Newbie question about charging

[wilma92010]

Hi There!

I just took delivery of a 2015 i3 and love it. I am good with the range and understand the time it takes to charge from various levels. I don't have any problems with it, I can use it to do daily tasks and even occasionally drive to work and back (takes most of the charge, it is 35 miles away, has a charging station that looks like the same connector as my i3 connector, but it was installed by the Tesla owning building owner so I am not sure it will work). But I don't have to do any charging at work if I drive carefully, just let it charge overnight. That is Ok with me.

The sales technical assistant says that with my base model, I can do nothing to improve charging rate because the car and cabling with the (big) dongle doesn't support it. I asked if I plugged it into a 220 volt source, he said probably wouldn't make any difference as the charging is controlled by the car and not the volts/amps/whatever is input.

Reading over all the posts I can find (the search on this forum doesn't support searching for "i3 charging" or any useful search term), there are hints now and then that this is true, but no definitive statement. Mostly the discussions are for more expensive models with the REX so probably don't apply anyway.

It does seem like one can have an electrician can install a proper 220 volt service plug (like my Dryer, for example), so my question is would that make a difference. As I said, according to the sales tech guy the answer is "no, it won't make a difference." Can someone verify this?

Thanks,

Wilma

 

[jadnashuanh]

You don't say where you live, but if it is in the USA, the level 1 EVSE supplied with the car has a maximum output of 10/12A depending on the model you have. The car is capable of accepting up to about 32A. Power=volts*amps, so if you go to 240vac, with the same rated EVSE, you'd double the power being put into the car. The dealer is blowing smoke...doesn't know what he is talking about! The i3 can handle 7400W, so if we take that formula and assuming you have 240vac input, 7400/240 = 30.83A. Say your EVSE has 10A output, and your supply is 120vac, that's 10*120=1200W, or less than 1/6th of the power. Saying it won't make a difference is just ignorant! The car will adjust how much it takes from the thing up to how much the thing says it has (it sends out a signal announcing that, and the car obliges by not exceeding that). Throw in that converting to 380vdc from 120vac (the charging is actually in the car, the EVSE is a fancy on/off switch) is less efficient starting out with 120vac verses 240-vac, it's even slower. With the level one EVSE, it can take as much as 20-hours, verses about 3-4 with a full 30/32A EVSE.

So, depends on how much you discharge the battery and how much time you have...you won't hurt the car, it just won't charge as fast.

If the plug on the EVSE at work fits in your car, it will work. While Tesla has a different protocol, they sell(provide?) an adapter so that the car can use a standard J1772 plug, which is what the i3 has on it, and the one most commonly found in public.