Charge for free at EA or save the battery?

[Avantgarde]

Here is my dilemma: There is a Walmart 5 minutes away from my home with four Electrify America 150 kw stations always available. I visit there every week to buy water and drinks. Should I charge my taycan every week there for free? Or should I avoid DC charging unless absolutely necessary? If I chose to do the latter, that means I'd have to invest $2500 to install a Level 2 set up at my home (i don't know if I will stay more than 2-3 years in this home) and + pay for electricity. It may sound like I am nickeling and diming here but the real cost difference is signifcant over a 3 year period. (at least $5000 by my calcs). Charging weekly at walmart is absolutely no inconvenience to me based on my driving habits and the fact that I go there anyways. (And I can always top off during the week using my 115V plug if i drive a bit more than ususal). My concern and question is whether the additional strain I would be putting on the battery due to weekly DC charging be worth more or less than the $5000+ savings.

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[WattTurbo]

I charge at an EA station near my house and it’s 150 kW as well. I don’t worry about it since it can take well over 200 kW charge so 150 should be nothing. I walk around the mall to put my steps in for the day so it’s no big deal for the wait.

 

[gusone]

Here is my dilemma: There is a Walmart 5 minutes away from my home with four Electrify America 150 kw stations always available. I visit there every week to buy water and drinks. Should I charge my taycan every week there for free? Or should I avoid DC charging unless absolutely necessary? If I chose to do the latter, that means I'd have to invest $2500 to install a Level 2 set up at my home (i don't know if I will stay more than 2-3 years in this home) and + pay for electricity. It may sound like I am nickeling and diming here but the real cost difference is signifcant over a 3 year period. (at least $5000 by my calcs). Charging weekly at walmart is absolutely no inconvenience to me based on my driving habits and the fact that I go there anyways. (And I can always top off during the week using my 115V plug if i drive a bit more than ususal). My concern and question is whether the additional strain I would be putting on the battery due to weekly DC charging be worth more or less than the $5000+ savings.

A Jaguar technian recently wrote on here that they hammered a Jag EV around a race track for 200k only charging with DC. Apparently the battery degradation was only 3%. I don't have a charger and supercharge every 2 weeks at Porsche which is 5 mins away.

 

[npx]

150kw charging once a week isn't going to "damage" the battery, especially if you're filling it to 80 something percent.

 

[Silveral]

I am enjoying greatly the EA presence pretty much everywhere on Long Island now....with more chargers coming soon.

It gives me a HUGE satisfaction to fast charge instead of the slow charge at home. It's not really a matter of savings. It just makes me happy to charge fast, to 100% twice a week....I am even taking trips to new chargers, just for the hell of it....

The truth is that the Taycan is such a pleasure to drive, that any excuse will do it.

I also like to help newbies, now that I have figured out all of the tricks to EA chargers. The whole thing may become boring in a while, but for now it's still fun!

 

[dflohr]

Except while traveling away from home, I only charge using our Level 2 charger. Our special night-time EV rate is ~$0.015 per KW. Even though an EA charger is 1 mile from my home, simply not worth my time waiting there.

 

[fgwinn]

....My concern and question is whether the additional strain I would be putting on the battery due to weekly DC charging be worth more or less than the $5000+ savings.

It's unlikely that you will experience a very high rate of charge since there won't be enough time to precondition the battery. So I doubt if your weekly top up at Walmart will be detrimental.

 

[Avantgarde]

It's unlikely that you will experience a very high rate of charge since there won't be enough time to precondition the battery. So I doubt if your weekly top up at Walmart will be detrimental.

Thanks I tried it twice and i do get 90kw+. Takes me from 40% to 80% in ~20-25 minutes, or a quick grocery run..

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