dual charger thoughts

[liuping]

Last weekend dual chargers made the difference between charging for 3 hours vs 6 at the Palm Springs Tesla Service center on the way to Joshua Tree National park from San Diego.

3 hours was long enough, but we killed the time with a nice dinner and movie. 6 hour would have meant not taking the Tesla at all.

Similarly when driving to Tucson. Using a 70Amp charger along the way meant the difference between stopping for a bite to eat and a little shopping in the gift store, and an boring wait staring at the clock with the family in the car asking when we can go.

I'm glad I added the Dual Chargers.

 

[ckessel]

Last weekend dual chargers made the difference between charging for 3 hours vs 6 at the Palm Springs Tesla Service center on the way to Joshua Tree National park from San Diego.

3 hours was long enough, but we killed the time with a nice dinner and movie. 6 hour would have meant not taking the Tesla at all.

Similarly when driving to Tucson.

While it was useful now, this is exactly the sort of scenario that I think becomes obsolete by the end of the year with new Superchargers. Have some idea where you're likely to want to go and check the SC map and see if you think 70Amp is going to matter to you ("you" being the abstract audience here, not liuping specifically).

$1500 is a lot of money (well, to me) to throw at an extra charger merely as an insurance policy against some potential future wait time. In my case, everywhere I care about (mostly up/down I5) was going to be covered.

 

[dsm363]

This all comes down to personal preference and comfort as well as budget. Is this an option you must get if the money if you are at max budget for car and there are zero 80A stations in your area? Absolutely not.

For those in Canada or in areas like WA state where there is a community network in areas there aren't even Superchargers planned through 2015 then it can be useful.

People are right though that it rarely if ever is needed for overnight charging.

 

[jcaspar]

Here in California we have lots of superchargers and very few high amp chargers. Despite trips to San Francisco bay area and Santa Barbara, LA, I have never found a situation where twin chargers would have been of any advantage. In Sacramento, our off peak EV electricity rate (0.06$/KWHr) goes from 10pm to 4pm in the Winter and midnight to 2pm in the Summer so an HPWC would be of no advantage here either. In those areas with only a 4hr window I could see how twin chargers could be of use occasinally. I am glad I put the 2700$ or whatever it was when I bought my S (was coupled with the HPWC) into Tesla stock instead! The HPWC seems far too slow to use for road trips unless staying overnight or for several hours at least.

 

[liuping]

Here in California we have lots of superchargers and very few high amp chargers. Despite trips to San Francisco bay area and Santa Barbara, LA, I have never found a situation where twin chargers would have been of any advantage. Our off peak EV electricity rate (0.06$/KWHr) goes from 10pm to 4pm in the Winter and midnight to 2pm in the Summer so an HPWC would be of no advantage here either. In those areas with only a 4hr window I could see how twin chargers could be of use occasinally. I am glad I put the 2700$ or whatever it was when I bought my S (was coupled with the HPWC) into Tesla stock instead! The HPWC seems far too slow to use for road trips unless staying overnight or for several hours at least.

I think you mean "here in Sacamento"

In San Diego, our lowest super off peak rates are only midnight to 5 am and they are $0.16/kWh (and to get that you have to take the $0.44/kWh peak rates). Man I would love $0.06 super off peak...

There are actually more HPWC and 70Amp J1772 chargers than Super Chargers, even in CA. They are at many Tesla Store and Service Centers, as well as alone the old Tesla Highway route and other locations Like Lake Tahoe. Some times they come in handy at you desitnation if you are not staying over night. At least until Super Chargers are added to towns and cities and not just along highway routes.

 

[David99]

Someone mentioned the dual charger would help save cost when the off peak electricity is only 3 hours at night. OK let's do the math.

In 3 hours you can charge 90 miles on a single charger. That should cover your daily needs easy. Even if you have to charge an extra hour or two the price difference of the two rates is no where near the price of the dual charger. Let's say the rate difference adds up to $0.5 for the charging every night. It would take 750 days to be the same cost of the dual charger. Oh wait I forgot to add the $1200 for the HPWC that you also need to buy. Add another 600 days. You'll break even in 3.7 years.

 

[jcaspar]

Yes. Meant to say "In Sacramento" regarding the rates! I changed it in the post. Our local electricity supplier SMUD has amazing rates and really supports BEV vehicles and the local SacEV club. I figure I get 170 miles for every gallon (4$) equivalent. Makes my free charging at work almost worthless as I save only .30$ per hour (4 hour limit) and risk a door ding due to the parking location...

I think you mean "here in Sacamento"

In San Diego, our lowest super off peak rates are only midnight to 5 am and they are $0.16/kWh (and to get that you have to take the $0.44/kWh peak rates). Man I would love $0.06 super off peak...

There are actually more HPWC and 70Amp J1772 chargers than Super Chargers, even in CA. They are at many Tesla Store and Service Centers, as well as alone the old Tesla Highway route and other locations Like Lake Tahoe. Some times they come in handy at you desitnation if you are not staying over night. At least until Super Chargers are added to towns and cities and not just along highway routes.

 

[Ugliest1]

I'll throw another thought in related to the "overnight you only need one" thought... when you are at a hotel with one 70-100A EVSE, and there are TWO+ Model S patrons who need 90% refills, it would be easier to coordinate if both/all had dual chargers. This doesn't happen a lot (any??) yet, but I'm sure the days are coming, especially in Canada where most of the country will be out of range of superchargers for the foreseeable future. But a tweet I saw today said "Congratulations, Canada now has 1,000 Model S!!". It's a big country for us 1,000 owners to start (figuratively) running into each other at the same hotel on the same night.

 

[Canuck]

I like to drive to my cabin early in the morning, which is 300km away, cut the lawn, do some fishing and other things for about 5 hours, then drive home at night. So dual chargers and a HPWC are a must for me.

 

[DITB]

In Hong Kong, of the 20+ users who cared to be on this list ...

http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/show...ected-delivery?p=596916&viewfull=1#post596916

... about half of them (including myself) decided to get dual chargers, for various reasons, here are some major points:

- More than twice the price to change it later
- Uncertainty of how the charging infrastructure will develop in Hong Kong
- Inability to park and hence charge "at home" for many owners, being dependant on charging when shopping or elsewhere

Basically, for the price of this car, adding the dual charger option is not a whole lot yet it opens up options later on. It won't make a difference to most in 2014, maybe not even in 2015, but I believe that in the following years, demand will grow quickly for high capacity chargers, other than just superchargers.

If you have your own garage and can charge overnight when at home, then I can understand not getting dual chargers.

 

[ckessel]

I like to drive to my cabin early in the morning, which is 300km away, cut the lawn, do some fishing and other things for about 5 hours, then drive home at night. So dual chargers and a HPWC are a must for me.

Indeed. That's really an optimum case for having dual chargers. Well, and the fact Canada has a very different SC/70A mix from much of the US.

If you know you're going to need dual chargers, definitely get them. I was just cautioning against spending $1500 (or $2700 with HPWC) as a type of insurance against maybe finding it useful someday. That's a lot of money for a maybe, unless money isn't really a factor.

 

[Rheazombi]

My dad opted against them - he only drives around town and parks at home and thus he will probably never have use for dual chargers. However, within 24 hours of getting my Model S I was already soo thankful I had added them. My SO and I have a tendency to go on long meandering drives through the beautiful New England countryside and as it was getting late and we were running low on a charge, we found a Tesla HPWC at a office park in Lincoln (it was covered in spiderwebs so I don't know how much use it is getting) , but it charged us up at 50 miles an hour! (200 V, 80 amps) We just hung out in the car and before we knew it we had more than enough to make it home again before we turned into pumpkins.

 

[Chipper]

My dad opted against them - he only drives around town and parks at home and thus he will probably never have use for dual chargers. However, within 24 hours of getting my Model S I was already soo thankful I had added them. My SO and I have a tendency to go on long meandering drives through the beautiful New England countryside and as it was getting late and we were running low on a charge, we found a Tesla HPWC at a office park in Lincoln (it was covered in spiderwebs so I don't know how much use it is getting) , but it charged us up at 50 miles an hour! (200 V, 80 amps) We just hung out in the car and before we knew it we had more than enough to make it home again before we turned into pumpkins.

Still chuckling...but I gotta ask, how did you just happen to "find" a spider web covered HPWC in an office complex????

 

[scaesare]

Still chuckling...but I gotta ask, how did you just happen to "find" a spider web covered HPWC in an office complex????

I assume something like Plugshare/Recargo...

 

[Rheazombi]

yup! It was listed on Plugshare, next to 4 SemaConnect chargers as well. It's some nondescript office building kinda in the middle of nowhere near Hanscom Air Force Base, very "Cyberdyne Systems" vibe. It's possible some CEO has a Model S there (but the spiderwebs make me think maybe not?). Either way on the weekends the parking lot is completely empty. I'm guessing finding a Tesla HPWC in the wild is a somewhat rare occurrence? (outside of California anyway)

Our only mistake was when we got out to plug it in, we left the door open for 30 seconds and unknowingly let NINE mosquitoes and 2 spiders into the car. After 6pm the office park becomes overwhelmed with bugs for some reason! So we had a hell of time later, trying to snipe all the insects that were out for our blood... still got 3 bites tho >:​​​ ( It was a very ...interesting experience for our first ever time charging the car! ^^;;

Our next step is to get a car adapter for our laptops so we can do work/play videogames while we're waiting for a charge. We're kinda in a weird situation right now because we don't have a driveway, garage or dedicated street parking (and won't for at least another year) so we have to be pretty creative with when/where we get a charge. It's not ideal but so far it's been fun finding all these random Boston-ish area chargers, and I'm definitely already thankful for dual chargers!

 

[brianman]

Still chuckling...but I gotta ask, how did you just happen to "find" a spider web covered HPWC in an office complex????

Hey, don't judge. People can have romantic adventures near electricity if they want.

- - - Updated - - -

Our next step is to get a car adapter for our laptops so we can do work/play videogames while we're waiting for a charge.

Yah, the 12V to 2 110 outlets device that I picked up for ~$70 at Fry's has been quite useful for laptop usage on roadtrips.

 

[jerry33]

Still chuckling...but I gotta ask, how did you just happen to "find" a spider web covered HPWC in an office complex????

Obviously, he used his spider-sense.

 

[Chipper]

Obviously, he used his spider-sense.

OUCH!!! I should known someone would go there!!! smile

 

[tliving]

Dual chargers are the one thing I changed last minute on my order. I was going without them and then did a bunch of thinking and reading and ended up adding them. In 3 months i've already used them several times and they've saved me hours of waiting (HPWC at the Tesla Store near where I work). No regrets and adding later is really expensive. It depends on how much your time is worth really. More thoughts here:
Charger Confusion | Tesla Living

 

[mochouinard]

I'm in Canada, and I couldn't think not to get the dual charger ! I wish I didn't have too, but Tesla is planning a single SuperCharger in the whole province of Québec. Going to Gaspesie would take a 2 night sleep rather than be able to do it in a single day !

If more Level 3 charger were install, I would get the CHAdeMO adapter instead. A Québec business looking to commercialize a low cost DC CHAdeMO Charger ! I hope his pricing make it low enough to maybe get them install next similar to Tesla SuperCharger but at more location in Québec and the rest of the worlds !

All this is the fault of Nikola Tesla and the AC power grid ! having a DC power grid would have been much better for electric car !