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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Yeah, about that. I wish I could have an electrician do anything on a whim. Even with “cash on hand” the good ones (all two of them) in our area require about a six-month lead time to so much as change out a wall-plug. Luckily property owners are allowed to do their own work as long as it’s up to code – it’s given me a chance to learn basic home-wiring.
Where are you that as a homeowner or renter you can’t replace an outlet? If that requires an electrician I am leery of the level of service you are getting. A true quality electrician has more pride than suffering outlet changes. Heck in PA a electrical company will change 10 outlets for $100 just to get your business. And this is union electric members.
I’m in Iowa, and it varies by locale. A nearby city set things up so you’re only allowed to have certified electricians work on anything electrical-related. From what I’ve been told they have a handy list of one they’ve certified that a person can call.
I’ve talked to a couple of small-time landlord’s over there that got out of the rental business as they said two-year inspections are now mandatory, the city always finds a number of things needing immediate replacement, and the “city-certified” guys charge exorbitant rates. I never had the chance to personally inspect their properties, so I don’t really know, but it certainly gives off racket-vibes. Of course The big-players having their own city-certified electricians on staff doesn’t help.
If I really want something done, I can call in service from an area 40 miles away and probably have the project up and running in a week or so, but I prefer to hire local. So, far I’ve been able to do about 90% of what I need to by myself – lights, switches, fixtures, two-wire to three-wire conversion, and even my own Bosch 220 Level 2 setup out in the garage.
That suuuucks. In my city, you can do whatever you want to your own house, being a homeowner. Once you rent, things change. But, homeowners can basically do whatever they want, code or not. NOT that I recommend that, but it’s possible. No one enters my house for any sort of mandatory inspection. I’ve been able to do everything to my house myself. The exception would be anything from the pole to my panel. That’s a giant NOPE from me.
Oh yeah – some localities now basically act like HOAs. My sister lives in a newer development a few towns over where the city now requires automatic lawn-sprinklers and inspects those every few years. F-that.
Thankfully the town I live in remains nonsense-free. It’s like you describe: pole to panel is a no-go, but otherwise the owner is free to do what they will for the most part.
“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.”
So that delays the payback time on the already-higher cost of an EV, right? Because you basically just tacked several thousand dollars on to the price.
Larger issue that very few people seem aware of: the amount of power necessary for a subdivision’s worth of garages charging at L2 overnight is not something our grid is built to handle. I’m not here to do the math, because math is hard, and I’m not trying to be doom-and-gloom or poo-poo EV adoption or anything. Rather, just want to make the larger point that the suburban dream standard of a 200A service is mostly electrical theater; while a large house with all electric appliances, all running at once, could theoretically start to edge towards actually using up all those kVA, that’s rarely occuring in real life. More significantly, your friendly neighborhood pole transformer is going to be substantially overwhelmed if you and all your neighbors start doing that. L2 chargers for everyone will bring us closer to blackouts when everyone on your block is charging two vehicles on a hot night. I’m just saying electrical infrastructure is very important and needs to be upgraded yesterday.
While that is certainly true, it also isn’t the case that having EVs in every home would necessarily add that same load at the same time, or even remotely close to, and scheduling charging has been a thing for the better part of a decade now. Most people most days won’t use much of their battery, and their arrivals won’t be in sync, and charging likewise not in sync. Any trips after-work to grocery or dinner or anything else further serves to desync that input.
In the US at least, I’m much more concerned about concerted electrical heating and cooling loads, which by their nature are in sync with each other locally. Heatwaves causing actually everyone to run ac units past peak efficiency (or older smaller ones) [~5+kW ea] adds up a lot faster than electric cars does. And yes, 3 years ago in the summer heatwave caused local transformers to catch on fire.
But new requirements that everyone owns EVs does require this. Hello liberal hello common sense. I hope reality didn’t hit you too hard
? Yes those new requirements. Yes. You know the ones that barely exist in CARB, well in the future, but not at all anywhere else. Especially when cars have an average life of 12 years in the US. So if no ICE or hybrid cars were sold nationwide after 2030 (which lol, no, not going to happen), it wouldn’t be until something like 2045 before you managed to expunge most of them from the road.
So soon! Oh no! And again, see the first paragraph. Oh no, the common sense train struck me so hard!
Where in the US today and in the next 20 years are you required to be an EV and do not have an option? Tailpipe emissions standards that were published in April do not “mandate” EVs. Next-generation technologies and eFuels are also pathways to the tailpipe emissions standards.
It might make for a more productive conversation if you don’t assume and belittle people’s political beliefs as well. This is just a suggestion, though.
“new requirements that everyone owns EVs”
Did you hear this at the latest
Liar’s Club meetingTrump rally?Because this simply isn’t true. Hope reality doesn’t hit you too hard.
When you make shit up to fight against, it’s really easy to win the argument, unless your audience is smart enough to see what you’re doing. Fox News and Trump are indisputable proof that much of America isn’t smart enough to see what you’re doing.
You make solid points re: non-synced loads, and I realize this is a problem with multifaceted solutions. I just wanted to call out that needing more power in your house is not *always* as simple as a service upgrade… especially when it’s part of a larger societal trend that puts a lot of people in the same boat. I agree that HVAC needs are going to run into this barrier way faster with a lot more deadly implications.
I couldn’t disagree more. In theory, you are right. If everyone plugged in when they got home, this would be an issue.
But, as is said below(above?), scheduled charging is pretty typical, and cheaper. IOW, charging after 9pm. At this point, you aren’t cooking, or statistically doing other household things (laundry, pool heating, etc…). So, the load is levelled. In my area, you get a small discount for charging in off peak times. Those off peak times are only 4-9 during the week. Outside of this, you’re fine.
Level 2 charging is typically only 50A, max, which is similar to any other large appliance in your house. You just need to be smart about when you are using it.
Also, if the pole transformer blows, they will replace it. The one at the end of my driveway blew, and they replaced it within hours. It’s pretty simple to put a bigger one in. The lines connected between the poles don’t care much about the current.
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.
But if they aren’t DIYers you lose tens of thousands. I hate narrow minded self indulgent people. You will be disappointed when the state requires upgrade just to sell
No DIY’er is going to upgrade a panel to 200A. You really need to have the 200A at install for it to make sense. I would agree with the idea that houses should be required to have 200A for any new builds. Its definitely sucks for those that have existing 100A supplies, and this will certainly slow down the EV transition.
Hmm, I’ve done it several times myself on my personal and rental properties and helped a couple of my buddies do the same. Fully legal with permits, inspections and all that.
Honestly, I would do it, but not alone. I very very rarely work with other people, for no good reason. I only work fully legal and with permits. It’s just not worth it to do it otherwise.
My current house would be a big job to try to upgrade to 300A (I have 200 now). But, my panel is 60 years old and has a 200A “pull fuse” for the main “breaker”. It needs to be upgraded, and I will likely do a lot of it myself, but hire a proper electrician for the dangerous bits.
I have no issue moving wiring from one panel to the next (the new one would be installed next to the existing one). I would also do the new subpanel in my garage, but the wire size to install is just too big to deal with alone, and easier to pay a guy to do it all in 1 day, to code.
I’m not sure what you consider the dangerous bits. In a situation like that I’d go new from the weatherhead to the GEC. That is what I did in one of my houses that had a 1950’s panel with no main protection. The original location was in the garage on the outside wall between the garage and house. That meant the drop crossed over the driveway and lower than I would like but of legal height once it crossed the road. So the new panel and meter base were placed on the end of the house with the weatherhead ~2′ higher. I mounted the new equipment including a new garage, outside circuit and the wiring for a sub to replace the old main then called for the inspection. Once I got my sticker I called up the power company, they came out and swung over the drop and I completed the work.
If you have central air conditioning (almost universal in new builds these days), 200-amp service is pretty necessary. If not and if you really want to avoid any electrical work and have laundry hookups in the garage, you can always unplug the dryer and plug in the charger or switch to a heat pump dryer that runs on 120V (prices are coming down and they’re improving. although they still take longer to dry than an electric dryer with a heating element) and use the dryer’s circuit for a 32- or 40-amp charger outlet.
None of this will happen instantly, but electrification is something that has to happen, and self-indulgence is insisting that you should be allowed to do anything and everything you want regardless of the consequences.
A dryer circuit is 30a so a max of 24a charger. But there are boxes that allow you to plug in both at the same time and it will shut off the secondary socket when a load is drawn from the primary socket.
Tens of thousands is a stretch. Admittedly, I have a newer house that came with a 200A panel and plenty of empty slots to add the circuits I needed, but a quick google search puts the upgrade cost from a 100A panel to 200A panel at $1500-$5000 for a certified electrician to make the upgrade with permitting. That’s not cheap, but having a 200A panel is an attractive selling point for home buyers.
Installing the two 240V circuits with conduit in my garage was about $2k total done by an electrician and fully permitted. The cost is directly proportional to how long the wiring run is from the panel as 4 conductor solid core copper wiring gets pricy quickly. It was about $400 for the circuit with the outlet 5′ from the panel, and about $1600 for the 30-ish foot run up, over, and down to the other side of the garage.
I would never advocate DIY electrical work. A lot of this stuff isn’t hard, but if my house burns down in a home electrical wiring fire, I want that liability on an electrician and inspector, not me.
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.
Maybe Stellantis should offer free Chargers with Wagoneers (Grand or modest) to clear out some of that excess inventory.
Ok, but you could say that for any manufacturer promotional offer. I just wanted to point out that if you live in an apartment or street park with no way to use the free home charger and installation offer, at least Ford gives you $2k.
I wasn’t finding fault with your comment. I think it is quite helpful.
I don’t care for something being labeled as free when it is really costing you $2000. So my issue is with Ford and the headline.
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.
I think the deal is only for new Fords, but that would be a nice perk. We love our Lightning, if you are tempted I’d definitely recommend it
Seeing that independent rear suspension is totally weird when driving behind them! 🙂
It is definitely kinda cool seeing a full-size pickup truck with negative camber in the rear. The pattern recognition part of my brain flags it from weirdly far out.
It already got snatched up, but definitely gonna watch the lot like a hawk. I see more Lightning’s than Tesla’s around town so I’m sure there will be some lease returns real soon.
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.
Definitely helps us. We don’t have a real commenting moderation system. Yeah, we have a spam filter, but it’s basically drunk all of the time and catches more legitimate comments than bad ones. So it’s awesome that, at least most of the time, you lovely readers don’t constantly get into mud-slinging matches like on too many other sites.
Excellent. And to expand on that, you too can make $2K or more per week at home in your spare time by clicking on this link: https://www.hormelfoods.com/wp-content/uploads/Newsroom_20180706_Wall-of-SPAM-Oven-Roasted-Turkey.jpg
I love that this post made it through, no problem.
It actually great and I do the same. I’ve left many sites that get have too much sp, political garbage or right/left argument. The few that get kicked from the site deserve it imo.
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.
Is it even that much of a convenience?
Nobody is going to run to the garage three hours before they need to wake up just to unplug the EV because it’s done charging.
No, I agree. People get so focused on the edge case scenarios when it comes to EVs – what if I get home with a drained battery and have to leave again in two hours? What if I suddenly have to road trip across the country to California?
I think we’re on the same page.
I was just pointing out that it’s really no different if the car is charge 5 minutes before you need it or 3 hours before.
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.
I gotcha. I get it. No need to sell me on anything. lol
It just doesn’t work for so many people. Read back all of your qualifiers to have one. It’s nuts.
Also, since when has going to a gas station been all that inconvenient? You pump your stuff, get a Red Bull or Doritos (as Americans do) and get the heck on your way (unless you are in the boroughs of NY and get stuck behind someone playing 74 daily draw numbers). Like, 14 minutes. Tops.
I know the cars are cool, but as evidenced this week from the storm, it also killed people from fires. This isn’t an old beater that caught rust, it’s a new car on fire because of water. Water.
No thanks, until we move past Lithium Ion. My baby phone is enough of that noise.
14 minutes is how long it takes at a rapid charger.
The qualifiers aren’t applying to 90% of people, full stop. Not a lot of people are regularly doing 400km road trips. Not a lot of people are regularly towing. Both take up an incredibly small slice of the overall car buying public – maybe 15% total. Among the people who regularly do both, it’s likely they are in two car households – given American demographics – so having one of the two cars be an EV is practical. It’s much more likely that 10% of the population wouldn’t find an EV to be the most practical option for the majority of their driving.
There’s also a bit of “citation needed” on the killed people front. Which isn’t to discount the combination of salt water and batteries being a problem.
My real world experience having done the same 700-1000 mi road trips dozens of times is that compared to my old ICE car:
– any trip less than 250 miles, the same speed.
– 30 min slower per 500 miles
– day to day charging is a massive sigh of relief when certain people (my wife, growing up my mom) would never fuel up until it was panic time and delayed us on many occasions
The only actual common issue for people is having a place to charge, but given that “only” 31% of Americans live in the urban core, where that is very uncommon… it is a lot more than 10% that could charge at home. The homeownership rate in the US is 66% afterall. Any other exceptions are extremely rare. Need to travel >100-150 miles a day? Rare. Need to tow trailers >75 miles a day? Even more rare. Even lvl2 charging is really only important for those both traveling long distances per day **and** in extreme cold outdoor storage where parasitic losses matter. Have a garage or short trip? Non-issue.
That’s it really. Roadtripping on uncommon occasions is a non-issue. Short distance towing is legitimately better experience than with gas or desiel.
Well that and the upfront cost of the car itself heh.
If I had to put my own money on it, EVs are probably the right solution for 50% of new car buyers. Now, new cars are not themselves the right answer really… but we can’t fix that.
I don’t know that there’s ever a ‘right’ solution when it comes to cars. People like what they like.
I do think EVs are a viable option for a lot of people.
The 66% home ownership doesn’t mean that many people could have access to home charging. Metro areas could have three homeowners in a single former multifamily converted to condos without any available off street parking. Older suburbs often don’t have garages even with single family homes, the attached garage has been converted to living space or is too small for modern vehicles.
Still, EVs are going to be an acceptable option for much more than 10% of drivers given price equity with ICE vehicles.
Note there is no need for a garage — my outdoor mounted Tesla L2 charger handles rain/snow just fine. There is a need for a dedicated off-street parking spot, however.
Here’s my personal scenario: My wife and I own a house in the suburbs. She drives an EV for her 60-mile round trip commute each work day. We have a Level 2 charging station in our home garage. I drive a gasoline fueled vehicle a similar number of miles per work day on my commute. We could take her car on long trips and use DC fast charging, but instead we just take my car.
Are you saying that only 10% of people in the USA fit that pattern?
And that is all gravy.
You are a rare case. Do you think you are not? Imagine all the people you pass on the daily…are they in the same sitch?
Of course, they are not.
Just because it works for thee, doesn’t mean it works for me. Every time when people defend EVs as a solution, they always bring along qualifiers, like, “See! You can put up with this!.”
I’d rather not.
I don’t want it. I’d rather have a solar roof and make more of a difference with fewer compromises.
I don’t want that shitty used i3 with a tired suspension for $3k off.
(no offense, DT 🙂 )
1. You said it works for only 10% of people in the US. My point: EVs would work for a LOT more than 10%. Certainly not everybody, though.
2. I have a 6.5kW solar generating system on my roof. I’ve had it since 2016. It provides all of the electricity to run my house with A/C & pool in the hot, inland SoCal environment. It also provides much of the electricity needed to charge my EV too. Solar electricity & and an EV work hand-in-hand.
I’m sure in SoCal that rips and shreds.
It’s not so awesome in Baltimore or Birmingham. I don’t get why it’s so hard to understand.
It works for you, cool.
Stop pushing your shit on the rest of us. It’s not viable.
The answer in not in flammable tech. It’s just not.
The one’s for EV’s are always the anti-China folks. It doesn’t work that way.
Well, geez. YOU certainly don’t have to like or drive an EV. Here’s another data point, though: a friend of mine in Cincinnati runs up 20k miles a year – or more – on his Tesla Model 3 Performance. He loves the thing, and with the super-cheap electricity rates there he is laughing all the way to the bank. His wife drives an SUV of some sort so they have a bigger vehicle too, although the wife & kids do fit in the Tesla. So anyway – using an EV as your daily driver is not just a coastal phenomenon.
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.
A smart charger can be programmed to charge when you want it to. A quick discussion with said man cave owner could resolve the “can I charge at night between 12 and 6am?” issue, and things would be okay. I would try that route. It’d be worth it to get the Zero back on the road.
Something like this should be fine…
https://www.amazon.com/Portable-110V-240V-Electric-Charging-Stations/dp/B0CHJCK42P
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.
Just tell your car to charge midnight-6am. I’d be surprised if the ConnectDER didn’t have a way of configuring what the service lines can handle. The hardwired Tesla L2 charger for example can be configured to match the current rating of the circuit it is on, and it tells the car “You can only draw this much”.
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)
Okay, that makes much more sense.
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.
The standard NEMA 10-50 dryer outlet you pick up at Home Depot or Lowes isn’t meant for the sustained loads of 40A EV charging. A quick search can bring up a lot of melted Leviton outlets which are what a lot of people end up using because they are easy to get or their electrician installed the cheapest option. By the time you get the proper industrial grade outlet and GCFI breaker, you have added a few hundred dollars to the cost of the installation over hardwiring.
I will have to go back and look at what I used, but I know it was in spec per the owner’s manual. NEMA something or rather…. The cable came with the BMW for expressly this purpose, a 240V outlet. I can unplug it, throw it in the trunk, and use it elsewhere, also….
So, I think I am in the clear. The 240v is in my garage and is the only thing on its circuit. I have 200 amp service.
The BMW monitors the draw; I just tell it a max, which is the car max, in this case (48a). My app tells it when to charge, which I can set.
I haven’t really seen anything excepting the absence of a relay. I kind of wish we could do pics here, because I quite literally used less than a foot of conduit in my garage from box to plug.
I do appreciate learning about the Tesla L2. Thank 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.