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Two EV Household Charging Options

3880 Views 20 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  GDN
I know there has been a lot of discussion around what you need for the 80amp Ford Charge Station Pro and ultimately I will either farm out to Sunrun or another qualified electrician.

However, what I wanted to ask this group is if there is any experience with a 2 EV household and what your current set up is.

Are both cars in the garage? If any of your cars sit outside, do you have enough length with your charging cables? Is there a limit?

This will be my first EV but if I'm going to need electrical work I want to plan ahead for the next vehicle as well. Do I need to basically double my available space for the next car?

Other useful tips to think about that will be cheaper in the long run with some smart planning?

Thanks.
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I struggled with this last night, thinking about the 'configuration' of my two EV's, parking in my pull-thru carport, and how I could run the needed wiring and make it both practical for daily use, and 'pretty' from an asthetic perspective. My 2015 Nissa Leaf works great, and is perfect for the normal work commute, and has the charging outlet in the FRONT. This configuration makes the most sense for EVs - you have a lot more options, and easier connection options, with this location. You can pull INTO a charge station while on the road, rather than having to back into it. The Lightning, though, presents a problem. It does not have the TWO locations that most of us would think Ford would provide, but only the single 'driver side' location. For me, this means that I have to pull the truck into the carport with the driver's door on the side with the charge cable, yet, in my case, that leave very little room to then OPEN the driver's door. I don't like that.
So, as ChasingCoral stated, we may have to look at trying some different parking configurations to make both chargers work at the same time. If the Lightning simply had the charge port option on BOTH sides of the truck, this would not be an issue. If makes sense in one perspective that getting out and plugging in from the driver's door is the 'easiest' method, but the reality is that it creates a problem for many of us who want the charge cable to come from the other side of the truck, leaving much more room to exit the vehicle. In some garages I suppose you could simple mount the charger in the middle of the carport wall ahead of the parked vehicle, but my pull-thru carport has nothing to mount to - it would have to be either the left or right wall.
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yep, some EVs will have a port on both sides, some on the front, some at the rear corner panels, and others, well, in a place that doesn't really seem to fit any situation. Yes, everyone has a different 'place' to park, to charge, to plug in, and if you are an apartment dweller, well, that's a whole different story. As time progresses, we'll see option come to the surface that we might find a little aggravating now. I won't let it stop me, as I am a DIY'r, so I can manage it. Some things seem to just work well out of the box, while others seem to require a LOT more effort to manage. No complaints, though, just suggestions, if the manufacturers are listening.
There's probably very little 'plug and play' options when it comes to engineering your source of power from your home, since a home's power panel is typically INSIDE the home, and not in a place where you can simply and easily run a 240v cable set to a 'convenient' location for your vehicle. When someone designs a 'simple' system, we may see a whole different set of EV buyers.
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