What vehicle do you drive?

Rajaah

Rajaah

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Sludig said:
Live in an apartment and went EV...... lordy
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That describes probably 30% of the people in a major city at this point. Every third car on the road is an EV and hardly anybody here actually lives in a house.

The plan is to get out of here in the near future and acquire a house elsewhere, but we'll see when that comes together. In the meantime I guess I'll just fill up at the superchargers.

Not sure why I'm explaining any of this when you just shit on everything I do regardless, but there you go.
 
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Lambourne

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Rajaah said:
I've heard that the home chargers spike your electric bill, though. That said, it looks like Tesla sells solar-powered generators for pretty cheap now, and you can attach a home charger to one of those and just run off of solar.

This sort of thing is 100% "the way to do it" with these cars. Just filling up normally is nowhere near what I expected / hoped for, and a pain in the ass so far.

Car also loses about 8% charge per night, so there's that on top of everything else. That's roughly $70/month of just lost charge (likely from Sentry Mode). Glad to hear they're aware of the drain and working on it, at least.

Unfortunately a solar generator is a no-go for me since I'm in an apartment residence, no house to install something like that outside of.

To say something positive about the Model 3, the acceleration on it is BEASTLY. I'm talking going from 40 to 100 in about 3 seconds. Can practically teleport forward if I need to. First car I've ever driven in that I think could dodge-roll out of the way of an oncoming t-bone with minimal warning.
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You may want to ask your apartment complex if they're willing to install some AC chargers, it's becoming an added value item for many places. The cost isn't all that high for some AC chargers.

Home charging will increase your electrical bill, figure around 30KWh for every 100 miles. How much that costs depends on your provider and contract of course, not sure what's available in your location but a lot of places in Europe are starting to offer by-the-hour pricing. Need an internet connected meter which not everyone has yet.

Most of the "bad" chargers you found are probably 5-11KW AC chargers, they're just inherently slower but much cheaper to install than fast DC chargers like the Supercharger points because they don't require as much of the location's electrical grid. Pricing is all over the place too for AC chargers, some are complete ripoffs.

Have a look around on ABRP, it's pretty helpful for planning longer trips and finding chargers. Lists nearby amenities too. Tesla usually has time of day prices, should be viewable in the app.

abetterrouteplanner.com

ABRP

A Better Routeplanner is the world's most popular consumer EV routeplanner - both for beginner and experienced EV drivers. And of course for anyone curious about EVs.
abetterrouteplanner.com abetterrouteplanner.com

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Burren

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Rajaah said:
That was the first day I had the car, but I can confirm that my statement wasn't even an exaggeration. It wasn't an official Tesla charger though. It was a "Greenspot" charger down the street from me, the closest public charger by far (thus the most convenient, so I was testing it and hoping it worked well). And yes, it was an hour to charge 10% and cost $4.50 or so.

That was just a trial run to see if those chargers were any good. Once I determined that the chargers were in fact dogshit, I found the nearest Tesla Supercharger and filled up there. $27 to go from about 10% to 100%, took about 45 minutes.

I'm still disappointed, because $27 is about what my previous car cost to fill up at around $3.20/gallon. So I'm paying the same amount (probably more, factoring in that a tank doesn't go as far now) to fill up, only with an additional substantial wait. This was with the fast charger too. I've definitely spent more on electric power over the past week than I did on gas in the average week with my old car.

Been looking for a slow charger that's free, where I can plug in for a few hours while I run errands and get some energy back without breaking the bank, but so far the only free chargers I've found have been in private guarded lots like hotel parking.

The Sentry Mode, which unfortunately has to be kept on these days, drains the battery quick too. I found that closing the app out completely when the car isn't in use helps slow down the "idle drain" due to not running any extra processes, but I'm not sure if Sentry Mode stays on when I do that.
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but but but, EVs are better in every way and are here to save the world!!!
 
Hateyou

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I was getting a rental for work a couple weeks ago they were out of cars and there was a line, as people were returning cars you’d get one. They had a few EV cars and every so often as the line grew they’d yell “we have EVs available!” And not a single person went for it.

They’re too inconvenient still, unless you have a house with a charger in the garage and don’t drive much.
 
Cad

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Rajaah said:
That was the first day I had the car, but I can confirm that my statement wasn't even an exaggeration. It wasn't an official Tesla charger though. It was a "Greenspot" charger down the street from me, the closest public charger by far (thus the most convenient, so I was testing it and hoping it worked well). And yes, it was an hour to charge 10% and cost $4.50 or so.

That was just a trial run to see if those chargers were any good. Once I determined that the chargers were in fact dogshit, I found the nearest Tesla Supercharger and filled up there. $27 to go from about 10% to 100%, took about 45 minutes.
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If you are charging at a supercharger I wouldn't go over 80% or so, the last 20% is really slow and not worth the wait since the charging curve slows down a lot >70-80%.

EV's would be really annoying without a way to charge at home, I'd secure a home charger or sell the car, honestly. My $0.02.
 
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Mizake

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Cad said:
If you are charging at a supercharger I wouldn't go over 80% or so, the last 20% is really slow and not worth the wait since the charging curve slows down a lot >70-80%.

EV's would be really annoying without a way to charge at home, I'd secure a home charger or sell the car, honestly. My $0.02.
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This right here. Don't charge over 80% unless you are planning a long trip. Get a home charger.

Also, ask your electric company if they will give you a special rate if you have an EV. I know here in California I was able to secure a lower rate for my house, which actually ended up saving me money overall since it put me in an entirely different rate bracket.
 
ToeMissile

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Cad said:
If you are charging at a supercharger I wouldn't go over 80% or so, the last 20% is really slow and not worth the wait since the charging curve slows down a lot >70-80%.

EV's would be really annoying without a way to charge at home, I'd secure a home charger or sell the car, honestly. My $0.02.
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Or if you have charging available at work
 
Mizake

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Rajaah said:
The Sentry Mode, which unfortunately has to be kept on these days, drains the battery quick too. I found that closing the app out completely when the car isn't in use helps slow down the "idle drain" due to not running any extra processes, but I'm not sure if Sentry Mode stays on when I do that.
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What do you mean it has to be kept on these days? Is this something new for the newer models? Or do you mean just in your particular life circumstances?

In my car you can completely turn off Sentry Mode, and you can set it so it will turn off when you are at certain places, like at home and at work.

I was going to say you shouldn't need Sentry Mode on at home in your garage, but you live in an apartment building I take it, so then probably Sentry Mode would be useful in that case, I'm assuming you are parking in like an underground shared garage.
 
Cad

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Control said:
Hmm, I don't know much about BMWs or kids, but I'm pretty sure he'll fit?
View attachment 593596
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I bought an SUV (X5M) when my 3rd kid was born cuz I figured we'd use the extra space etc etc...

Literally never used it, had it about a year and it spent half the time in the shop, traded it in on a Lexus and still have that Lexus (now one of my kids cars). SUV's blow. Get a minivan if you really need that space.
 
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Haus

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I will admit I have been wondering, with my pending plans to eventually move away from town and hopefully built a place with enough solar and battery to be functionally grid independent how much additional solar capacity I would need to think about to also keep a car charged for occasional use. That and I know some trucks offer the "two way" option where they can also supply power, but I wonder if any offer the option to act as one additional large battery of "last resort" in a home power wall system.
 
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Control

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Haus said:
I will admit I have been wondering, with my pending plans to eventually move away from town and hopefully built a place with enough solar and battery to be functionally grid independent how much additional solar capacity I would need to think about to also keep a car charged for occasional use. That and I know some trucks offer the "two way" option where they can also supply power, but I wonder if any offer the option to act as one additional large battery of "last resort" in a home power wall system.
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I've pondered (but not taken the energy to investigate) if the cost effective route wouldn't be buying some old/totaled Teslas just for the batteries. Might be worth checking into if you don't mine some giant battery diy.
 
Haus

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Control said:
I've pondered (but not taken the energy to investigate) if the cost effective route wouldn't be buying some old/totaled Teslas just for the batteries. Might be worth checking into if you don't mine some giant battery diy.
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Did you say "giant battery DIY"? Hell, I have been debating trying this here at my house if I could find a good enough source..


As for your thoughts... Enjoy the rabbit hole :
hackaday.com

From Vehicle-to-Grid To DIY Home Powerwalls

As battery-to-grid and vehicle-to-home technologies become increasingly mainstream, the potential for repurposing electric vehicle (EV) batteries has grown significantly. No longer just a niche pur…
hackaday.com hackaday.com

And my thought was not an EV car battery, but to shop around for a totaled EV Bus.
 
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Furry

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Haus said:
Did you say "giant battery DIY"? Hell, I have been debating trying this here at my house if I could find a good enough source..


As for your thoughts... Enjoy the rabbit hole :
hackaday.com

From Vehicle-to-Grid To DIY Home Powerwalls

As battery-to-grid and vehicle-to-home technologies become increasingly mainstream, the potential for repurposing electric vehicle (EV) batteries has grown significantly. No longer just a niche pur…
hackaday.com hackaday.com
Click to expand...

Id never do that without lifepo batteries, especially since lifepo batteries have gone way down in price in the past half decade.
 
Control

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Haus said:
Did you say "giant battery DIY"? Hell, I have been debating trying this here at my house if I could find a good enough source..


As for your thoughts... Enjoy the rabbit hole :
hackaday.com

From Vehicle-to-Grid To DIY Home Powerwalls

As battery-to-grid and vehicle-to-home technologies become increasingly mainstream, the potential for repurposing electric vehicle (EV) batteries has grown significantly. No longer just a niche pur…
hackaday.com hackaday.com

And my thought was not an EV car battery, but to shop around for a totaled EV Bus.
Click to expand...

huh ok, so old tesla batteries are even cheaper than I thought they would be...
 
ToeMissile

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Cad said:
I bought an SUV (X5M) when my 3rd kid was born cuz I figured we'd use the extra space etc etc...

Literally never used it, had it about a year and it spent half the time in the shop, traded it in on a Lexus and still have that Lexus (now one of my kids cars). SUV's blow. Get a minivan if you really need that space.
Click to expand...
I dunno, the rav4 I had when my first was born worked great for the kid+whatever other stuff we had to move around. It was much easier than our Model 3 to get the kid into.
I’m not up on what’s reliable in the more luxury space, and to each their own but it’s worth at least looking into options.
 
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