"Portable" L2 charger

n3ckf · Jun 25, 2013

I'm planning to carry a L2 charger in my Rav4EV for charging at other people's houses, RV parks etc.

I'm thinking the Siemens Versicharge is the best unit for this. Its not that big, comes with a Nema L6-50 plug on it (which can be either replaced or adapterd to an L14-50 which is a standard RV park "50 amp" plug) and you can set how fast it charges (from 1.8 -> 7.2 KW)

Does anyone out there own one and use it this way? I notice Amazon sells it for $849 which seems to be the "usual" price for one of these things.

cwerdna · Jun 25, 2013

I know nothing about the above EVSE (it's not a charger; charger is on-board the car) but http://camelcamelcamel.com/ can help one see how much prices on Amazon fluctuate and how good of a deal you're getting. I set price alerts for things I don't need immediately but am interested in buying if the price gets low enough...

edmc · Jun 25, 2013

Me, I just made sure my "home" EVSE is a plug type. I went with Aerovironment... comes with the NEMA 6-50P. It comes with a mounting plate that the unit simply slides onto - great for quick removal/replacement. For conversion to NEMA 14-50P, I went with the Hobart adapter cable ($50 on Amazon).

Of course if I had to do it all over again, I do like the option of a converted Tesla charging cable discussed elsewhere on this forum. The modification replaces the Tesla Model S specific connection with the J1772 plug. At the other end, Tesla supplies a plethora of $45 each adapters.

n3ckf · Jun 30, 2013

Well i have this charger and i hooked it up. Works well.

Turns out, i needed to use the "adjustable charge rate" feature of the charger at my house (the breaker on my 230V circuit was smaller than i thought). So i have the EVSE set to "50%" which is 3.6KW. Still way better than charging at 110V.

This adjustment is under the top cover of the charger so you need to open it up to make it. But thats not an issue for my application, which is occasional use while "mobile" with the Rav4. I'll be getting a 40Amp charger installed at my permanent location.

priuspete · Jul 3, 2013

I too have the Siemens unit, and recommend it highly. Of course they're all overpriced, considering the actual content, however this unit is light weight and versatile with the 'bottom fed' cord/plug included. Thus, it also fits the bill as a 'portable' unit.
The 'delay' feature isn't important since that is built into our cars.
The Siemens is also easy to mount on the wall, and if you don't put in the 'lock' screw it's super easy to lift off the bracket and toss into the RAV.
Pete

pchilds · Jul 4, 2013

My SPX Power Xpress is going in for a firmware update, this should fix the RAV4 compatibly and the LEAF end timer problem. Bosch has much better customer service than SPX. Looks like I won't be needing to buy a new portable EVSE.

user 340 · Jul 4, 2013

pchilds said:
My SPX Power Xpress is going in for a firmware update, this should fix the RAV4 compatibly and the LEAF end timer problem. Bosch has much better customer service than SPX. Looks like I won't be needing to buy a new portable EVSE.

That is great news - please keep us posted! I had no idea that Bosch was now offering a firmware update to the Power XPress, and I'd like to get mine updated to make it compatible with the RAV4. Could you please post the contact info for Bosch (I couldn't find any after some modest Googling) and the major characteristics of the upgrade (any cost, shipping, time to complete)? And most importantly, please let us know your experiences - how long it really took, any problems encountered, and how well it works. Thanks in advance. - Tom

sierrabill · Aug 3, 2013

We have been using the Siemens Versicharge since Jan 2013 and have had zero problems with it. I haven't taken it with me yet on a longer adventure but am planning to do so as it seems easy to pull off the wall and light and adjustable in output. We use the adjustability feature quite a bit as we are off-grid. For us also the delay feature is handy because it's so easy plus we charge at different times than most folks because we are off-grid.

It seems the "trick" to making longer trips work is have a variety of adapters for the numerous sources of 240 volt outlets in the world. Such as RV parks, Aunt Millie's dryer, Tesla charging station?, Tom's welding shop, Mom's electric range.......there is a variety of different outlet configurations out there that could save your bacon and make your trip a happy one.

n3ckf · Aug 3, 2013

Yes i carry with me the Nema 6-50 the charger comes with, a dryer cord from a Nema 10-30 (3 prong dryer outlet) and and adapter for a Nema 14-50 to 6-50 (for 50 amp plugs in RV parks - havent had to use that one yet). THe adapters are pretty small and they all fit in the litle area under the floor in the back along with the 110V charger the car came with.

user 340 · Aug 5, 2013

A quick update. I sent my SPX Power Xpress to Bosch for a firmware update on July 22 via ground delivery, and the upgraded unit arrived on July 30. It now works great on the RAV! I have only tried an immediate charge, not a delayed one. It will make a nice portable EVSE: it is small, pretty light, and I put a L6-30P connector on it that can connect to L6-30R pigtails for different 208 - 240V outlets.

It was hard to tell what they did to it from the outside. They put a different label on it; it no longer says that it is REV A (just Part# EV20H25318U, model number, some other info). I called Bosch and they told me that it was updated to firmware Rev 4 which addresses unspecified issues with Leaf, Volt, Tesla, Fords, RAV4.

Thanks to pchilds for telling me about the update and for Dsinned for selling it to me in the first place.

"Portable" L2 charger

Help Support Toyota Rav4 EV Forum:

n3ckf

Well-known member

cwerdna

Well-known member

edmc

Well-known member

n3ckf

Well-known member

priuspete

Member

pchilds

Well-known member

user 340

Well-known member

sierrabill

Member

n3ckf

Well-known member

user 340

Well-known member

Similar threads

Latest posts

"Portable" L2 charger

Help Support Toyota Rav4 EV Forum:

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Similar threads

Join the conversation!

Join today and get all the highlights of this community direct to your inbox. It's FREE!