Charging Worries

Totally new to this world first time electric buyer here. Can someone pls t llnme what the average charging time is if I charge mainly at home with the equipped in car charging device? Is all night doable without leaving me stranded on the 405?
Thanks!!!

evnewbieEK said:

Totally new to this world first time electric buyer here. Can someone pls t llnme what the average charging time is if I charge mainly at home with the equipped in car charging device? Is all night doable without leaving me stranded on the 405?
Thanks!!!

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You will add about 3 to 4 miles per hour of range, when charging in this manner. Better to get a level 2 EVSE with a 240V outlet for recharging at home.

How you drive, and what you use as accessories and how far your drive is one way, sometimes round trip, will affect your recharging time. This is nothing like owning a petrol powered car. If you can't recharge at home with 240V, and you drive many miles per day, you will feel like your car is much like an Apple Ipad or IPhone, forever tethered to an electrical outlet while you wait for it to recharge.

While I know where I-405 is, most folks here will have no clue what you are talking about, or even which portion of the I-405 you drive, so it's impossible to answer your question with the lack of details you provided.

I've found it's helpful to look at real-world scenarios, so here' mine:

I commute each day Santa Cruz to Campbell, which is 54 miles round trip. It's 99% a highway drive, where I average about 55 mph on the twisty parts and 70 mph on the flat straight potions. For the sake of argument I get 4 miles per kWh (more when it's warm, less when it's cold). The e-Golf has 20 kWh of usable battery so that correlates to a 80 mile range.

Generally speaking I'm at 30-45% battery full when I get home. I recover about 5% battery for each hour plugged in at 120v in my driveway, so that's 11 to 14 hours. If I plug in by 8pm I'm always close to full by 10am. I have solar panels and am still on PG-E's E-6 plan; really I'm probably better off switching to the EV plan where the off-peak rates are 11 pm - 7 am. But then I'd need a home L2 charger in order to get a full charge during off-peak.