There’s often a sense of sticker shock when a single option pushes past the $2,000 mark. Perhaps that’s why auto makers like to dress up these big features as option “packages,” to make it seem like you’re getting more than just a rear DVD player or pricey GPS system. With plug-in electric vehicles, ordering up a $2,000+ charger (installed) for your garage is almost mandatory in pure battery electric vehicles, and a popular option for Volt buyers.
Having bought a regular gas-powered, factory-fresh car in the past, and our new Nissan Leaf recently, I can honestly say that these processes contrasted almost as much as the vehicle’s powertrains. The home inspection needed before installing a charger, the scheduling and installation of the EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment), and the subsequent near-daily interaction with this ionic appliance in your garage is one of the biggest differences of the whole EV experience.
With a regular car, there’s a sense of finality about heading down to the dealership. You’re going there because you’ve done your homework, looked into the incentives on it and the others on your shortlist, and are ready to pick up your shiny new wheels, as long as the test drive or dealer staff doesn’t put you off enough to run out of there screaming.
Ideally, you’ll have test driven all of your short list, but we didn’t, and industry surveys suggest most buyers don’t either.
With a plug-in car, there’s less immediate gratification, since there are more hoops to jump through no matter which vehicle you’re considering. You’ll be lucky to find any available EV to test drive in Ontario, never mind take one home upon your first trip to a dealership. Even if an EV demo is on the lot, prying the keys for even a drive around the block is tough, as dealers in Ontario must keep the vehicles under a 500 km cap in order to qualify for the provincial rebate of up to $8,500.
But the ordering process, either at the dealer or online, gets more personal when you select your car’s colour, options and accessories. This makes it more typical of the car buying process in Europe or Japan than in “I’ll take that one NOW” North America.
Getting Ready
Some plug-in car buyers may not need an EVSE at all. For the upcoming 2013 Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid or Honda Accord PHEV, there’s not much point in investing thousands of dollars in a charger when a regular wall socket can top up their small batteries in three to four hours. GM estimates that its low-cost SPX chargers will cost about $1,100 installed, making it a tempting but not quite necessary investment, reducing recharge times to four hours from a still reasonable 10 hours on a regular 110V outlet. But it’s a must-have for any BEV owner in Canada.
Once you decide you need a charger, you’ll need to set up a home inspection with an electrician who will inspect your electrical panel and hardware and judge how big of a job it will be based on where you’d like the charger. Since someone has to be at home to wander around the property inside and outside, plan on half a day of missed work here, unless you can convince someone to come out in the evening.
After that came perhaps the toughest part of our transition to an EV world: cleaning out our tight single car garage to actually fit a car again. We had long become accustomed to parking our cars solely in the driveway, the garage becoming an increasingly full warehouse. This left us with a full storage room in the basement, and a shed in the yard that’s almost bursting at the seams.
From there, we hoped for good news on our price quote from partner AeroVironment on a Nissan-branded charger. Nissan estimates an average install price of about $2,000-$2,500, so we were hoping for a figure starting with a “1,” or in the low 2s. Final estimate: $3,187. Ouch.
