Prepare Your Home for An Electric Vehicle

When it comes to buying a new car, the last thing that most people probably think about is how to prepare their home for it. Electric vehicles have many benefits but do require a bit of additional preparation in the form of installing your electric vehicle home charger. While there are electric vehicle charging stations in the Newmarket area, home charging will likely be your primary method of EV charging for the foreseeable future.

With that said, let’s delve into five easy steps you can take to prepare your house for a new EQS and be sure your electric vehicle charging batteries and preparation are done right! Once you’re done reading, call Mercedes-Benz Newmarket at 905.853.6868 if you’d like to learn more about your home EV charger options or how to charge an EV at home!

1. Decide on a Charging Type (AKA Charging Level)

If you haven’t already done research on types of home EV chargers, now is a good time to start. As a refresher, most home car charging systems fall into Level 1 or Level 2. Here’s more information:

• Level 1 EV charging often takes days to fully charge an electric car. You can get around 6-8 kilometres of range per hour, depending on the type of battery your car is equipped with.
• Level 2 EV charging often takes several hours to fully charge an EV at home. You can often get an additional 30 kilometres of range in just per hour with Level 2 DC charging, compared to the Level 1 home EV charger. For this reason, most people intermix daytime “top-off” charging with overnight charging.

2. Ready Your Garage

If you haven’t cleaned out or organized your garage, this is a good way to prepare your home for an electric vehicle! Make sure that you get your garage ready for an EV before you take delivery! You may wish to clean out clutter first if your garage has been used as a storage space for a long time. Also, think about where the charger will be located, you’ll want some slack in the cord, and it will likely be one to two meters at a minimum.

3. Find Your Power Panel & Assess Consumption

The power panel in your home distributes electricity throughout the entire building. It should be rated for a maximum amount of current flow measured in Amperes. Most new homes come with a 100 Amp power panel, but there should be an amperage rating printed on your main circuit breaker. If you have an older home you may not have the capacity to support an electric vehicle home charger with the Level 2 option pushing 16-80 amps into your electric vehicle.

4. Hire an Electrician

Next, hire an electrician. You can discuss any concerns you have about your power consumption and adding a home EV charger. You can also have them install a dedicated 240-volt plug or add a hardwired circuit back to the power panel. Bear in mind, however, that you buy have to purchase an entirely new power panel in order to generate enough electricity to charge your vehicle. If your power panel is up-to-date, installing Level 2 charging at home is quite affordable. If you require a new power panel, it may be a bit more expensive. That said, many provinces have incentives to help out with the costs of installing a Level 2 charger. Let’s take a look at average costs for Level 1 and Level 2 home EV chargers.

A level 1 charger can cost $300-600, while parts and labour could add an additional $1,200. A level 2 electric vehicle charging station is about $500-$700 and could add up to $2,000 with parts and labour.

5. Buy Your Charger & Have it Installed

If you haven’t already researched and purchased a home EV charger at this point, it would be the time to do so and have it professionally installed by an electrician. For an electric vehicle, charging batteries are the most important thing to keep you going, so you’ll want to have your electric vehicle home charger installed ASAP.

Prepare Your Home for an Electric Vehicle with Mercedes-Benz Newmarket!

Do you have additional questions or concerns about getting your home ready for an electric vehicle or how to locate electric vehicle charging stations in Markham? Contact us anytime at Mercedes-Benz Newmarket or call 905.853.6868. And while you’re here, take a moment to explore the Mercedes All-Electric lineup of high-performance EVs, and to read our overview of the many benefits of buying an electric car!