How to Charge Two EVs at Home

Sixty-eight percent of Americans who currently own a hybrid or an EV say they’re very or somewhat likely to seriously consider another EV the next time they buy a car. That’s great news—but if you’re one of those who are about to go electric (again), does it mean you’ll have to upgrade your EV charger?

Not necessarily. It’ll depend mostly on how far you expect to drive each car every day, what kind of charger you already have—and what you’re willing to pay for convenience.

This is the least exciting option, but often the most practical. If neither of your two EVs will have a high daily mileage, then you can simply take turns charging them with your already installed Level 2 charger. 

In a two-vehicle household, the average daily drive for the household’s most-used car is about 60 miles. A Level 2 charger can replenish that range in 2-3 hours, and most new EVs can travel at least 200 miles on a single charge. If your commute and cars are anywhere near these average, sharing a single Level 2 charger should work just fine.

If you’ll only occasionally need to charge both vehicles at the same time, you could roll out the simple Level 1 charger that came with your car when you need it.

This gives you a way to simultaneously charge both vehicles without buying new equipment or making major electrical changes—though the EV on the Level 1 charger will charge very slowly.

A dual charger is a single box, connected to a single electrical circuit, but with two charging cables so that you can charge two EVs at the same time. These chargers cost a few hundred dollars, but you won’t have to remember to switch the plugs or even move the cars. 

Some popular EV charging brands sell dual chargers, including Enphase and Grizzl-E. Sometimes you can even mix and match between Tesla-style and J1772-style plugs on the same unit.

But what you gain in convenience you lose in charging speed: Because a dual charger divides the available power between two vehicles, it’ll take twice as long to charge each EV.

If you want a setup that can quickly replenish your EV’s range, with a little more flexibility than a dual charger, you can get two separate Level 2 boxes.

One way to do this is to install two chargers on two separate circuits, so that both cars can simultaneously charge at full speed. This often won’t be practical, though: Beyond the high cost to install an entire extra circuit, the other potential obstacle is that not all homes have the electrical capacity to support two Level 2 chargers. You might need to upgrade your electrical panel to accommodate all that dedicated EV charging capacity.

Smart electrical devices can help

Now that EVs have been pretty common for a few years, lots of clever workarounds are beginning to emerge for homes with less-than-ideal electrical systems. 

Power-sharing and load-shedding devices can help you squeeze two separate EV chargers into your home’s electrical system—or even the same circuit.

A power-sharing setup allows two EV chargers on a single circuit to communicate with each other and share the available electrical capacity without overloading the circuit (which can be unsafe). 

This is different from a dual charger because it’s not simply a 50/50 power split. If your first car only needs to charge at a trickle, it’ll free up the other plug on the circuit to charge the second car at nearly full speed—up to the limit of where it’s electrically safe. The Tesla Wall Connector is a well-known charger that supports power-sharing arrangements.

Another option is to get a load-balancing system (Some EV chargers come with one built in). This system monitors your home’s entire electrical use, and puts one of the EV chargers at the back of the line, so to speak. That is, if you’re using so much power at once that the EV charger would trip the breaker, the load shedding device will turn off the EV charger first so that the rest of your appliances and electronics can keep running.

Both the circuit-sharing and load-shedding devices cost extra to install, but they’re often less expensive than running a whole extra circuit for a second EV charger, and almost always easier and less expensive than upgrading your home’s panel and electrical service.