I bought an Ionic 6 and there was a “free” charger. After I got the official quote for $1700 installation after the rebates I’ve decided to shop around for my own charger and electrician. I will have plenty of time to charge at home but my level 1 charger still doesn’t keep up with 30-40 miles a day.
My question is, what is the advantage to using a hard wired charger versus a portable level 2? The portable chargers seem to cost less and I can travel with them if needed.
OK, so the "free"travel charger has 2 modes: Too slow and too fast. (too fast, as in “the official quote for $1700 installation”.)
The advantage to a wall unit is it unlocks intermediate speeds, such as 240V/15A - 3kW (a little over 2x level 1 speed) which you can run with cheap white 14/2 Romex… or 240V/20A - 4kW (3x level 1) which runs with cheap yellow 12/2 Romex. And from what you’re saying, either one is plenty. These are not expensive circuits to run.
The problem is you’re being conned by electricians into thinking “you gotta go 50A” which you do not.
Now if you really want 240V/20A in a travel unit, that’s available from DeWalt. But it’s not as much savings as you’ll need to add a $140 GFCI breaker if you don’t hardwire it.