Can I charge the Prius Plug-in with 110v

no, you need the 240v to start, but you also need a 240v evse. the car only comes with 120v, but if you want, you can have it converted to 120/240 for a couple hundred bucks. then you can take advantage of whatever is available.

 

Thank you, Bisco. I'm not sure if I understand. The EVSE is the cable/plug? If I just use the one that came with the car do you think I can just plug it into a 240v socket?

 

I thought the EVSE has its own GFCI protection, and that having more than one GFCI protecting a circuit is actually not recommended.

 

NO! The one that came with the car (assuming it is stock and not modified) is 110V only.

 

You can install a 240 outlet in your garage, but you would then have to buy an EVSE that accepts 240V. The one provided by Toyota in the U.S. is 120V only.

 

Welcome Sandy.

To take advantage of 240V charging, you need:

1) A 240V circuit, which an electrician can do for you if you don't already have one.
2) A new 240V charger. You could have the 120V charger that came with the car modified to handle 240V (evseupgrade.com), but since the price of new chargers has gone down considerably, the modification may not be worth it.

After you get that done, what you get is 1 hour saved (1.5 hours versus 2.5 hours) charging from empty to full and about 5% less electricity loss. My personal opinion is that the cost of #1 and #2 isn't worth it for a Plug In Prius, but is worth it for a dedicated electric vehicle where the battery capacity is much larger. You'll have to decide the value for yourself.

 

Thank you so much, se-riously, rxlawdude and Charles H!

 

Note, if your circuit box is full of breakers you can usually use "tandem breakers" where you double up two breakers in the space of one.

See here: http://www.startribune.com/how-to-know-when-tandem-circuit-breakers-can-be-used-aka-cheater-breakers/140688183/

Mike