Since my wife is now out selling houses (and doing great), she's driving a lot more which means we're commonly exhausting the Pacifica's 35 (25 in the winter) mile EV range and using gas. I've decided to put a level 2 charger in our garage so she can charge back up quickly when she comes home during the day. On a level 2 it will fully charge in 2 hours, vs 9 hours for level 1. So if she stops home for a couple hours in the middle of the day she can have a fresh charge again.

So, what are all your thoughts of how to best accomplish this? I don't know that we need an actual physical charger since I won't be specifically limiting charging to time ranges etc, I'm thinking just run and install a 14-50 outlet so we can charge off a regular cable at 40 amps. I can always replace that with a hardwired unit down the line when we go full EV...

Any advice or experiences would be appreciated

 

Yep, that's all you need. Tons of charger choices. With a 14-50 charging at 40 amps you'll be charging (pre losses) at 9.6kW and that charges our daughter's Pacifica hybrid in short order. Perfectly serviceable for a future full BEV as well. The only ones you probably couldn't charge overnight are the ones with massive batteries and even then only when they are starting at a very low state of charge.

 

Perfect, thanks!

Soemthing like this for the cable?

https://ev-lectron.com/products/j177...iABEgJ82fD_BwE

I would put the Level 1 charger back in its bag and leave it in the van for when we travel

 

Yes that would work fine.

The other thing you could do is look for a variable rate charger and some adapters so you can run at lower rates if you are traveling and have to use someone's dryer outlet etc to get 240v because you can't run that charger on anything less than a 50amp circuit. But for your home charger that would work absolutely fine.

 

I think when traveling the level 1 is fine, it charges up overnight and thats all we need really. With an EV I would get a variable rate unit for travel for sure.

 

I have a 60 amp breaker with a 50amp charger hardwired. Car would max out at 32amps. I used to charge multiple times a day and could get a full charge in less than 2hrs from empty.

If you’re wanting to stay in EV mode, are there any EVs out there interest you guys just trade for an EV?

Pacificas are smooth ride. I rode in 2nd row of one this morning and slept like a baby.

My PHEV came with level 1 charger and used to use it like you mentioned when traveling and plug in overnight

 

Why not just go ahead and install a 60 amp breaker with a Tesla Universal Wall Connector? Has NACS and 48 amp charging for future EVs and an integrated J1772 for your van. Plus, you get a lot of charging info.

 

There are EVs that interest us sure, the Rivian etc. Travelling in an EV isn't very appealing though so I foresee another PHEV after this one, we might even just buy the Pacifica out and keep it a couple more years.

I will look into that too. Have to make sure I can run two 50 amp circuits though since we will eventually need two chargers.

 

I believe you can daisy chain the gen 3 chargers and they will load balance, unless you think you are going to need the full 48 amp charging for both cars at the same time often. Haven't done this, but that's what I've read. Not sure if your local code will allow or not. Some places require a circuit for each charger.

 

not following this. “chargers” are just ‘boxes’ with nacs or ccs connectors and are basically switches and a current limiter.

there’s chargers that are hard wired and ones that plug into a 240v outlet like a 14-50 nema socket.

so i think you need an ‘actual physical charger’ regardless.

what a ‘regular cable’ in this case? a plug in charger is still a charger and not just a cable.

the only advantage of a charger that plugs into a 14-50 is it can be moved by just unplugging it, but most people never need to do that.

hardwired or not you still need heavy duty wire, breaker, etc.

 

you may know, but a ‘continuous load’ circuit breaker (like for a charger) has to 25% oversized vs. what you’re drawing, so a 48A charger needs a 60A breaker and wiring, a 32A charger needs a 40A breaker and wiring, etc.

i have a chargepoint home charger, and you can set the current limit on it with the app. i set mine on 48A after i got it and have never changed it.

 

My R1S has the 135kWh battery and I've got a 14-50 plug vs. hardwired and I have no problems charging from ~15-80 with charging times of 11PM-8AM. I could start it earlier as reduced rates in my area start at 8PM on weekdays, but I haven't had the need to yet

 

Also to add, I've been using the 14-50 mobile cable that came with my wife's 3 since we got it and haven't had any issues with it other than having to reseat the plug once a year or so.

 

My Tesla Universal charger is set to 40amps with a 50amp breaker. I get charging around the 9 kW range

 

yup 50 is 25% more than 40. and 9kw makes sense... 40A x 240V = 9600W.

mine is 60 breaker with 48A charger, so i get max 11.5kW (48 x 240).