Does the Euro charger work better than US?

[ericblz]

Hi,

My i3 arrives to California in 3 weeks. I am considering different charging options. From what I understand it will come with a portable cable charger at 120V which takes 20 hours for a full charge.

It sounds like the European cable that comes with the car runs at 220v and can charge the card in about 12 hours?
Euro Charger: Maximum has now been measured to 11.5A (2500W) @ 220v

if I wanted to avoid an EVSE to save money, could I simply put a 220V outlet on the garage wall and buy the Euro cable? Anyone know how to order one? My US salesperson was lost. This assumes it would make sense cost-wise.

 

[MarkN]

European 220v outlets vary from country to country and are different from US 220v outlets. Even if you could get one installed, you wouldn't be able to plug anything else into it, and the charging cable wouldn't be useful anywhere else.

A better option would be to buy a portable 220v charger that uses one of the standard US outlets. Clipper Creek sells several: http://www.clippercreek.com/store/product-category/all-products/on-the-road/

 

[ultraturtle]

if I wanted to avoid an EVSE to save money, could I simply put a 220V outlet on the garage wall and buy the Euro cable?

Pretty much no to saving money, but pretty much yes to buying the "Euro cable". The car requires an EVSE, be it 120v, 220v, 240v, 6 amp, 12 amp, 18 amp, 24 amp, or 30 amp. While basically a fancified extension cord, an EVSE contains circuitry for the car to negotiate niceties such as charge rate, as well as the fact that it is plugged in, which disables the EV from moving.

You can install a simple 240 volt outlet into which any number of EVSEs can plug (including the one advertised on this site's banner), but it will still cost you about $600 US for the EVSE. The "Euro cable" to which you refer is actually a 240 volt EVSE, and will cost you about the same. The i3 cannot accept a charge greater than that output by a 30 amp 240v USA spec (same as a 32 amp Euro spec) EVSE, but several folks on this forum have installed greater capacity EVSEs in case they have a need to charge vehicles that accept a greater charge rate now or in the future.

There's no particularly good reason for an EVSE to cost this much, and if you want to build your own you can easily do so for less than half the cost of a commercial unit. Check out https://code.google.com/p/open-evse/.

And just to avoid confusion, an EVSE is not a charger, it is simply an extension cord with brains. The charger is built into the car.