If you’re going to buy a tesla or plan to be a tesla owner you need to understand how charging works. By the end of this blog you’ll learn what the three main ways are to charge a tesla. How long it takes and how much it costs to charge a tesla at each of those three ways and then lastly. What are the free charging options you have to charge your tesla, so without further ado let’s go ahead and jump right into this blog, so there’s three main ways to charge your tesla. The first way is with a 110 volt wall outlet, the second way is with a 220 volt wall, outlet and the last and third way is with a tesla super charger.
Now it’s not just as simple as those are the three options there’s a little bit more that needs to be covered from. When you buy your tesla on day one so back in the day, tesla’s used to come with what’s called a mobile connector charger and that meant that on day one when you take your car home you can plug it right into that 110 volt outlet and start charging your car in your garage. However now new teslas don’t come with this connector so when you are purchasing your tesla you can simply click to add on a mobile connector charger at the time of ordering your tesla now. What that looks like is basically this is the kit that comes with your mobile connector charger and basically you get your charger inside and then you get two adapters one’s for a 110 volt outlet and one for a 220 volt outlet now. Essentially, the charger is just this part here but at the top you can plug in the different adapters so if you’re charging at a 110 volt outlet you simply use this adapter if you’re charging at a 220 volt outlet you find the corresponding adapter this is the one that works for a 220 and it comes in the mobile connector charger by default so best case scenario order this mobileconnector kit when you are purchasing. Your tesla and you will receive it in the mail before you take delivery of your car this way when you get home on day one you can simply plug your car into your garage and start charging now. If you don’t order one of these when you are purchasing your car then you have to hope that it’s in stock at the delivery or service center when you are taking delivery of your car. If you are at all familiar with tesla then you’ll know that they can’t guarantee that it’s going to be in stock on the day that you’re picking up your car. So it’s best just to order it early and know that you’ll have it.
So with that being said let’s get into the three main ways to charge your tesla, so the first way is a 110 volt Wallbox outlet this is a standard outlet in all garages. And this is going to be by far the most common way that people charge their tesla simply because this is the most accessible once you get your mobile connector you can plug it in. You don’t have to upgrade any outlets the only catch is it’s going to charge your tesla pretty slowly now. The expected charge rate for 110 volt outlet is anywhere between three and five miles per hour of charging. So if you plug your car in for 10 hours overnight to charge you’re going to pick up 30 to 50 miles of range overnight by using 110 volt outlet now.
Moving on to the second main way that you can charge a tesla that is with a 220 volt wall outlet now. Although, you will need to either have one of these outlets already installed in your garage or pay an electrician to come install one. Which will cost you a couple hundred dollars to do so this is by far. The best way of charging your tesla so ideally you want to be charging with a 220 volt outlet because it charges a lot faster than that 110 volt outlet but not too fast. Where it’s harming the battery the expected charge rate with a 220 volt outlet is anywhere between 20 and 40 miles per hour of charging, that means if you’re plugging your car in for 10 hours overnight you will pick up 200 to 400 miles of range and essentially that’s a full tank for a tesla now lastly moving.
On to the third main way to charge a tesla that is with a tesla super charger. Essentially, tesla superchargers are like gas stations along the road these are by far the fastest way to charge a tesla. However it’s not the best for the car’s battery now. If you are charging at a tesla supercharger you can expect to get over 1 000 miles per hour of charging. Essentially, what that means is it’ll take you anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes of charging your car at a super charger to essentially fill the battery now. One catch here, that a lot of people don’t realize with tesla’s is that teslas will charge the fastest on a supercharger. When the battery is very empty as you start to fill the battery up you really start to notice this at about 80% to 100%. The battery will charge a lot slower so. When the battery is pretty empty you can easily achieve over 1 000 miles of charge per hour. However when the battery’s over 80 percent or so that’ll drop down to somewhere between 200 to 400 miles of charge per hour now.
That we’ve covered the three main ways to charge a tesla now. let’s talk about how much it costs to charge at each of those and then lastly what the free options, you have are to charge your tesla completely free of charge so both of the at-home chargers the 110 volt outlet and the 220 volt outlet they will just be charged to your standard electricity bill at your house now. In most states in the united states it cost about 13 cents per kilowatt hour, so this is by far going to be the cheapest way to charge your tesla now. Just by driving a tesla you will certainly be saving money on gas. However, the best advice I can give you is to try a calculator online that takes into account the gas car that you used to have or you currently have what the miles per gallon is on that vehicle. And then how much gas currently costs per gallon. Exactly, that and you’ll see how much money you will save by charging at home.
So with that said if you’re not charging at home your other option is a tesla supercharger now these are more expensive basically you get charged to your credit card which is the card on file with your tesla account and this all happens automatically. So you just pull up to the tesla supercharger plug your car in and when you’re done your account automatically is billed now. The cost on these superchargers varies by location and by state, but the rough average I can give you is charging in a super charger is two to three times more expensive than charging at home in my area it costs between 20 and 45 cents per kilowatt hour to charge it a super charger. Additionally, some super chargers have on peak and off-peak charging hours where the price per kilowatt hour either goes up or goes down trying to encourage people not to charge, when it’s super busy.
So now that you know the cost of charging let’s get into the free charging options this is the best of both worlds. If you have a tesla you can potentially never pay for fuel again, so the two options you really have here for free charging are public chargers and hotel chargers. So essentially, what that means is public chargers are 220 volt destination chargers are what they’re called you can actually find them on the map of your tesla. So when you’re using the screen on your tesla to find super chargers near you, you can select level 2 charging as well that will bring up all of these destination chargers and it’s also going to show the hotel ones that I’ll get into in a second here so staying on the completely free public chargers. Essentially what these are are public charging stations for teslas that are put in places to try to encourage tesla owners to go to so in most cases you’re going to find this at big shopping areas they’ll have completely free chargers or at work. So if you work somewhere that has these chargers all those hours that you’re at work you can have your car plugged in and you’ll essentially leave work with a full tank every day this is the most ideal situation that you can ask for and essentially you’re not going to pay for fuel again.
Now moving on to the other free charger option,I was alluding to and that is hotels so if you are traveling on the road and you need to stay at a hotel some hotels have completely free destination chargers in their parking garage that you can use now. The only catch is you have to be a hotel resident you can’t just pull up and use them call the hotel before or in most of the hotel branded apps you can see. If they have free electric vehicle chargers and by being a hotel guest you get free charging included, so that brings me to the last very common question that I get about my tesla and that is can you do a road trip in a tesla well the short answer is yes. I’ve driven across the united states in my tesla and the only downside really is that you have to stop every two to three hours at a super charger, that’s about as far as you can go on a full tank driving on the highway, the super chargers are for the most part in really good locations. So every couple hours you stop to plug in your car to charge it takes about 15-20 minutes but while that’s charging you can go inside typically at a wawa gas station or near a target or a whole foods and you can get some food use the restroom and it’s pretty nice to stretch your legs every couple hours. The really nice thing is that you don’t have to plan your route and always look up gas stations of where to go essentially you put in your end destination that could be the complete other side of the country, the tesla thinks for a little bit and then it routes you through all the super chargers based on how much capacity you have in your battery and all the thinking is done for you and a nice little bonus is if you’re staying at hotels through this road trip see. Which ones have the free electric vehicle chargers in their parking garages and then you’ll wake up the next day with a completely full tank of fuel that you didn’t pay for.
Post time: Nov-20-2023
