Why have a 240V charging station at home? Three major reasons

Many new EV drivers are wondering whether or not they need to get a 240V charging station for their home. They wonder if charging with the 120V charging station which is part of the basic vehicle equipment is adequate and recommended. It is certainly possible to settle for level 1 charging (120V) to recharge your car, but level 2 charging (240V) has several perks. Here are the main three:

1. 240V charging allows you to preheat without drawing on the battery reserve.
   One of the many benefits of EV driving is the ability to preheat (or precondition) the car before leaving without polluting. If the car is plugged into a 240V charging station, preheating does not draw on the battery* since the vehicle receives the energy required for this operation directly from the charging station. When using the vehicle’s 120V charging station, the power supplied is not sufficient and the car thus has to use a part of the battery reserve. In the case of plug-in hybrids, it can even happen in cold weather that the gas engine is used to compensate for the energy requirement.

* IN ADDITION: The vehicle will also adjust the battery’s temperature during preheating, thus maximizing the available range.

2. 240V charging is much faster.
   Without getting overly technical, we can say that charging is up to 6 times faster with a 240V charging station, depending on car equipment. With a 120V charging station you gain 6 to 7 km per hour of charging, while you gain 35 to 40 km per hour of charging with a 240V station.

3. 240V charging is more convenient.
   With a 240V charging station installed at home, you simply hang the cable and connector after use. Since a 120V charging station is not really designed for a permanent installation, the EV driver will usually have to put it back in the vehicle before leaving. This operation is messy and unpleasant. If the EV driver chooses instead to leave the 120V charging station at home, then there no longer is a charging station in the car in case of exceptional need, which should actually be the function of this basic electric vehicle’s equipment. It is significantly more convenient to leave the 120V charging station in the car.

Nearly 20,000 EVduty charging stations have been sold to date. For more than five years now, the powerful, robust and reliable EVduty charging stations have been hard at work every day to recharge – and preheat – electric cars.