Quote:
Originally Posted by LogicalApex
I use a ChargePoint charger that I purchased and vastly over-specced for the 530e. But my reasoning there was I street park and getting a sidewalk opened up to install it I wanted to only be doing this once no matter if I went to a BEV in the future. The ChargePoint also has WiFi connectively so I can monitor charring, power use, and etc all from my phone. Depending on your needs you can go with a cheaper "smart" EVSE or you can go with something more "dumb" (I don't mean that in a negative way) that just allows the car to charge. The less fancy the cheaper the EVSE will be.
My car is street parked so installing my EVSE was a chore! That being said how much you'll get out of a dedicated charging spot will be governed heavily by how you use your 530e and what your goals are with it. I live in Philly which has really short blocks of around 300ft since it is an older city. My goal was EV in the city and Hybrid/ICE on my long road trips up to Canada. That means charging between trips is important to maximizing my EV use in the city. It has worked our perfectly for that as I have about 5K EV miles on my car of the 10K total miles in the year I've owned it.
When I got the car I used the 120V adapter run with an extension cord outside across the sidewalk as I wasn't sure I wanted to go through the pain of tearing up the sidewalk. It took about 12 hours to charge the car from flat (240V takes under 3 hours) and it wasn't able to handle the demands of preconditioning effectively either (meaning you'd chew up 10-15% of the charge if you decided to precondition while plugged in at 120V!).
If you drive the car from home to work only then you might be able to be OK with 120V as the slow charge won't impact your usage much. If you have a garage you can put the car in then preconditioning is less of an issue too. For me, preconditioning is a really nice feature. Nice to get into the car and it is cool or warm without having kicked on the ICE to get it done.
The 530e charges at a max of 16A @ 240V with a 12kWh battery in MY2020+ and 9.2kWh in MY2019-. I can't comment on usable capacity in Canada. In the US my MY2020 has about 9.2 of usable capacity, but I believe we get access to less capacity due to battery warranty length (in some states it is as long as 10Y/150K miles).
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Noted. Based on my understanding, the voltage dictates the charge time and "quality" of charge more so than the amperage. I also understand that any outlet provides 80% of it's maximum amp rating. Now the questions becomes, should I have a dedicated 20 amp 240 v outlet (80% of 20 amp would be 16 amp) vs utilizing my 30 amp 220 v (maybe it 240 v) dryer outlet.
I will need to consider the cost of a new dedicated circuit with the 20 amp 240 v option. There is also the matter of finding an aftermarket charging cord (like BMW turbo cord) that can handle both 15 amp 120 v circuit and 20 amp 240 v circuit. With 30 amp 240 v dryer outlet, that cord will have to be different due to different socket type.
Sorry my knowledge on electricity is limited.
In summary:
20 AMP 240 V - I will need a new circuit and a level 2 charging cord (aftermarket or BMW turbo cord)
30 AMP 240 V - I will need a level 2 charging cord that can fit into a dryer outlet
I will look into aftermarket level 2 charging cord based on your recommendation.
I've been driving in battery control mode since I purchased the car a month or so ago in order to keep it in good health - in exchange for abysmal fuel economy. I understand that is not the most cost effective way of driving as charging with ICE costs more than with using a charger. My daily commute is about 30 KMs
And so I would prefer the quick and "packed" charge (for lack of a better term, the quick charge allows the battery unit to holds more electrons vs slow charge?)
Thank you for taking the time to share all the details and helping me better understand all the options.
Cheers!