Maui19

I'm thinking about getting an e-tron GT and would like some advice on home charging. I don't foresee taking the GT on long road trips--we would use our ICE SUV for those. So almost all of my charging would be done at home. I would need to install chargers at two homes: our main house and our lake house. We spend most of our time at our main house, so I would like a decent charger there. The electrical panel has plenty of room and is located in the garage, so installing a charger there would be simple. The lake house would be another story. I would need to upgrade the 100 amp panel there and also install a charger. There is no garage there, so the charger (or at least the charger port) would need to be weather proof. I think I could get away with something simple at the lake house. Not sure I need anything particularly fancy at the main house unless you folks convince me otherwise. What chargers/costs should I be looking at for each place?

Also, I see mentions of people doing road trips and getting "fast" charges that take 25+ minutes. As an ICE guy, that seems kind of a long time to refuel. I assume you get used to it--yes? No?

Lastly, I worry about running into lines at charging stations. That would suck and waste huge amounts of time. My sense is that it isn't really a problem right now, but might be in the future. Am I wrong about this?

Thanks for your thoughts!

JNealCox

Good luck on your deliberations! Once you have decided that the 220+ mi range on the e tron would not be a problem for your everyday driving, you might want to check the PlugShare App to get the lay of the land on high speed chargers in the areas where you might travel, as well as along the way. Depending on where you live, be aware that ambient temps affect battery capacity. Audi does better than most, but cold weather can cut your range by 10% due to inherent battery sensitivity, plus you will likely lose another 10% due to cabin conditioning. So if temps can be an issue for you, consider cold weather driving with a 180 mi range full charge.

For the e tron, L1 (120V) charging takes about 20 hours 0 to 100; L2, about 9 hours; L3 (high voltage DC), about 45 min. HOWEVER, also keep in mind, you will probably almost NEVER completely drain your battery. I find I generally keep my battery between 50 and 80% (Audi recommends charging only to 80% for every day use, going to 100% only for long trips). Just like in my ICE, I like to keep a reserve in the tank in case of emergencies. So, typically, on my L2 charger ( I use the 40A compact unit that comes with the Audi), I'm charged up in about 4 hours. With HVDC chargers, I'll usually spend 20 to 25 minutes. (In looking at charging, look at the "charging profile"--not just how high the car can spike to, but rather, how high AND how long it can stay at the level. Audi has the best charging profile in the industry). Yes, you get used to it, but I charge mostly at home. Basically, I have not been to a gas station in 2.5 years.

As far as equipping your houses. As I recall, the house circuit needs to exceed the charger rating by at least 20%, because the unit is in "continuous" use. Thus, I use the 40 A Audi charger, so I had to install at least a 50A circuit. At 40A, you can connect the charger via an outlet. You might gain 10% in charging speed if you go with a 50A charger, but that means you need a 60A house circuit, and in most locales, the charger has to be hardwired. I never thought the 10% was worth the trouble. For your vacation home, you will need to take appropriate precautions to weather proof the charger due to it being outdoors.

I'm not really familiar with Brand name chargers. In some areas, you need one in order to take advantage of special EV rates. Otherwise, some people like the additional info they give you via wifi, compared to the Audi compact charger in the MyAudi app,

Running into lines should not be a problem for a while. The more immediate problem is encountering a charger that is "down". If you end up having to use public chargers a lot, you typically need to check with PlugShare and similar apps to check on station availability---a little like needing the check to see if your gas station is open!

Ulmer

A couple specific responses:

- I have a 100 amp panel and added a 50 amp 240v circuit to it for charging. My water heater, stove and home heating are gas. So it'll never be an issue. So you may not have to upgrade your panel. You can always go with smaller amperage too. If you don't need to charge from 0-100% every night, a 30 amp 240v circuit would probably be completely sufficient.
- Most of my road trip charge stops are 20 - 25 mins. I'm happy to do it every 2 - 2.5 hours. By the time I find a bathroom and a drink or a snack, the car is mostly done charging anyway. You'll get used to it. Quite relaxing. I've never had to wait to charge at Electrify America stations, or pretty much anywhere else.

ThomasW

As JNealCox pointed out, lines have not been an issue I noticed so far. If EV deployment goes up as the government intends it to, this may become an issue at some point, But I expect the charging network to grow at the same time to accommodate that. So I am not that concerned at this point. I live in the Midwest where there are not as many EVs as on the coasts (but there are a lot fewer chargers as well). The time spent at the DC fast chargers has not been an issue for me so far. I usually time it with lunch or dinner. The car was usually done charging before I was even if I only stopped for a shorter break. I kind of like the idea of thinking of it like this: https://cleantechnica.com/2021/04/03...a-few-seconds/

They do make outdoor-rated NEMA 14-50 outlets:
You could use something like that at the lake house. My recommendation based on the information provided would maybe be to install a regular NEMA 14-50 at the main house with a third-party EVSE (JuiceBox, ChargePoint, ...). Then you can take the Audi EVSE with you to the lake house and just plug in when needed. Since you only have a 100A service there, you may need to go with a 32A circuit and use the Audi EVSE at 50%. That would still give you a decent amount of charge overnight. If the battery is really low and you want to charge to 100% an overnight charge will not get you completely there. But in the vast majority of cases, it probably will get you more than enough of a charge.

Maui19

Lots of good stuff here. The lake house panel is currently at capacity--I couldn't come close to installing an electric water when the old one crapped out. I barely had enough capacity to install a tankless gas water heater. I have been thinking about upgrading the panel anyway, so I'm ok with doing it for an EV.

hrc1079

I would think very carefully about any VW Group product at this point in time. A lot of 2019 e-Tron owners can no longer connect to MyAudi for weeks to use the remote functions of the vehicle or get up to date status updates. The MMI has been plagued with bugs that Audi just either ignores or puts a band aid on it. The whole software group within VW are sub par and it shows. If you're happy to not use the built in e-Tron route planner and rely on 3rd party apps to show you charging spots then go for it but at 2 and a half years in on my e-Tron, Audi has really done nothing to resolve the issues of had with bugs from day 1 which are still in the vehicle to this day.

Don't bother complaining to Audi as they just deny anything is wrong. The focus is on selling new cars and not keeping existing customers happy.

JNealCox

On the flip side, I have one of those said 2019 models. Yes, it has been really annoying for the past three weeks, but then, I went for more than a year without really using the app at all. The MMI has had some glitches, but things have been running smoothly for me for quite some time, or I now know the tricks needed to correct the problem--so, what's new about car ownership? I expected issues in the first year release of a car. The 2021's I'm assuming have had fewer issues. This has left me, personally, far, far, far away from ditching the car.

BW5

If you have an electric dryer or stove at the lake house, and if you're luck that it's not too far from your parking area, you might be able to piggy back and charge with it overnight while it's not being used otherwise. There is a transfer switch device available that lets you plug in two devices to a dryer outlet but the secondary device is only powered when the primary is not in use.
Also, at the lake you're probably there more or less for the weekend or whatever, so you may not need a super fast charge

As far as 20 minutes recharge being a long time to refuel....
It's really just a different paradigm. Instead of gassing up, then going in for the bathroom, food, etc....
now you plug in and while the battery is "gassing up", you do those other things.... you're back on the road roughly in the same timeframe as before. I say roughly only because in my experience the chargers are located at places where you have to walk into for example a walmart, not quite as fast as a small gas station's store.... Regardless, pretty much by the time you're finished and back to the car, it's ready to go.

Maui19

We are gas for stovetop, dryer and water heater and we are still maxed out. Your ideas are interesting though, and I haven't had a deep dive by any electricians that I think know their stuff. We are at the lake house for four months, so I would prefer that it not be a continual workaround. Still, it is an idea that is worth looking into--thanks!

thebishman

For your main house I can highly recommend the Charge Point Flex. Controlled from the app and easy to use. You set the charger for the amperage supplied and it delivers 80% of it to the car, which is the max you should use for safety reasons.