Maxgreen Lvl 2 Charger (or other recommended cheap chargers)

This is a $25k-$30k car. Don't cheap out on this. The Siemens Versicharge is probably the cheapest charger I'd recommend.

Are you installing inside or outside?

 

congrats and welcome!
look on eBay for a good used unit.

 

Can’t comment on this particular unit, but have two items you might want to consider.

The cord from the box that usually gets mounted on the wall is only 17 feet. This might be OK, but figure where the unit will be mounted and where the car will be parked.

The unit is 16 amps which fully supports the 3.3kWh built in charger in the Prime. You might want to get a larger, like a 32+ amp charger if you ever plan to get a pure EV in the future. Of course you also have to have a proper circuit for whatever sized EVSE you decide on.

Craig

 

I'd go with one that offers at least 32A, and even that probably won't be enough in a few years if you add a second newer car. I'm using this:
JuiceBox® Pro 40 Lite - 40-Amp EVSE with 24-foot cable
They built mine with an 18 foot cable saving me $25 (I really need only 10) and use the optional locking bracket, since this is mounted under my porch, outside.

Buying Your First Home EV Charger | PluginCars.com

Electric-car charging stations rated: what's best, what's cheapest, what to avoid?

 

I too have the JuiceBox Pro 40, mine is with a 24 foot cord. Works fine for me. The unit is in the garage and I park my Prime outside. The 24 foot cable works fine for me. For me the biggest expense was getting 240 volts to the garage. I want to have some room for expansion in case we end up with a pure electric vehicle. Well worth the extra $200.

 

I can't see any reason not going for the absolute cheapest thing you can find. Assuming, of course, that you don't anticipate going for a bigger EV in the future.

sure, build quality of electronics can vary (solder joints can be cheaped out, lower tolerance parts, etc.). But really, it's just a dang transformer and a small microcontroller (hell, even a pic would do for what it needs). Odds are, you can get a cheap one and be perfectly happy for the life of the prius.

let me know how you like the Dusidio. I've been thinking about it myself, but we're selling our house (to move closer to the grandkids) and, while I already have conduit with plenty of space left feeding my current charger, I don't feel like pulling 3 conductor for only a months of use.

 

same as this one?

 

If cost is REALLY that important to you.......don't get one at all.

Won't the "standard" charger recover a full charge overnight (whatever your available charging time is) ??

Yes, there usually IS a difference in quality. Most of the time you DO get what you pay for.

 

another excellent post, Sam

 

The Duosida also comes with a one year warranty. And the way electronics fail, if it hasn't burned out within the first 90 days (30 really) you're ok for a good long while. If it did burn out, it's so freaking cheap that you could buy a few spares and still come out cheaper than another charger.

I'll probably hold my prime for 5 years or so. If a charger holds out that long for me i'll certainly be happy. Who knows what you're going to need, or what standard to feed it to in 5 years from now anyway.

 

Not quite. I purchased the ClipperCreek unit and delivered it came to $394 so you couldn't even buy a second Duosida unit without spending more.

There is always a balance here. You've already paid something in the neighborhood of $25-30K for a vehicle with sensitive electronics so I think it's fair to question the quality of what you connect to the electronics. The conversations here are debating whether to pay a bit more than $200 or maybe up to $500 for a charger. The difference between these equates to about 1% of the cost of the vehicle.

I'm also not big on the future-proof theory. I bought a car I expect to have for at least 10-15 years and the charge will sit next to it for that duration. Next time I purchase a car, I'll get the appropriate charger for it. With the way technology evolves, it will likely be quite different than what I could get today.

 

While it might SEEM obvious that frequent recharging might be the most economical thing you can do........have you done a rough calculation on the "pay back" time for the cost of the additional charger ??

It should certainly pay for itself over 10 years.........IF your usage patterns stay the same.

 

That's a tough calculation. Depends on how often you would have headed out on a less-than-full charge and used HV instead of EV.
Even simple math like 4 times a week the car was only half charged due to L1 vs. L2 charging, it would mean that an extra ~50 miles of HV driving each week, say 2500 miles a year for now. At 3 cents/mile EV and 4.3 cents/mile HV (about what I pay now) that would work out to just $32/year of savings due to reduced energy costs.

I'll break even in 12 years...Yea.

I think I'm going to put my $394 into the category of an expense that enabled me to enjoy the car more. Well worth the pleasure of having the car fully charged awaiting my EV driving experience whenever I want. And whatever additional I save on energy is just a good reason to drive myself somewhere for lunch.

 

To each his own.

For ME the additional hassle of plugging and un-plugging multiple times a day would be a negative-enjoyment factor.........that I wouldn't be willing to tolerate without some significant tangible benefit.

Good luck. Enjoy.

 

probably why you don't own a plug in. L2 charger can be more valuable than 'payback time'.

 

Just wish the Prime had the more common 6.6 kWh charger and not the s l o w 3.3 kWh charger.