JuiceBox EV Charger Hands-On Review

Editor’s Note: When Neil Rosenzweig over at our Outdoors group was dissatisfied with the factory charger that came with his Jeep Wrangler 4xe, AutoGuide arranged for him to receive a JuiceBox EV charger to test and review. Neil was not compensated for his review.

I’m a first time EV owner and as a result, a first-time home charger user and owner. Back in June when I brought our Jeep Wrangler 4xe battery hybrid home, I thought it would just be easy enough to use the Gen1 charger that came with it. However, after plugging in the 4xe every day for the first couple of months and letting it charge for 12-plus hours on a completely drained battery, I started to question if it was worth the wait—and quickly decided it wasn’t. I found myself looking in the garage, checking on and watching for all the blue lights on the dash to light up, letting me know how much the battery still had to go. The process was painful. This wasn’t what the future of the automobile was supposed to be like.

It was time for an upgraded charger.

Tito is not amused.

Once the JuiceBox charger arrived, I couldn’t wait to open the box. As excited as I was for it to arrive, my dog Tito thought it was something for him. I expected a bunch of parts, and that assembly was going to be needed. To my surprise, the only assembly was going to be attaching the supplied bracket to the wall and setting/locking the JuiceBox to the bracket, before downloading the app and plugging the unit in. In addition to the JuiceBox, the box included:

A wall plug with several feet of cable.

A 25-foot cable with connector and holster.

A step-by-step instruction manual.

A cheat sheet with step-by-step guidance to download the app (IOS or Google Play) and set up an account.

From the time our electrician finished running the electrical to the garage, I followed the instructions for WiFi set up and was charging the 4xe in under 20 minutes. As anyone who has installed an EV charger in the past few years has probably experienced, the most difficult and time-consuming part of the process was getting time on the electrician’s calendar to install the NEMA 14-50 plug outlet as our house did not have one in the garage. The wait was many weeks, so I recommend planning well ahead, especially if you’re purchasing or own a fully electric vehicle and you require significant charging on a daily basis.

Once you download and install the EV JuiceNet app and create an account, the process is very simple. It’s important to point out that you need to go through the app setup before plugging in your JuiceBox. After connecting to WiFi, JuiceBox recommends waiting 10 minutes before plugging in your vehicle, as it will check its firmware version and perform any necessary updates.

In our house, we have been thrilled with the ease of the JuiceBox in charging our 4xe and the ability to track our usage with the app. Since instillation, we have been able to:

Charge our 4XE efficiently.

Start and stop the charging sequence with ease.

Set a charging schedule so that we charge on non-peak hours.

Save a tremendous amount on gasoline.

Photo credit: Hyundai

You can charge a Hyundai Kona—and every other EV and plug-in hybrid—with a JuiceBox electric car charger. Even Tesla, which really wants you to live in it's proprietary ecosystem, Apple style, can be charged with Tesla's own J1772 adapter.

Figuring out which models use which technology can be very confusing. Many automakers sell models with the same name in gas, hybrid, plug-in hybrid (PHEV), and all-electric varieties, and EVs are both introduced and discontinued almost monthly. Most, but not all EV and PHEV models are sold in both the US and Canada, but boutique and startup manufacturers like Lucid, Rivian or Fisker might have different timelines for different countries, or not sell certain models there at all. The US and Canada hypothetically have rationalized standards for vehicles, meaning the same set of standards applies in both countries, but in practice, actual approval to sell a car may not be so easy.