Upgrade from 50 to 60 amp circuit to get to 48 amps of charging? Have 2 EVs.

[beatle]

For your R1T with a larger battery, upgrading to 48A (11.5 kW) from 40A (9.6 kW) will be more noticeable. The 20% speed boost can be the difference between finishing a charge before you leave for work/trip or not. If you have the Max Pack (~141–149 kWh), the 40A charger will take approximately 16+ hours for a full charge, whereas 48A keeps it closer to 13 hours. Go with the 60 amp.

40A puts about 6.7% per hour into the max pack. You're never charging from 0-100, so a more realistic (but generally rare) estimate would be 10-85 which takes a little over 11 hours.

I have two Tesla UWCs wired in series on a 50A circuit. 40A is plenty for both of our cars.

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[Rade]

We have a sub-panel in our garage, and when I ordered my R1T, I had a 100amp circuit and the NEMA 14-50 wall outlet installed. Since it was a known electrician, he cut me a deal on the installation; it ran be under $200 for parts and labor (all of 30 minutes to install). When we got our Model Y, I put a LECTRON NEMA 14-50 splitter on the wall and plugged the Rivian and Tesla chargers into it. We use the charging scheduling function of the vehicles to allow one full access to the circuit at a time.

We have been using L2 home charging 100% since November (no longer using the DCFC in region). Here in RI, it's running me about $0.27kW, around $250 a month. Gas (when we were tracking such things) would have run us about $380 a month. We keep the vehicles set to 80% capacity, and that works just fine for our needs. The L2 can only pull 32amps.

RI Energy is suppose to implement a TOU function in the near future. That might change our home recharge habits.

 

[Greg Chick]

Upgrade is "Money", Time is "Money" Power is "Money", it comes down to the choice of money vs capacity. If you do not drive the combined mileage in a given two consequtive days that exceeds the capacity, then no need to upgrade. The need to charge to above 90% everyday to cover the range for the two cars, is the question. Can you cope with a 60% or less charge on the days following a long trip? Then get back to a max charge the second day..
Another factor may be the temprature during charge times in your region. If below freezing then slow charging, or, if hot, weather causing the breaker to trip because it is at max for 12 hours! I think the ambient temprature needs to be considered. When the circut panel is on a hot wall and used to the max may be the deciding factor.

 

[sgrinavi]

We have 2 EVs and share a single 50a. Tesla wall charger. I drive an average of 10 miles per day, my wife commutes 40 miles (one way) 3-4 days a week. We have not had an issue, even when I was driving the Hummer EV. She charges every day, I charge when I get down to 40%

 

[Hereforthesnacks]

IIRC, with 50amps, your charger will be running at 40A x 240 = 9.6kW.

With 60amps, your charger will run at 48A x 240 = 11.5kW

That’s a significant difference and probably is worth an extra $600 to me.

 

[iamnid]

It's literally 20% faster - that's not insignificant. Go for the 48 amp upgrade. We have two EVs and share a 48 amp EVSE. It's never an issue but there have been occasions where it might have been with 40 amps.

 

[Judd]

I agree with the consensus above about 50a is fine. The reason I went that route w/ NEMA plug versus hard wired is I expect at some point to have issues and it’s way easier to plug a new one in versus having to wire a new one. The difference in power wasn’t enough for me to justify the hardwire.

To your other question, I have owned the EVIQO charger and have been very happy with it. If I was to buy again, I would do the cheapest between it, the GrizzlE or the Tesla. I think they are all good chargers.

Good luck.

 

[Captain JB]

$150-$300 to hard wire a charger seems very cheap?

 

[patmckeown]

My R1T parks next to my clothes dryer. I purchased a dual outlet preferential panel that has a sensor that defers to the dryer outlet when it’s being used. It then switches back to the other outlet for charging the truck. It could be used just as easily for two RVs. It only allows one thing at a time to charge. That eliminates the need for a bigger circuit.
I don’t bother with an EVSE because all EVs have that capability without an external switch (that costs a few hundred dollars more). What we all call chargers are just Electric Vehicle Switching Equipment.

 

[CharonPDX]

I had a 50A circuit for 40A charging with 3 EVs, including one person with a decent commute. Never ran into any problems. Even with dual load-sharing EVSEs that would only give 20A per vehicle when both were plugged in. Sure, there were times when both EVs arrived home pretty late close to empty and plugged in, the Rivian may not have recharged back up to the desired 80%, but the Mach-E was fully ready to go the next morning. And the Rivian was high enough that it could have done a reasonable commute, it just wasn't all the way up to my normal daily-max 80%.

 

[edwjmcgrath]

We have had two ev's for years and do just fine with a plug in Charger on 50a.

 

[Windblade]

We and our 2023 R1T Dual Max (but not our Rivian wall charger) are moving to southern Oregon and our daughter with her Chevy Bolt will be living with us. The house has a 50 amp circuit available - the previous resident had a Tesla wall charger but took it when he moved. Our daughter won't have long commutes and we are retired but plan to do lots of driving for pleasure into the mountains.

We can probably get a charger hardwired for $150-300 with the existing 50 amp circuit, while it might cost us a max of $750 to get heavier wire and a 60 amp breaker installed. Is it worth upgrading for the faster speeds?

Also, any comments on choosing an EVIQO, Autel charger or Lectron chargerf?

Future proof your home... and if you have the space, get two 60 amp circuits (assuming you have enough total amperage feeding the home). It's unlikely you will have fewer EVs later.

 

[Hereforthesnacks]

Future proof your home... and if you have the space, get two 60 amp circuits (assuming you have enough total amperage feeding the home). It's unlikely you will have fewer EVs later.

Yes. Too many times we pinch a penny today and have to spend a dollar not too far down the road.

 

[krockett]

Probably not necessary for your use case. Bolt can charge on 110v most of time and use the lvl 2 when necessary. You guys are retired so charging on 42 amps is going to be plenty.

My wife drives a Tesla MYP and she just plugs into the 110v outlet most of the time. I have a 60 amp circuit but I usually have my EVSE at 42 amps because it’s plenty, even for my 90 mile roundtrip commutes.

 

[BigSkies]

I think you'll be fine with a single 50amp breaker.

We have a Rivian and a Tesla running from a single 14-50 outlet. We're using the Grizzl-E duo charger plugged into that outlet. They also have a hardwired option IIRC.

Over the last few years there hasn't been a time where we felt like we needed more power. The charger effectively splits the power.

Multi-hour charges for either vehicle are rare.

I do like having dual cables, as it allows each car to have it's own dedicated parking spot without a lot of cable management.

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