[MiGs550e]

I'm seeing if this is a good deal and worth it to get level 2 charging for my 550e. I got a quote from a three electricians, one through Qmerit. All were within a hundred dollars or so. The lowest one was through Qmerit at $2,269. This includes a $225 permit fee. Looks like all quotes would be installing a SAK-60MS wireless load manager, conduit, wiring, and NMEA-14-50R outlet, and labor cost.

What are your thoughts?

[dsgs]

How big is the 550e battery? It's probably 20 kWh or so. On a regular US outlet it should be able to charge at 1 to 1.4 kW (depending on efficiency). If it were empty, it would take between 14.5 and 20 hours to go from 0 to 100% (battery capacity in kWh divided by charge rate in kW = hours to charge, more or less).

If the daily electric-only range/battery charge you use is more than you can charge overnight then it makes sense to go to level 2 charging. I hear the range on the 550e is about 40 miles, so if you only go 20 miles a day (normally), you can top the battery off in 10 hours or less on Level 1 and avoid Level 2.

For Level 2, there's a lot of options. The quote you have is for a 9.6 kW charger, which would fill a 20 kWh battery in about 2 hours. You might be able to avoid the load management system (and use cheaper wiring) if you use a plug (or hard-wired circuit) with much less capacity. There are chargers available for pretty much all of the NEMA plug types, from 240V 15A (2.8 kW) up to 240 50A (9.6 kW) and hard-wired chargers up to even higher rates.

Even people with full EVs are often convinced to do major wiring overhauls of their electrical systems to support charge rates that are, in fact, somewhat excessive. It is so very convenient to just plug the car in all the time that you might find even seemingly ultra-slow charging is more than enough.

Having said all that, I got a 9.6 kW charger installed for my i5. It turns out that the electrical panels in my place were very, very old and some of the equipment was known to be the cause of fires. So doing the big overhaul made sense just from a safety perspective alone. I don't think I'd have installed the 50A charger for a PHEV, and would've just used the regular 120V 15A sockets that are already there.

[MiGs550e]

Originally Posted by dsgs

How big is the 550e battery? It's probably 20 kWh or so. On a regular US outlet it should be able to charge at 1 to 1.4 kW (depending on efficiency). If it were empty, it would take between 14.5 and 20 hours to go from 0 to 100% (battery capacity in kWh divided by charge rate in kW = hours to charge, more or less).

If the daily electric-only range/battery charge you use is more than you can charge overnight then it makes sense to go to level 2 charging. I hear the range on the 550e is about 40 miles, so if you only go 20 miles a day (normally), you can top the battery off in 10 hours or less on Level 1 and avoid Level 2.

For Level 2, there's a lot of options. The quote you have is for a 9.6 kW charger, which would fill a 20 kWh battery in about 2 hours. You might be able to avoid the load management system (and use cheaper wiring) if you use a plug (or hard-wired circuit) with much less capacity. There are chargers available for pretty much all of the NEMA plug types, from 240V 15A (2.8 kW) up to 240 50A (9.6 kW) and hard-wired chargers up to even higher rates.

Even people with full EVs are often convinced to do major wiring overhauls of their electrical systems to support charge rates that are, in fact, somewhat excessive. It is so very convenient to just plug the car in all the time that you might find even seemingly ultra-slow charging is more than enough.

Having said all that, I got a 9.6 kW charger installed for my i5. It turns out that the electrical panels in my place were very, very old and some of the equipment was known to be the cause of fires. So doing the big overhaul made sense just from a safety perspective alone. I don't think I'd have installed the 50A charger for a PHEV, and would've just used the regular 120V 15A sockets that are already there.

Thank you for taking the time to provide that insight. Very helpful.

[RichardInCA]

That sounds about right for a Qmerit connected instal. Per the prior comment I guess it depends if you really need L2 charging. I don’t have experience with the plug-in hybrids, but it’s been trouble free for my i5

[Mattl0806]

Doesn’t sound bad. I don’t think the floor is going to much lower where it’s worth your time getting anymore quotes. Just a matter of whether you need it or not which dsgs already covered perfectly.

[SkykingUSA]

I just have two main points.

1. Do you really need a level 2 charger?
2. Does the price include the charger? I assume it's a 40 amp charger since it will be plugged into an outlet.

1. I think you might be fine with a normal household outlet. Just plug it in every night and you'll probably be fine. I would try that before I spring for a level 2 charger. The only reason I went with one is because I have an i5 with a large battery and wanted the ability to fully charge overnight. If I had a hybrid, I would definitely try using a normal 120 V outlet before spending money on level 2.

2. For my install, I paid $1200 plus the cost of the 48 amp charger which I bought myself for about $400 online, plus $20 for a separate wall holster. That totals about $1670 including tax. That includes the permit, and everything needed, and hard-wired into my home, with some replaced breakers in the electrical panel - since all my panel slots were full, they had to replace some breakers with new breakers that have multiple breakers in them. Your cost is probably ok, depending on how much the charger costs they are providing and how far away your outlet will be from your panel. My pricing was pretty low because my electrical panel was almost exactly behind my install location in the garage so they did not have to use much conduit or wiring. If your panel is further away from the install location, it will cost more for supplies.

Here are some before and after pictures of my install, and the electrical panel. The panel is on the other side of that same wall about 3 feet to the left of the charger. I hope that helps.