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I've put in my down payment for my first EV, and now have two years to buy the add-ons while it arrives (yes, two years).

My garage already has a 230V/100A pony panel, so I'm going to have a NEMA 14-50 installed and buy a good home charger.

But I will also need a portable unit, and here's the problem - all the ones I can find that even accept 230V use weird plugs like NEMA 6-20 and such. So...

  1. Why don't they use 14-50 or 14-30?
  2. Why bother even putting on this plug? Aside from welding shops, you're going to have to have one custom wired, so it's useless for portable use. Whereas every home I know has at least a 14-30 somewhere.

Does anyone know if there is any logical reason for this?

Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2
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Maury Markowitz
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  • I've edited out the last question. I believe the other is answerable. The last question was a shopping question, which would have made it off-topic for the site. – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 Jul 11 '18 at 00:49

1 Answers1

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As a current owner (no pun intended) of an eMotorWerks charging station connected to a NEMA 14-50 outlet, I can suggest that your searches may be missing a few locations.

From their web site opening page:

Take JuiceBox along with you. All JuiceBox EV charging stations use standard outlets and don’t require expensive, hard-wired installations.

From the same web site, one can purchase adapters if one is in a situation which requires an adapter in the other direction. Their adapters allow you to connect the NEMA 14-50 into dryer and general household outlets (110v only).

Our JuiceBox 40 was purchased without the wifi option and I would have liked to have the ability to monitor the usage. With a 40 amp charge level, the vehicle charges faster than the computer forecasts, leaving us in a guessing game with how long it takes.

juice box evse image

The lead from the outlet to the EVSE is rather short, but should not pose a problem with portability.

evse image 2

I think my lead might be a bit longer, as the unit is a year old and not as prettified as this newer model. It's just an ordinary weather sealed brushed aluminum box with wires, no lights, bells or whistles. I had inquired about a trade-in for the wifi version but the exchange rate convinced me otherwise.

Most (all?) US campgrounds which provide electrical service will have NEMA 14-50 outlets, making charging convenient in certain parts of this country.

fred_dot_u
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