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 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 Mercedes-Benz EQS and be sure your electric vehicle charging batteries and preparation is done right!

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

If you haven’t already done research on types of 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.
• Level 2 EV charging often takes several hours to fully charge an electric car. You can often get an additional 30 kilometres of range in just per hour with Level 2 DC charging, compared to the Level 1. 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 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 EV charging. You can also have them install a dedicated 240-volt plug or add a hardwired circuit back to the power panel. 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 an 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 East Gwillimbury? Contact us anytime at Mercedes-Benz Newmarket or call 905.853.6868. Meanwhile, learn more about the Mercedes EQS electric vehicle charging batteries and efficiency!