Tesla Model 3

NORTON said:

You're not going to talk me into the concept of NO FREE Charging.

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You'll think differently when there are more EV in your area and they're still getting free charging and all your charging spots get taken up when you need it. Especially annoying will be when you have to pay to charge and only need 5 or 10 minutes, but you're waiting for free chargers who let their cars sit even at 3kW or slower using 50 kW DCFC, which happens often with guys who get free charging and live locally; they want to get their "money's worth".

Speaking of Bolt, I'm not convinced. 86% of my trips (6 out of 7 days) are good with SparkEV with home charging. I'm not going to pay $15K extra for that 14% that can be met with DCFC. As long as there's no free charging (no guarantee, but hopefully), it'll remove about 75% of needless waiting based on anecdotal poll I did over the months.

However, I am tempted by Tesla Model 3. It looks great, it performs great, it'll have AWD option, Supercharger will get me cross country (unlike Bolt), it's cheaper than Bolt, and it'll be available for me in 2026 the way things are looking with reservations. Hopefully by that time, I'll have enough saved up to buy it.

SparkevBlogspot said:

....However, I am tempted by Tesla Model 3. .... and it'll be available for me in 2026 the way things are looking with reservations. ....

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Funny :lol: At least you are one of the 'Informed' fans of this car!

I suspect 2/3 of these 'depositors' couldn't name 3 other non-Tesla EV's. Hopefully now that they feel committed, they are doing some research on the subject.

SparkevBlogspot said:

NORTON said:

You're not going to talk me into the concept of NO FREE Charging.

Click to expand...

You'll think differently when there are more EV in your area and they're still getting free charging and all your charging spots get taken up when you need it. Especially annoying will be when you have to pay to charge and only need 5 or 10 minutes, but you're waiting for free chargers who let their cars sit even at 3kW or slower using 50 kW DCFC, which happens often with guys who get free charging and live locally; they want to get their "money's worth".

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I ran into that problem yesterday while taking a trip to Oakland, CA. When I travel to Oakland, my normal DCFC charging location is at the San Francisco Premium Outlets in Livermore, CA. This location has 3 combo stations and one CHAdemo stand-alone station. Yesterday at 10am they were ALL occupied and I needed to charge in order to get to an 11am appointment. So I drove to another combo station 3 miles away only to be beat out by a Leaf. So, back to the outlets where one station finally opened up. Governor Brown wants 1.5 million PEVs on the road by 2025. I can only imaging how difficult gaining access to a DCFC will be then.

Did you talk to them, and do they get free charge? My suspicions are

a) they were all (or mostly) Leaf
b) all (or most) were locals who get free charging
c) most of them charged way past 60% (ie, less than 40 kW), some as low as 2 kW out of 50 kW even though Leaf would charge just as quickly with L2.

It's fine to have 1 million BEV, just make the pricing so that DCFC is used by those who need it, not by locals using them as home substitute. That means it can't be cheaper than home charging.

SparkevBlogspot said:

.... just make the pricing so that DCFC is used by those who need it, not by locals using them as home substitute. That means it can't be cheaper than home charging.

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NO, NO, NO,,, This totally messes with my plan of Cheapness.
How can I drive totally for free if they start charging for electrons?

(I did spend ~$25 this winter plugging in at home due to TMS considerations. I love my battery pack and didn't want it to get too chilly...)
Edit: Plus I have to buy tires. That and insurance/taxes is my total cost of ownership.

SparkevBlogspot said:

Did you talk to them, and do they get free charge? My suspicions are

a) they were all (or mostly) Leaf
b) all (or most) were locals who get free charging
c) most of them charged way past 60% (ie, less than 40 kW), some as low as 2 kW out of 50 kW even though Leaf would charge just as quickly with L2.

It's fine to have 1 million BEV, just make the pricing so that DCFC is used by those who need it, not by locals using them as home substitute. That means it can't be cheaper than home charging.

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Yep! Leafs and I3s but I was in a hurry and did not talk to them.