How To Make EV Charging Take Zero Time Near Home

This station is in a grocery store parking lot. Most people shop for groceries 1-2 times a week, ..

. More and spend 30-50 minutes in the store, which is perfect for recharging the car. Charging an electric vehicle should always take close to zero time, unlike pumping gasoline which takes several minutes.



In part one of this series, I described how to do zero-wait EV charging on long road trips. What about when you’re in your home city? For the great majority of EV owners, who install charging in their homes, this is easy and natural--they just charge where they sleep. But what about those for who can’t do that so easily? If you’ve exhausted all the ways (listed below) to charge at home, even level one, the next best option is charging at work.

Of course, you can’t personally install charging at work, but many employers are very amenable and you can start an effort to get the company to install some charging. They don’t need to install fast charging. They might even have outdoor plugs already and be willing to endorse plain level one charging in some spots.

Though it’s certainly nice if they’ll put in some 3kW or even 6kW level 2. If they’re going to give it free to staff, as they usually do, they don’t have to put in more expensive metered charging. If home and work are out, you’ll need to use public charging.

Many people in this situation just end up using public charging gasoline style. They wait until they are low and head out for a “fill up.” But they must wait 30-60 minutes for this, and it’s also usually quite expensive.

The key is to look at a charging map, like the one at Plugshare . Set it up with the type of plug in your car (Tesla, CCS or sometimes both.) Then look around for sufficiently fast chargers located somewhere you already like to go.

The ideal location is a decent grocery store. Sadly, today, that could mean deciding to switch grocery stores, though you do want one close to you home. In the future, you won’t have to switch, as most of them will get some charging.

You also want there to be enough stations, or an ability to reserve. Most people visit a grocery store at least twice/week. If you like Wal*Mart, they just announced they will be putting in their own charging at most stores--they already have Electrify America at many of them.

Perhap you can find more than one suitable grocery store. You can often also find other stores you visit regularly, such as Target, which might do the trick. The average car needs just 10kWh per day.

That’s a very short visit to a fast charger but can also be about 2 visits/week for most. If you’re an Uber driver it’s a different story. Frankly, driving an electric Uber is today better for those with home Level 2 charging, but this will change in time.

Other places to look for are cinemas and hangout spots, and most of all, restaurants. You might easily find a few dozen restaurants within short walks of fast chargers. Pick out ones that you would enjoy using as regular restaurants.

Today, that might be hard (without some compromise on food) but over time this will go away. Unless you’re very lucky you probably won’t find a restaurant that you want to make your “regular” place with charging, but again, that will improve with time. Find a selection of places.

This charging station is literally in a gas station. Other charging stations are designed just like ..

. More gas stations. Who wants to hang out at a gas station for 30 minutes? You may find a charger that has a suitable “lounge”place you can go to do some work on your laptop, or even eat a take-out meal.

At least in the summertime, you might find one with a picnic table or park nearby. Then you can get take-out anywhere and eat it while charging. And in a pinch, you can eat or work in your car, though that’s not a great first choice.

Depending on the location, you may be able to bring camp chairs and a folding table for a picnic, with food from home or some take-out. You can also buy trays that mount on the steering wheel and other locations. Everybody surfs the web and watches TV for several hours per week.

Some cars, like Teslas, have good screens and speakers and can be a good place to get in your TV watching, and indeed Tesla supports Netflix and other streaming services. You can do this anywhere. Plus it puts a natural limit on your TV watching.

You won’t have a big screen HDR experience, but you’ll have decent sound. If you own your parking spot, or have a friendly landlord, you can almost always get “Level One” charging at home. So give it a try.

You may have to uncoil and extension cord every night, so it’s a minor effort. Level 1 charging typically delivers about 14-15 kWh per night, more for many people. The average driver only needs 10kWh per day so this actually works much better than you think.

I used Level 1 for 2 years without problems. The key is to understand that you don’t ever need to go from zero to 100% in one night. People read that Level 1 takes more than 24 hours to do that and decide it could never work because they’re doing gasoline thinking.

What matters is the average. Some days your car gets low, but over time it makes its way back up to full. This is an Apple Computer parking lot after hours.

Loaded with charging for staff and customers. ..

. More Level 2, more than you need. If you do drive a lot one day, and will drive a lot the next day, you may not have enough.

This may only happen a few times a year, though. When it does, then go to the fast charging as described above. It need not be near your home--if you are driving that much, you will be getting far from home and will pass many fast chargers.

Also get a new electrician if you are told you need a utility service upgrade to put charging in your home. The 20th century electrical design rules did demand that, but they were not written for EVs, which can adjust their charging rate in a dynamic fashion. You can (Disclaimer, I’ve invested in a company that makes this) get devices that let your car use only the surplus power in your home, which turns out to be always enough--no expensive upgrade needed.

This also applies in apartment buildings. If you ask your building to put in charging, make sure they know they don’t need to get new service for the building. There are often special credits they can get from the government or the utility to put in charging.

If you have a dedicated plug in your parking area, you can also do a simple upgrade to switch it to a 240v plug without changing the wiring. This is much cheaper, and will provide around 3kW, or 30-40kWh per day. That’s more than enough for almost everybody, except an Uber driver.

Whatever you can get in your home is good. If it’s very small, you might rely on the public charging advice.