Charging the Tesla

A week into learning the etiquette involved in charging my car at work, and I can tell that this is going to get interesting.  First, my commute is longer than most (which means that my required charge time is long).  Second, my office is at a building where there is more competition for the chargers than almost any other building in our regional collection[1].  This has resulted in there being a 2-hour charging limit.  Third, the chargers are slow (e.g., 14-19 miles of charge per hour)[2].  Because I do not charge at home (yet), I need to get enough charge at the office to drive home and return the next day.  That means a 5 to 7 hour charge while I am at work.  Fourth, the charging stations shut off at the 2-hour limit, and you have to go move your car.  (Note: I’m not at all against this method of managing a scarce resource.  It will just, obviously, have to improve as more people join the electric car revolution.)  Fifth, in no less than 3 occasions, people have unplugged my car before the 2 hours are up.  I do not understand the conditions under which someone would do this.

Luckily, one of our buildings a couple blocks away does not have the 2-hour charging limit.  I’ve taken to parking my car there to ease the demand at our building and to get a longer, contiguous charge.

[1] This is based on the number of electric vehicles registered for this building vs. our other buildings — information that is available through an internal directory.

[2] For comparison, a Tesla Supercharger will charge at a rate of 230 miles of charge per hour.

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