That is one of the things I found most appealing and made me think about getting an electric car. If it works for my daily routine I'm golden.

Regarding road trips... Why the hell are people taking them in electric cars if they have an alternative vehicle? I can't imagine sitting around for 20 mins waiting for a charge. Not happening.

For AF, here’s a pic of my EVSE (wall unit). https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...475a209db4.jpg

It’s not going to win any design awards, but it’s fine. I don’t really notice it anymore.

Re: road trips. I guess it might be different if I didn’t have kids? But when I go to NYC I stop once and invariably the car is ready before the people are.

The calculus might change on a road trip that required more than one stop, but I don’t do many of those. At that point it’s usually worth my time to just fly.

As for why I take the Tesla? It’s bigger and more comfortable. And I’d much rather stop to charge than buy gas in NJ.

:lol:

We never did big road trips before the Tesla. Before, the biggest trips we’d take were to hit Disney or the beach in San Diego.

Phoenix to SoCal is a 7-8 hour drive to most places, plus stops. We found taking the Tesla to take about 45 min longer. In a gas car, we always stopped at least 3x for bio breaks, food, or gas for easily an hour or more. In the Tesla we also stopped 2 or 3 times to charge (mine has the smallest battery offered — all newer Tesla’s have 20 to 120 more miles avail from the bigger packs, so could stop less). One stop was for about an hour, with another 40 min stop needed. The 3rd stop was purely optional and was more for a bio break than charge, so only 10 min or so.

But we found Tesla road tripping to be more relaxing. You stop about every 2 or so hours, anywhere from 20 min to an hour. Enough time to plug in, grab a snack or meal, or even take a short walk. When we got where we were going, we were more relaxed. We’ve done around 20k miles of road trips in the Tesla now. It’s been to several national parks, including Death Valley, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Redwood, Yellowstone, the Petrified Forest and Moab.

That's much more discrete than I was thinking. I was expecting one of those big, grey Tesla charging stations that you see out in public.

does that railing actually attach to your concrete?? looks a little bit unsafe.


And kinda joking, kinda serious, are you allowed to plug in your Tesla in NJ, or does some kid have to come out and do it?

:dunno: what big gray Tesla chargers?

You can plug yourself in in NJ.

Uh, yeah, on railing? I guess? Feels sturdy enough. Not sure whether there’s something inside the concrete that it’s bolted to.

I remember something similar to this a couple of years ago. Maybe that's something different though. Power wall?
https://understandsolar.com/tesla-home-charger/

The wall connector (which is what I’ve got) attaches to a 240V circuit and supplies AC power to the car. The car has a charger (or 2) on board that takes that power, converts it to DC, and charges the battery.

The wall connector can be hooked up to a couple of different amp circuits. Mine is a 100 amp circuit, meaning the wall connector can supply 80 Amps continuous power to the car, and it’s two onboard chargers can each convert 40 of that into DC for the battery.

All told, my car will add about 60 rated miles an hour to its range when plugged into this circuit.

The big boxes you see at public supercharging stations would differently. They convert the AC mains feed into DC power in pedestal mounted box, and then feed that dc power into the car. That power bypasses the car’s charger(s) entirely and goes straight into the car’s battery.

Superchargers are big because of that, though the pedestal looking thing that says “Tesla” on it isn’t the charger stack; it’s just a mount for the cable. The chargers stacks are usually white boxes with big fans mounted on them, about 5’ tall and 2’ wide—typically they sit next to a transformer behind some decorative fencing.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

That's really interesting. I can see it being one of those things in life that is counter-intuitive... Like being happier at a job where you have to work harder.

Human brains are weird.

I'm with rumatt on this one.

I just don't think it would be "relaxing" for me to worry about where the next recharge station would be on a long road trip, or if it is filled to capacity with other electric cars waiting to get charged.

With numerous gas stations, it's one less thing to worry about, which contributes greatly to a more "stress-free" road trip.

:dunno: :dunno:

The Tesla will tell you whether the charging station you're heading for is occupied or not. And these days there are enough options around here that that isn't an issue. I've never had to wait for a charger. Came close once, but a car pulled out just as I was pulling in.

That's pretty convenient.

However, I live out West, where there are LOOOONG stretches of highway, with rinky-dink towns in between. Will there be a charging station in some podunk town along the way ??

Guess what I'm trying to ask is, can a Tesla be charged in NV towns like Austin, Eureka or Tonopah ??

There is a supercharger in Tonopah.

JST posted this link earlier - shows where the Superchargers are, including those under construction. Tesla is enabling many routes for long distance travel. Http://supercharge.info

The car also knows where Superchargers are and routes you to them, and it shows how many stalls are in use. I have had to wait to charge once, but years ago when there were fewer Superchargers, and it was right after the owners conference ended, so many of us needed a charge. Only waited for 2min...

For other charging options off the Supercharger highway, RV parks come in handy. I used one in Page before the Supercharger was built, and another near Monument Valley when we visited for a couple nights. Tesla is planning a Supercharger in Kayenta that would work in future... There are also many hotels that have added chargers for overnight charging — on our 4500 mile trip a couple years ago, 8 of the 9 hotels we stayed at had charging...