[natch]

You do not need an EV charger to charge your EV. A 110 or 220 outlet with a cord and an adapter will work just fine. Apologies for the US centric terminology but I expect the situation is roughly the same (though numbers vary) elsewhere.

We did TWO Teslas in an apartment for two years sharing (alternating cars) a single plug of a single 110 outlet. It was fine. With this arrangement, yes, on days where you do big trips, there’s a supercharger visit, But normally, an outlet is totally sufficient.

An installed charger does add some very, very minor convenience (no adapter, big deal… not worth the cost). And if it needs to be shared and bills split, that’s different. But for basic charging no special installation is needed as long as you can reach.

I made this second copy of my comment because while profanity (in the other comment) makes some people take notice, it gives others the excuse they need to tune out the message, which is the same for both comments:

You don't need to install a charger.

[WorldMaker]

Yes, I think Americans especially discount the "Level 1" charge in home charging as "inadequate" when it is still sometimes an incredible game changer. Having more miles available in the morning when you wake up then when you parked the car is a difference maker even if it is only 10-12 extra miles overnight on the worst, least efficient EVs on the current market. (Most cars get much better than that. I can easily get nearly 40 miles overnight on a work night on just a 110 Level 1 charge. That covered my daily commute handily.)

[lnsru]

I had a neighbor with Tesla and he was happy to charge his car only on superchargers. Today in Germany all fast chargers cost at least 2x more than electricity at home making electric vehicles barely economically viable. My assumption: real car with 20 kWh/100km consumption comparing to 6-8l/100km diesel similar sized car.

[seattle_spring]

Spending 30+ minutes not including added drive time to go to a supercharger everytime I want to go to the city or on a hike is not even close to a "very, very minor inconvenience." Speak for yourself, as I would bet money that the majority of EV owners find significant value and benefit from at-home L2 charging.

[natch]

It’s hardly like that at all though.

300+ miles of range is plenty to get to a nearby city and back for most people, with or without supercharging.

The “very, very minor inconvenience” I referred to is the non-issue of having to find something to coil the cord onto when not in use, solved by most installed chargers which give you an hanging hook. BFD.

[seattle_spring]

Oh wow you can charge 300 miles without L2 charging overnight? That's one hell of a plug you must have there.

[natch]

You don’t need to. The charge level just keeps climbing each day. It’s not like it resets to zero at midnight or something. So it will get to 300 or 400 (Model S) if you let it.

And most people living near a city aren’t 150 miles away… more like 5-10 miles away. Even 60 miles away, there’s no need to charge to 300. Except for special cases, and on those rare times you supercharge for maybe 10-15 minutes to augment it, while watching Netflix or posting on Hacker News on the screen. Let me know if you have any more questions, always happy to clear up these misconceptions!

[sliken]

Before I had an EV, I'd have agreed with you.

Imagine your gas car increased it's range by 50 miles every time you came home for the night. How often would you fill up your gas tank?

For me it was much rarer than I expected. Sure longer road trips over 300 miles I'd often spend 15 minutes getting 140 miles of extra range. How far away are these hikes or cities?

I spent something like 10x less time charging on the road than I used to for gas and oil, so I consider that a huge win. Even driving from Sacramento Area to Denver area wasn't a big deal. Drive for 4-5 hours, stop and grab a snack and walk the dog and back into the car. Sure I had to wait an extra 10 minutes before driving for another 4-5 hours. I'd much rather do that than have to hit a gas station weekly ish.

[seattle_spring]

Now imagine how much better it'd be if you could fully charge your car at night instead of add only 50 miles.

[natch]

Totally! That’s where a 220 plug comes in. But still absolutely no need whatsoever to install a charger. Just plug right in.

[natch]

More like 10 minutes with a 250kw charger if it’s on your way. Big if, of course. But again you can always charge at home instead if it’s just a nearby city.

[seattle_spring]

Yeah again, I'm not arguing against EVs (not sure how people even arrived at that opinion), I'm arguing that owning an L2 charger at home provides more than "barely a convenience over 110V". If you have only a 110V then, no, you cannot "always charge at home." It's literally the argument I'm making.

[natch]

I think what was expressed was that there are exceptions (so, not literally always). Like road trips. We don’t need to get hung up on this. There are phrases that apply like “for all practical purposes.”

And having an L2 charger beyond a simple 220 wall outlet is no faster than the 220 wall outlet. Sure you can upgrade and get a fast L2 charger but you can more cheaply upgrade your 110 wall outlet to 220 and it will be just as fast as any installed L2 charging unit. In other words the installation of a charger is superfluous when it comes to speed of charging, which is what you have been talking about.

You might have heard of people getting faster charge times with an L2 charger versus their friend’s 220 volt outlet. But the opposite happens too: 220 outlets vary depending on amps, and so do L2 chargers. It’s possible to have an L2 charger that is slower than a 220 outlet, depending on the amps of the L2 charger and the amps of the 220 outlet.