Is Level 1 Charging Effective for EVs?

My experience adding range using only a home outlet.

Do you ever wonder if level 1 charging makes a difference at all? In case you're not familiar, level 1 charging is charging your electric vehicle with the standard 110 Volt outlet you have in your home today. Most electric vehicles come with a standard mobile level 1 and level 2 charger adapter you can take with you on trips. If you ask around most people think level 1 charging is futile and not applicable at all. I wanted to test that. I do have a Tesla mobile charger with a 220 Volt and a 110 Volt adapter so if I go to someone’s house, I can use their dryer outlet and charge my car at level 2. I imagine that's a difficult ask having to pull someone's dryer out and unplug it and then plug your EV in with a 220v extension cord, which I also bought. However, in case of emergencies, nothing's off the table

What I wanted to know was if I were stuck at a hotel without an EV charger could I charge my car overnight with the outlet in the motel room, and what amount of charge would I receive if that was the only way for me to charge my car as I slept? If you know me, I'm very conservative and like to be prepared. This is my attempt to find out how quickly my individual Tesla model 3 would charge. I did not want to use a google search average and I surely didn't want to NOT test it before I hit the road and needed it. I'm also one that doesn't like to belabor a story, or an article so here is how it came out.

As you can see in the picture my level one mobile charging accessory is plugged into my regular home outlet in the garage and then plugged up into my Tesla model 3. You can see in my Tesla app on my phone that it was charging at 12 amps. As a comparison, my level 2 home charger charges at 32 amps. I started with 131 miles of range at 7:35 PM and at 8:13 AM I had 180 miles of range. That is 51 miles of range in 13.2 hours or.064 miles per minute or 3.9 mph. Is this ideal, of course not. But it is doable absolutely. Adding 51 miles while I sleep at a hotel can get me to any level 2 or Level 3 fast charger in the area and bring me peace of mind that no matter the situation knowing I can add 50 miles to my car's range while I sleep.

What's the bottom line? Range anxiety is a real thing and can be serious. It’s the number one concern among EV shoppers considering EVs as well as EV owners looking to extend their trips from outside of a short radius. Having a Level 3 route plan using applications like PlusShare will certainly get you where you want to go in most urban areas. However, in rural markets where I live, having access to mobile level 2 and level 3 chargers is not so easy. I'm convinced, through personal experience, that I can route plan to get to my next fast charger if I can always give my car 40 to 60 miles of extra range while sleeping in a hotel. Even if it’s only 25 extra miles while watching my college son pitch in a baseball game with no charger in sight. That makes a difference too. Test it for yourself.

Happy EV Driving,

The BEV Guy!