Choosing a home Level 2 charger for an electric vehicle can take a lot of brain power. Hardwired or NEMA? Which brand? How many amps? NACS or J1772? It’s a lot to take in. In a move that should simplify this, Ford is throwing in a Level 2 electric vehicle charger and simple installation for everyone who decides to pick up a new Ford EV. It’s an excellent play, but it also highlights how North America still has some serious work ahead before everyone has access to Level 2 charging at home.
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As a brief explainer for context, there are three levels of charging for most electric cars:
- A Level 1 charger just plugs into a 120-volt socket, much like you’d plug in a laptop or a toaster.
- Level 2 charging requires a charging unit supplied with 240 volts, and that charging unit can take some serious amperage, up to 50 amps in some units.
- DC fast charging is the ultra-fast charging standard for when you’re out on the road and need to pump between 50 and 350 kW of power into your battery pack ASAP. Pretty much nobody installs this tech at home.
Now let’s get back to Ford’s offer. In a blog post on LinkedIn that later became a press release, Ford CEO Jim Farley stated the following:
It’s simple. Buy or lease a retail Ford Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning or E-Transit and take a complimentary home charger with you or have it delivered, and when you’re ready, an expert comes out to install it at no charge for a standard install. This takes the guesswork out of installation, including costs, to help you save time and money by filling up at home. Less stress, more convenience. If you’re a Ford Pro fleet customer, we have you covered with a commercial charging cash incentive.
While Ford isn’t the first company to include a Level 2 charger with the purchase of a new EV, it’s still a smart move. Sure, rebates from power companies and governments exist, but that still means paying upfront and filing for a rebate, hoping it comes through in a timely manner. Having everything included from the start expedites setup, and should make everything as seamless as possible for new EV drivers.
However, not everyone who buys a Ford EV will actually be able to take advantage of a free Level 2 charging station. See, CleanTechnica reports that more than 40 million American households still have 100 amp service, and if you have 100 amp service, air conditioning, and an electric range, you just don’t have the headroom to add a breaker for EV charging without exceeding your home’s service. An upgrade to 200 amp service can cost thousands of dollars, and while you will make that back eventually through the savings of charging at home, the up-front cost can be hard to stomach.
At the same time, 21.28 million American households exist in the form of multi-family buildings consisting of five or more units, and that situation brings up a host of other complications. Shared parking facilities might not be feasibly upgradable with Level 2 charging, and if it is technically feasible, these renters, condominium owners, and co-op members may still have to battle with their property managers, condo boards, or co-operatives to get Level 2 electric vehicle charging stations installed.
Therein lies the rub for quite literally millions of people. The promises of cheap charging that can happen while you sleep, and promises of only having to visit DC fast chargers when you’re on road trips, they might not come true for people who don’t have access to a Level 2 charger at work and can’t simply have an electrician wire a Level 2 charger into their panel at home on a whim.
I’m not just saying that out of sympathy, I’m saying that out of experience. I don’t have Level 2 charging at home, and yeah, it sucks whenever I’m driving an EV. Sure, plugging into a 120-volt socket for a Level 1 overnight charge adds some range, but it rarely replenishes electricity used the day before, and the somewhat frequent visits to public DC fast charging stations aren’t nearly as convenient as simply filling up a gas tank. Public chargers may be out of order, located in sketchy spots, or simply vandalized.
To get everyone aboard the promise of clean electric daily drivers, we need to do some serious work to expand at-home Level 2 charging. While one automaker throwing in a free home charging station with a new EV helps, there’s still a long way to go. It should come with time, but before you pull the trigger on a new EV, if you have your own breaker panel, check to see if you have the capacity to support a Level 2 charging station, otherwise you might be in for a surprise.
(Photo credits: Ford)
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While upgrading a home to 100A service isn’t cheap, at least you’ll get that value back when you sell the house. 200A panels are useful far beyond just EV charging and do add value to a home.
We have two EV charging circuits in our garage: one NEMA 14-50 outlet on a 50A breaker, and the other hardwired on a 60A breaker. I’ll take the hardwired charger with me when I eventually move, but the circuits have ample power for a welder, air compressor, lift, etc in the garage.
It’s worth mentioning that if you can’t use the free home charger offer, Ford will give you $2000.
If what you say is true, I would argue that Ford isn’t offering a “free” charger. Instead, a charger is simply included in the price of the vehicle.
I thought Dodge made the Charger.
In the US, the Inflation Reduction Act set up a lot of up front rebates for things like service upgrades.
There are also load sharing devices that lock out certain loads like EV charging when another high draw load like a stove or dryer are active. Whether they’re allowed locally is another question.
Point being that there are ways around 100 amp service besides a service upgrade.
My condo parking garage doesn’t have any outlets, let alone a level 2 charger. No plans to install one either; insurance costs are eating what money we have.
When it comes to condo boards or HOA’s, you’re often not allowed to paint your door the wrong color or plant the wrong type of flowers. That electrical modifications outside of your dwelling will be an issue is not going to be a surprise to people who live there.
Apartment complexes will add chargers if they have the space, the demand and the potential to profit. And once they do that everyone who doesn’t own an EV will complain that there are fewer visitor parking spaces.
I feel as though we need more people willing to say “fuck ’em” to people complaining about minor imagined inconveniences who tend to try to get onto HOAs and condo boards.
Maybe every rule has a “fuck ’em” box to check where every resident has to check either “yes” or “no.” As residents change, the new residents have an opportunity to add their name to the “fuck ’em” box and if there’s a majority the rule is taken out.
Years ago, before EVs were mainstream, I got an electrician to replace the 15a service to my detached double garage with 100a. Not because I foresaw charging EVs, but I had delusions of running welders and plasma at the same time in my little shop (plasma fights!). Now though I can advertise it as a selling feature to EV owners (and plasma fighters?)
There is a used F150 Lightning with <10,000 for sale at my local dealer for $40k that I’ve been mighty temped by. This would certainly make a nice cherry.
This is unrelated, but I find myself posting more carefully at the Autopian than elsewhere. I try not to be rude and I generally re-read before posting. No shit posting in general.
Question: does this help or harm the Autopian?
It helps. Things here are generally civil. There’s infinite other places for shitposting.
Honestly, if I ever bought an EV, it’s likely with me living in an area or space where a level 1 would be perfectly fine. I drive nearly 4 miles to work every day, 5 or more if I drive to McDonalds.
It’s all I’d need lmao
Our Ioniq 5 makes a ~50 mile round trip commute 3 times a week. Level 1 has worked fine for us so far. I have a 220 outlet in the garage and can easily add a level 2. I just haven’t because it’s not really a need. Basically it gets plugged in once a week when it gets home and it’s charged by the next evening and it usually still have almost 100 miles of range when it gets plugged in.
The other problem with installing chargers at condo associations is that for a lot of associations, there’s not a good way to connect it to a particular unit’s electric meter. My partner’s condo association has covered parking that has power run to it, but it’s only 120V, and it’s not associated with any unit’s meter, it’s billed to the association as a whole. Of the units that are adjacent to the parking structures, any charger installation would require buried conduit from the meter that would be cutting though the sidewalk and some of the parking lot to get to a place where it could be of use. Not ideal.
Don’t even get me started on the pushback against making new construction accommodate EV chargers or renewable energy generation. If my partner’s condo association or office had built the parking structures with solar panels, there could be a bunch of chargers hooked to them (it’s in Arizona) to either feed into the grid or charge cars while people work.
Sigh. Everyone thinks they need some 40/50/60 amp behemoth charger to GET ER DONE AS FAST AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE when in fact a 16A 240V charger will meet most peoples’ needs overnight.
Are you draining your entire EV battery every day? If not, then anything faster is just a convenience not a necessity.
I have my level 2 charger set to 14A, because that’s plenty to get the job done in a reasonable amount of time for a PHEV.
I have a 16A just because that was the fastest my Volt could accept. When I got my Bolt I figured I would want to upgrade, but I decided to live with 16 for a while and just see how it went. I haven’t run into a scenario yet where it wasn’t fast enough.
And if I ever am really in a pinch I can just go to a L3 charger and pay to charge quickly.
Makes sense to me. I think mine will top out at something like 24A, but there’s no reason to run it that high for the Pacifica’s little battery, and even less for my motorcycle’s.
I get a chuckle when cities put a free charger on light poles in downtown areas with a parking meter at the same space. The best they can be is a 15-16 amp level 2 charger, and the parking meter assures that you can’t stay there long enough to add any meaningful range to even a PHEVZ .
Two hours at that speed will fill my Volt battery halfway. Not life changing but a nice little opportunistic charge that I would take if available.
That’s what I have for my PHEV, it can take 32A but my circuitry can’t handle it. Still three times as fast compared to a level 1.
Found that out camping this summer. 20 amp L2 charging overnight was plenty fast enough. I have a 48 amp charger at home. I don’t need that speed but it’s nice.
I really just bring it up to counter the “but you can’t have L2 charging on 100 amp panel!!!!”
Yes, you can. And it will work great.
One of the myriad of reasons that reporting “EV sales are up 75% YoY” matters little when they aren’t practical for a few hundred million people in the US.
EVs are the solution for like 10% of the country, and the sales reflect it.
I’m calling Bull. On your user name. /s
Ten percent is too low to be accurate, and honestly EVs are practical for way more than you give credit for – and are getting more practical all of the time.
The situations where they’re not practical is when you’re doing lots of towing, or lots of long-haul road trips. Towing, there’s no way around it, right now the needs of a tow rig aren’t compatible with the needs of an EV.
Road trips aren’t universally difficult – most people can plan around stops. But there will be delays if you’re doing the trip often enough or have a time crunch. So if you’re regularly travelling 400 kms or something, that’s an impracticality.
However, they are the most practical vehicle if you have the capability to home charge and aren’t in either of the above categories – and that’s well over 10% of the population. As day-to-day transport, staying away from a gas station is a massive time savings, and plugging it in after work is easy – hell I do that with my gas car in winter because I’m in a cold weather province.
If you can’t charge at home, they remain practical because most chargers are connected to places like grocery stores or malls. So, plug it in, do your weekly shopping, go home, you’ve got your charge for the week. As more places install chargers, the easier it gets. Plus you don’t have to be standing at your car while charging, unlike getting gas.
Add to that the reduced – not non-existent like a lot of EV boosters claim, but reduced – maintenance, and it’s the most practical option for plenty of families. Any family with a two car garage would find it wise to have one of those cars be an EV.
When I bought my Pacifica PHEV as a CPO, it came with a level 2 charger (NEMA 14-50 style) as part of the CPO perks. They didn’t pay for the install, but I already had a spare 240V circuit in the garage to plug it into. I also added a pass-through to the garage wall so I could park the van in the driveway and still charge.
You’re better off avoiding the Mustang Mach-E altogether; your future self will thank you for it. Although, at some point it will become ironically cool to own that eyesore.
Nah. As an actual Mach-E owner, it’s great. It handily outpsprints the V8 Mustang, and it costs me $30 a month to drive everywhere I need to go, leaving plenty of gas money for my thirsty old Jeep.
Do I love a good RWD manual V8? You bet!
Do I also realize it’s ok to try new things? Also yes.
I’m currently facing some of these problems right now. The Zero currently cannot charge. I used to charge at a nearby college, but the building has gone up for sale, so now the charger is off.
There’s a charger down the street at an auto shop, but the bike won’t charge on it. There’s no screen or indicator on the charger, so I have no idea why. Then there’s the nearby hospital, but those chargers are always taken up by Teslas or aren’t functional. There’s also a charger at a nearby car dealership, but it’s not a public charger.
I have a garage with electricity at home, but it’s a single circuit shared by two other garages, and one of the other garages is a guy’s man cave. Charging the bike at home leads to the breaker tripping and all three garages getting locked out.
I’m about to buy a switchable charger. I bet if I limit the amps to 6 or 10 I could charge the bike without tripping the breaker. Or maybe I’ll charge at night when my garage neighbor isn’t running an industrial fan, power tools, and a big TV.
100amp? My garage is on a dedicated 60amp service, and even then, it’s only the smaller, single car garage, the bigger two car one doesn’t even have electricity at all.
And the small one is limited to just two outlets, one interior, one exterior.
Need to do something about that at some point, but, other priorities
I remember this article from Motortrend a few years ago. Siemens and ConnectDER were working on a charger that plugged directly into a house’s powermeter, before even going into the main panel. By doing this, the electricity is still metered for billing, but you avoid having to upgrade to a higher amp service main panel. ConnectDER says the collar can be installed in 15 minutes.
https://www.motortrend.com/news/electric-vehicle-home-charger-siemens-connectder-level-2-ac/
https://connectder.com/products/ev/
That works only if the service lines can handle the extra amps.
And if your meter is in a place convenient to charge in. My power meter is on the opposite side of the house from the driveway.
Not a bad idea. I would have t pay for the 200 amp upgrade (average cost 1500) but not have to buy the charger or install. Have my electrician get the 200 amp ready and line out to location then Ford pays for the rest.
In addition I am sure those can be used by any L2 capable EV.
Though I would have to able to afford (pun intended) an EV.
Please, please, please give me the number of your electrician! That price for a service upgrade would be an absolute steal around here.
This is one I have a good relationship with (ie a friend who is a licensed electrician)
The installation has to be through SunRun. Just google them, run from SunRun.
Is there a value-add to these boxes that, say, a 240 outlet and some conduit won’t cover? My wife’s BEV came with a ‘take anywhere’ charger that goes into a dryer outlet, so I added a dryer outlet to the box in the garage.
All the thinking is done on-board the vehicle and relayed through the app, so….. Why get one of these at all? (provided you have all the other criteria met; I get it)
It comes with a cord, that’s the extra. You’re dryer outlet was a smart choice.
value-add:
The “take anywhere” one that came with my Bold EUV has a thin wire and lower amp rating.
The $300 charger I bought has a much more durable chord and can go up to 60 amps.
Otherwise, they do the same thing for me.
My juicebox is able to charge a little faster and more efficiently when hardwired rather than plugin. I have a 60 mile total commute. In the winter with snow tires and heat use my power consumption goes up. I normally charge overnight so the plugin charger would likely have worked – but it was a new installation so the same amount of wiring and the quicker turnaround is nice if I have an unexpected trip. And I like the cleaner installation. But, hey, you do you.
I’m not understanding the argument here. Not everyone’s living situation can support level 2 charging, so that makes it a bad thing for a private company to offer it to those who can?
It’s a good deal for the people who find it to be a good deal. I’m not interested in a three row SUV, but I’m not bitter if a manufacturer offers a good deal on one.
Really do love your writing Thomas, but this article seems more like a screed than providing any actual information.