I Haven't Paid To Charge My Tesla In Over a Year - Here's What Makes This Possible

I'm charging my Tesla Model 3 RWD (for free) as I am writing this article - and I haven't paid to charge my car in over a year. Here's how.

Not Paying To Charge a Tesla

I'm currently charging my Tesla Model 3 RWD a couple blocks away at a Harmon's grocery store. I'm using a CCS charging station - which is a fast charging station, using Tesla's CCS adapter.

Every Sunday morning - early Sunday morning, I drive to this Harmon's and almost every time, the CCS charging station is open. Now, it used to be that this station was unreliable, being down 50% of the time, but something changed in the last few months. This station is now working regularly.

It's as if someone woke up and realized that having EV charging stations that are down is going to make you lose trust with your users.

One of the reasons I bought my Tesla is that I knew there was plenty of free charging just blocks away from where I live. I knew I wouldn't have to pay for fuel and that over the life of my vehicle, that would give me huge savings.

Generally, with my old Honda Fit, I would pay about $100 to $150 a month for gas. Over 15 years - which is how long I plan to have this car, using $125/month for gas, that adds up to $22,500 in savings. That makes my car's cost about that of what I paid for my Honda Fit - back in 2008!

And the longer I keep this car, the more valuable it becomes. And, this is with me paying almost the highest cost that was ever available for this car, at around $44,900. There are versions of it for sale that were about $38,000 - with a $7,500 tax credit last year, that I did not get when I bought in 2022.

Here is what it looks like, charging my car right now, in about 40 degree weather:

This CCS fast charging station isn't even that fast for a fast charging station. It maxes out at around 55 kW usually. I paid about $150 for my CCS charger from Tesla, and it has more than paid for itself.

However, generally, within an hour - hour and fifteen minutes max, my battery will be fully charged, even when it starts at 5%. I currently have 259 miles of range on my Model 3 RWD with about 13,500 miles on it.

I simply go here, plug it in, walk back to my condo, write an article, or watch a video, and then I'm back to get my car. It's always under the 2-hour limit that Harmon's recommends for EV charging.

This system has allowed me to not have to pay for charging for over a year. The last time I paid for charging was in late 2022, using a Tesla Supercharger. And I didn't even need to do that - I was just doing an experiment to see how fast my car would charge.

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Grocery Stores Are Great For Charging

The reason grocery stores are great for charging is that you need to go there anyway. I do my shopping at the Harmon's here for food, and it's a win/win exchange. I shop at Harmon's, they get my money for food, and in exchange, I use the free EV charging every Sunday morning.

Not only that, the charging is generally open early in the morning from 7 AM to 9 AM. People aren't waking up that early to charge and shop, so it's rare when the charging station is in use during this time. If it is, I simply wait until it's free later in the day, even if it's later in the evening.

Getting free charging for an EV is not too difficult to find. It's a simple matter of using apps to search around your area for charging. Now, if you live far away from any public places, such as grocery stores, free charging may be more difficult, but it's not impossible.

You can still find a free fast charger, park there, and do your shopping, or take your laptop and work in a café for an hour, and then go get your car - fully charged.

If you're going to see a movie, chances are, there is EV charging available in that location.

And if all else fails, and you can't charge at home overnight - like I can't, you can still find a Tesla Supercharger near you and charge there quickly.

In the short time, about 15 minutes - since I type fast, that it took me to write this article, my car has charged 20%. The estimated time to completion went from 1 hour and 15 minutes all the way down to 35 minutes as the car heated up, and the kW went from 35 to 55.

It's going to be time for me to get my car soon!

In Other Tesla News: Getting Launched In An Original Tesla Roadster - The Moment That Changed Everything For Me About Tesla

What do you think about not having to pay for charging for your Tesla - is there free charging available in your area?

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Hi! I'm Jeremy Noel Johnson, and I am a Tesla investor and supporter and own a 2022 Model 3 RWD EV and I don't have range anxiety :). I enjoy bringing you breaking Tesla news as well as anything about Tesla or other EV companies I can find, like Aptera. Other interests of mine are AI, Tesla Energy and the Tesla Bot! You can follow me on X.COM or LinkedIn or watch my short Tesla videos on TikTok to stay in touch and follow my Tesla and EV news coverage.

Image Credit & Article Reference: My own pictures and words.