Yep. Several analysts note that Costco makes most of its money from the membership fees themselves and little from the profit margins on the merchandise it sells. Apparently any profit margin of significance from the Kirkland products. The most widespread but most agonizingly slow. Like pulling up to a pump in one of those 20th century ICE vehicle thingies of good old days and if the pumps only trickled out a drop at a time. You'd get there, but maybe have to leave the car at the station for a day or two to fill up.
Granted, its not super practical for long road trips. However, its not like your vehicle isn't sitting unused for 8-12 hours a night. If I had a home gas pump that slowly trickled out gas, you bet I would plug my ICE car into it every night.
Perfectly fine for the average commute. Long commuters need L2 and road trippers need sufficiently extensive reliable 100+ kW. So for the partial electric family with a PHEV or BEV + ICE, may never be a big problem. A full BEV family will need sufficiently extensive and reliable 100+ kWh.
Typically 12A *120VAC = 1.4 kW. My Tesla gets ~4 mi/kWh or about 5.7 miles per hour. That is a trot speed. Some EVs are closer to 3 mi/kWh, 4.3 miles per hour, a modest rate. But sometimes a multi-use circuit is limited to 8A. One could charge at 8A * 120VAC = 0.96 kW. The ~4 mi/kWh Tesla gives 3.8 miles/hour or other EVs, 2.9 miles/hour. Bob Wilson
I use this network to charge at home and work. I don't even own an L2 EVSE for my Leaf. I use the L1 EVSE that came with the car. I upgraded the outlet I use at my house to a hospital grade 20A outlet for $10 and 10 minutes.
How does that help? If you didn't change the breaker (and the wires) your circuit is still able to only deliver as many amps as it was before. The EVSE doesn't change the desired amps based on the outlet type...does it? I guess that it could be slightly safer before the 20 amp outlet itself is less likely to overheat. But your wiring and breakers are still the same. Is it even within the electrical code to upgrade an outlet like? What if the breaker is actually only 15 amps? The 20 amp outlet is telling users that it is a 20 amp circuit. But what do I know about this? Mike
I had assumed the outlet was already 20 amps. The upgrade was for the more secure contact and resistance to wear and tear of the hospital grade.
A proper 20A circuit uses a NEMA 5-20r. It also needs to be on GFCI circuit or built-in to the socket. Bob Wilson
True, but all the wall receptacles in my house are Nema 5-15 with 20 amp circuit breakers. I bought the Nema 5-20 (16 A) adapter for the Tesla UMC and a Nema 5-15P to 5-20R adapter. I used this setup at motel overnight and got 70 miles worth of juice while sleeping. I didn’t really need it, but it did allow me to skip a Supercharger Stop. Everything was working fine till my wife flipped the switch on her Hairdryer and tripped the breaker for our room the next morning Bob, Tesla has a plan in place for more Superchargers in the Little Rock to Tulsa gap. For the time being, they are pushing to complete the Trans Canada Hwy while the ground is thawed out. I’d give it another year though on the southern build out to fill in the Gaps.
At any given time there are 50-60 Supercharging locations under active construction somewhere in the USA and 50-60 in the Permitting process. When one goes live another gets permitted and one usually starts construction. They seem to average 2-3 Supercharging locations opening per week.
