Getting A Home Charger Ends The EV Ownership Nightmare
Original Post Date: March 23, 2024
Source: CarBuzz
Read the full article here
Owning an electric car is an absolute nightmare that involves range anxiety, long charging times, and sky-high utility bills. Or at least, that's what we keep hearing from a particular sect of gasoline-loving Americans. We know there is some truth to the EV doom and gloom; we've even experienced it while living in an apartment, a situation that one in eight Americans find themselves in. Public charging infrastructure will continue to be a significant issue for several years, but how different is the EV ownership experience when you no longer have to rely on public networks?
Since we last wrote about our charging experience, we have become homeowners. That means we can finally find out what it's like for most EV owners who do approximately 80% of charging at home, according to the Department of Energy. CarBuzz was sent a charger from a company called Lectron so we could live the EV lifestyle properly. We only needed an EV to test it out… or so we thought. As it turns out, even charging at home isn't 100% trouble-free, depending on where you live and how your house is built.
Installing The Charger
It's possible to purchase what is called a Level 1 charger and simply plug it into a household wall outlet, but this setup is incredibly slow. That's why Lectron sent us a more powerful Level 2 charger, which requires what’s called a NEMA 14-50 outlet. It's the same kind your washer and dryer use.
"Our Level 1 and Level 2 portable chargers serve distinct purposes. The Level 1 charger, which uses a standard NEMA 5-15 outlet, is ideal for daily urban commutes and provides up to 40 miles of overnight charge," Lectron explains. "In contrast, the Level 2 charger utilizes a NEMA 14-50 outlet and delivers up to 250 miles of overnight charge, making it suitable for longer road trips or drivers with frequent daily journeys."
We didn’t want to install the outlet in the garage for two reasons: the aforementioned Porsche and the added cost. Since the cars would be in the driveway and the breaker box is located all the way in the back of the garage, the quote to place the wire closer to the garage was $1,200, almost double what it would cost to install it next to the breaker box. Why? The copper necessary for a Level 2 charger is expensive, and the price keeps going up the more copper you need. If, for example, you needed to run copper underground or through the entire house, a charger installation could cost thousands of dollars. Most local electricians can give you an online quote with just a few pictures of your house setup. Ultimately, we decided to install the outlet right next to the breaker for $650 and lean on Lectron for a solution.
Many Charging Options
Lectron sells a variety of chargers and accessories to suit any electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid ownership situation. The company sent us its Portable Level 2 Tesla EV Charger, which retails for $319.99 but is currently on sale for $274.99. Tesla's in-house mobile charger is slightly cheaper at $250 and comes with an AC outlet adapter, but it only puts out 32 amps, while the Lectron unit will do 40 amps. If you want a more permanent setup that is mounted to the wall, the Lectron NACS Tesla V-Box costs just $410 ($379.99 on sale), compared to $450 for the Tesla solution.
"One noteworthy industry trend is that customers often prefer charging stations when shopping for Level 2 chargers, even if it means paying more for shipping and a higher price point," Lectron adds. "Charging stations are static and not portable, but some customers value the slight increase in power compared to portable Level 2 chargers."
"What sets our plug-and-play Portable Level 2 Tesla EV Charger apart is that it's one of the few truly native Tesla chargers on the market. It's designed exclusively for Tesla electric vehicles and is compatible with Tesla/NACS charging technology and connectors. This ensures a seamless and efficient charging experience for Tesla owners without the need for adapters or modifications. Additionally, when compared to hardwired Level 2 charging stations, our charger offers more than 80% of the same performance at 50-60% of the price. It's portable, safe for outdoor use, and built for durability."
Along with the charger, Lectron also sent us a NACS to J1172 adapter ($139.99 on sale), an accessory that Tesla does not sell, which is necessary at the moment to charge a non-Tesla EV, the overwhelming majority of the cars we review. Why didn't we just ask for a native J1172 charger? Almost every company has announced a switch to NACS by 2025, so we thought the Tesla charger would be more future-proof.
Choosing The Right Car
To test out our newly installed wall outlet and Lectron charger, we had to book an EV to review. We picked what we believe to be the perfect vehicle for this test, a 2024 Subaru Solterra.
Why the Solterra specifically? With a maximum driving range of just 228 miles and a lackluster DC charging speed of 100 kW, the Subaru lags behind competitors in these important metrics. If we were forced to rely on public charging infrastructure, Solterra's long charge times and short range might be an issue, but since we can now charge at home, they should be fine.
Using an online charge time estimator, the Solterra should take around seven hours and 30 minutes to go from 20% to 100% charge (factoring a 64 kWH usable capacity) at its peak AC speed of 7.6 kW. That time stretches to 9 hours and 22 minutes if starting from a 0% charge, even though that scenario is uncommon. Those charging sessions might seem long but don't forget how many hours a car sits waiting to be used again. Assuming you get home from work at 6:00 pm and leave for work the next day at 8:00 am, that's more than enough time for the Solterra to reach a 100% state of charge, even from 0%. With a home charger, range anxiety becomes a thing of the past because you constantly wake up with a "full tank" every day. That's assuming you even need to charge every night because most people don't commute over 200 miles to and from work.
A long road trip is the only scenario where owning an EV like the Solterra might prove tedious. Subaru drastically improved the charging curve for 2024, bringing the 10-80% charging time down from 50 minutes to 35 minutes. However, an 80% SOC will only provide around 180 miles of driving range, so you must make frequent stops to recharge. Waiting for the Solterra to go from 80-100% will add significant time during a charging session since the speeds will slow down in that battery range.
The Solterra will be fine for drivers who commute to work and back without any longer trips. Occasional road trippers can just rent a car for those journeys, while more frequent drivers who still want to embrace electrification will be better off with a PHEV. A PHEV combines a gasoline engine with a smaller battery. These vehicles can typically travel 20–40 miles on electric power but can then start up the gasoline engine to increase range. And because their battery sizes are more diminutive, less than 20 kWh typically, they can be recharged in three hours or less on a charger like the Lectron unit.
The Nightmare Is Over (For Some)
When the Subaru was delivered, we asked the driver to bring it to us with the lowest SOC possible, giving us ample opportunity to test out the Lectron charger. The drivers typically make one final charging stop at an Electrify America station, adding time to their day to deliver the car with around 80% charge. This time, the Solterra showed up with 13%, which is not an issue now that we have a home charger. After plugging the charging cable into the wall, the extension cable into the charger, the J1772 adapter into the extender, and the adapter into the car, the Solterra took just over nine hours to hit 100% SOC. Unfortunately, the Subaru does not display how quickly it is AC charging, so we estimate that the charger was outputting just under seven kW. Though this is not as fast as the car can go, it's pretty close and plenty for an overnight session. At approximately $0.16 per kWh (in the state of Florida), charging the Solterra from empty to full would cost around $10.24, far cheaper than filling a tank with gasoline in a similar Subaru Forrester.
While the Subaru charged, we sat inside and worked with virtually no intrusion to our daily routine; charging our test vehicles used to require a trip to a local charger in the next town over, which required at least an hour out of the day, including travel time. We say "virtually" no intrusion because although Lectron helped solve the distance issue between the breaker and the driveway, we stumbled upon another minor annoyance. Our WiFi-enabled garage door opener won't close over the cable, meaning we can't close it while charging. To resolve this issue, we had to unhook the garage door, close it manually, then latch it closed. It's not ideal, but it's a workaround.
Once you have a home charger, your entire outlook on electric vehicles changes; they are no longer a nuisance that you frequently need to devote time to charging. Instead, they free up time because you only have to visit a gas station or public charger for longer trips. Sadly, having an EV charger at your home still has hurdles to overcome. First, there's owning a home: an accomplishment that is becoming ever-more unobtainable for a vast swath of Americans. Renters and apartment dwellers have their work cut out to own an EV unless their building or landlord happens to install a charger they can use. Even if you do own a home, many will require far more than the $650 we spent to install a NEMA 14-50 due to age or layout, if they can even have one at all. Be sure to consult a local electrician to determine how much a home charger will cost before pulling the trigger on a new EV purchase. You'll never want to go back after you get into the routine of charging at home.
