The cost of electricity doesn't figure into it, does it? Either way you're going to be recharging something via your power company, be it the car or the Anker, so that's kind of a wash. There does appear to be some sort of solar-charging option, but I don't see any prices listed. I'm betting it's not cheap.

They're also pretty vague on EV charging, other than the fact that you can do it. It appears that the maximum power output, using "expansion batteries" (cost?) is 53,760Wh which, unless I'm mistaken, equals 53.76kWh; the i4 has an ~80kWh battery. So you're only ever going to be able to charge to 67%, probably less given loss through inefficiency.

I get not wanting to spend the $9k, but I don't think this is a solution I'd want to use. And besides, once you pay the $3,700 plus the 12 expansion batteries it takes to get up to the max 53,760Wh, I'm going to guess you're not going to be far off of the $9k (if not over) anyway. Like the solar option, I didn't see a price on the expansion batteries either, but I'm guessing that those, plus the solar panels, would put this well north of $9k with a lot more complication and inconvenience than just having a wall-mounted charger.

Also, outside of the solar option, how would you plan on recharging the Anker? You aren't installing a 240v plug in your garage, so I'd assume you're down to a 110v standard plug. That's going to take a long time to recharge. I suppose you could pull the thing into the house – the unit plus 12 expansion batteries – into your house, unplug your dryer, and charge it there. But holy cow, talk about an inconvenience. That'd get old really quick.

 

I would say no to both the $9k install/work and that $3.5k charger. L2 install is worth it if someone else is paying for it. in my case, the electric company had lots of rebates. Be on the lookout for rebates every quarter, if they have new money from the state/federal to give to homeowners in the form of equipment and/or install rebates.
That $9k is worth about 47 years of my EV car charging bills/habit. And then i just use the EA since it's free and convenient. The $3.5k is a lot of years too.
I would just use the regular/slow 110V and plug it in every other day to do a battery top-off.
Once in a long while people might decide to move (put the L2 in the next house)

 

EA charging is only going to be free for two years. Less, since I'm assuming he already has the vehicle. After that, charging is going to be a much more expensive proposition if you want to get to 80% in any reasonable amount of time.

And whether or not EA charging is convenient is highly dependent upon area and the state of upkeep of the station in question.

 

$9k in electrical work to add a charger?
I'm guessing that means you need a new mains panel to proceed?
You'd almost certainly need the same thing just to install a home battery storage solution or any sort of solar installation, so it might be an investment against future projects.

 

As a backup maybe, but not a permanent/daily EV charging solution.

Bite the bullet now and spend what's necessary to have L2 at home otherwise it will end up costing more with these temporary solutions.

 

+1 to just using level 1 charging vs spending thousands. I talked about my setup in this thread: https://www.i4talk.com/threads/flexible-charger-level-1-limit.9662/#post-199072

If your car is sitting in the garage for 12 hours a day, you should be able to get over 80kW into your battery over the course of a week, ie a full battery worth of electricity. If most of your trips are short distances that's probably more than enough.

 

To me, part of the appeal of an EV is being able to have a full charge whenever I want it without do anything but plugging in in my garage. Essentially never being able to have an 80% (or 100% if I'm going on a trip) charge without going to a level 3 charging station would be too annoying to deal with; I don't know that I'd want an EV if level 1 charging was my only option at home.

 

This is a gross exaggeration. I use <10% battery for most local trips, which I can easily charge overnight on level 1. Even for trips that take 30% I can recover typically in 2 nights.

Level 2 at home is a nice convenience but depending on your usage it may not be necessary.

 

One size doesn't fit all.

The L1 scenario isn't workable for me either, not because I can't make it work but because L2 is more convenient & faster. If convenience and speed is what the OP is looking for, then L1 isn't gonna cut it either. I think the stated charge rate is 4 miles per hour with L1; because I have the M50...it's more like 2.5 miles per hour. Ain't gonna happen.

I think the portable solution for EV is not really a good solution though. It's great for back up power, in an emergency or camping situation. My neighbor has an Anker kit with the portable panels. He plans to power his shed with minimal wiring required. However, that load is small and won't require a lot of expansion batteries. By itself, It's 1/3rd (minimum config price) the cost of OPs stated L2 install cost and by the time the expansion batteries are added as @Phillies8008 noted, it just doesn't pencil out.

Also unknown is if OP has existing solar OR future plans for solar OR another EV OR whether OP owns / rents. Those would be factors in this discussion.

 

We did a full panel upgrade in our detached garage and the electrician ran a dedicated meter into a new 200A panel with two 60A ev charging lines plus rerunning all the existing wiring into the new panel. All in we were under $3k and we got a third of that back as a tax credit last year.

For those wondering why we didn't go solar, the TOU plan on that dedicated meter charges us about $.02 per kWh between midnight and 6am. We drive our 2 EVs about 1500 combined miles a month and haven't had a bill over $60 yet.

 

Ah, to live someplace with cheap labor. Around Seattle, 3k won't get you an in place panel swap with inspection. That's in part due to needing combo arc/ground fault breakers and those costing more but it's mostly due to the cost of the tradesman here. I swapped our main panel to a new QO panel and I think I was ~2-3k in materials alone. Though that is in part because I was replacing an existing panel with 25-30 circuits.

I think L2 is worth it if you're driving anything over 30 miles in a day. But it can cost a bit depending on what needs to happen as part of the install.

 

That battery and solar claims as an "EV charger" are an absolute joke. This is strictly a small scale home backup unit. The base unit would barely add 12 miles of range and the 400W solar panels would generate only 2kW per day which is about 8 miles max. This is a great alternative to keeping a gas generator in case of power outage, you can run a fridge and some lights.

Unfortunately there aren't good alternatives to installing a 10kW roof top solar for full price.