Plug in Hybrid - What did you have to change in your garage?

[Anonymous]

We are looking at the Pacifica Hyrbid and wondering if we need to any work in our garage for charging. We have one 120v outlet that has a fridge and freezer plugged in. We have a second outlet that we don’t use as it was part of a project that the previous homeowner did And he was “handy”. I would obviously get it checked out and corrected before use but I was wondering, if you have a plug in hybrid did you have to do anything with your garage to be able to charge it? Install a charging station? Have a dedicated outlet on a dedicated circuit? Use 120v or 240v (the Pacifica can charge on either, just at very different charging speeds)?

[Anonymous]

We have the Pacifica Hybrid and we changed nothing. We plug it in overnight to the regular outlet and it is charged in the morning (takes about 8 hours to fully charge). I’m not sure about whether you could have it on the same breaker as the fridge/freezer. It’s kind of expensive to have the higher volt plugs installed because it’s significant electrical work—I think at least a couple thousand. It depends on your driving patterns. For instance, if you are regularly driving more than 30 miles a day AND are home during the day to re-charge (eg, you have a 20 mile r/t school drop off, then run errands and go home, then do the same in the afternoon), then it might be worth it. Most days, our daily driving is under 30 miles so it’s not really worth it for us.

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks! My daily commute is less than 10 miles all day and my office lot has (paid) charging stations. I just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing anything major

[Anonymous]

I recommend a dedicated 240 volt circuit. It shouldn't be that expensive. If you have a clothes dryer and Central A/C you already have two 240-volt circuits in your home. Electricians know how to install them--a simple matter, as long as you have room on your circuit panel. I would not have anything else on the line, although I suppose you could unplug the clothes dryer and use that circuit to charge the EV--awkward but it would do the job.

EVs charge much faster with 240 volts.

[Anonymous]

Definitely get a dedicated circuit, preferably 240V. It's very likely the charger that came with your car can handle 240V as well, you'll just need an adapter (a crafty DIY can make one for under $20), or buy a L2 charger - nothing fancy, a ~$200 will suffice, and keep the original one in the car just in case. The main reason you want 240V is much shorter charge time, so you'll be able to 'top it off' during short stops at home.

[Anonymous]

We just put in a 240 plug and it cost about 700$ without a permit. Add 150$ for the permit. It also depends if the area is unfinished from your breaker box to the garage (ours was).

[Anonymous]

Not to derail too much- but how do you like the Pacifica? I have a 2011 Sienna I need to replace soon.

[Anonymous]

We love our new Pacifica hybrid. You do want the special 240v hookup — it means it charges in 2 hours rather than 12, which would get really old. An electrician put it in for us for around $800.

[Anonymous]

We have and really like our Pacifica Hybrid. Our biggest complaint is that Android Auto is really quirky on the Pacifica's media system. So glitchy. We don't have that issue with Android Auto in other cars.

We just plug ours into the wall. No changes. Charges overnight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s kind of expensive to have the higher volt plugs installed because it’s significant electrical work—I think at least a couple thousand.

No way it would be that expensive unless the path from your breaker box to your garage is REALLY difficult. Could range from a couple hundred bucks up to maybe a grand.

[Anonymous]

OP here - I just picked up my Pacifica Hybrid this week and went with the 120v. The cost of the 240v was about 3 times as much to get upgraded so I decided to see how annoying or not annoying the 120v is first as I can always upgrade later. ($300 for 120v v.$900 for 240v).

So far, the van is awesome. I thought I would get an Odyssey but it was so boring - not that much different than my 2013 Accord. And the Sienna looked like my old RAV4. One we were spending upwards of $40k for a minivan, we test drove all of them and the Pacifica was by far the coolest. That they have a hybrid and it fits my daily needs (commute and daily driving under 15 miles a day 99% of the time) and had the same size gas tank as my old car (for longer trips), plus the tax credit made it comparable to the gas version in terms of cost. No regrets.

[Anonymous]

Oh and Chrysler had 0% financing for new 2019 hybrids which saved me $3,200 in financing costs over a CPO I was looking at.

[Anonymous]

Don't forget the tax credit (if you qualify... which in this area is hard not to).