Hello,
I just purchased a used 2012 Nissan Leaf last Saturday that my wife has been driving. She's put almost 500 miles on it in a week, so I think we're saving some money over her old 20mpg car with Los Angeles gas prices. The plethora of public chargers in LA have helped us get through the week.
We have the Nissan L1 portable charger that came with the car, but that won't fit our needs due to charge time. We need to have L2 charging at home. I see my options as:
1) Purchase and install a fixed L2 EVSE at home
2) Purchase a portable L2 EVSE and install a 240V plug at home
3) Upgrade the current L1 charger to L2 and install a 240V plug at home
My question is this....How useful is it to have a portable L2 charger? In general, I would think it offers the flexibility to pull of the side of a road, find a plug and start charging either at 220V if you find a plug, or 110V with an adapter cable. When I think harder, though...maybe this never happens.
So does anyone out there actually use a portable 220V EVSE on the road? Are there 220V plugs out in the wild? Does your EVSE plug actually fit them? We might have a NEMA 6-20 plug, but the hole in the wall might be 6-30?
If this scenario never happens, I might just go with the fixed EVSE.
I appreciate your response.
Paul
I just purchased a used 2012 Nissan Leaf last Saturday that my wife has been driving. She's put almost 500 miles on it in a week, so I think we're saving some money over her old 20mpg car with Los Angeles gas prices. The plethora of public chargers in LA have helped us get through the week.
We have the Nissan L1 portable charger that came with the car, but that won't fit our needs due to charge time. We need to have L2 charging at home. I see my options as:
1) Purchase and install a fixed L2 EVSE at home
2) Purchase a portable L2 EVSE and install a 240V plug at home
3) Upgrade the current L1 charger to L2 and install a 240V plug at home
My question is this....How useful is it to have a portable L2 charger? In general, I would think it offers the flexibility to pull of the side of a road, find a plug and start charging either at 220V if you find a plug, or 110V with an adapter cable. When I think harder, though...maybe this never happens.
So does anyone out there actually use a portable 220V EVSE on the road? Are there 220V plugs out in the wild? Does your EVSE plug actually fit them? We might have a NEMA 6-20 plug, but the hole in the wall might be 6-30?
If this scenario never happens, I might just go with the fixed EVSE.
I appreciate your response.
Paul