Should I get a Model 3 Performance? Charging concerns.

[rentien]

Are you saying you don’t have the room or capacity on your panel? If you have the capacity on your panel, can you not just put another circuit breaker in and run the conduit to where you want the plug? I ran my own conduit to where i wanted the plug, installed the plug and and put a 40 amp circuit breaker into the panel. Followed the applicable building codes. Not hard to do.

I have 100A going to the condo.

If I do one of the 240V, less amperage options, I think capacity isn't a problem. There is room on the panel as well.

The issue is how does the wire get from the breaker to the garage, through the rest of the condo building. That is the mystery to me. Is there a break in the pipe so one can't simply fish the wire through? Is the existing pipe big enough to feed an additional wire for 240V through?

I'm going to try to look into these and find out.

The lines aren't easy to trace since it is a condo building.

 

[father_of_6]

Shop around on electrical. I got a service upgrade to 200amps, two subpanels, buried lines to two garages (I did the trenching), installation of a Tesla HPWC, buried circuit to a playground, and a 240v basement outlet for a kiln. Total price: $4400.

I'd wait a few months for an LR, it's practically the same car but for much less. Then put the savings into home charging. With your commute, you won't survive without it.

 

[rentien]

Shop around on electrical. I got a service upgrade to 200amps, two subpanels, buried lines to two garages (I did the trenching), installation of a Tesla HPWC, buried circuit to a playground, and a 240v basement outlet for a kiln. Total price: $4400.

I'd wait a few months for an LR, it's practically the same car but for much less. Then put the savings into home charging. With your commute, you won't survive without it.

Wow. This makes me think I am being over quoted to.

Not sure about bay area, CA prices though... maybe in that case i'm not being over quoted to?

I'll shop around though thanks for the info.

 

[father_of_6]

Wow. This makes me think I am being over quoted to.

Not sure about bay area, CA prices though... maybe in that case i'm not being over quoted to?

I'll shop around though thanks for the info.

To be fair, I got quotes for *much* more for that job. This guy's was a friend of a co-worker and yeah, I don't live in CA.

That said, recommendation still stands. If I were choosing between an LR with good home charging and a P without... that choice is easy.

For me, I'd *rather* have an LR than a P. I know I'll get flamed by some people for saying that, but I don't value track mode, and larger wheels are worse than the 18"s in my opinion. The only improvement in a P is acceleration (IMO), but you can get close to it with acceleration boost for thousands less.

I spent my first 6 months of ownership without home charging. Had a Supercharger on the way to work and free Supercharging for a year. I spent a *lot* of time sitting in the car. Getting home charging was magical. Do it.

 

[mpgxsvcd]

To be fair, I got quotes for *much* more for that job. This guy's was a friend of a co-worker and yeah, I don't live in CA.

That said, recommendation still stands. If I were choosing between an LR with good home charging and a P without... that choice is easy.

For me, I'd *rather* have an LR than a P. I know I'll get flamed by some people for saying that, but I don't value track mode, and larger wheels are worse than the 18"s in my opinion. The only improvement in a P is acceleration (IMO), but you can get close to it with acceleration boost for thousands less.

I spent my first 6 months of ownership without home charging. Had a Supercharger on the way to work and free Supercharging for a year. I spent a *lot* of time sitting in the car. Getting home charging was magical. Do it.

This is very good advice. I have the Performance model and it was worth it to me. However, it was only worth it because I have the Tesla wall charger and I switched to the 18” wheels on my Performance model.

It only cost me $800 total to add the wall charger to my garage so that was an easy decision. The wheels and tires were $3,000 so that is a significant investment but I still have the UberHeavies with nearly new tires so that offsets the cost some.

The Performance model is definitely quicker and faster with the 18” wheels. However, that probably isn’t worth the $10k extra.

If I didn’t have the super convenient level 2 home charging I am not sure that I would want the electric car at all. If you barely drive it each day then it may be worth it to just trickle charge. However, if you drive a significant distance then you really need something more than 1-2 KW charging.

 

[golfcart]

If you are going to keep the battery in the 15%-85% window like most do you really only have about 200 miles of usable range with a P3D under ideal conditions (no heater use etc...) so long term L1 only is gonna be a hassle IMO. I used to have an 85 mile range nissan leaf and a 55 mile round trip commute with L1 charging only and it was brutal only getting about 4 miles of range per hour of charging. I had to plan out everything in advance and was always concerned about plugging the car in every chance I got or stopping at a charger on my lunch break to get a little extra juice.

Definitely look at all your options for home L2 charging. Not being able to get the car to 80% or so every night if you need to just seems like trouble and sitting at a supercharger for 20-30m a couple of times a week will get old quickly.

 

[rentien]

Thanks for the responses guys. Yeah, I think I will hold off unless I can get L2 charging. (But I want to switch to Tesla so badly with the gas prices right now!)

Just got a quote for $2323 with possible additional $600-700 because they forgot to add that they would need to add a breaker at the meter. So, $2300-$3000. Also needs HOA approval.

This is getting closer to something I can stomach. I guess right on the line for me. At least the quotes seem to be dropping!

Quote was for 240V 40A. Way more than I think I need, but if we're going to run a new line might as well get a higher rate of charging.

 

[father_of_6]

Thanks for the responses guys. Yeah, I think I will hold off unless I can get L2 charging. (But I want to switch to Tesla so badly with the gas prices right now!)

Just got a quote for $2323 with possible additional $600-700 because they forgot to add that they would need to add a breaker at the meter. So, $2300-$3000. Also needs HOA approval.

This is getting closer to something I can stomach. I guess right on the line for me. At least the quotes seem to be dropping!

Quote was for 240V 40A. Way more than I think I need, but if we're going to run a new line might as well get a higher rate of charging.

I have 40A, but wanted 48A. It's negligible for me, but *could* make a difference in the future if 2 vehicles are sharing it. It might be too early to say how many amps would be good out in the garage. Perhaps 100A is a safer future-proof bet.

 

[KenC]

Thanks for the responses guys. Yeah, I think I will hold off unless I can get L2 charging. (But I want to switch to Tesla so badly with the gas prices right now!)

Just got a quote for $2323 with possible additional $600-700 because they forgot to add that they would need to add a breaker at the meter. So, $2300-$3000. Also needs HOA approval.

This is getting closer to something I can stomach. I guess right on the line for me. At least the quotes seem to be dropping!

Quote was for 240V 40A. Way more than I think I need, but if we're going to run a new line might as well get a higher rate of charging.

Isn't there still a tax credit for fast charger installations, or did that credit expire?

 

[rentien]

Isn't there still a tax credit for fast charger installations, or did that credit expire?

Thanks for bringing this up. I was unaware of this.

A first pass google search yielded this:

EV Charger Tax Credit: What You Need to Know

The federal EV charger tax credit for electric vehicle charging stations and equipment is back with a few key changes.

www.kiplinger.com

"Essentially, if you install a home EV charging station, the tax credit under the Inflation Reduction Act is 30% of the cost of hardware and installation, up to $1,000. Also, beginning in 2023, the tax credit for business and home installations, will apply to other EV charging equipment like bidirectional (i.e., two-way) chargers."

So for the quote I received that would bring it to be $2300-$3000 to $1610-$2100.

Getting even better!

I just have to confirm the tax credit as well as that the quote doesn't increase if they come out and find this harder than they expected.

 

[DrGriz]

Didn't see you mention it, so thought I'd bring it up. The 30% up to $1000 max tax credit has been reinstated. So when you are considering the cost of having work done, keep that in mind.

I would agree with those who recommend level II home charging if it is at all possible.

 

[brkaus]

I have 40A, but wanted 48A. It's negligible for me, but *could* make a difference in the future if 2 vehicles are sharing it. It might be too early to say how many amps would be good out in the garage. Perhaps 100A is a safer future-proof bet.

Totally depends on use. We have three EVs and very easily survive on a single 40a WC on a 50a breaker. We use a j1772 adapter for the leaf.

I believe OP said the entire condo had 100a. So, while 100a might be nice, it totally depends on need.

 

[ElectricIAC]

Totally depends on use. We have three EVs and very easily survive on a single 40a WC on a 50a breaker. We use a j1772 adapter for the leaf.

I believe OP said the entire condo had 100a. So, while 100a might be nice, it totally depends on need.

We keep two J1772 with one adapter running off a 14-50 with a smart splitter.

 

[srs5694]

Quote was for 240V 40A. Way more than I think I need, but if we're going to run a new line might as well get a higher rate of charging.

FWIW, I have a 40A line (for a 32A-to-car EVSE). I charge a LR RWD Model 3, which is capable of taking up to 48A. Thus, my EVSE is undersized compared to the car. (I bought the EVSE for a Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid that I drove before my Tesla, and it was actually oversized for that car.) I've never felt the need for anything more than 32A for my Tesla, and in fact I don't think that I'd feel it was too little even at 16A. At 16A, it'd take about two hours to recover 30 miles of range, and I'd be able to replenish even a long 100-mile driving day overnight.

That said, more amperage would be helpful if it's possible that the installation would eventually support two cars or a much less energy-efficient car than a Model 3 (a Cybertruck, F-150 Lightning, etc.), or if the car is routinely driven 100+ miles in a day. It wouldn't hurt to ask the electrician how much extra it would take to run a thicker wire gauge, even if the EVSE is a 32A model and the circuit breaker is a 40A breaker. If you can stomach the price difference, then that would make upgrading to a faster EVSE relatively cheap, since running a new line would likely be the most expensive part of an upgrade job.

 

[tm1v2]

OP is looking more than $2k to run this brand new circuit. It would be silly to wire it for anything less than 60A or at least 50A service, when upgrading it later would be a non-trivial undertaking again. Especially with an HOA involved.

 

[PianoAl]

Can you lose the fridge?

 

[rentien]

Received a quote using:
-wallbox charger, 30A 240V, for $3109.35.
-Tesla wall connector lowers it a bit, I think that comes out to $2872.80

These are becoming prices I can stomach especially with the 30% off, tax credit.