Do you need an EVSE station?

I am having 240v put into my garage. Once that's in, can I just plug in a charging cable to the wall, or do I have to buy an EVSE station? What is the advantage to a station? (I know I will have to buy a new cable.)

Also, what does the electrician need to know? 3-wire or 4-wire? Anything else?

Thanks as always, you guys rock!

You can either buy an EVSE or have the portable EVSE that came with the car modified for 240 (http://www.evseupgrade.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false... Without one or the other, the 240 will do you no good.

strombo1 said:

I am having 240v put into my garage. Once that's in, can I just plug in a charging cable to the wall, or do I have to buy an EVSE station? What is the advantage to a station? (I know I will have to buy a new cable.)

Click to expand...

strombo1 said:

I am having 240v put into my garage. Once that's in, can I just plug in a charging cable to the wall, or do I have to buy an EVSE station? What is the advantage to a station? (I know I will have to buy a new cable.)

Also, what does the electrician need to know? 3-wire or 4-wire? Anything else?

Thanks as always, you guys rock!

Click to expand...

Your existing charging cable will not work with 240v. You will need to get a level 2 (L2) EVSE in order to take advantage of your new circuit. You can consider http://evseupgrade.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; or the for sale section in this forum for OpenEVSE builds which are for sale. You need all 4 wires. Typically, people go with a NEMA 14-50 outlet, from what I can tell.

Most EVSE's only need 3 wires: 2 hot wires plus a ground. I don't know of any EVSE's that need the neutral. I have both the EVSE Upgrade and a Schneider EVSE from Home Depot. IMO, the most practical EVSE is a permanently installed unit like my Schneider, although the upgraded factory EVSE is great if you have a need to charge on the road, like at a friend or relative, or maybe at work. The prices are much cheaper and you have a lot more choices than I did 3 years ago.

Just starting to look into this myself...
Yes, for a level 2 240v connection, you need an EVSE that runs on 240v. The one that comes with your car is 110v by default, although as some have mentioned, it can be upgraded..

The tricky part is what type of connection.
Some type of EVSEs use plugs and different ones can use different plugs.
Some just get hardwared in...

What you probably want to do is get a few that you think you would like (match your price/option range) and have that info ready to talk with your electrician.

It's probably best to go with a plug for flexibility (if that's important to you), but you'll need to make sure that the receptacle your electrician puts in will be available for your EVSE model.

As for the 3 wire versus 4 wire thing, most (all?) of the higher end EVSEs don't use the 4th wire, but some of the receptacles might require it for code..
If you're going to the trouble to have someone else install a high amperage 240v receptacle, probably silly to skimp on the 1 wire.
Although, if the run is from your panel to the garage and that's REALLY REALLY far, cost-wise, it might make sense..

Good luck..

desiv
(and I am asuming you have a newer EV? I picked up a Leaf with the 3.3kW charger, so I can't take advantage of the benefits of the more powerful EVSEs. Which means I get to decide also do I put in a bigger circuit / EVSE now thinking I'll likely need it in 4 years or so anyway when I'm likely to trade up??? Choices.. ;-) )

strombo1 said:

What is the advantage to a station?

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It serves several purposes including:

- allows the car and EVSE to "agree" on the charging rate that the connection can safely support.
- shuts down power when the car is disconnected. Simply pulling a live plug could result in a dangerous arc.
........... likewise, will not allow power to flow unless the car is properly connected.
- ground fault detection

strombo1 said:

I am having 240v put into my garage. Once that's in, can I just plug in a charging cable to the wall, or do I have to buy an EVSE station? What is the advantage to a station? (I know I will have to buy a new cable.)

Also, what does the electrician need to know? 3-wire or 4-wire? Anything else?

Thanks as always, you guys rock!

Click to expand...

The EVSE basically is a safe way to connect power to the car. It has GFCI protection and a way to tell the car what current is available. It does not allow power to flow until the plug is inserted and the car handshakes with the EVSE. The EVSE does not charge the car, that is the job of the car's charger. It just provides a safe connection.

It is expensive since the economies of scale are not yet here. A BEV is really a limited market. Already the J1772 cable is about half of what I paid a couple of years ago. It still is the most expensive part. A 40A 20ft cable from Quick Charge Power is around $175 shipped. My 30A ITT cable was $320 shipped from Avnet a while back.