Charging for dummies

Go into your Tesla app, and make sure that you have a credit card setup for supercharging. Then, go to a supercharger, plug in. Wait until you have the charge you want, unplug, and drive off. Yes, it’s really that simple

Load your credit card details into your app, plug in, follow the instructions on the app. It might ask you which stall you’re using. That’s pretty much it.

And I just use their plug. It goes right into the slot? And to remove it, I press the button like on my charger at home to unlock the nozzle?

Yes if you are at a supercharger you will not need an adapter. You just plug in to charge and once you’re done, press the button to release the handle from the car and return it to the charger

If for some very unlikely reason that the button on the charger 'head' doesn't work, you can unlock the charge port with the app or on the car's internal screen.

Our CC was attached to our car when we bought it. If we order something from Tesla or want service the card is already on file. That includes supercharging. You back up to your chosen charger & open your charge port and plug the supercharger cable into the car. No adapters needed. You will already have preselected your charge limit, but you can edit that whenever you choose, even during the charging, or just unplug and drive away. You will see how much power you bought and what $ was put on your CC. Don’t charge the battery more than 90% unless you have to because the fuller the battery the longer it takes for the last few % points. Unplug when you’re at your set limit - a cost per minute starts immediately. And preselect your supercharger as your trip stop, because your MY automatically begins to prepare the battery - that lets it accept the charge faster. *edit to add we have a home charger and only supercharge when on a road trip. It takes us 4 minutes to charge 1%, so we get 15% battery charging added per hour.

Supercharging doesn’t ask you a stall. Like, ever. You just plug in. Where are you from?

New Zealand. They all ask which stall here. Edited.

Lol i took my demo to an sc just to try it out. You know with tesla its gonna be seamless with their great design. Put a card on file and pull up to the charger and just plug in. Still haven't used one in 6 months since buying tho.

Its... very intuative, drive up, plug in, watch netflix or go for short walk, dont forget to add payment method in the tesla app, charge for as long as you want, unplug drive away. If you know how to fill up a gas car, this is easier.

It's a no brainer. That easy.

Exactly this. Just like making a baby.

It’s wild how new folks vastly overcomplicate the idea of supercharging because this world has conditioned them to expect it. Then they try it and they never go back.

The supercharger cable will be almost exactly the same as your mobile charger at home. Works exactly the same. The cable is a little thicker and heavier to handle the increased electrical current. Back in to a spot. Plug the charger cable into your car. Let it charge. It’ll finish in a few minutes. Unplug just like normal. Drive away.

I only use the mobile charger at home. I might drive 12-40 miles per day and then just plug up at night. If im driving a few hundred miles on a whim, I might go to a supercharger on the way home for a bit then charge the rest at home. I dont go out much on the weekend so its usually charged by the time Monday rolls around if I drove around a bunch during the week.

For supercharging, people are not telling you to enter the charging destination in navigation (lightning bolt on map). This will start preconditioning your battery before you arrive at the charger. This will make it faster and also protect the health of your battery. What take the most getting used to is the change in mentality. You are not filling up. You are charging at the super charger longe enough to get you to a point where you can chill charge. If you set a destination, the car will tell you what you need. I add 10-20%. This makes it cheaper and is more friendly on your battery. Once you get the home charger, get in the habit of plugging it on routinely. Even if you don't need a charge, this will allow the car to maintain safe batter temperatures and also allow you to adjust the climate before trips. I almost always hit the climate button 10-15 minutes before departing on trips. Of it is plugged in, it will use city power for this. Again, better for battery health. You shouldn't be afraid to charge higher if needed for longer trips, but the batteries perform best in the 40-60% range. If this is more than enough, and it sound like it is, keep it here for day-to-day driving. On your home charger you can adjust the voltage down for slower charging from your phone. This is healthier for your battery but more importantly, for me at least, I can use the excess power generation from solar to power my car. If you need to charge 90%+ it is best to not leave your car too long at the higher charge. You can avoid this by setting a departure schedule from your phone. I look at smart charging, for battery health reasons, like I do oil changes. My only maintenance is to be nice to my battery. I can do most of this from my phone. I'm a scientist and did a shit ton of digging in the primary literature about this stuff when I first bought my car. I have not dug into the literature for the past several years because I found my groove. My information might be somewhat dated, but it is based on physics so I'm assuming it won't be wildly different until battery tech changes.

You will laugh at your own post when you realize just how easy the Tesla ecosystem is. Hardest thing is backing into the space, if you have to do that. Plug in get coffee or play videos. Trust me, they will get the money part right.

Interesting. In the US our card is in our Tesla account. The car is linked to the account. We just park anywhere and plug in. The stall automatically knows it’s us and charges the account accordingly. No worry about what stall. What card. Nothing just plug charge then go.

Tesla has all this info on their site. https://www.tesla.com/support/charging/supercharging

I will never forget how when I was 18 years old at my first gas pump and my then husband, yes loser husband refused to show me how to use it. My English was limited then and I didn’t know what nozzle meant. He left me there all on my own and took a taxi home. I had to ask a stranger and he was so kind to help me. I will never forget this day. I’m 42 now.

Same here, card is in the Tesla account, but we still have to select the stall.

Currently In the morning I use approx 30% to go work. To come home from work I only use around 18%. Definitely feels like the car is more efficient between 40% and 60%.

I will nitpick one point about preconditioning protecting the battery health. This is just to get the battery up to the right temperature so you spend less time at the Supercharger or any fast charger. The Battery Management System in the car will always protect the battery, regardless.

When I bought my Model Y last year, the card that I used when I ordered was saved and then it became the default card for Supercharging. It was so convenient. Just plug it in and it'll start the session. Compared to third party charging stations that take at least 5 minutes to set up on a good day.

YouTube? Google? You knew you’re getting an EV right? Get the charger installed before? I can’t believe the questions adults ask here

People are too lazy to google and search

Any other EV is a real pain - the Tesla system is a pleasure to use. In the UK there are so many competing systems/cards/apps to navigate.

I'm sure there'll be plenty of good people here explaining how easy it is to use. One thing is to set your destination for the sc so that the car can precondition for at least 15-30 minutes before you arrive. This will make the initial rate of charge much higher for longer

This right here. I’ve done 10s of thousands of miles of supercharging with zero difference in battery health. Several studies have come out showing no meaningful difference in battery performance or health from supercharging. Whether you precondition or not only effects how long your at the charger.

The temperature as well as the speed you drive, elevation, and wind make a massive difference here. Do you schedule your car to precondition before one or both drives?

I don’t think it’s laziness, look at how much the person typed for their question, but more that people trust their “social network”. This is a problem when they trust people who could potentially be bots with agendas or inaccurate information instead of the authoritative source.

I watched a YouTube video when I first got mine because I was nervous too lol. It's easy.

Everything they ask, I figured out on my own without Google. LMAO it’s not hard at all. Some people are technologically inept, and that’s an issue in this day. Everything that they want to know they could find on YouTube or a simple Google search, or through Tesla’s own links.

I’m guessing they don’t want to look silly when they go to a SC. Kind of silly, then need to relax a bit and just try it. Not knocking OP here, but it is kind of sad what kinds of questions come up. I saw a multiple posts over the past few months in a band’s sub asking “is it okay to wear the band’s shirt to their concert?” and I can’t help but wonder how difficult it must be to navigate society when you are constantly stepping around pins and needles over the most innocuous stuff. I can kind of see it here since it’s an expensive item, they could be nervous about doing irreparable damage maybe; but Tesla has all this information, they should be looking there.

I mean, you should definitely knock OP, and they should feel bad for being an adult and not knowing how this works. You’re an adult buying a new type of car you should do research beforehand. There’s so many ways to have gotten about this, but this makes me think that they are kind of uneducated or something along those lines. I got my model Y, but it was only a year maybe even less of his production, and I posted zero questions because anything I googled. I found the answers to you. It’s 2026 people have even more information now and still post basic questions it’s kind of insane.

I do everything the exact same the only difference is it’s warmer and more traffic.

There are videos for this exact situation in the app.

What an A$$

I agree I was so surprised how easy it was.

I wonder why the disparity? Kind of interesting.

Warmer makes a big difference, more traffic likely means lower average speed which also makes a significant difference at highway speeds.

I watched plenty of videos & googled plenty… but thanks for your helpful response 😕 None really did a step by step. It’s really quite far off from driving a gassing up. I just figured a forum for Tesla owners might help an older gal new to this out. & no it wasn’t hard… but I appreciate everyone who took my post seriously. My daughter giggled alongside me as I did it.

If you truly looked it up, you would’ve found all the information. Seems like you just don’t know how to do research and wanted people to just hold your hand instead of crying because you seem a bit lazy about it.

Yes it was just that easy!!! 🤓From buying the car without the heavy sales pitch, to picking up… to charging too… The technology is just crazy!

Thanks!!! ☺️ it was just easy as everyone said… I don’t know why I thought it would be complicated??!?!

It was that easy!!! I don’t know why I expected it to be harder… 🤦‍♀️ 😜 Card on app Pull in Open port Plug in till click Hang out Click to unlock & pull out I appreciate your post! 😌

Lots of people here were kind enough to hold my hand… just a bit… & I genuinely appreciate their support and reminders of just how easy it would be, and it was. 💗🤩🤓 Don’t know why you needed to post on my laziness… 😂 so silly… engaging on a post just to insult and belittle someone asking a simple question says a lot about you, that you’d even waste your time… But you’re likely a keyboard warrior who spends inordinate amount of time online “researching” so there’s that.

I was new once too, took no time and no posting to learn lol Everything people said is available online, just sad adults can’t figure these basic things out

For Tesla’s using the Tesla supercharger network, yes. Using other charging stations can be a lot more difficult. On long trips, the Tesla navigation will even tell you when you need to charge, and for how long (but I usually charge a little more) Glad to help!