MINI app vs “Smart” Chargers with WiFi

Was the ChargePoint a Level 2 EVSE running on AC or was it a High Speed DC charger?
The MINI.app is a little vague about the low cost preferences but seems to indicate the low cost window relates to AC chargers.
It was Level 2. The low-cost charge window does not apply to DC Fast charging. I suspect the assumption is nobody has DC Fast charging at home, so any place offering it is a commercial location and not running metered electricity.
 
I agree with all your points!

Good news and bad news on the single circuit load sharing: Tesla's Gen2 wall connectors (aka HPWC) do it. But, they are no longer offered for sale. You can find them on eBay, however.

I, myself, have a set of two of the Gen2s on a single 60A breaker, connected to each other with a communication cable. They give up to 24A each when both are in use, or 48A alone.

I think the reason Teslas Gen3s changed is because they no longer use a physical cable to communicate the sharing nor a physical switch to dictate the maximum power draw; they do both via WiFi. As such, my guess is that if the WiFi connection goes down, each must operate as a stand alone connector at full power.

I just bought a Neocharge splitter to charge my SE and my wife's Tesla 3 off of our single 40 amp 240 V circuit from our unused electric dryer outlet in the garage. Her included charger goes up to 32 amps. I already had an L2 40 amp charger. You can charge one at a time or split the charge simultaneously by reducing the amps on the charger/car (if possible).

We thought about adding another 240 V circuit, but we just bought a new electric induction stove, so we're running out of room in our box.

The other option would be to buy two smart chargers, but we already owned dumb chargers.
 
Last edited:
For the price of a Grizzl-E Duo of $899 USD it's probably better to keep your Neocharge dumb-EVSE charging setup. If you decide on going solar in the future, you could get an integrated solar inverter-EVSE solution.
 
I've been running a single Jukebox Pro 40 for about 6 years, and while it might not have been necessary that whole time, I'm glad I got a smart charger from the beginning. When we were finally able to trade in my wife's minivan for something that was not a minivan, she decided she wanted a Ford Mach-E. Instead of the cost and complication of either upgrading the garage sub panel, or running a new dedicated circuit to the main panel 50 feet away, I just added another Juicebox Pro 40 to the same circuit. Like the Tesla v3 connector, it doesn't have a dedicated communication cable and communicates over a connection to Enel-X servers. If the internet ever goes down, they default to run at 6 amps each. If a single car is charging, it can use 40 amps. If they are both charging they use 20 amps. Once one car finishes charging the other can ramp back up to 40 amps. If either our internet goes down or Enel-Xs servers are unavailable it could suck, but we could always charge at a nearby fast charger if that ever becomes an issues for us.
 
I can't take credit for this because someone else highlighted this point in another thread, but one benefit of a smart EVSE that's been cited is that it would allow you to keep your car set to "Charge immediately" since you could use your EVSE to manage charge timing to take advantage of time-of-use rates.

This could be particularly useful if you use public chargers with any frequency, as you wouldn't have to remember to manually over-ride your in-car charge settings every time you use a charger away from home. I've seen a couple of people note that they had plugged in at a public EVSE and, on returning some time later, found that their car hadn't initiated charging because it was set to charge only within a specific time window. But, if you don't expect to ever use public chargers, this wouldn't be an issue.

Sidenote: One potential downside of using a smart EVSE to manage time-of-use rate charging is that things could get complicated if you also want to use the Mini's pre-set departure time feature. In other words, what happens if I set a departure time in the car/app that's outside of the charge window set via my EVSE? My assumption is that the car would go ahead and pre-condition for departure using its high-voltage battery since it wouldn't have access to mains power outside of the charge window, but, if anyone has experience with this, I'd love to know what actually happens (I do have a smart EVSE, but I've only had my SE for a week and haven't had a chance to test this).

One other reason a person might opt for a smart EVSE is to take advantage of rebates offered by some municipalities for smart chargers that are demand-response-enabled. For example, here in the States, my state of Oregon offered a rebate of up to $500 towards the purchase of a qualifying smart, level-2 EVSE. I wouldn't be surprised if, down the road, some utilities also offer ongoing rate rebates for customers with qualifying smart EVSEs who opt-in to demand-response programs. Our local utility here in Oregon already offers ongoing rebates for homeowners with smart thermostats who opt-in to their demand-response program, and extending this to EVSEs seems likely. But this is very much municipality/utility dependent and may not be relevant where you are.

One last reason I could think of to go for a smart EVSE is if you have multiple electric cars and want to be able to charge them simultaneously without installing additional electrical circuits. A smart EVSE with load sharing would allow you to "daisy chain" multiple EVSEs and would manage power delivery across each of those EVSEs to minimize charge time for each of your vehicles, while staying within the max load of your one circuit. One example of an EVSE with this feature is Tesla's Gen 3 Wall Connector, and I believe JuiceBox offers at least one model that offers load sharing as well.

Those are the potential reasons for a smart EVSE that come to mind for me, but I'm still very much a newbie to this world, so it'll be great to see the responses from folks with more experiences with EVs.

There is also a 30% federal tax credit for EV charging stations, including installation and the charger.

I got the smart charger as it was not all that more expensive as the installer gave me a bit of a break. I, too, thought why do I need a smart charger but the Wallbox has great reviews so went with it. It is only after using it did I find out how useful setting the schedule in the charger. Now and I can just plug it when I get home and the Wallbox will stop charging based on the schedule and then restart once it is set to begin again.

As for the preconditioning, if the charger is not charging then the preconditioning will run off the battery.
 
The 30% federal tax credit has expired as of December 31, 2021 unfortunately. Check with your local governments and utility providers if there are any other rebates available.

Preconditioning always runs off of the battery, just that it can recharge simultaneously while plugged into via AC to maintain the 99-100% SOC.
 
Hadn't heard it expired. yes that is more accurate; climate runs off the battery as it is being charged.
 
Back
Top