fun stops when you have to walk 5 minutes from the car (charging station) home in any weather. And if the charging station is often occupied or even worse, you will lose fun at some point. I can't charge at home either, but there is a public charging station just 1 minute walk from our apartment.

Initially, the employer always let us charge. It worked great. Now I have been on sick leave for months and therefore have to use the backup with the station here at the place of residence. When I bought the Tesla, the two charging spaces were always free. In the past few months, a lot of people in the area have bought a Tesla (mostly M3). Now you can hardly get to charge on most days because the discipline to pick up the car after charging is not very pronounced for some...

Once we came back from a trip late. I had an MS 60 Loaner and had to drive to charging station 15 km away at midnight with 6% remaining charge because two people thought that you could park at charging station overnight, even if the charging process was finished. At 6%, I was afraid of running out of juice. The next day I also had to drive to the airport in Zurich, 110 km away, to take my parents-in-law to the airport...

At 1:30 I was finally back home because the MS charged with a whopping 50-60 kW with a downward trend. I arrived at the station with 1% battery. In a car that you do not know and is older, it also makes you sweat...

So if you have to get involved with an electric car in any case, there should always be a plan B, if something doesn't work while charging... Don't buy because it's hip right now. The Tesla's are all great cars, but without electricity they are just “electronic waste”.

Answer 7

My recommendation: Don't buy a Tesla. I don't have my own charging station at home, but I have 4 public stations on the doorstep. In November, these and the closest ones were renewed. That means there were NO charging stations nearby for 4 weeks. During this time I often swore, because I always drove (mostly on Sundays) to a quick charging station (150 kWh) to be able to put my car in the garage with at least 60 percent. That was annoying for me due to the time required and showed me again that I would not buy an electric car without its own charging station or public charging facility within walking distance at the current state of development.