Charging at your Destination

Too often when people take road trips, they forget that they can charge overnight at their destination. Tesla owners especially fall into this way of thinking, believing that the Supercharger network is the only way to charge away from home.

There will usually be at least a 120V outlet near where you park overnight, and maybe even a high power 240V receptacle. Charging 16 hours overnight can give you from 50 to 70 miles of range on an ordinary 120V receptacle.

Most hotels, motels and certainly private condos won't have J1772 compatible EVSEs, so this means you have to bring your own portable, or mobile EVSE to charge overnight at places like this.

Almost all EVs come standard with a 120V/15A mobile EVSE (see EV Specific sections for more information about your EV). But houses, motels, condos, and campgrounds (see below) often have higher power sources of electricity. For instance:

Dryer receptacle (240V/30A)
Air Conditioner (240V/20A)
Heavy duty table saw (240V/20A)
Welder plug (240V/50A)
A 20A instead of a 15A household receptacle
RV Hookups

To use these higher power electric sources at your destination, you need typically need a better mobile EVSE. Also, check out the Receptacle Identification page to identify different kinds of receptacles.

Finding EV Friendly Accomodations

When planning an overnight trip, I look for EV friendly destinations. This might mean a hotel that has EV charging (or even just a public charger across the street), or a condo with a garage (where you'll find 120V receptacles).

Use PlugShare to find public EV chargers at or near your destination. Tesla also has a destination charging program and their own map of destinations which have Tesla compatible chargers.

Tesla Chargers for Non Tesla Vehicles

There is another type of charger you can charge at with the right adapter.

Tesla has spent years installing and building a proprietary destination charging network at restaurants, hotels and businesses (not to be confused with their Supercharger network, which is different, and cannot currently be used by non Tesla vehicles). As of 2023, they have more than 35,000 locations that can provide (usually) free charging at a 32 amp or more charge rate. In addition, many Tesla owners will have installed a Tesla specific charger in their houses.

Non Tesla vehicles can also use these destination chargers if you have one of the following adapters (all three of these do the same thing, pick one):

Campgrounds

Campgrounds that have hookups typically have a lot of power available to recharge an EV. Do check with the campground before booking a stay as some campground are (still) reticent about letting EVs charge, while others will let EVs charge even if they aren't staying overnight (for a fee, of course).

Campground hookups are usually called 30A or 50A connections. To recharge fully (or mostly) you'll want to plug into one of these connections rather than a 120V regular household receptacle that they typically will also have. And to recharge using the higher power 30A or 50A receptacles (which are called TT-30 and NEMA 14-50 respectively), you'll need a high power mobile EVSE.

Here are typical recharge rates from the three receptacles you'll find at campgrounds:

Receptacle	Volts/Amps	Typical Miles/Hr	Miles over 24 hours
Household receptacle	120V/15A	3	72
20A Household receptacle	120V/20A	5	120
30A (TT-30 receptacle)	120V/30A	7	168
50A (NEMA 14-50 receptacle)	240V/50A	26	full