Owning a Tesla without a garage

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Just curious. If you don’t drive a lot, why do you desperately need one? Even a escoot might work for you if you’re not carrying much groceries. Anyways, it’s not that bad. Usually if the chargers are in apartment complexes, they’re using ChargePoint any you can use the app to see if it’s available before you pull up. Do you have superchargers near you to use if not? If it’s 10-15 mi every two days, the apartment chargers may be enough.

I have a 72 mile commute (36 each way). That knocks off 30% of my battery daily. I have a house with a level 2 charger, so I just plug it in every night. I could easily go two days, but I figure it’s easy to plug it in and start “full” every day. You could go a very long time without charging if you wanted to. Either at home if you find an empty slot, or at a supercharger.

If you can't plug in at least 3 plus times a week to charge up to 80%, it may not be worth it. Home charging is what makes it cost efficient

I have a very similar situation to your check to see how close a local super charger is to you. If you can charge in your apartment great mine has one too but they charge a ridiculous amount of money to charge so it's actually cheaper to go to a super charger 5mins away. If you have access to a regular outlet near your apartment you could do a mobile charger easily.

That title is misleading. Check with your landlord or management company regarding the rules around the chargers. Some places have ride renters who just park there all day, everyday and nothing gets done. That would drive me crazy. See if their policies and enforcement are compatible with your usage. If you trust your parking lot putting the car in low power mode will dramatically reduce the power usage between charges

I'm about the same (31 miles per way) and I don't charge at home but I have free lvl 2 charging at work that is open every day. I'm full every day for free. If needed I use the mobile charger at night on the weekends.

I’d say you’re better off with an ICE or hybrid if you don’t have home charging. Supercharging weekly is a chore and not much cheaper than pumping gas

I charge my Tesla model Y LR AWD every 8 nights at home in the last 3 months. When the range gets down to 25% I charge it up to 75%. With the amount of driving you do, even less than me, you should do just fine.

He doesn't need to charge that often for the very low amount of driving he does.

I only charge about once a week. I do have a home charger but I think you could easily make it work, especially with shared chargers on-site.

I live in an apartment complex and drive alot for work. I charge 2-4 times a week. Theres no chargers in my apartment complex but I just work it out, there’s many chargers by where I live.

True and he might be able to slide with once a week, but it's easier, in his situation to do multiple short charges or whatever it free, versus 1 long time and then who even knows what the charging speed is where he lives. Then if he has to find somewhere else to charge, one long charge costs more. The bottom line really is, if you don't have somewhere to plug up at home then it really isn't worth it, i tried it that way first.

I have a tesla without a garage. I do live in a condo that has 3 working ev chargers First come first serve, and im in the process of installing a charger at my work

You’d be surprised how many places have free chargers. I’d download the PlugShare app, filter by NACS and J1772, then filter by free charging and look around your area to see what’s there. I don’t have a place to charge at home - yet im able to charge pretty easily for free a lot of the time.

You should be fine. I also live in a complex with shared charging in LA.  Especially with a Tesla. There are plenty of superchargers to fall back on and Teslas charge fast enough at low state of charge that you really only need 10 minutes when you do have to DC charge.

I live in a apartment charged once a week at a supercharger , I have no problem if I go out the weekend I charge on Fridays for like 6/10 bucks depending on the price per kw

I couldn’t do it without a garage. I bought my Tesla just assuming there world be chargers galore. There are TWO within an hour of me. Absolutely a no go without a home charger.

Similar situation as you. 20miles 3-4x weekly. Rent an old house with a few roommates in LA with fairly high kwh rates and want to be mindful of the bill (alhtough I take care of my portion and don't make them subsidize it) since i have an outlet to plug in but don't most days. Do you have any options to charge at work? Parking structure that may have a stray outlet? How close is the nearest SC? Since I'm in LA weather isn't a big factor. If i'm charging on Sunday i'll probably get down from 80% to 46/47% by the end of the week. If i charged to 90% regularly i think i could go two weeks without charging based on my driving habits.

I don’t have home charging. It’s fine. I hang out at a supercharger every hundred miles or so for 20 minutes and catch up on my fav YouTube channels while having a snack. I really enjoy that time, actually. The car can go 200+ miles on a full battery but most of us, just like gas cars, don’t fill it up to 100 and don’t run it down to zero. So when you have time and are near the supercharger, you’ll top it up. No big deal.

Better deal than me. I’m at 16¢ per kWh.

If you do not use sentry mode, your vehicle can sit idle and use less than 1% of the battery per day while parked unless it is cold. If you use sentry mode, it will use around 10% per day whole parked. It will use about 1% of the battery while driving for every 3 miles. You generally want to keep the vehicle between 20% and 80% so you have about 60% of the battery to work with for normal use. I am going to assume you drive about 75 miles a week for my calculations. This driving will consume about 25% of your battery per week. If you let it sit idle without sentry mode, that will use about another 7% per week. You will need to charge about every 2 weeks.

Yeah, charging at home is great but free is the best!

If you have Tesla chargers near by, you will definitely be fine with that amount of limited driving. I work from home and only drive for errands. So I haven't missed not having a home charger.

Economically and convenience wise it doesn't make sense if you don't have a place to charge at home, bottom line.

I strongly disagree, OP will get tired of having to stop at superchargers, it's an unnecessary time and expense. I have three Tesla's I would never own one if I wasn't able to charge at home.

With those low miles you can probably get away with only having to charge once a week. If you are lucky you may have free public chargers close to where u run your errands.

In summer I charge once a week. In winter I gotta charge basically every other day because of the cold battery. Keep that in mind

With the short drives you make, could probably go all week without charging if you leave Sentry Mode off. Sentry Mode can use up around 10%/day or so depending on various factors.

I have a long range model 3, live in an apartment, i just find a charger in town when I need it, probably every 10 days or so, still cheaper than gas and I don’t mind charging times, gives me time to read or catch up on my emails!

I recently bought a used tesla model 3 i travel 8 miles to work and 8 miles back so no issue with mileage also live in apartment but only 3 chargers don’t have to pay for it and they’re usually very available there’s about 6 or 7 evs in the place. You only need to charge really every couple days never let it go below 20% and depending on your battery if its lfp you can charge to 100 if not rule of thumb 80% is fine for longevity i am lucky and nobody uses the chargers that much here

Based on your usage, I'd say at least once a week at a supercharger is more than enough.

I have similar commute as you do. I charge once every 2 week at a supercharger that is 5 minutes away.

Assuming you are looking at the base model Y which has a range of 321 miles and assuming that you will charge to 80% and then drive until the battery reaches 20%, you are then looking at about 60% usage of total range, which would be about 192 miles. If, as you say, drive about 15 miles every other day then you are driving about 45 miles a week. This technically means that you can go about a month after a charge session. A safer estimation might be about three weeks. I am sure you can find some time to charge once a week. If so then you will be fine. For longer road trips, you can always stop by a supercharging station.

I feel you, I'd never own an ICE vehicle if I didn't have a gas pump at home.

My wife and I own a 2026 Model Y. We live in an apartment with a detached garage about 140 feet away that has a standard 110V outlet on the ceiling for the garage door opener. We run our Tesla charging cable from that outlet (using the available slot) down and along the wall to where the charge port is. It works well. Because the garage is not attached to our apartment, the electricity is effectively free for us. This setup easily covers all of our around-town driving, and we only need Superchargers when we are on the road.