Charging 2 EVs - options and opinions

[AlexP]

Phil4,

Unless you drive 200 miles a day you won't need two chargers. I have a 14-50 with a 60AMP breaker that gives me 40AMP on the GEN 1 Mobile charger, and a 6-50 on a 40AMP breaker that gives me 32AMP on the GEN 2 mobile charger.

I have 3 Teslas now and I haven't had the need to use both chargers at the same time yet. I mostly did the two outlets for the convenience of not having to move the cars to be able to charge.

 

[GeorgeSymonds]

A couple of points, the TWC you can buy are regular p, any car Type 2 - the Tesla only option is just a thing the6 did for destination chargers and has its own part number. Any load sharing setup seems ideal in your situation. The extra cost is pretty much just the cost of the second charger.

The ABC is not actually that smart. All it does it charges the car to the set charge level and keeps it there. This is generally higher than ideal fir a healthy battery (ie 80 or 90% when healthy is more like 50%. The other consideration is the BMS likes the car to sit at different (including lowish) states of charge to allow it to calibrate. If the first thing you do is charge the car up it will never get the chance.

 

[ACarneiro]

We have two EVs (M3 and BMWi3), both our commutes are 100+ miles
Two TWC, one for each car.
Both start charging around 0115 when E7 kicks in.
As we’re on a 100A supply it’s not a problem at all, no need to reduce load on either charger.
Two EVs are completely a non-issue.
Three EVs would be trickier and you’d probably have to go down the 3 phase supply route...

 

[bungle_78]

Our Tesla is the second EV, now ICE free. I’m planning on only using one charge point. We are both unlikely to want to make a long journey in both cars at the same time, wife’s commute is about 5 miles and mine is 25 or 2 depending on if I get the train to work so can easily plug in the three pin and get enough charge overnight for either of those journeys.

 

[Doudeau]

When I had my Pod-Point installed I paid the extra for a 7.5m tethered cable. It allows me to plug-in my M3 in whichever of the 3 places it’s sitting on my drive.

I’m just waiting for my 2nd EV and feel reassured, from all postings above, that I shouldn’t need a 2nd charge point. My longer than average cable should allow me to swap it between cars without switching cars around. Maybe that could be a compromise that’ll help you?

 

[Glan gluaisne]

A long tethered cable I've found to be a bit of a mixed blessing. I've now removed the long one I had originally fitted and replaced it with a much shorter one, because having to coil and uncoil several metres of cable got to be a PITA. I now have to park the car in a specific place for the cable to reach, but would rather do that than faff around uncoiling and recoiling loads of hefty cable. I also found that the cable started to show signs of wear after about a year of use, due to it being dragged on the drive. In contrast, the short cable now doesn't ever get dragged, it just lays in the same place every time it's uncoiled.

Conversely, long charge cable is an exceptionally useful thing to have in the car, I've found. I have a 10m long cable that lives in the car, as it's not at all unusual to find destination charge points placed somewhere that's awkward to get to, or blocked by an ICE car. At a guess, about half of the times I've used a destination charge point I've had to use the long cable.

 

[phil4]

Thanks again for all the responses. So here's my plan:
Day 1 - granny charger.
Nearish future, TWC.

Then see how that works, I can see how if I plug my M3 in when I get back from work, overnight, and then switch it to my other half's car when I set off should work for both of us. If it doesn't/becomes inconvenient, I'll look at getting a second.

 

[phil4]

Zappi came back to say all their chargers need to have a separate 32amp breaker, and then would need to be each capped at 16amps, so as not to blow overall house supply... so no smart load distribution, or ability to run at faster rates if needed.