EV charger installation guide: What to expect

For an electric vehicle owner, there’s nothing quite like the peace of mind that comes with plugging in and charging up at home. While you can get by without one, a Level 2 home charger  will let you plug in before bed and wake up to a full charge. That goes a long way toward improving your EV ownership experience.

Achieving that serenity, however, will carry some upfront costs beyond the charger itself. And while installing a charger will likely pay off over time, ensure your home is future-ready, and help quell any concerns you have about keeping your car juiced up, you should know that your costs can vary significantly depending on your home.

Here’s what you’ll need to consider ahead of an installation, the most common challenges you might run into along the way, and how to solve them.

An electrician can either install a four-prong, 240-volt outlet where you can plug in a Level 2 charger, or directly hardwire a Level 2 charger into your home without the outlet. You can buy either plug-in or hardwired versions of many popular EV chargers models. 

There’s no right or wrong answer. Zach Zimmerman, whose Indiana company Zimmerman Electric installs about 150 home chargers a year, usually recommends a hardwired installation, noting it offers "a little bit of a cleaner-looking install." Hardwiring also allows you to safely charge your car at faster maximum speeds, whereas an outlet cannot safely deliver quite as much power as some EVs are able to accept.  

However, Zimmerman says, a plug-in model offers more flexibility to charge away from home: "You just unplug the charger and bring it with you. That's the advantage," he says. And when the charger eventually meets the end of its lifespan, you won’t have to hire an electrician to replace it. (And if you already have a 240-volt in your garage or driveway—maybe for a clothes dryer—you might be able to use it for a Level 2 charger, without having to hire an electrician.)

A qualified electrician should be able to find a charging solution for just about any single-family home. (We’ll also address multi-family options near the end of this article.) But an installation can range from quite simple and affordable to much more complex and expensive depending on several factors.

If you’re lucky, you’ll get to experience the very easy version of this project. If your electric panel is located near where you park (like in your garage or on an interior wall alongside your driveway), if it has open space for new circuits, and if your home has ample electric capacity, this job should be a breeze for most electricians, who will probably get it done in short order for maybe a few hundred dollars.

But if any of those variables are off, things get trickier and costlier. It’s common to pay upwards of $1,000 for an installation, and the job can sometimes cost more than $2,000.

A big part of the cost for any electrical addition is the length of wire the electrician must run from the panel to the new outlet or device. If your panel is far from your parking spot or in an otherwise challenging location, costs will probably increase by several hundred dollars, due to both the additional materials and the additional hours of labor.

And if your parking spot is removed from the home itself—think of a driveway that ends well short of the structure—then you may need to dig a trench to bury the wire underground, further adding to the costs.

You’ll also need to ensure there’s enough space on your panel for a circuit to support the charger. If yours is full, your electrician may have some crafty ideas to make space for the charger by sharing or consolidating circuits. But you may ultimately need a new panel, which would likely run you upwards of $1,200.

The biggest hiccup many EV owners run into is in determining their home doesn’t have enough electric capacity.

Your capacity depends on two factors: what kind of service you have, and what else in the home is drawing power. If you don’t know what kind of service your home has, go check out your main breaker located either on your panel (the big one, near the top) or outside near your electric meter. 

If the breaker reads “200,” that means you have 200-amp service, usually more than enough to add a charger with no worries. But if it says 100, meaning 100-amp service, you could have a tougher road ahead. If you run other major electric appliances in your home, it’s possible that you won’t have enough power to run an EV charger in addition to all your essentials, at least not without tripping the breaker occasionally (which is something you should avoid).

One solution is to upgrade to 200-amp service. It’s a significant project that may require very heavy infrastructure work, as well as a new panel and other equipment. This process can be extreme—imagine an excavator digging up your driveway to get to an underground power line. Even less intrusive solutions will probably amount to a multi-thousand-dollar project that requires participation from utility and government officials, and may take weeks to even get scheduled.

Short on capacity? Don’t panic

Electricians are increasingly directing EV owners with 100-amp service toward “load management” technology that limits the amount of power the charger can pull when the home is near capacity, or arranging for two heavy-duty appliances—a charger and a dryer, for example—to share a circuit so that only one functions at a time. Installing such technology can run you about $1,200. It’s a significant expense, but cheaper than a service upgrade.

That said, if you have the money and the patience, you may want to just spring for the service upgrade. For starters, it will let you avoid headaches about balancing your household priorities, such as conflicting laundry and charging demands. More importantly, it will ensure your home has adequate capacity if you’re planning any other major projects in the future, such as converting to an induction range or electric heat, or for additions like a hot tub, pool, or more living area.

Zimmerman suggests the decision should hinge on how long you intend to stay in the home. While the load-management devices are “a legitimate Band-Aid fix,” he said, “it's probably not the best solution if you want to have the long-term infrastructure in place.”

Between the charger, the installation, and those more challenging panel and service-related expenses, it’s fair to say this can be a costly project. But you may be able to recoup some of it come tax season next year.

Under the federal Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, some taxpayers can claim a credit worth 30 percent of the hardware and installation costs, up to $1,000. (Eligibility depends on where you live, as it is intended for those in low-income or non-urban areas; according to the federal government, about two-thirds of Americans live in an eligible location.) Should you need to pay for a panel upgrade, that is also eligible for a 30 percent tax credit, with a maximum credit of $600.

You should also check at the state level and through your local utility to see if you are eligible for rebates or other incentive programs for your charger. Some automakers also run deals to reduce the costs of a charging installation.

If you live in an apartment building or condo complex, we haven’t forgotten you. However, you probably don’t have quite as much go-it-alone freedom as a single-family homeowner. You’ll likely first need to contact – and then possibly lobby – your condo board, property management firm, landlord, or whoever runs the show at your home.

Electricians are finding plenty of work in this space, either installing chargers for individual parking spaces or shared chargers for all residents, indicating that those powers-that-be see the value of such additions.

“The management companies are realizing that this is an amenity that is quickly becoming something [they need] to stay competitive,” says Jim Burness, a Colorado-based charging expert and founder of National Car Charging. “We've heard story after story of a potential renter walking away if there's not a place to charge. So it's quickly becoming as necessary as an exercise room.”