- To say Cars.com's editors think
that home charging is important for EV ownership,
would be an understatement.
We believe it's essential.
Now I promised the producers
I would not get into nerdy details
about how electric car chargers,
like this one,
are not technically chargers in the traditional sense.
We did figure you'd probably wanna know
what distinguishes the different chargers from each other
should you find yourself in a position
to acquire one for your EV.
And you might also wonder why you even need this thing.
You're buying the car.
Why do you have to spend more money on this thing?
You've never had to deal with that before
when you bought a conventional car.
Why isn't there just a cord
that you can plug into an outlet?
Look!
Here's an outlet.
Why is this thing in the middle?
And why am I paying for it?
We'll get into that,
but first I wanna clarify one thing.
When we talk about home charging for a battery electric car
with hundreds of miles of range,
we are talking about Level 2 home charging.
Level 2 means, "240 volts or 220 volts."
These are interchangeable terms.
Don't get confused by that.
The reason you need that is because 120 volts,
or 110 if you call it that,
which we're all familiar with,
is not enough for an electric car.
Every EV comes with what we usually call,
"A trickle charger," like this,
a little box,
the same connector and the familiar plug.
This is good for only five miles of range
for every hour of charging
and that is on an efficient small EV.
An SUV might be three miles of range.
That is clearly not enough,
if you've got a battery pack
that can give you hundreds of miles of range.
So you need 240 volts of charging,
what's called, "Level 2."
Now there's another reason that we recommend Level 2,
that you might not see reported that frequently.
And that is because,
when it comes to driving an electric car,
there's another way that it's different
from driving a conventional car,
and really, there aren't many.
You're drive an electric car like you drive a normal car,
but when you leave home or wherever you're charging,
it's best to have the cabin pre-conditioned,
that is pre-cooled or pre-heated,
because electric cars use electric air conditioning
and electric heat.
And the only source of electricity is the battery,
and that's where your range comes from.
So if you get in your car in the winter and it's frigid
and you immediately turn the heat on,
you're instantly robbing your range.
So it's best to preheat the car
when it's still connected to grid power.
And this is something that EVs let you do,
either by scheduling it for your departure time in the car
or by using an app,
or sometimes using the key fob,
just like you might remote start
a conventional gas-powered car,
or they may have an app that lets you do it,
like our Ford Mustang Mach-E here does.
I'm holding the start button and,
it will
start.
So the lights flash,
the fans are on,
the air conditioning's running
because it's warm where we're shooting this.
And this is an important step,
if you want to maintain your range
anytime you depart from home,
and you need 240 volts to do this.
In our experience,
120 volts is not enough to run the air conditioning
or the heat in the most extreme temperatures
without dipping into the battery power.
So there's two reasons you want Level 2,
if you buy a battery electric car.
Now I promised I'd explain why you need this thing.
And the reason for the charging systems
is safety
and compatibility.
It's there to protect both you and the vehicle.
Now,
if you think about it, (plug clicks)
120, 240 volts is a lot to be holding in your hand,
and that is the main reason
that the charging system like this exists.
There is no high voltage in this cable
until it's connected to the car,
and that's important
because some of these installations will be outside.
Not everyone has their charger in the garage.
You may have it on the side of your house,
and the system is, pretty much,
what you'll find in public as well.
Level 2 charging in public is essentially the same hardware.
If you're in the rain
or standing in a puddle or something like that,
you don't want electricity.
What happens is, you go to plug it in,
when you plug in,
the car and the charger communicate with each other.
The charger tells the car how much power it can provide.
Then the charger is ready to send power
and it throws a switch internally,
a big relay called a, "Contacter,"
which you can usually hear,
and then it energizes the cable,
but only when it's connected.
Let's see if we can hear it.
(plug clicks) (wall mount clicks)
Little click there.
Now power is flowing and charging has started.
So it is a safety feature.
It protects you,
and it also protects the car from arcing
and stuff like that.
Same thing is true when you release it.
As soon as you press this button...
(plug clicks)
You hear that click? (beeping)
That means high voltage has been shut off.
It's not in the cable anymore.
So there's the safety aspect.
The other, as I mentioned,
is compatibility.
Compatibility matters,
because this connector will work with any vehicle,
aside from a Tesla,
that has to the same connector.
It doesn't matter if it's a different brand.
It doesn't matter if the charger has more or less power.
You can't put too much power into the car.
The car and the charger talk to each other.
They work it out.
You actually might wanna think about
having more power than you need
and future-proof your installation.
You might end up with a bigger,
more power-hungry SUV in the future.
These are durable items that should last many years.
Why not invest a little bit more now
and then you'll be ready for the future?
As it regards compatibility,
I did mention Tesla.
Tesla is the other type of connector.
Tesla has its own.
Every other current EV uses this type,
which unfortunately, is named, "J1772."
If the connector fits your car,
it will work.
You don't have to worry about that at all.
While I'm talking about compatibility,
also know, because it's a standard,
that brand doesn't matter.
You don't need a Ford charger for a Ford EV, like this.
Now having said that,
here's a surprise.
There are a couple manufacturers,
Ford included,
following the lead of Tesla,
that provide for free with the purchase of the car,
what is actually a combination Level 1/Level 2 charger
with interchangeable plugs.
This is a 240 volt plug.
And what that means is,
you don't necessarily have to invest more in hardware,
just the installation or just the outlet.
And I think that's a great move,
because they know you have to pay at least some
to get the circuit installed.
And this is a pretty robust 32 amps of current.
Now I wish I could get into the details on that.
Two different levels of current
will provide different speeds of charging at Level 2.
Level 2 sounds like one thing.
It's actually not one thing.
It's many things.
It could be,
you're adding less than 10 miles of range per hour
to more than 30 miles of range per hour,
depending on the amp rating.
We do have more detail,
if you look at the provided links.
If your EV doesn't come with Level 2 charging,
or you wanna charge faster
than the provided unit can accomplish,
you're gonna have to choose a charger.
So this happens to be cars.com's first Level 2 charger,
and it's about 10 years old.
Things haven't changed that much, functionally.
We have since upgraded with mostly more powerful units.
Most of our reviewers now have home charging.
We have ClipperCreek,
JuiceBox,
Wallbox,
ChargePoint, and the one behind me,
which is an Electrify America Electrify Home unit,
which is a new product.
We have very detailed information on this
in our charger buying guide
at cars.com/news.
I recommend you look at it.
So what makes them different?
One of the things you're gonna find
is sometimes they are hardwired to the wall
and sometimes they have the plug,
which is why we chose this location.
What are the advantages of the plug?
Well, for one thing,
if you can, you know,
go to another location that has an outlet,
you can take this with you and plug it in there.
Maybe you have a summer home
or a relative who has an outlet you can use.
Maybe you're a renter
and you're fortunate enough
to have an outlet at your disposal.
When it's time for you to leave,
maybe your lease is up and it's time to skedaddle,
it's easier to just pull it and go
without calling an electrician.
Price is slightly higher for a unit with a plug,
and installation for an outlet
might be slightly higher as well.
Hard wiring is tidier looking,
and sometimes it's required.
If you go to 48 amps or higher,
of current rating on the charger,
it has to be hardwired.
And also outdoors,
some municipalities won't let you use an outlet
because of weather considerations.
So those are some of the things
you're gonna have to bear in mind.
So another big differentiator,
at least nowadays,
is whether the charger is networked or not,
and you can still get either type.
If it's not networked, it's simple.
You plug it in and it charges.
The network type allows you to control charging,
monitor charging sometimes,
keep track of how much energy you've used
all through a smartphone app.
Now this adds cost to the charger, typically,
and so you know,
every EV I can think of today,
has this feature as well.
So you can schedule it to charge
when power is cheaper in some areas,
overnight, off peak,
or keep an eye on charging
and start and stop it via the car.
So you don't necessarily need your charging unit to do this,
but it is available
and it's a distinguishing factor among the products.
And one of the other big things
that distinguishes chargers from each other,
is the amount of power they provide to the car,
which, of course, affects charging speed.
And typically, the more powerful the charger,
the more expensive it's going to be.
Some of them will give you a particular maximum level
and others might actually be adjustable
for different circuit levels.
That'll add a little price too.
You might even be able to change that charging speed
using an app on your phone if it's a network unit.
There are many different things to look at.
We cover it in much more detail,
and I wish I could do it here,
at cars.com/news.
I recommend you look at it.
Whatever charger you choose,
you're gonna arrive at that decision
with the help of an electrician.
And you're almost certainly going to need
some kind of installation work,
which can be complicated and potentially costly.
So what we did,
is we put together an animation that'll help you understand
some of the obstacles you might run into.
And this will help you decide,
whether it's even a good idea
to get an EV in the first place,
or at least understand what the electrician is talking about
when you get your estimate.