How to Prepare Your Home for An Electric Vehicle

When you are buying a new car, the first thing that people need to think about is to prepare their home for it, at least if you’re purchasing an Electric Vehicle. EVs have many benefits—among them, the possibility of reducing your carbon footprint and lower maintenance costs than most gasoline cars. As you prepare for delivery of your new vehicle, you’ll need to set up an electric vehicle charging station at your home.

While there are more and more public EV charging stations in the Bloomfield Hills area, your electric vehicle home charger will likely be your primary method of EV charging for the foreseeable future. With that said, let’s dive into five easy steps you can take to prepare your West Bloomfield-area home for a new Mercedes-Benz hybrid!

1. Electric Vehicle Home Charger: Choose Your Level

It’s important to do your research on electric vehicle home chargers. As a refresher, most in-home electric vehicle charging stations fall into Level 1 or Level 2. Here’s more information:

• Level 1: The electric vehicle charging batteries with this system can take days to fully charge an electric car. 
• Level 2: Electric vehicle charging batteries can take several hours to fully charge with the Level 2. You can sometimes get between 60-200 miles of range in just 20-30 minutes with Level 2 DC charging. Most people intermix daytime “top-off” charging with overnight charging.

2. Prepare Your Garage for An Electric Vehicle Charging Station

If you haven’t organized your garage in a few years, now is the time to do that! Be sure to get your garage ready for an EV before your delivery. You’ll want to clean out clutter first if your garage has been used as a storage space for a long time, as it will need to be ready for the electric vehicle home charger. 

3. Find Your Power Panel & Assess Consumption

The power panel in your home distributes electricity throughout the entire house. It should be rated for a maximum amount of current flow measured in Amperes. Most new homes come with a 100 Amp power panel, but there should be an amperage rating printed on your main circuit breaker. Then you’ll want to get a handle on how much electrical energy you consistently use in your house by performing a self-assessment of your electricity use before you install an electric vehicle charging system. It’s important you don’t overload your electric distribution panel.

4. Hire an Electrician

You’ll want to hire a Birmingham electrician so that you can discuss any concerns you have about your power consumption and adding EV charging. You can also have them install a dedicated 240-volt plug or add a hardwired circuit back to the power panel. This can cost several hundred dollars, but could be up to $1,000 or $3,000 if the power panel is not sufficient as-is and requires upgrading. 

5. Buy Your Charger & Get it Installed

If you haven’t already researched and purchased an EV charger at this point, it would be the time to do so and have it professionally installed by the electrician of your choice.

Contact Mercedes-Benz of Bloomfield Hills to Test Drive an Electric Vehicle Today!

If you have additional questions or concerns about how to prepare your home for an electric vehicle, contact us anytime at Mercedes-Benz of Bloomfield Hills or call (248) 644-8400. Be sure to browse our current selection of new hybrid and electric vehicles for your Southfield travels!