How to Prepare Your Home for an Electric Vehicle

After all of your research on how electric vehicles work and picking out the exact model like the Hyundai Kona or IONIQ5, it’s time to get your home ready for your new ride. The team at Lithia Hyundai of Reno will walk you through the five steps from selecting the right electric vehicle home charger to installing it. Find out more below in our guide on how to prepare your home for an electric car in Sparks! 

1. Decide on the Level for Your Electric Vehicle Home Charger

You’ll need to start off by figuring out what level you want for your electric vehicle home charger. In most cases, it’s either a Level 1 or Level 2 and you can get a bit more details on both below: 

• Level 1 EV charging often takes days to fully charge an electric car. 
• Level 2 EV charging often takes several hours to fully charge an electric car. You can often get between 60-200 miles of range in just 20-30 minutes with Level 2 DC charging, though. For this reason, most people intermix daytime “top-off” charging with overnight charging.

2. Get Your Garage Ready

Get your garage all ready (or other space you plan to put the electric vehicle home charger) for the electric vehicle home charger by cleaning it out or organizing the space. Make sure that there is enough space for the charger and your vehicle. 

3. Find Your Power Panel & Assess Consumption

Next up is to see how much power you are using currently and will your panel be able to take on the charger. The power panel in your home distributes electricity throughout the entire building, and 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 you’ll find the amperage rating printed on your main circuit breaker. Then, do a self-assessment of your electricity usage, so you can ensure that you won’t overload your electric distribution panel by installing a home charger for your EV in Fernley. 

4. Consult an Electrician or your Electric Provider

Now that you know if your home can take on your home charger, you’ll need to hire an electrician. You should discuss any concerns you have about your power consumption and adding EV charging with your electrician. They might have to install a dedicated 240-volt plug or add a hardwired circuit back to the power panel. This will usually cost a couple of hundred dollars, but could be up to $1,000 or $3,000 if it’s found that your power panel is not sufficient as-is and needs more work. 

5. Buy Your Electric Vehicle Home Charger & Get It Installed

The last part of how to prepare your home for an electrical car near Carson City is to order the charger if you haven’t already. Once it arrives, you will need to hire an electrician to get it installed properly and then you’ll be all good to go for the setup! 

Contact Lithia Hyundai of Reno to Learn More!

If you have any more questions about how to prepare your home for an electric car, feel free to reach out to Lithia Hyundai of Reno! If not, enjoy your electric vehicle and go out to do different things in the Reno area.