I just scheduled an electrician to install a ChargePoint HomeFlex charger. I said I wanted the max amps that the unit could handle and he said he’s been doing that for a lot of EV chargers lately so he goes with 6 gauge. Will be able to deliver at least 40 amps. My barn, where I garage, is already wired for 100 amps. Charger was $550, installation w/b $750, rebate from utility s/b $700. Hard wired is safer, fewer resistance points, and my utility gives a discount for off-peak charging if it’s a hard-wired, Wi-Fi compatible unit (they can tell, via app, that the juice is going to my car). My Polestar came with cable that has L1 and L2 adapters. I’ve used both. They’ll live in the frunk 99.99%…time once my L2 garage charger is up and running.

Dryer outlets are not rated for long duty cycles and will overheat.

Hardwired will typically be a little cheaper, since you’re not paying for either end of the plug, and a good plug is expensive. Along those lines, the plug is a major failure point.

Otherwise, the typical benefit of hardwired is you can have a 48A+ charger, where 40A is the max with a plug. That difference probably isn’t enough to matter for anyone though.

If you buy a hard wired Charge Point charger you can program it for a much higher charge rate, depending on the circuit breaker and wire you use.

I don’t understand why you feel the need to purchase an entirely different charger because the installation quote was high? If the charger comes “free” use that one and your own electrician.

According to the advertisement I saw, the “Free Charger” is a ChargePoint L2 Home Flex EV charger. Why not use it?

OK, so the "free"travel charger has 2 modes: Too slow and too fast. (too fast, as in “the official quote for $1700 installation”.)

The advantage to a wall unit is it unlocks intermediate speeds, such as 240V/15A - 3kW (a little over 2x level 1 speed) which you can run with cheap white 14/2 Romex… or 240V/20A - 4kW (3x level 1) which runs with cheap yellow 12/2 Romex. And from what you’re saying, either one is plenty. These are not expensive circuits to run.

The problem is you’re being conned by electricians into thinking “you gotta go 50A” which you do not.

Now if you really want 240V/20A in a travel unit, that’s available from DeWalt. But it’s not as much savings as you’ll need to add a $140 GFCI breaker if you don’t hardwire it.

Not answering your question, but…

When you say Level 1 isn’t keeping up with your 30-40 miles a day, I know the Level 1 charger my Ioniq 5 came with has a setting to switch between 6A, 8A, 10A, and 12A. Make sure you’ve set yours to 12A as this should net you ~1.1kW after losses. That should get you 40miles of charge in 10-12 hours.

1. Check to see what your circuit is rated to. You may be able to boost your L1 charging via your infotainment system to a higher Amperage.
2. What was the quote for? If its just installing the outlet you can do that yourself if you know how to do basic electrical work and watch a youtube video or get a quote from a different electrician.

For my first house I had 4/3 AWG wg (4 gage wire, 2 hot and 1 neutral and a ground) already running to my dethatched garage. Qmerit approved electrician quoted me at $1800 minus a $1000 credit from GM. For $360 and an afternoon of cussing I installed a new sub panel and the outlet and was charging that night.

For my new house…it was 1950s 12AWG running to the garage through rusty old buried conduit. Job was way too big and need it done ASAP so I got an electrician for $2K.

Do you have an electric clothes dryer? If you do, you don’t need an electrician. You can make ually plug and unplug the dryer, or get a splitter. It is a special device that let’s you have both urged in at the same time. It automatically switches between EV charging and dryer usage. SplitVolt is the brand I have.

$1700 is in the range for installation. My Tesla charger was $1777.