evse recommendations?

There are many to choose from. The most obvious thing I can say is get something that is UL listed. The brands that have been around longer will have this. Some smaller brands might not be.

I guess the other question is whether the thing will only be for your personal use, or whether you intend to regularly let other people charge.

Personally I have a Juicebox Pro. It does the job, and I haven't had any trouble with it. I suppose if I had to pick something else, I might look into something that is networked - either ChargePoint, SemaConnect, Electrify America, or perhaps others. If you are essentially going to be the only user, then the network thing might not matter. For me, I guess it would only mean one less app on the phone. I suppose I might have picked either ChargePoint or EA as those are the sorts of DCFC around here that I might be use from time to time.

 

Some people really like to have their EVSE supplying data they can view and analyze. I'm too lazy to pay attention to the data, but I wanted to charge as fast as possible. Unfortunately, I spent more than I needed and got less than I hoped for.

Last summer I read that the MINI could take an 11 kW charge, so I installed a 60-Amp breaker and a 48-Amp ClipperCreek CS-60 EVSE. I should have waited to learn more. It turned out the MINI Cooper SE can accept that much current only from a 3-phase EVSE. Who has 3-phase service to their residence? The max the SE can accept from a 2-phase EVSE is 7.4 kW. Besides the unnecessary overkill Amperage, the downside of my hefty EVSE is a very thick charging cable that is a bit unwieldy, especially for my wife to use.

 

Apparently common in Europe. And that's why they have "Type-2" J-1772 plugs - two extra pins for the 3-phase power.

 

7400 W/240 V = 30.83 A so 32 Amps will be more than enough. I'd choose a 25-foot cord for maximum flexibility. There's always a chance you might need to charge while parked outside your garage. Our 2018 Clarity PHEV called dibs first on our one-car garage.

 

To some extent you can future proof - in 5 years you might get a different car, for example, and the cost of a 40A EVSE isn't really much more than a 32A EVSE.

But if you had a 50A circuit installed, I presume that you now have a NEMA 14-50 socket installed on the wall. Whatever you pick ought to already have a compatible plug. Some EVSE are designed to be hardwired and won't have a plug at all, and it would be a rude surprise to pull the thing out of the box and realize that you need to go out and buy more parts to finish the job.

 

Garage had 40A wire already running to it, but that was split across our Tesla and Smart, so I left my Smart on 120V charging for past 7 years.
So, to future proof, this past year I trenched in three additional conduit.
2" with #6 60A capable wire to FLO 32A charger (I know, the 60A capable wire is overkill).
1" (Cat5e)
and one currently spare 2" that I'll likely end up putting solar on garage and running back to the house.

 

We started with (and currently own) a Tesla Model 3, so I've got a 60A breaker to charge it at 48A with a Tesla HPWC (high powered wall connector). It's hardwired and very sturdy, with a 24', heavy gauge cord.

When my SE comes to join it, I plan to use the Tesla connector with one of these to adapt it to J1772:
https://www.evseadapters.com/products/tesla-to-j1772-adapter/?variant=36339297937

Recently, I built an arm to hang the cable in the middle of our garage. With the Tesla's charging slot at the port aft and the Mini's starboard aft, we'll both be able to nose into the garage and trade using the same charger.

 

Well, all this time waiting for SE delivery and I said "screw it" and just installed a second Tesla HPWC, with an adapter to convert the Tesla nozzle to a J1772.

With this setup (both Generation 2 HPWCs, wired in parallel on my 60 amp breaker and connected with a communication cable), the units will share the 48 amps, with the Tesla nominally drawing all 48 and the SE pulling 32 when each is charging by itself.

I did this so my wife and I could each plug in whenever we wanted without having to think about the other's charging intentions. Mostly, we will just plug in when we arrive home and then let the timers start things after midnight. With my electric company, I pay about 1.1 cents per kWh between 0000 and 0600.

Also, I like to back in, and she likes to nose in.

 

This is the one I plan to install:

 

The Motorist Guide says the maximum charge rate for Level 2 in the SE is 16A, yet the MINI USA Cooper SE page says 32A (7.4kW). I asked my service department, who had no idea (this is all very new to them). So I called 1-866-ASK-MINI and was told the maximum is 32A.

Has anyone done Level 2 charging to confirm the maximum? I'm about to get the electrical work done to add Level 2 EVSE and don't want to go with the wrong max power.

 

No harm future proofing the electricals with a 50 amp. The car decides what power it needs and wont draw more than 32A.

 

Agreed... you can always put a smaller breaker on the circuit (if your local regulations for some odd reason require it), you can't make the wires bigger later very easily

 

(recognizing there may be a gap in knowledge, so clarification may be required having a 50A circuit available doesn't mean it's going to force 50A upon the charger... nay nay... think of amperage as the amount of power that can be safely pulled by the device attached... voltage is the force at which it is able to be applied... so, plugging a 16A or 32A device into a 50A plug/service, is perfectly acceptable... so long as the device in question or local regulations don't require a more closely matched circuit protection level. (always over-size your wiring whenever possible, e.g. run wires expecting the worst that circuit will ever see for a constant load, and life is good)

 

Based on my informed (but non-expert) understanding, here's everything that is involved in charging an EV:

1. Total service to house (some only have 100A service)
2. Size of breaker for circuit
3. Gauge of wire to outlet (or EVSE if hardwired)
4. If EVSE not hardwired, type of outlet (NEMA 6-50, NEMA 14-50, etc.)
5. EVSE output
6. EV on-board charger

Items 1 and 6 inform every choice in-between. In my case I don't have to worry about Item 1, since I have plenty of service. It's Item 6 I'm looking to get a definitive answer to.

In addition to the above, there's the Level 2 Charge Rate that can be set in the SE itself, which isn't well-defined. I set mine to "max" without knowing what that really is. The Motorist's Guide lists the amperage for each setting for Level 1, but I don't think it even mentions the Level 2 settings.

I find Chargepoint's explanation image a good way to visualize the process.

 

When I read last year that the MINI Cooper SE could charge at 11 kW, I bought a 48-Amp ClipperCreek (dumb) EVSE, which requires every electron of the 60-Amp service I had added to my garage. Then it turned out that the 11 kW charging was possible only with a 3-phase AC EVSE. The SE's maximum on single-phase AC is 7.4 kW, so I am very "future-proofed." Perhaps the Motorist Guide was confused by the SE's lower kW default setting. I'm still scratching my head about why the full 7.4 kW wouldn't be the SE's default setting.

 

Something not explicitly stated in this thread:

Because car chargers draw continuously, code requires EVSE loads to be a maximum of 80% of the circuit's breaker, e.g. a 50 Amp breaker may only use a 40 Amp connector (the "charger" is actually built into the car; the box with a cable you hang in your garage is properly called a "connector" because all it does is allow the 240V, whatever Amperage, AC electricity to flow into the car, whose internal charger then converts the juice to DC and directs it into the big battery). As others have said, just because you have a 40 amp connector doesn't mean your car can or will pull that much; it pulls what its internal charger is able to pull or, in some cars with the feature, what the user sets the draw to be.

If your house supports it, I recommend a 60 Amp breaker, which could then supply up to 48 Amps. That is the draw of most Teslas, so it is, IMO, the de facto standard for high performance home charging. Plus, if your car's charger pulls less than 48 Amps (like the SE's, which pulls up to 32A), you've got even more headroom before wires get hot, etc.

Assuming your house wiring can support a 60A breaker, the material cost difference between installing and wiring for a 60A circuit and, say, a 30A circuit would probably be $100.