Am I crazy? Model Y without home charger...

[jmd2024]

I am in the market for a new car, and with the tax credits and being a nerd, I have finally begun to consider an EV. Test drove a MY last night and really liked it, but here's the catch.

I live on Staten Island, and my landlord will not be installing a charging option at home. I know there is currently one Supercharger site which is ~10 minutes away from me. The mall has a bunch of public/free chargers, but like 8kWh or some such experience. There is another SC site coming soon which I found out about on the site, and there are some SC sites between my residence and where I work (I have customers between Philadelphia and Long Island).

So here's my ask, since I know of no one around me who owns a Tesla, or any EV.

Am I crazy even considering going EV and relying on the charging infrastructure? Odds are slim I will be anywhere but here in 3 years, and odds are nil that the landlord budges on the charging. I know the prices for SC sites aren't posted, so I am curious if any of my island neighbors can indicate rough costs there, since that's my likely best bet as a frequent fill-up spot. mostly hoping to see that if I did go MY and SC, that my weekly costs would be under the 40ish dollars in gas I am spending currently. If it's 20-30 bucks, and i can do some en route work? No biggie. If it's 30-40 which is basically the cost of gas...then I get to thinking now is not Tesla time still. And, will it be an issue if I am not regularly charging to 100% (like, if its every couple weeks versus every week?)

the other vehicles I was considering are an Ioniq5, which I would be even more limited with on the island for charging, or an ICE Nissan Rogue, which may win out but my company GM is pushing hard for me to get a Y like him lol

thanks in advance!

 

[gtae07]

It is true that the Tesla UMC gen 2 specifically maxes out at 32 amps even on a 14-50R 50 amp circuit, but that’s just Teslas own limitation and not a general limitation of all non-hardwired EVSEs.

It is my understanding that 14-50s are allowed to be used on 40A circuits in some circumstances (since there are no 40A specific outlets). Since the charger has no way of knowing whether it's plugged into a 40 or 50 amp circuit, it assumes 40 (and this the 32A limit).

 

[E90alex]

It is my understanding that 14-50s are allowed to be used on 40A circuits in some circumstances (since there are no 40A specific outlets). Since the charger has no way of knowing whether it's plugged into a 40 or 50 amp circuit, it assumes 40 (and this the 32A limit).

That’s not why. Tesla UMC gen 1 had a 14-50P and was 40 amps and they had a corded mobile connector (CMC) with 14-50P that was 40 amps.

The UMC gen 2 is just simply only capable of a maximum of 32 amps, but that has nothing to do with assuming there may be some 14-50R on a 40 amp circuit.

 

[jmd2024]

I kind of discounted or dismissed the slow charging on the 110v. I know there are those outlets around the house, but the landlord is a PITA about anyone but him using them. long story but...its a losing ask.

however, the neighbor has a carport next to it and never uses it, i am 99% sure they would be cool with us backing in the car (we watch the house when they are in florida, they are older so we clean their snow etc). and if I run a long cord to our rental/landlord's outlet, i figure throw him 50-100 a month for the electric cost and he can't complain (i mean, he can, but he would lose leverage).

if i do SC once a week and can top off even with 20-30 miles a day off of 110, that is plenty. most days, the car wouldn't move more than 20-40 miles unless i am going to a client site, and at that point, i just take a 10-20 minute detour and hit the supercharger on the way.

the more i've thought about it the more i am pretty sure i can make this work. the biggest sticking point is my lease, so im probably not getting my MY until august or september. close enough where i almost want to wait for the refresh, but i think just getting into one will be worth it

 

[BroncoAZ]

I kind of discounted or dismissed the slow charging on the 110v. I know there are those outlets around the house, but the landlord is a PITA about anyone but him using them. long story but...its a losing ask.

however, the neighbor has a carport next to it and never uses it, i am 99% sure they would be cool with us backing in the car (we watch the house when they are in florida, they are older so we clean their snow etc). and if I run a long cord to our rental/landlord's outlet, i figure throw him 50-100 a month for the electric cost and he can't complain (i mean, he can, but he would lose leverage).

if i do SC once a week and can top off even with 20-30 miles a day off of 110, that is plenty. most days, the car wouldn't move more than 20-40 miles unless i am going to a client site, and at that point, i just take a 10-20 minute detour and hit the supercharger on the way.

the more i've thought about it the more i am pretty sure i can make this work. the biggest sticking point is my lease, so im probably not getting my MY until august or september. close enough where i almost want to wait for the refresh, but i think just getting into one will be worth it

Why not try to make a deal with the carport neighbor to plug in on their plug to avoid dealing with the ask of your landlord? It should be easy enough to calculate usage numbers and pay the neighbors for the power. Maybe they’d be open to installing a L2 charger to increase the value of their home.

 

[FatFalcon]

I kind of discounted or dismissed the slow charging on the 110v. I know there are those outlets around the house, but the landlord is a PITA about anyone but him using them. long story but...its a losing ask.

however, the neighbor has a carport next to it and never uses it, i am 99% sure they would be cool with us backing in the car (we watch the house when they are in florida, they are older so we clean their snow etc). and if I run a long cord to our rental/landlord's outlet, i figure throw him 50-100 a month for the electric cost and he can't complain (i mean, he can, but he would lose leverage).

if i do SC once a week and can top off even with 20-30 miles a day off of 110, that is plenty. most days, the car wouldn't move more than 20-40 miles unless i am going to a client site, and at that point, i just take a 10-20 minute detour and hit the supercharger on the way.

the more i've thought about it the more i am pretty sure i can make this work. the biggest sticking point is my lease, so im probably not getting my MY until august or september. close enough where i almost want to wait for the refresh, but i think just getting into one will be worth it

Yes! 100% that sounds like a good plan. I think you'll have a good buffer and rarely, if ever need to supercharge.

As far as how much to offer the landlord, the Tesla app does have a screen you can use which shows how much you have charged at home. I pay an agreed upon rate each month per kwh of EV charging.

 

[father_of_6]

my honest hope is if I got the Y, the landlord (never been in one or drove one) would borrow it and change his tune. long shot, but who knows.

Might not be that big of a long shot. Driving it is what sells it.

 

[father_of_6]

I kind of discounted or dismissed the slow charging on the 110v.

I know some here are saying "use 110", but don't believe it. You might get away with it during summer months, but I live in Western NY... when the cold weather comes around 110v will *NOT* be sufficient.

The energy will all be used trying to warm up the battery for charging, but it'll never get to temp.

You'll plug in at night with 30% and wake up with 25% and a bunch of wasted electricity.

Perhaps I'm just a fighter, but I would tell my landlord he doesn't get to tell me which outlets I can or can't use on the property I'm paying for.

 

[jmd2024]

Why not try to make a deal with the carport neighbor to plug in on their plug to avoid dealing with the ask of your landlord? It should be easy enough to calculate usage numbers and pay the neighbors for the power. Maybe they’d be open to installing a L2 charger to increase the value of their home.

This is definitely one thought i've had, and they are those kind of people. if i offered to pay for it all, odds are they'd probably at least consider it. not much of a downside for them.

 

[BroncoAZ]

I know some here are saying "use 110", but don't believe it. You might get away with it during summer months, but I live in Western NY... when the cold weather comes around 110v will *NOT* be sufficient.

The energy will all be used trying to warm up the battery for charging, but it'll never get to temp.

You'll plug in at night with 30% and wake up with 25% and a bunch of wasted electricity.

Perhaps I'm just a fighter, but I would tell my landlord he doesn't get to tell me which outlets I can or can't use on the property I'm paying for.

OP’s situation sounds like a multi family residence. Maybe there aren’t separate meters for the units, or maybe the exterior outlets are all served by the main meter and not the second unit’s meter. The bigger issue is displacing the owner from his off street parking space, there is no way I’d give up my parking if the alternative was street parking for me. Our landlord in San Diego many years ago separately leased what should’ve been our garage and parking space on the alley to some hermit guy with a crappy van RV. My roommate and I had to park on the street, sometimes it was a 10 block walk to find street parking.

This is definitely one thought i've had, and they are those kind of people. if i offered to pay for it all, odds are they'd probably at least consider it. not much of a downside for them.

There might be some utility incentive or similar to help with the cost, plus the 30% federal incentive for EV charging equipment. I know my utility will reimburse the first $1K of a WiFi connected charger they can shut off during peak demand (never a concern if charging overnight).

 

[jmd2024]

OP’s situation sounds like a multi family residence. Maybe there aren’t separate meters for the units, or maybe the exterior outlets are all served by the main meter and not the second unit’s meter. The bigger issue is displacing the owner from his off street parking space, there is no way I’d give up my parking if the alternative was street parking for me. Our landlord in San Diego many years ago separately leased what should’ve been our garage and parking space on the alley to some hermit guy with a crappy van RV. My roommate and I had to park on the street, sometimes it was a 10 block walk to find street parking.

bingo. it is a multi family arrangement, and he has 2 off street spots that are his no matter the offer (so far). and, if i were in his spot, i get it, because parking around here can be a pain. sometimes it's not, but sometimes you have to park around the block and walk, so if you don't need to, i get it.

 

[LostVector]

bingo. it is a multi family arrangement, and he has 2 off street spots that are his no matter the offer (so far). and, if i were in his spot, i get it, because parking around here can be a pain. sometimes it's not, but sometimes you have to park around the block and walk, so if you don't need to, i get it.

Interesting situation overall and thanks for the additional details. It really seems like you're threading a needle here in terms of getting everything to line up, so it's still pretty difficult to zero in on an actual solution. But that carport situation sounds promising.

One thing that does sound necessary is a long extension cord of some sort. The way to get creative with that is to convert the closest available outlet from 120V / 15-20A to 240V / 15-20A, assuming it's a dedicated outlet or can be made into one. Most likely you'll be able to do this without running new wiring, which makes the process very non-invasive. That should be more than enough power to keep your car topped off.

 

[jmd2024]

Not sure I would manage to convince him to change any of the outlets for that. the side where the neighbor has the carport, the plugs are usually running either a fountain (spring summer) or decorations (halloween and christmas). plenty of time not running those, or at least one/two spare, but i imagine (i am not an electrician) that keeping them 110 would be important for those.

that said, I think my angle is...start on 110 and go from there. if i can get him OK with 110 in any form, it's the gateway.

 

[Iron]

There might be some utility incentive or similar to help with the cost, plus the 30% federal incentive for EV charging equipment. I know my utility will reimburse the first $1K of a WiFi connected charger they can shut off during peak demand (never a concern if charging overnight).

The question is, who is paying the bill for the circuit he will be plugged into? Might be tough acquiring EV incentivized rates from a utility if OP is not the one on the bill. However, if he can pull that off, then that would be either an advantage for his landlord in personal electrical savings (with op bearing the brunt), or an increase if he/they are not willing to conform to any time of use restrictions. It kinda requires a concerted effort from everyone plugged in on the circuit on which he is charging. That would get to be a real mess if electricity is a shared cost.

 

[hpartsch]

I am in the market for a new car, and with the tax credits and being a nerd, I have finally begun to consider an EV. Test drove a MY last night and really liked it, but here's the catch.

I live on Staten Island, and my landlord will not be installing a charging option at home. I know there is currently one Supercharger site which is ~10 minutes away from me. The mall has a bunch of public/free chargers, but like 8kWh or some such experience. There is another SC site coming soon which I found out about on the site, and there are some SC sites between my residence and where I work (I have customers between Philadelphia and Long Island).

So here's my ask, since I know of no one around me who owns a Tesla, or any EV.

Am I crazy even considering going EV and relying on the charging infrastructure? Odds are slim I will be anywhere but here in 3 years, and odds are nil that the landlord budges on the charging. I know the prices for SC sites aren't posted, so I am curious if any of my island neighbors can indicate rough costs there, since that's my likely best bet as a frequent fill-up spot. mostly hoping to see that if I did go MY and SC, that my weekly costs would be under the 40ish dollars in gas I am spending currently. If it's 20-30 bucks, and i can do some en route work? No biggie. If it's 30-40 which is basically the cost of gas...then I get to thinking now is not Tesla time still. And, will it be an issue if I am not regularly charging to 100% (like, if its every couple weeks versus every week?)

the other vehicles I was considering are an Ioniq5, which I would be even more limited with on the island for charging, or an ICE Nissan Rogue, which may win out but my company GM is pushing hard for me to get a Y like him lol

thanks in advance!

Don't do it. Your wife will kill you. I had a Tesla and no home charging for 2 years while renting. I used public charging -- worked fine as a single guy. Would never do it with a family. What is your time worth - is it worth charging sitting at a supercharger for multiple hours a week? Keep in mind your battery won't be warm so the charge rate will be slow.

Recommend renting one for a weekend/week.

 

[aloharai]

My roomate has a M3 and owns the condo we live in w/o a home charger. Neither of us can charge at work. She goes to a hotel less than a mile from us so I felt confident that charging wouldn't be an issue when I got one. Just got my MY and found a supercharger a half mile away. If you get the 5k mile promo, that'll definitely help for a little while. I personally don't mind sitting around for 30-40 minutes charging, but I think it comes down to personal preference, along with the electricity rates where you are.

Overall, coming from your BMW (I think that's what you said), you'll be saving on that premium gas, service, and maintenance costs.

 

[jmd2024]

My roomate has a M3 and owns the condo we live in w/o a home charger. Neither of us can charge at work. She goes to a hotel less than a mile from us so I felt confident that charging wouldn't be an issue when I got one. Just got my MY and found a supercharger a half mile away. If you get the 5k mile promo, that'll definitely help for a little while. I personally don't mind sitting around for 30-40 minutes charging, but I think it comes down to personal preference, along with the electricity rates where you are.

Overall, coming from your BMW (I think that's what you said), you'll be saving on that premium gas, service, and maintenance costs.

the upside of the lease (BMW) is most maintenance was included, though i am now with the car for ~4 months and any service is mine. including the $600 in brakes i just paid for. tires i spent 1200 on the tire/rim insurance, and i made out on that. 4 new tires and a rim, more than what i paid for the insurance. and i may not have ALWAYS put in premium... . still, at 40-50 per tank, every week...i will trade that for half the cost at a SC mixed in with slow home charging.
plus, those trips where i really rack up miles, its a work trip, and the SC cost gets expensed. checked the map and I have a v3 right over the bridge at a place I stop for gas and snacks anyways, so thats good.

i had a moment last night were I realized that the upcoming SC site wasn't quite where I thought, and I was doubting things. but then this morning, researching the gas SUVs I was looking at instead of...they all have page after page of major issues where the cars are in the shop more than not. obviously that won't happen for every car, but some of the issues are giving me pause for sure.

 

[jmd2024]

Don't do it. Your wife will kill you. I had a Tesla and no home charging for 2 years while renting. I used public charging -- worked fine as a single guy. Would never do it with a family. What is your time worth - is it worth charging sitting at a supercharger for multiple hours a week? Keep in mind your battery won't be warm so the charge rate will be slow.

Recommend renting one for a weekend/week.

So, some other points worth putting out here...

1-wife was the one who volunteered being happy to go to wherever to charge for 20-30 minutes when needed, and can run errands while it charges (tho i realized the SC that is coming is not at the target she uses a lot, so that is a wrinkle).
2-she would not be bound to the EV, though I suspect there will be wrestling for it. We have a gas car (2017 mini) that we got for our kids to drive that would be the other daily driver. she enjoys that.

MY would replace my own gas daily driver, which outside of work trips is 10-20 miles a day max. In theory I could go M3 instead, but I like the ride height and added utility of the MY.

If only able to charge at home at 110 overnight, in good conditions it should deliver enough to cover that typical 10-20 miles, give or take.

i think if i had no other car, the charging challenges would kill this completely. the wild card for me remains the neighbor, who was into the EV idea but talked himself out of it (never asked why. he has friends with Teslas and his son's in-laws bought a Lucid he's been in and he liked them all), so there could very well be a willing enabler next door...but being he's a snowbird and in FL now, I can't broach the topic until May. which is still plenty of time, as right now i can't do a thing until summer due to lease exit fun.

 

[jmd2024]

The question is, who is paying the bill for the circuit he will be plugged into? Might be tough acquiring EV incentivized rates from a utility if OP is not the one on the bill. However, if he can pull that off, then that would be either an advantage for his landlord in personal electrical savings (with op bearing the brunt), or an increase if he/they are not willing to conform to any time of use restrictions. It kinda requires a concerted effort from everyone plugged in on the circuit on which he is charging. That would get to be a real mess if electricity is a shared cost.

some power companies have really confusing info, but best I could read I didn't see anything for a home install (could be wrong, but NYS seemed mostly giving breaks for commercial installs). that said, my current thinking, whether with the landlord or the neighbor who was more EV friendly, was to get a brand new circuit/meter/plug on the outside of a house, and i would pay 100% of that. if the install is a lot more than I expect, i may look to negotiate with whomever (like if i am here for 5 years, i pay the entire cost, but if i leave in a year, you pay me back a percent of the install or something).

for now thats a pipe dream, neighbor isn't home until May, but it will be a conversation to be had.

 

[phxazcraig]

If you can, through a neighbor, have access to a 240v outlet, it will be a game-changer. Even a 30am dryer circuit will charge a car overnight. A 14-50 50amp circuit will do it in about 5-6 hours.

 

[sllowsteady]

You can check plugshare.com to see if you have any neighbor who has charger installed and maybe pay them a fee to use it.