Can you live off Tesla Superchargers ONLY? Tested!

In this video, I try to explore living with an EV and not charging at home or at work... aka: EV HARD MODE. Will I pass? Will I fail? Will my girlfriend return my calls? Only time will tell.
FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM AND TWITTER! (please): @tesla_addict

[@brandonkepner7411]

Charging at work is a gamechanger... had a Y for a month and its amazing. Being able to charge while your busy and then come back with a full tank.

[@teslaaddict]

100%!!! You don't have to think twice about it :)

[@81springbrook96]

I can charge at work but have to queue...😢

[@Yikes_its_Psychs]

I wish I could, then I might get an EV. My current job would probably tell me to use the super charger down the street 😂

[@rhdtv2002]

We have like 6 charging Stations at work and nobody has an EV car. I have 2 spots where it’s charge to 48amp. I don’t own a Tesla but if I do I never have to worry about- plus I work 3 minutes from my house. I can walk to work and get there in less than 15 min walking

[@1984TMNT]

@@teslaaddict 80%😉

[@DemonTied]

The charging network is the only reason I can drive a Tesla. I don’t have a home, my apartment doesn’t have chargers either. I rely on superchargers, and being in Los Angeles they’re scattered everywhere like gas stations. though I hope to install a charger in my apartment so my battery can chill out lol

[@teslaaddict]

thanks for sharing your experience! You're absolutely right: if there is any EV to own without charging at home/work, it's certainly gotta be a Tesla. It does help you're spoiled with Supercharges in LA 😉

[@PsychedMedia]

Isn't supercharging very expensive?

[@DemonTied]

@@PsychedMedia it’s usually around $15-$20 for a full charge, still miles cheaper than gas 😂 but I did also get a charger installed at my garage spot, definitely more convenient

[@mythicallegendary3992]

I am just about to get my tesla from my gas car this upcoming week! I also live in an apartment with no charging capacity and am worried about the battery degradation due to having go to to super chargers only.

[@DemonTied]

@@mythicallegendary3992 Tesla themselves says only using supercharging won’t cause extra degradation, atleast nothing significant. Just make sure to always precondition! Also you can talk to your apartment management, in many states they’re required by law to allow you to install a wall charger, hopefully there are outlets nearby that you’re able to convert!

[@LivingLikeLarry16]

This is the type of video that just scratches the itch lol. The first one was the level one charging only. Great content!

[@thedownwardmachine]

If all your charging comes from Superchargers, like me, the key is to work charging into your destinations, just like on road trips. I buy groceries at stores with Superchargers or go to restaurants near to Superchargers. Just like how on road trips, pee stops, power naps, and food are going to happen where there's a Supercharger. In the rare event that I must charge and don't have something to do at the stop, like you said, I just do what I'd do at home -- screw around on the internet. As for having to drive far on short notice in a rush with a low state of charge, that just does not happen. That said, it would be great to have 500mi batteries if only to keep charge in the 20%-80% range and have 300mi actual range between charge stops. You figured this out when you noted the Model S Long Range will result in Supercharging less often.

[@stephenxian]

I only charge at Superchargers, no home charger. In southern California, it’s not a problem finding a Supercharger. Cost is about $0.32 kWh. If I charged at home, I would pay $0.28 kWh based on my rates. I recharge about twice a week, drive 1,000 miles a month. It is cheaper than the gas I was buying for the Nissan Altima I had been driving at 30 mpg but it does require 2 trips to the Supercharger per week (about 20 minutes per charge).

[@teslaaddict]

Thanks for sharing Stephen!

[@Saint_Maximus_III]

Does it affect your range

[@JRCarReviews]

This silver color is the best I can’t understand why Tesla never brought it back with 2021?

[@teslaaddict]

right??? I suppose they did in Europe recently, but it's not the same exact colour...

[@JRCarReviews]

@@teslaaddict nah one on Y is not the same. I have a Model 3 2021 white, if this silver was available then I would got it.

[@yeahbuddy92193911]

People are on their phone 2 hours+ per day anyway, so doing it at a supercharger for 20min becomes a natural thing, no big deal. Also 70% of people can charge at home.

[@dontbanmebrodontbanme5403]

The question isn't whether or not it can be done. For most people, the answer is yes. It's just a matter of whether or not you can deal with the inconvenience. I have 2 public charging stations within a 4 minute drive from my house and work from home. I could easily eat pizza during lunch while charging. The problem with this is when you're taken out of your routine. What happens if you have 85 miles left of range and all of a sudden, you need to drive 150 miles? You're going to have to make an extra stop along the way. Being able to always leave fully charged (well at least up to 80%) means this will rarely happen. I personally wouldn't have gotten an EV if I didn't have L2 charging at home. One of the many beauties of driving an EV is just jumping in your car and driving and never having to visit a gas station.

[@teslaaddict]

My conclusion, almost to a tee! :) I love how you say how this is an inconvenience if it takes you out of your routine. Very succinct, I wish I put it that way in the video. Thanks for watching and sharing your experience!

[@techweenie4712]

Been doing that for a year and a half, since my first & second Teslas have free supercharging. Density of chargers in LA means I have about 90 available chargers within 10 miles. Easy peasy.

[@teslaaddict]

LA is the charging mecca!

[@Doge8537]

Thanks for making these videos. I'm currently interested in purchasing a tesla

[@teslaaddict]

Thanks for sharing! Hopefully you find yourself in one very soon, they're great

[@dyhppyx]

I only supercharge. You're right it's definitely not as convenient but if you reframe the situation and think that is time that you carve out for yourself to meditate or stop rushing around like most people do I actually think it can be a benefit for your life. Also I will push back on the DC fast charging being bad. I have driven over 185,000 miles only supercharging and believe my degredation to be similar to slow charging cars. About 8-11%

[@teslaaddict]

Thanks for sharing! I'd have to agree; I feel like there is a notion out there that if you DC fast too often your battery will explode or lose half its range in a few years. Pfffffff not the case as you say! :)

[@propm]

Apparently, that is true, if you google something like "does supercharge harm your battery" then you can find multiple articles about I think a fairly new news about data collected from a metric ton of old teslas proving that it does not affect degradation in any way more then charging slowly at home. So, it turns out that what ppl have been saying about supercharging is untrue. I think constantly charging to 100% is way more harmful to the battery IMO

[@ironmic229]

Don't know if I would have purchased MY if I were unable to charge at home. The convenience of pulling into my home, plugging in, and walking away cannot be overemphasized. Also, the costs associated with the Supercharger Network can minimize the advantages of owning IMO. To each their own I suppose. The vehicle is amazing and I can see why people would forego home-charging to be a part of the Tesla experience.

[@teslaaddict]

Totally agree - thanks for sharing your experience :)

[@Lovejazz01]

@ironmic229 I agree, though I wanted a Tesla for years before I got one in 2020 one of the reasons why I did was because I could charge at home..

[@iperez9527]

Very informative, San Diego we have chargers for days, I charge at work and use the superchargers on weekends

[@moiwarning]

Honestly dope video as I plan to be this way with my new standard range + model 3. My condo doesn’t have ev chargers 😅

[@teslaaddict]

Thanks for sharing and congrats on your new purchase! Hope you have fun with the car :)

[@rocketrollsvlogs7625]

It's a little easier and more natural to stop 2 or 3 times a week, but for only 10 to 15 mins each. You connect, run in the store, and maybe wait 5 mins after you come out. Also, if you are used to only charging on Superchargers, you get more comfortable living between 10-50%. Much faster charging. I have a supercharger that is literally on the route to and from work.

[@chemicallyfreenolye5462]

I am trying this now, I have a charger at home level 1 (plug in via dryer outlet) I found that my electric co was charging .36 a kw, I can leave early 5:30a and charge for .28 a kw, after 11p .23 a kw…it s a no brainer it’s supercharger for me 2-3 days a week, I try not go below 20%, I have a LFP battery so I can charge to 100% daily.

[@Rexy_Raccoon]

Just bought a 2015 Model S 85 with free supercharging. The range is about 300km so enough for me to go to work all week, which is 10 or 18km away from me, depending on where they put me. It also helps that I work 12hr shifts so I have less workdays a month. I technically can lvl 1 charge it at home, but since power in Belgium is about 18 cents/kwh it would cost me about 3,60/100km, which isn't a lot, but I would still prefer it for free. What actually kills me is how slow degradation and the older technology charging makes. If I want to charge it at even the fastst supercharger from 0 to 100, it'd take me over 2 hrs being stranded, or 45 minutes from 20 to 80, but that means more charging per month. Nearest supercharger is also 25km from me the oposite way of my job, so it's a huge detour as well.

[@teslaaddict]

thanks for sharing! Hope you enjoy the ownership experience

[@aaronbinner3727]

Hi from Buffalo, just saw that you made a trailer park boys reference. You gained a subscriber!

[@stevenflaton2693]

Thank you for this. I just bought a ‘13 tesla S and think to start I’ll supercharge a couple days a week. This one has free charging so I guess we shall see how it goes. Pretty excited. 😊

[@Ramesharr]

update?

[@casanova-nj6gh]

@@Ramesharr a suspension code came up and a few things within my first 48 hours came up a little sketch, so I decided against it :/ dealership I got it at allows 3 day return. I did get 2 nights of free charging though that was nice.

[@casanova-nj6gh]

@@Ramesharrsorry this is Stevenflaton btw, just my other account lol just realized i hadn’t switched back 👍🏽

[@Ramesharr]

@@casanova-nj6gh thanks for the update.

[@dropshot1967]

I know I am late watching this video and commenting, But studies that recently showed no significant difference in battery health between cars that mainly used home/destination charges and those that mainly used fast charging. Other factors like charging to 100% and leaving it that charge for a long time and regularly draining the battery to very low levels are more of a concern. Also cars in very hot climates fare worse.

[@saadshaikh5597]

When you own a tesla, the only thing you think while driving is where to charge :P

[@rkgsd]

It's also a question of what difference (if any) it makes in the health of the battery. Either way, repeatedly charging to 100% lowers the long-term battery capacity.

[@teslaaddict]

Correct! I set my limit to 80% typically, and charge on Level 2 most of the time

[@Kareem-cx4fi]

I personally would not own an ev either if i couldn't charge at home. Having to schedule time around charging your vehicle 2 or more times is a major inconvenience, especially considering it cost 2x to 4x more than at home. If there is extreme weather, like freezing cold (like negative fahrenheit) for days you going to have even more problems since you cant precondition off the grid and keep your battery at a good level without a lot of extra work.

[@RicoSuave9790]

I charge at super chargers only quick and you get sometime for ur self to chill 😂

[@TheLifeofPug2098]

So you made a video on how to go broke. Thank you my friend.

[@81springbrook96]

Nice videos! Can you share more about your gloss silver model 3 did you wrap it? If so, what brand? How's it been so far? Love gloss so much more than matte.

[@teslaaddict]

Thanks! My car's body is stock OEM, no PPF ceramic coating or a wrap. I just hand wash it 1-2 a month... looks good for a 6 year old car with ~120k km if I say so myself!

[@WaqasShahzad]

Thank you for such an informative video. Here in Dubai a lot of us are solely relying on Superchargers because not all of us can get NOC for chargers for our rental apartment parking and EV infrastructure is not that great here. One more thing, Super chargers are free here at the moment. My question, Is this practice (100% living on superchargers) bad for my Tesla’s batteries?

[@teslaaddict]

Thanks for sharing your experience! I'm no expert on the matter but from what I gather Supercharging 100% of the time will *accelerate* your degradation. All EVs degrade but constant DC fast charging seems to degrade the battery a little sooner. Rest assured you won't wake up one day and lose 50% of your range haha One thing Supercharging also does is throttle Supercharging speeds - to protect the battery. SO over time you won't be able to charge as fast as the day you picked your car up

[@WaqasShahzad]

@@teslaaddict Thank you for your reply. It's very helpful.

[@faizi8464]

kind of wierd, In norway keeping in mind its almost ALWAYS COLD HERE I plug my car in on a level one charger all night on a 13amp i get 3kwh charging, I have no issue. I dont even feel the need to get a level 2 charger, because i get my model 3 LR charged to 80% in no time

[@teslaaddict]

thanks for sharing! :)

[@bengoey]

Interesting, video, thank you. One question, I am away once a year for one or two months , what happens to the battery after 2 months not being charged and left outside ? Is the battery going to be flat ?

[@teslaaddict]

Thanks for watching and great question! Things that drain the battery the most are sentry mode (having the cameras on recording movement around the car) and cabin over heat protection (ensures the interior temp. does not exceed a predetermined temp, so it runs the AC if sitting in the hot sun) So assuming you turn both those features off, your car should be fine for a couple months should you leave it parked with a relatively high state of charge. Ideally you have it plugged in even just on a 110v wall plug but if that's not a possibility that should be okay My worst "vampire drain" I've experience was my car was parked outside for ~3 weeks during the cold winter and I lost ~15% after that period of time if I recall correctly. My car is also a 2018 without a heatpump so they did improve in 2021+

[@bengoey]

@@teslaaddict Thank you very much for your helpful advice. I live in an apartment with no facility to charge (where I live in the UK the weather is not extreme like some parts of the US ). Considering getting a Tesla which is most probably my last car as I am not young anymore. I need to experience owning an EV.

[@PoloMagno23]

How’s the battery degradation in your 2018?

[@teslaaddict]

@@PoloMagno23 just surpassed 125,000km - although I have not yet ran a health test, the last time I charged to 100% it displayed 463km of range (my car was rated for 499km when it was new)

[@a124as]

Why would anyone do this? So expensive

[@zbigniewskrzypkiewicz40]

I have the impression that the number of superchargers in Poland is a taboo topic. I see. I have Greenway, Elocity, Purecity and others... and I understand that this will be enough. We are planning a trip to Kuźnica near Jastarnia - there was supposed to be a supercharger in Tricity. We want to go to Sztynort, but there is not even a Greenway there. I have a Tesla Y LR AWD and my son has a Tesla S 90D, but it is difficult for him to use free refueling in the north of Poland. But we have friends there who have photovoltaics on their roofs and they promised that we would be able to charge them there. BUT IS THIS THE WAY IT SHOULD BE? And the price of over PLN 3 per kW (Greenway, Elocity, Orlen and the latter I understand because they sell petroleum products and do not want competition) is the price of electricity twice as high as the price of the same electricity for charging cars in Germany. In Germany, the price of fuel is about 2 euros and a supercharger is 0.50 euros. So 1/4. And here the price of fuel is PLN 6.5 and the price of kW is PLN 3.15. i.e. 1/2. One concern, one price:))). We were the Tesla of Hannover and Bremen; in Italy, Monaco, etc. Western Europe is full of superchargers and is fun to drive. We heard about queues at Superchargers in Radom and Kostomłoty. Can you make a material about superchargers in Poland? One film about superchargers was made by this guy from Silesia - I'm a fan of his message - but the material was depressing.

[@BosnianAJ]

Tesla has the best network for people living in apartments I have a charger 2 min from my work drop off the kids to school also have one there i also live in a bigger city close to Chicago

[@georgerodriguez8209]

In LA/OC, im not worried about the network availability, but i am worried about the life of the battery. If jackrabbitting the throttle can hurt the battery wouldnt supercharging also hurt it more than trickle charging? Anyone know how bad the degradation is at that point? I was considering a used tesla but i dont have charging access at home. I have tons of chargers near home or near work. Would this work? Thanks.

[@teslaaddict]

@@georgerodriguez8209 I’m no engineer but I do believe that the faster you charge/discharge a battery repeatedly the worse it is. To what degree, I’m not sure I know plenty of people who can’t charge at home but still own an EV. I’m sure there are plenty of good used examples in your area to check out! :)

[@jimv1983]

He said he had to stop 2-3 times a week for a total of about an hour for a round trip commute that is about 65km/40mi. That's exactly why I won't buy an EV at this point.

[@M3NTALMAGIC]

why would U-when there are FREE chargers available

[@Xan-ur5px]

do you want to wait 6 hours at a public charger or even leave your 80 thousand dollar car alone

[@ajalanbrown2200]

lifetime free supercharging but i still leave it plugged up at home, not much of a driver.

[@Xan-ur5px]

not really free when considering your electric bill

[@romanivanov6183]

You can open the door trough the app

[@teslaaddict]

only the driver side front door, indeed

[@sirseriously]

Fully unlimited super charging for the win!

[@suigip]

The license plate placement though

[@alexzandrr]

I got my ‘24 Tesla model Y AWD LR recently and only have about 1,200 miles on it. I’ve super charged my car about 4-5 times as I don’t have a charger at home. I’ve noticed my 80% drop every time. The first time it was 243 miles , the 2nd and 3rd time I charged it went to 242.. the 4th time down to to 240 and today it went down to 239. Should I be concerned about this? Because admittedly I am lol especially being literally a brand new car.… anyone have more insight on this?

[@julianmejia4675]

Do you recommend if you don’t have a ev at home?

[@alexzandrr]

@ recommend what?

[@julianmejia4675]

@@alexzandrr I meant a charger lol

[@julianmejia4675]

@@alexzandrr cause I’m planning on buying a tesla but I’m going to have to use superchargers only since I can’t charge at home, and I wanna know your experience

[@alexzandrr]

@ oh I see brother, I’ve been supercharging for 4 months - I don’t have a charger at home. It’s been okay. I charge to 80 percent usually with no more than $20-25 which is still cheaper than gas here in Cali. My range has fluctuated from 242, 240 , 239 but always stays around that range for 80%. For the 4 months I’ve owned the car im actually really enjoying it. I would 100 percent recommend to anyone looking to buy a car.

[@ericw1651]

I think that your silver boi be beautiful

[@teslaaddict]

thank you kind sir you are a gentleman and a scholar

[@AaronCrawford]

I do

[@Adventures-and-More]

Yes. Next

[@jetsu3yahoo]

why keep doing these ridiculous challenges and ruin your battery life?

[@teslaaddict]

This was a "one and done" video. I charge at work (level 2) and occasionally at home (level 1)

[@oj9886]

Cost is an important issue … supercharging ends up being more expensive than gas if you are going to be exclusively using superchargers

[@j.a.3138]

Not really. I spend $58 to fill up my BMW and $28 to charge my Model 3 AWD. Do the math.

[@oj9886]

@ yeah .. do the math. You have to charge twice a week atleast whereas that 58 dollars will last you for 2 weeks atleast

[@j.a.3138]

@@oj9886 two weeks on a ‘19 M3? lol I wish. Shit lasts me about 3-4 days commuting 50 miles round trip. I work hybrid so obviously it lasts me longer. Same goes with my new Model 3 AWD. I DC charge once a week.

[@kabooomkal]

That sounds like the worst thing in the world to do. Why wouldn’t you just drive a regular car. The hrs you spend per week just to charge account to the amount of hrs I spend all year maintaining my car.

[@JuwelMollik-dv4qx]

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