On our never-ending quest to improve this place by listening to feedback from the B&B, we are taking a new tack with these product posts, choosing instead to focus on items we use and have purchased with our own meagre income. After all, if we’re giving you the truth about cars, we ought to give you the truth about car accessories.
Electric vehicles are a hot button topic for a variety of very good reasons, not the least of which is their technology and total driving range on a full battery doesn’t quite meet the basic needs of more than a few drivers in this country. Still, EVs are becoming part of many households – and having a Level 2 charger at one’s residence makes living with an electric car a much more realistic proposition.
As we’ve mentioned in the past, and continues to hold true, third-party studies and anecdotes suggest many EV owners carry out up to 80 percent of charging at home instead of the perpetually frustrating public units. With a Level 2 charger at hand, it is entirely within reason for a person to walk out to their car in the morning and find its battery completely full of electrons. If this writer had the option of having the fuel tank on his Challenger filled to the brim with gasoline whilst sleeping, he’d jump at it in a heartbeat – even if payment for said fuel was required (because payment for the electricity hoovered up by an EV is certainly required).
Before diving into product details, we’ll remind all hands that chargers provided as standard with most EVs and PHEVs are called Level 1 units and plug into a normal 110V household outlet as if one were plugging in their Samsung television or knackered old PlayStation. These are okay for providing a dribble of electricity but can literally take days to fully charge an EV. Meanwhile, Level 2 chargers connect to a 240V outlet, like the ones used to power a kitchen range or electric clothes dryer. Technically, it’s called a NEMA 14-50 outlet and can supply enough juice to charge an EV overnight.
A brand by the name of EVI QO, (which apparently stands for Electric Vehicle IQ Organization) can be had in a couple of different connection flavors, either easily plugging into the outlet or requiring a hardwire into the electrical supply. Both have their advantages (the latter is more secure in semi-public areas, for example) but this author prefers the former for ease of use and the ability to take it with me should I move house. Either way, make sure you’re buying a Level 2 charger with sufficiently long cords – the EVIQO Level 2 EV Charger has a 25-foot cord which plugs into the EV, plus a 3+-foot cord going to the electrical supply. This combination allows for convenient placing of it on the wall while avoiding awkward stretching of cables when connecting the car.
At present, most Level 2 chargers marketed for home use have the standard J1772 plug that’s on most EVs today but will soon be making way for the NACS (Tesla) charging plug. I’m not concerned about that development because adapters for making the conversion are small and inexpensive. Most of these chargers also have an associated app through which to keep tabs on yer EV and the electrons being delivered to its battery.
Speaking of purchase, these Level 2 chargers are not ruinously expensive. The EVIQO unit mentioned above seems to generally run around $450 depending on vendor. Keeping with financials, a charging session in which I juiced a Kia EV9 consumed 84kWh over 12 hours (about 8pm to 8am), working out to approximately $9.25 USD of electricity at the kWh cost offered where I reside and today’s exchange rate. Regular unleaded costs about $5.00 per US gallon in my neck of the woods (also at today’s exchange rate) and adding 84kWh to an EV9 is estimated to add about 200 miles of range. This means I’d have to rock a vehicle getting better than 100 mpg in order to best this performance, at least in terms of dollars and cents. Of course, it doesn’t take 12 hours to fill up at a gas station but the point stands. Besides, I was sleeping.
Electric vehicles aren’t right for every driver in every application; that’s an established notion and this author also firmly believes people should buy whatever type of vehicle they desire. But for those who have the bandwidth and for whom an EV or PHEV makes sense – financially and practically – installing a Level 2 charger is an absolute no-brainer.
As planned, this series of posts will continue to focus on items we actually use or have bought with our own money. We hope you found this one helpful.
[Images: EVIQO]
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