The Best Home EV Chargers

One of the best parts of owning an electric vehicle is never having to go to the gas station to refuel. Instead of finding a pump, you can charge at home every night. Not only is having an EV charger at home convenient because you can charge any time you want, but you’ll also never have to worry about waiting in line if all public chargers are occupied. Wake up every morning to a fresh and fully charged battery. You can even pre-condition without reducing your range.

Home chargers come in a huge range of prices, but they’re worth the investment. You should also check for available rebates, tax credits, and other incentives in your area for installing a home EV charger. The NCSL has an interactive map that will help you get started. Note that many EV chargers aren’t UL-listed and may not qualify for an installation rebate.

There are a few factors to take into consideration when choosing the right electric car charger. For starters, is your vehicle a plug-in hybrid or a battery-electric vehicle? A plug-in with both a battery and an engine, like the Chevrolet Volt or Jeep Wrangler 4Xe, doesn’t necessarily need a faster and more expensive charger to fill its smaller battery overnight. Fully electric vehicles, like the Chevrolet Bolt or a Tesla, don’t have any other way to move and take a long time to fill their large reserves on a slow charger. You might also want to plan for the future and have the capacity to charge a full electric later on.

If you’re shopping for a car charger, you have probably realized a standard wall outlet might not be enough. “Level 1 chargers, which plug into a standard wall outlet, can be extremely affordable. Level 2 chargers charge several times quicker than Level 1 chargers, but they require an electrician to install them, along with a different power outlet and circuit that you may not already have available in your household. Some chargers are hardwired, while others can be simply plugged in. Determine whether you prefer a plug-and-play solution or a charger that requires professional installation by an electrician.

Lastly, if you aren’t installing your charger inside a garage, make sure to purchase one that is rated for outdoor use and exposure to sun, wind, dirt, and water.

For more information about charging your car at home, see our Table of Contents.

Electric vehicle (EV) chargers are actually a bit of a misnomer. That's because your EV charger is actually onboard the vehicle, taking the AC source from your "wall charger" and converting it to DC, so your car's battery pack can be recharged. It's also the reason why they're officially called Electric Vehicle Service Equipment (EVSE), although they're widely known as a charger since it just makes more sense.

Essentially, when you're shopping for a home EV charger, you're actually looking for an EVSE that can safely recharge your car. This guide aims to explain everything you need to know about home EV chargers before you invest hundreds of dollars into one.

At the end of the day, that's a question only you can answer. But here are a few things to guide you on your way to finding the right answer.

First, do you own a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) or a battery-electric vehicle (BEV)? Most PHEVs, like the Chevrolet Volt, don't have a very long range, which means they only need a couple hours to fully charge when using a Level 2 charger. Some PHEVs may even recharge their entire range using a standard 110-volt Level 1 charger, which means you wouldn't need to install anything fancy or expensive to fully charge your car each night.

But if you do own an all-electric vehicle, chances are a Level 1 charger won't completely do the job overnight. Depending on how far you drive each day, you may need to turn to public charging if you don't have a charger at home. The question you then have to ask is, how convenient is public charging? Do you have public chargers near your home or even at your work? Do they have long lines?

Having a Level 2 charger at your home is the most convenient option if you own a BEV, but they aren't cheap, and most of them need to be professionally installed. Ideally, you purchase a charger that will last you years, one that you can even use for future new car purchases.

As their names suggest, Level 2 chargers are able to recharge your electrified vehicles several times faster than a Level 1 charger. In the most basic sense, Level 1 chargers use a standard power outlet that you can find around your house. They're very slow, giving you around 3 to 4 miles per hour. If you're just driving a few miles to work every day, that could easily be enough, and you'll need even less if you own a PHEV. If you can also plug in while at work, that may be enough to cover you for your daily commute.

For most electric vehicle owners, however, you'll want a Level 2 charger at home. This often needing a 240-volt outlet, similar to what an electric dryer or an oven uses. Not all households will have an outlet ready to go, which means you will need one professionally installed. If you're in an older home with a 100 amp breaker box, you'll probably need to upgrade to 200 amp service.

Level 2 chargers also come in a variety of charging speeds, so pay close attention when choosing one for your home.

If you're looking at public charging, most public Level 2 chargers max out at 6.6 kW, which is around 24 to 26 miles per hour. You can get more than that from some Level 2 home chargers.

You may notice once you start shopping for chargers that many of them are available as a hardwire option, which means it doesn't plug into an outlet. If possible, avoid hardwired chargers and instead, pay an electrician to install the correct plug for your charger. The biggest benefit is that if you ever have to move the charger, you can do so more easily. Typically, it costs about the same to have someone either professionally hardwire a charger or install the correct outlet, so get an outlet if you can. Plus, if you use a NEMA 6-50 outlet (see below), it gives you, or someone who buys your home, options beyond car charging,

One thing to note, local code may require some outdoor chargers to be hardwired. Make sure you check your local requirements before purchasing a charger if you need to have it hardwired.

Generally, when you're shopping for a home EV charger, you'll want to look at its amperage to determine how much range you will get per hour. It's recommended to purchase a charger that can handle at least 30 amps, even if your vehicle can't take full advantage of it. There's a good chance you'll eventually upgrade your EV to a newer model, and purchasing the right charger now helps future proof the investment. Pay close attention to the circuit breaker rating that is necessary for your charger, and whether you will be able to accommodate that in your electrical panel.

You also need to determine whether you will be installing your charger indoors or outdoors. If you don't have a garage, make sure the charger you're purchasing is rated for outdoor use.

There are also portable EV chargers available that don't require you to install an actual "station" in your garage or outdoors. You're normally trading performance for convenience when going with a portable charger, but for many, it's worth it. Sometimes it's just simpler to plug something into a wall outlet and then into your car.

Some chargers will also be UL- or ETL-listed, which means they have met the requirements of widely accepted product safety standards for EVSEs. If you want to be certain a charger is safe to use, look for the UL or ETL logo.

Lastly, check with your local electric utility company to see if there are any rebates or incentives available for installing a charger at home. You may be able to get back some of the cost for your charger through a rebate.

In a connected age, it's little surprise some EV chargers come with WiFi capability. These chargers allow you to download an app onto your smartphone so that you can remotely control the charger. Features include the ability to schedule charging, energy metering, and more. There are even chargers that are compatible with Amazon's Alexa, so you could use voice commands through any Alexa device such as an Echo Dot.

Keep in mind that typically your charger will likely be installed in an area that your home WiFi may not reach. Keep that in mind if you plan on investing into a WiFi-enabled charger, and make sure your wireless network has a strong enough signal to reach wherever you plan on installing the charger.

Other chargers may offer you the ability to set when to charge without having to use WiFi and an app. It's a nice feature to have, allowing you to plug in your car and have it charge during off peak hours, when electricity may be cheaper. The scheduling feature may not work for all vehicles, so make sure to check with the manufacturer or look at reviews to see if your car is compatible.

Level 1 chargers can and usually do run off of the same household current as your small appliances, and plug into the same regular outlets. There's only so much power you can draw safely from those, as you know if you ever tripped a circuit breaker when running too many things. In new houses, you should have 20 amp circuits, but if your house is more than 25 years old, 15 amps is common. Most Level 1 chargers draw 16 amps, which is a recipe for trouble if you can't supply enough power.

Level 2 chargers always require a dedicated circuit, usually either 40 or 50 amps. If you're lucky, you might already have one—people who use things like welders or big air compressors in their garage need that much power. You'll still need to have an electrician inspect the circuit and install the charger, but you should be able to plug right in, although you might need an adaptor. You can also have your Level 2 charger wired in directly, which will cost less than having an outlet installed, but is less flexible.

There are two kinds of plugs you might find or need, NEMA 14-50 and NEMA 6-50. It's easy to find an adaptor to use with either one.

If you have an electric stove or clothes dryer in your house, you probably have a NEMA 15-40 outlet. These are the most common outlets for Level 2 plug in charging and is generally the most versatile option. However, Tesla has switched to the 6-50, and the rest of the industry is likely to follow.

Heavy-duty electrical tools use the 6-50 outlet. The only real difference is the 6-50 has three holes, instead of four like the 14-50, because it doesn't have a neutral circuit.

Photo credit: Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council

DC Fast Charging, Tesla's Supercharging and CHAdeMO are different standards of Level 3 chargers that can charge your EV anywhere from three to 20 miles a minute. Most of them are capable of delivering an 80% charge in 30 minutes. To do this, they typically need 400-480 volts, twice as much as most homes receive.

If cost was no object, you could have one installed for home use. You can't have a Tesla Supercharger installed at all, as the company doesn't make them available. There are Tesla charging adaptors for CHAdeMO chargers, however.

You would first need an electrical engineer to create a site design and obtain the necessary permits from your city or town. You might have to start a business and have it insured, which might not be permissible at all in some neighborhoods. Your engineer would work with a commercial electrician and the power company to run dedicated wiring from the pole to a transformer, which might have to be sited on a concrete pad. A 480 volt switchboard would feed power to a subpanel, and then to your Level 3 charger.

Fortunately, there are some home options for Level 3 chargers, instead of just commercial. With plenty of options under $5,000, it's actually going to be the least expensive part of your project.

At the low end, you might be able to have a Level 3 charger installed at home for $20,000, but we would budget $50,000 and hope for the best. If you have five pure battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in your household and limited access to public chargers, it might even make sense to have a two-head Level 3 charger installed. But for 99.9% of people, a Level 2 charger is more than enough.

October 9, 2023: Added Waltzilla, Updated Lectron with newer model

May 5, 2023: Reduced our list to five recommendations. Our top picks remain unchanged.

June 30, 2022: Removed Morec Level 2 EV Charger due to poor reviews.

June 17, 2022: Updated product links, removed out of stock ChargePoint Home Flex.

June 9, 2022: Updated products links, removed unavailable Siemens VersiCharge.

January 31, 2022: Removed out of stock Bosch EV810, returned Siemens VersiCharge to list.

January 7, 2022: Removed unavailable Clipper Creek HCS-40 charger. Added Blink HQ 150 EV Charging Station.

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