Charger Recommendation

The Prius Prime can take the following:
Car option setting of 8amps max at 120/240 volts.
Car option setting of 12amps max at 120/240 volts.

If you have a 1,000 amp 240volt charger , the fastest/most any Gen4 Prime will charge at is 240volts at 12amps.
The same is true if you use any public charger.
I sometimes use a Chargepoint charger at work.

Some chargers will also let the user set a max amp charge.
The lesser amperage setting between the charger and the vehicle, is the charge-rate at which the vehicle charges at.


For example, I have a 120/240 volt charger that I can set to 6amps max charge.
Since I always charge overnight, I set the charger-defined max charge-rate of 6amps.
And then, my Prime charges at 6amps (as dictated by the charger), and not the 8amps or 12amps setting that is defined by the car-defined max charge-rate settings.


Without getting into any "p*********ing contests", you will never see any paper in a major publication that says that charging at a lower rate is bad or detrimental.
I'm not driving some 500+mile range electric vehicle.
Charging at 6amps 120volts is more than fast enough for me.
I don't "ricer dyno race" my Mustang.
And, I don't have any desire to ricer "dyno race", that I can charge my Prime faster than "you" can!


My Prime sits at least 8 hours between uses.
BFD if someone custom hacked a charging setup to DC charge in 0.00001 seconds.


Good Luck!

 

For chargers, I have a few:

I recommend: (get from the Canada Amazon web site )

Code:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09HG8TV8K/

Anbull Level 2 EV Charger (240 Volt, 25ft Cable, 16 A) Portable Electric Vehicle Charger Plug-in EV Charging Station with NEMA 6-20P
Price: $149.99
(Note, with an esve 120/240 volts adapter cable, this charger will work fine at 120volts.)
This is the charger that I typically use, at 120v, and I have set at a charger-defined max 6amp charger rate.

I do have 30amp L14-30R 240volts outlets outside, and in my garage.
That way, if I wanted to, I could use a charger at 12amps and 240volts, for a quicker charge.
But, mostly, I use the 240V outlets for my MIG welder, and other stuff.



Also:

Code:

https://www.primecom.tech/

https://www.primecom.tech/

Great options for their 16amp charger (many plug options, and 30ft, 35ft, 40ft, and 50ft cable length options)!
Sorry, they don't offer any cables in metric. ;-)

Code:

https://www.primecom.tech/products/new-16-amp-level-2-portable-ev-charger

https://www.primecom.tech/products/new-16-amp-level-2-portable-ev-charger
(Note, no charger-defined charge rate options for this model)


Good Luck!

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That is a 32-amp EVSE. (240v * 32a = 7.7kW)

Note that supporting any sustained draw requires 80% of the lines capacity. So to get 32 amps, you need a 40-amp line (8-gauge wire).

 

Yes, imho, the electrician is doing the correct thing, by adding an outlet that could support a 240v 30amp charger, in the future.
Who knows, they may decide they want a full-EV in the future, or next week.
If the electrician presently just added a "good enough for now" 240v 15-amp socket/circuit, it'd be double the cost to upgrade the circuit at a later time (two trips, when only one trip was needed),

That's the same reason I have Two 240V 30amp circuits for my outside and garage.
Yet, I still mainly use my charger at 120v and 6amps.
Wire it once.

Btw, to run my evse charger at 120V, I just use socket-adapters on those circuits.
I like to run my evse charger on a separate circuit. The circuits have all new 10GA wiring, and direct point-to-point runs between the electrical panel and the outlets (no junction boxes, detours, etc).

 

5 years later for us, that's the case. I had 40-amp lines installed, figuring 7.7 kW would end up becoming the norm. When you do the math, 8 hours of charging will deliver roughly 200 miles of range. Sure enough, the upgrade from Prius Prime to bZ4X will match that anticipated future usage.

Ideally, you would have the NEMA 14-50 outlet connected with 6-guage wire to a 50-amp breaker. That's the max supported for a 240-volt outlet. There's no point though if the vehicle cannot utilize greater load. And if you want to favor lowest cost electricity, you'll be recharging overnight anyway. So, no benefit from faster. If you truly need it, just use DC instead.

It is interesting now looking back, 5 years later.

 

I was fortunate that the builder of our house had put a blank outlet on the inside garage wall just opposite the breaker panel on the outside wall, so when I got a L2 EVSE, the electrician put in a 4 foot run to the outlet with a NEMA 6-50 receptacle for the Chargepoint Home charger. A rebate from my electric utility paid pretty much paid for the EVSE, and it was a couple of hundred dollars for the electrician to put in the receptacle and install the EVSE.

 

Welcome and congrats! As several mentioned, if you'll be there long term, and you have any inkling that you might get an EV later, then the highest amperage outlet permitted would be the way to go. But the cheapest would be a 20A circuit and get a 240V, 16A, level 2 EVSE. They can be had for under $200.

I'm guessing that's a typo since the Prime will max out at 16A with a 16A EVSE cable.

I have several days a week where I make multiple trips, so I need to charge as quickly as possible. Also, charging at L2, 16A pulls less electricity from the wall since the fans and computers run for less than half the time of L1 charging.

 

Good catch Jerry!


The max charging rates are [email protected], or [email protected]
I agree that having the 240V 16A charging ability is good for people that may take multiple trips a day.

Below is from the 2022 Prius Prime User's manual:



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