Buying EV before installing home charger

[Anonymous]

Has anyone done this? We may try to get an EOY deal but wouldn't be able to get a home charger installed for a month or so.

[Anonymous]

We have had an EV for 5 years without a home charger. We plug into the wall.

[Anonymous]

Yes. We just used a regular plug at our house and/or used the fast charge network. We also both have chargers in our work parking garages but I don’t think we used those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have had an EV for 5 years without a home charger. We plug into the wall.

You would save money with a charger. It knows when electricity prices are lowest - in the middle of the night, etc. and charges at those times.

[Anonymous]

We have not noticed any increase in our electric bill as a result of the home charging. I think that the reason for the home charger is that it's faster than the wall method. We do have to plan ahead if we are going to drive a long distance, but fortunately our life is fairly predictable.

[Anonymous]

We just had an electrician put in a 240-volt 40 amp outlet. We called them and they were out the next day to do it the install. It’s pretty common now days.

[Anonymous]

We had our EV for a few weeks before we could get the charger installed, and it was no problem at all. There are a bunch of level 3 DC fast chargers nearby that can get you through to when the installation is done.

[Anonymous]

You can use a regular plug and charge all night or go to local fast chargers. That said, I am not sure why it would take a month to get it installed? We just ordered the charger which was fedexed and booked an appt for about 3 days later w/ our normal electrician.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have had an EV for 5 years without a home charger. We plug into the wall.

You would save money with a charger. It knows when electricity prices are lowest - in the middle of the night, etc. and charges at those times.

This isn't necessarily the case -- I have an EV and pay the same rate for electricity 24 hours a day, because we have a third-party electricity provider with a flat rate (for 100 percent offset power). We also have solar panels, so I didn't want the EV rate plans Pepco offered because I didn't want to suddenly have to pay more for electricity during the day just because it was raining than I did before we got the car.

The total cost difference you're talking about here is pretty small, anyway, though -- I pay 18 cents per kilowatt hour, and my car's total battery capacity is 82 kWh, so to charge it from completely depleted to 100 percent full would only cost $15, and usually I'm charging more like from 30 percent to 80 percent, so it's more like $7 or $8. Unless the electricity costs 50 percent less in the middle of the night, the maximum savings per charge would be like $4.

[Anonymous]

We are 11 months into owning our EV without a home charger. (Living in a temporary condo while our house is renovated.) feasibility all depends on how much you drive and the chargers that are around you. Our town has free charging at town hall, which is walking distance from where we’re staying. There’s also charging at our kids’ pool so we can charge when they’re practicing.

[Anonymous]

Hope you were able to get a great deal on your new EV. Enjoy!