Wall Charger questions.

[dogwind]

Hi,

Just signed up, happy to be here. Not an owner. Our cars are too new to seek a new vehicle just yet. But am test driving this weekend and these questions came up.

My garage is not great. It is a game down to inches to move freely, and not hit the cars with whatever you are carrying. e.g. "the rake incident" during my 1st month with the Defender!
The side walls are almost flush with the door - so no recess. Passenger has to get out before I can pull in. If I hug the wall I can get max space between cars so we don't door ding.

The truck will not fit in my garage. It would have to stay outside and charge outside, assuming the garage door closes over that cord without concerns.

The SUV fits. But only in my spot, not my wife's spot.

On the wall I'm hugging is my breaker box.

1. Charger port moving to passenger side or staying on driver's side? Thought they wanted passenger because that is curb side.

2. To mount charger next to the breaker box (stick out 12 inches yes?) I've got to clear that. If it is passenger side plug in --> can I plug in the charger handle with a 16-24 inch width clearance between car and wall? ALSO WHILE STANDING in front or behind the vehicle? (depending where this plug would be on the passenger side)

3. I would not wire this myself but want to know what I would be in for. It hardwires into a current 240V circuit? OK, nevermind that at one point I memorized "220" but if those are the " double bridged" circuits then I have two - dryer and oven.

4. On the other side of the garage on the wall I have a box with two 240V for A/C (70A) and pool equipment (60A) but a 24 foot cord would only work to the driver side of the car. And cord would have to pass behind my wife's car. Assume she can drive over the cord?
The SUV would have to be in my current spot. Again, it will not fit where my wife parks.

If this was too much writing and the answer is "park outside no matter how much the vehicle costs" or "pay up for crazy conduit along the ceiling" then I will apologize all the way to the gas station.

With humor
Bob

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[beatle]

1. Hopefully staying driver's side, but who knows. The cord will be long enough to reach to the other side if you place it at the front.

2. I'd measure whatever EVSE you intend to get. Most are much shallower than a foot and are 4-8 inches, tops. A Tesla UWC is 4.3" deep, for example. 16-24 inches is more than enough clearance to plug in the wand.

3. You need a dedicated circuit for a hardwired install. There are gizmos that plug into an appliance (usually dryer) receptacle that will then share "access" to the circuit so that only one device works at a time (EVSE or dryer) but you need a plug in EVSE for these to work.

4. I'm not sure what this box is, but if it's a subpanel, you may be able to have a new circuit put in on it. If you don't want to see the conduit, you could have the drywall cut and repaired to run the cable in wall, but remember this is just a garage. I opted to run wire in conduit. The cords for EVSEs are somewhat durable, but I wouldn't make a habit of driving over it all the time. Have the EVSE installed where it's most convenient.

I decided to park my truck outside.

 

[tate16t]

The truck will not fit in my garage. It would have to stay outside and charge outside, assuming the garage door closes over that cord without concerns.

I have one of these, https://a.co/d/3Xbe64r and pull the charger cable through. It works well and no need to worry about pinching the cable with the garage door.

 

[BCondrey]

I was in a similar situation. My R1T doesn't fit in the garage, because my wifes Tesla M3 is there most of the time. The Tesla EVSE cable is too short to reach the R1T unless I'm parked right behind the M3. Not convenient.

I paid an electrician to run the conduit inside the garage, for a 50A circuit, over the inside of the ceiling, to the other side, to my EVSE. I had the wire up-sized to support a 60A breaker in the future if I want it. I have some hardscaping guys here doing work, and they will cut a groove in the concrete under the garage door on that side, so the cable can lay in the groove and not get pinched. We have stonework on the outside of the garage there, so a passthrough or mounting the charger outside was a no-go.

 

[dogwind]

These are all great comments. Thank You.
I guess right vs left charge port is still subject to change.
I'll add these perspectives to an electrician's after I pull the trigger on a Rivian.
I think Rivian needs a more extensive FAQ page with helpful bullet points to make the home charging plan easier for the consumer. Five Tesla on my court and they are owned by tech/gadget heads. They need to enable the average consumer, "The 10 things you need to consider to make the transition to EV more seamless"

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