Nervous About Charging a Tesla? Have No Fear, There Are Plenty of Options!

Charging a Tesla

With Tesla's recent price cuts you might be interested in getting a Model 3 or a Model Y or some other vehicle from Tesla's lineup. In fact, one of the questions I get the most is from people who are nervous about charging a Tesla and not having the options to do it.

Tesla charging is very simple and the very first thing to know is that Tesla is building out their Supercharger network. This is a series of EV charging stations that Tesla has where you simply open your charge port and plugin a cable. That's it. It's that simple.

You pay the price for the charging you do based on the rate for electricity at that time. Electricity is more expensive during the day and less so early in the morning and late at night. The off-peak cost is about 1/3 the cost of gas, and during peak times, it can get close to the cost of gas.

That's the first thing I'd tell you is that even if you don't have an outlet in your home garage or you live in an apartment, you can simply go to Tesla Superchargers to charge. They are fast and make it easy. There are plenty of them near shopping centers and you can leave your car charging while you shop for groceries or other items you need.

I've gone to the Tesla Supercharger multiple times in the city where I live and it's a very easy and simple experience. Tesla is expanding their Supercharger network and it's only going to be easier to charge in the future with more charging stations.

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Other Charging Options

If you have a home you live in, you can setup home charging pretty easily. Simply get a 240 volt outlet installed in your garage and a Tesla home charger and you are set. Generally this will cost you from $750 to about $1,500 and any certified electrician can install it. The advantage of home charging is that you can set your Tesla to charge on off-peak electricity cost time, from 11 PM to 7 AM.

Besides home charging, there are still actually a plethora of options to charge your Tesla. For instance, there is a Harmons grocery store a couple blocks away from me where I live. I can plugin my Tesla to one of the chargers there while I shop for a few hours. There is even a CCS fast charger where I can charge my Model 3 RWD in under an hour.

Many grocery stores or places of business - or business buildings that have multiple sections rented for other business will have charging stations in their parking lot. If you work in such a building, you can charge your car for free most of the time during the day.

If you work at a company, most of them are starting to build EV charging stations and you can also plug your vehicle in there during the day. There are also ChargePoint charging stations scattered throughout the United States and you can charge at those as well. You simply need to download the ChargePoint charging app and open it, then tap it on to the charging station and you're good to go.

The main thing to understand is that EV charging is everywhere and continuing to grow. You'll have no problem finding an EV charging station even if it isn't a Tesla Supercharger. You may need a level 2 charging adapter, a J1772 for most of the charging stations, but that comes with your Tesla vehicle and is easy to put in.

Do you have any other charging questions? What are your favorite locations to charge your Tesla?

In Related News: Tesla's 10,000th Super Charger is Open in Shanghai

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Jeremy Johnson is a Tesla investor and supporter. He first invested in Tesla in 2017 after years of following Elon Musk and admiring his work ethic and intelligence. Since then, he's become a Tesla bull, covering anything about Tesla he can find, while also dabbling in other electric vehicle companies. Jeremy covers Tesla developments at Torque News. You can follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn to stay in touch and follow his Tesla news coverage on Torque News.

Image Credit, Tesla, Screenshot