Why Do Electricians Charge So Much To Install EV Outlets?

[garrett5688]

not to pile on, but $300 is extremely reasonable, i would even say cheap these days.

and yes, it's almost always cheaper to DIY, no matter the trade, assuming you already have the tools, do it right the first time, and don't have to fix mistakes. Or call a professional to come clean up your mess.

electricians (and most trades) are not hurting for business. installing a single outlet is barely worth their time, so yeah, they will make sure they are compensated for much more than the 15 minutes of actual wiring.

 

[SageBrush]

Last comment from me ... and not just to annoy some people:

Between technical advances in manufacturing and design that have lead to *much* easier and simpler application and installation; and the vast volume of accessible teaching materials, trades should have been squeezed into poverty. They have not been, because citizen laziness and ignorance has outpaced innovation.

<<consumer choice>>

 

[MorrisonHiker]

$300 sounds cheap to me.

Our installs were more involved and required longer wiring runs. We got quotes from $1800 to $3300 to over $7000 to install a couple 14-50 outlets. We went with the $1800 option and took advantage of the tax credit to get 30% back.

A couple years later, we spent $2000 to upgrade the wiring, circuit breakers and breaker boxes in the garage and add HPWCs. Again, we took advantage of the 30% tax credit.

When my father had a 14-50 outlet installed in Nebraska, he got fleeced for a simple install. They charged him over $900 for what should've been more like your $300 job.

 

[Ostrichsak]

An outlet is an outlet is an outlet. The ONLY way it might matter is if they do shoddy work that normally wouldn't be exposed through "normal" non-EV use. If they take the extra 5-seconds (literally) to make sure the insulation is properly stripped and leads are properly landed and secured it doesn't matter if it's a dryer or an EV pulling 80%. If they want to charge more due to a "Tesla tax" it means they do lazy work normally and want to charge more to do it properly. Plain an simple. Find a new electrician. Bad behavior should not be rewarded.

I would like to edit this post to complete the thought if I had the ability to. But this forum doesn't allow it so....

My post wasn't meant to say speak towards if the $300 specifically was reasonable or not but more to the thought that some electricians are charging more for work when they know it's for a Tesla. This shouldn't matter. The work is the same and assigning a "Tesla Tax" simply because you can is immoral. The work isn't any different if they're doing their job right in the first place I guess was the overall point.

Back to your regularly scheduled (likely) off topic posts...

 

[miimura]

Getting a licensed professional out to your house to do any small task is likely to cost about $300. All of the reasons already stated above apply like driving time, getting supplies, opportunity cost of taking a larger job, etc. I would venture to say that it would be over $500 if it was properly permitted and they had to come back to wait for inspection.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Some trades people may feel that because you are getting a rebate back from the government that they want to get some of that for yourself.

Solar companies typically try to figure out a way to structure your financing so that the tax credits come to them as well.

 

[Rudedog7]

Think one big factor nobody seemed to mention is at 240 volts you get shocked and game is over.

I’ll mess with an kind of 120v, but being in the electrical panel with 240v changes my mind a lot.

 

[BrianG1970]

120 isn’t all that less dangerous than 240. 120 is way more likely to “grab” and hold on longer. If you aren’t comfortable with 240, don’t think 120 is safer. OP. If you’re only going a couple feet, if you have 2 open breakers then this completely doable. There are many Youtube videos to walk you through. I did mine and had to go further than that. Give it a shot

 

[LisaW]

I was quoted $950.00 to mount the charger in my garage. Too, too much!
Lisa

Glad you did it yourself. It really isn't a hard thing to do, especially when you are installing the outlet or HPWC next to the panel.

However, any professional...whether it's plumbing or electrician or gardener, has overhead besides the hour. I don't think a minimum of $300 is that bad for an hour's work when you consider he has to get the parts, travel to your location, actually do the work...and most importantly...warranty the work and place his work under the scrutiny of inspectors. Further, s/he needs to pay liability insurance if that circuit catches fire and burns down your house. For a true professional, a minimum job charge of $250-300 isn't terrible.

 

[rjain13]

I am in LA. I paid $500 to install the charger. It was labor only. I researched, bought the parts (all of them: homedepot cost ~$50) and got the permit (took 2 trips to the County office and made a line drawing by myself: I have a PhD in Electrical Engineering but I am not an electrician). And I had to get it done by a licensed electrician for it to be approved by the County. Else I could have done 95% of it by myself. I paid the electrician $500 for his license so the Inspector would approve it. If parts+permit were included, the quote was for $1200-1500. It took them about 2.5 hours in all. That's $200/hr for a licensed electrician and a helper. I shopped around and this was the cheapest I could get. I realized I was paying the Tesla tax. But it is absurd. Oh, I should mention: Our utility company gave us $450 credit to recoup the EV charger installation cost + $500 credit for the charger (Tesla charger cost $550). So, overall Ok. But I could easily have spent 2K if I didn't or couldn't have put in nearly 10 hours of work.

 

[Earthpower]

I feel peace of mind having hired a pro electrician to install my charger. DIY is great but when its something explosive (gas lines) or fire prone (electrical wiring), I'm not doing it myself! $300 is a good price imho, I think I paid more than that, 2 years ago. (I've already forgotten what I paid, and I sleep well at night, not wondering if I crossed the wires, etc, LOL.) While here, my electrician also installed a whole house surge protector, something I would have had to get and "learn" how to install.

 

[meitschis]

My quote is 3000$. Add one breaker to a panel and about 30ft of surface conduit run. Doesn't include the wall connector, but does include the city permit....

 

[MichaelP90DL]

Do my own wiring? I don't even mow my own lawn

Neither do I. LOL

 

[Marc AVL]

They are electricians. You pay for their expertise. 300 is cheap. I paid 365 to get mine installed and I consider that cheap compared to what I've seen what others have paid. It also depends on the gauge wire and amount of distance from box to where the outlet/wall unit is placed.

I paid $450 for the installation plus $500 to Tesla for the part. So you got off easy.

 

[CyberGus]

Neither do I. LOL

I know there are many here that espouse the mantra "Why pay someone when I can do it myself?".

Personally, I believe "Why do it myself when I can just pay somebody"

 

[carletonm]

I had a Tesla Wall Connector added last year. There was no room in the circuit breaker box so the electrician had to put in two dual 15 A circuit breakers (there were four single 15 A breakers before) to make room for the two 60 A breakers for the charger. He then had to run about 20 ft of flexible metallic conduit then mount the Connector and connect it. I also had him put in a new 110 v outlet out back. Price for all of this, including the required permit, was about $1500. I had bought the Connector separately. Given that I don't have to worry about the wiring being legal when it comes time to sell the house I didn't complain. If I move elsewhere I'll take the Connector with me and have the cable terminate in a box where the Connector was, so the next owner can install whatever he likes.

 

[Bill25cycle]

As an electrician, I'd say $300 is extremely cheap even though it was only a few feet from the serving panelboard. Guy down the street had his $500 Tesla wallbox installed by someone else for about $750 and I'd say it was about a grade 'C' job.... In other words, it works, but it was a relatively easy install, even though 75 feet away from the panel, and he used undersized wire since while somewhat safe, (provided his terminations were properly made - but then I didn't get to second guess here as much as I would with my own place), I never like to see cable that is hot to the touch.

In my town this job requires a 'permit' be pulled, for $100. It was obviously never inspected since per NEC you need #4 NM for a 48 ampere continuous load, (actually - everyone uses #6 since that is the largest romex the big box stores carry in stock - and most inspectors will pass it since is 'kinda' ok - perfectly legal IF they set the wallbox to 44 or less amperes) and the guy used #8 NM... Its somewhat safe but not legal and won't pass inspection - of course there are other options, but this was the cheapest overall for that electrician (parts and labor).

 

[SSedan]

Again electricians can't schedule 8 little jobs a day, really no "come to your home" business can.
Most probably don't have to jave the significant insurance costs either since sloppy electrical is a common source of fires, and as said electricians are skilled, this isn't the minimum wage cleaning person driving house to house.

 

[sleepydoc]

Many others have pretty well covered it -

1. You are paying not just for what they do, but their knowledge of how to do it.
2. Overhead - Time to travel, inventory stocked in their truck, warehouse, etc so they don't have to make multiple trips. Time cleaning and stocking their truck afterwards, buying and maintaining the truck, continuing education, etc.
3. Around here (Mpls) there's a shortage of electricians. Supply and demand means the price goes up.
4. Make sure you don't need a permit, particularly if you do it yourself. If there's a problem and it was improperly installed you could be on the hook or your insurance could deny coverage.
5. And yeah, $300 for a professional service call is cheap. One company I have used in the past charges $80-100 just to come out and give an estimate. If you do the work they apply that towards the bill.
6. I had someone come out to give an estimate for my Model Y last week - I haven't received the written estimate yet, but he estimated $750-1000 to run about 50' of conduit and wiring from the sub panel to the site of the charger and install the Wall Charger.

 

[CyberGus]

How come a Denny's breakfast slam is $5.99 when an egg is only 13¢? Hmmmm???

A few houses ago, the main panel needed a complete replacement, with an estimate of over $2000. A few months later, I was talking it over with the Significant Other...

"So how much did the panel replacement end up costing?"
"I dunno? You paid it."
"Ummmm, no I didn't. I'd remember a check that big."
"Like I wouldn't??"
"Well, there was that time you bought that thing."
"Oh god, you always bring that up"
"Fine. Sorry. But what about the electrician?"

So we called, and they thought we must be insane to think they would forget to bill us for such a big job. But they had. We quickly got the bill, which was significantly below the estimate, so I assume they gave us an "honesty discount" lol