(Estimate) Single family house installation quote: is this reasonable?

[lucidtouringman]

Your quote seems expensive. I got it done for about $800 in the Houston, TX area, hardwired and galvanized conduit. I also looked up the electrician's license online whenever someone claimed they were licensed. Its easy and assures you of their quality and honesty (Cos they figure you wont really check). Good luck!

 

[Sid432]

The local EV electrician said I don’t need to get the permit from the city… seems like optional at best? I might to ask few other local electricians for the correct/proper answer here in Cali.

No - you should get the permit and have it inspected that the work was done as per the code. I second what @borski said. I paid $1195 (hardwired and charger installed next to the breaker). $500 is not worth the risk, especially electrical job.

Good luck

 

[Leftlane]

I paid roughly $2k for the Tesla universal charger installed in my garage roughly 25 feet from my main panel. This included the actual charger, which was $575, so the install was around $1400 and was done by a company called SmartCharge America, a certified Tesla installer here. They were great - knowledgeable, fast, and efficient. Their website does show locations throughout California too, including San Diego. My guy mentioned they have been doing a lot of Lucid and Rivian installs lately. When I checked on QMerit they were super expensive for the Lucid install. If I wanted a 14-50 NEMA outlet it would have only been around $700.

 

[DeaneG]

Hello forum.

I received a quote from a vendor for a single-family house installation....Can't tell if this is a reasonable quote or not....

It's always wise to get at least three quotes for anything substantial or infrastructure related on your home.

I thought your quote was reasonable for California, but a couple more quotes would be worthwhile. Sometimes one of the contractors will have a great idea that saves you time or money, or gives you a better installation than you were originally thinking of.

I think of having a very capable home EV charger installed as a long-term investment - I know I'll use it for years, and more power (charging speed) is generally always better unless come up against a panel limit due to your electrician's load calculation. We have two EVs now, and two charging stations, and it's an easy EV life.

 

[Cosmo Cruz]

lol so many new acronyms to learn and research..

Try "Betty Boop"

Thanks for the more info about DCFC.

Direct Current Fast Charging = going to the Electrify America Ultra chargers.

I feel comfortable going with the Lucid charger. Owning a car shouldn’t be an “investment”, but It’s been a big investment. Financial, home-improvement, and driving life-style wise.
But the driving feeling is amazing. Lucid made me love the drive-to-thrill-feeling again.

This car changes everything.

 

[Paul]

I feel that you received an appropriate quote from a quality electrical company. I used Baker Electric which is also a quality company that uses quality parts and gets appropriate permits and inspections. Their price was $1500 with 30 feet of conduit. Don’t cheep out on the installation; your car and house depend on doing the job properly.

 

[HariK]

That looks reasonable to me.


Couldn't disagree more. Hardwire it. There is basically no good reason, imho, to limit yourself to 40A on a 14-50. If you hardwire it, you'll already get 48A on a 60A breaker which is already better and what most EVSEs can do. Plus, it's safer and you get the smart scheduling / monitoring capabilities most EVSEs have.


It can. Here in Cupertino the permit was $450. The second $250 they're charging isn't for the city to do an inspection; you're right. It's for the electrician coordinating to be there for the inspection, scheduling it, etc., until the inspection is a PASS. You're basically just paying for the electrician's time there. You could get rid of that, but then you'd have to handle the inspection (and any resultant questions) yourself.

It is trivial for DIY to hardwire EVSE. once there is an outlet with a breaker. My point is that unless you have 80A EVSE, the Lucid Mobile charger which plugs into NEMA 14-50 is just fine and inexpensive to have an outlet installed.

 

[HariK]

Thanks for the input.
I’m thinking Lucid 80 amp charger + hardwired & extra outlet at the moment.

Then yes. Hard-wiring is most important and yes, in the bay area it does cost that much.

 

[NNPCdude]

Hello forum.

I received a quote from a vendor for a single-family house installation.
The charger will be installed inside the garage, and it will be about 2~3 feet away from the breaker panel (outside the wall)
View attachment 19582

Can't tell if this is a reasonable quote or not.
The quote doesn't include the charger device.

It cost me $1500 to run two 60A lines to my garage + Installation of a Chargepoint home charger and a box for other line.

 

[borski]

It is trivial for DIY to hardwire EVSE. once there is an outlet with a breaker. My point is that unless you have 80A EVSE, the Lucid Mobile charger which plugs into NEMA 14-50 is just fine and inexpensive to have an outlet installed.

You're missing my point; it is slower and less safe. Plugging into a 14-50 is: 1) an additional point of failure, and, 2) only going to charge at 40A vs. the 48A a hardwired EVSE would do. Has nothing to do with an 80A EVSE.

 

[northernstar]

My charger installation was quite challenging. I have a finished basement (no drop ceiling) and my breaker panel is on the opposite side of the garage about 100 feet away. I had installers quote me $5000 for the install (not including the charger itself). They said they had to dig a trench across my lawn to bury the 6 gauge wire underground and then go into the garage and breaker panel from the side wall. I ended up renting a trencher from tractor supply for $300 and dug the trench and buried two 6g wires and a ground wire and then hired an electrician to terminate the ends. Ended up using a Tesla universal charger. Wire cost me about $200. Electrician charged me $350 for the terminations. So all in about $850 for the install. But took us all day Saturday. lol. But lots of money saved!

Thanks for sharing your story. Things you have to do to save money... Did you also have to get a permit from the city to do the trenching and go through the regulatory inspections?

 

[northernstar]

It cost me $1500 to run two 60A lines to my garage + Installation of a Chargepoint home charger and a box for other line.

Did $1500 include all the permit and inspection processes?

 

[HariK]

You're missing my point; it is slower and less safe. Plugging into a 14-50 is: 1) an additional point of failure, and, 2) only going to charge at 40A vs. the 48A a hardwired EVSE would do. Has nothing to do with an 80A EVSE.

I guess you forgot that I have EE and 2 ms degrees including EE power electronics. I do know what I am talking about. Leaving the lucid mobile charger plugged in when not in use is perfectly fine. Even if you charge 20% to 100% 9.6kw 240 at 40A is more than OK. 20% faster is not a good reason go and buy another one.

 

[northernstar]

I’m not sure the permit costs that much. If it does, the inspection is part of it. Muncipality charges for taking permit out and will close the permit after inspection is done, atleast in NJ.

I would say check with your municipality to be sure. Also, you can take the quote from QMerit. Lucid recommends using them.

I checked my city's single-home EV charger permit process It's very archaic. It has never been updated since 2017.. at least document control number wise.
All paper submittals. No online process.
Well, as long as that gives me the authorization and I take the proper steps to prevent any future issues...

 

[borski]

I guess you forgot that I have EE and 2 ms degrees including EE power electronics. I do know what I am talking about. Leaving the lucid mobile charger plugged in when not in use is perfectly fine. Even if you charge 20% to 100% 9.6kw 240 at 40A is more than OK. 20% faster is not a good reason go and buy another one.

This isn’t a pissing contest. I’m not questioning your intelligence, knowledge, or whatever.

I’m disagreeing with what you said, that’s all. Leaving the Lucid mobile EVSE plugged in is “perfectly fine,” I agree. If you never carry it anywhere and if you ensure that you have a commercial outlet, it is useful in that way.

As for 20% faster not being good enough reason to buy an EVSE, fine, don’t - I’m not suggesting *you* should. To me, speed matters.

Furthermore, as previously mentioned, getting an actual EVSE lets you do things like scheduling, monitoring, and so on.

I think we’re spinning in circles here.

 

[NNPCdude]

Did $1500 include all the permit and inspection processes?

Unsure if permits were pulled for installation. My home is a new build. The contractor was the same electrical contractor that wired up my home and others in the community. I assume they did everything by the book and the $1500 was all inclusive of permits etc

 

[HariK]

This isn’t a pissing contest. I’m not questioning your intelligence, knowledge, or whatever.

I’m disagreeing with what you said, that’s all. Leaving the Lucid mobile EVSE plugged in is “perfectly fine,” I agree. If you never carry it anywhere and if you ensure that you have a commercial outlet, it is useful in that way.

As for 20% faster not being good enough reason to buy an EVSE, fine, don’t - I’m not suggesting *you* should. To me, speed matters.

Furthermore, as previously mentioned, getting an actual EVSE lets you do things like scheduling, monitoring, and so on.

I think we’re spinning in circles here.

I was merely pointing out that I was not missing any point. I will not argue about preferences. My understanding is that Lucid comes with a mobile charger and it can be used at home. On the road I prefer to carry rsngeXchange with adapter to charge at a dryer outlet or 110v. I am OK with using the lucid builtin scheduling. Also not all the lucid owners are on time of use plan. I am merely pointing out that there are alternatives to hard wiring. Finally how fast we need to charge depends on use case. I will go to dcfc if I need to charge fast and pay more.

 

[ajroxstar]

Thanks for sharing your story. Things you have to do to save money... Did you also have to get a permit from the city to do the trenching and go through the regulatory inspections?

Yes. Call 1800 dig before u do anything. Then u have to check with local township if any permits needed. Luckily I didn’t need any permits. Definitely have to bury it adequate depth with tracer wire and proper risers to get above ground. A few YouTube videos lol and off I went. Got a hand from a neighbor friend and got it done for a fraction of the cost.

 

[Electrified]

Hello forum.

I received a quote from a vendor for a single-family house installation.
The charger will be installed inside the garage, and it will be about 2~3 feet away from the breaker panel (outside the wall)
View attachment 19582

Can't tell if this is a reasonable quote or not.
The quote doesn't include the charger device.

It's a fair price, although I have to laugh at the bullshit language "research, coordinate, and apply for necessary permit" pulling a permit for a licensed contactor is 10 minutes of clerical work tops.
As an EC I will tell you that a hardwire installation is electrically and mechanically the safest installation method.

 

[HariK]

Yes. Hard-wire installation is no more difficult than installing an outlet. The "outlet" happens to be EVSE. The moment it is called EVSE, they ask for higher labor because each EVSE has a slightly different software setup. The fact is that we do not need an electrician to do any software setup. When I had a 2nd EVSE Charge Point Flex installed as a part of ioniq 5 purchase, I myself installed an app on my phone and activated it. Any licensed electrician can install the hardware.