EV Charging Design AND INSTALL

Income Power provides project management for all Electrical Vehicle (EV) charging and installation. We want to make your process of purchasing, installing and servicing your charging stations as seamless as possible. There are dedicated and certified car charger electricians with a level of experience and knowledge that the typical electrician cannot match. We partner with DTE and Consumers as well as other major electrical companies throughout Michigan, Ohio and Texas.

EV Charging Levels

The first step to choosing a charger for your home or public space and understanding its maintenance requirements is to know the differences between the different types of charger levels.

Income Power can guide you on selecting the right charging solutions for your home, business, workplace, and fleet use. They also offer helpful resources which help you choose the best charging station for your EV and work with you to obtain currently offered rebates.

What level charger is best?

That depends on how quickly you need to charge.

There are three levels of charging, from slowest to fastest. Level 1 is just a standard 120-volt wall outlet – all EVs come with an adapter that lets you connect to one. It gives most EVs about 5 miles of range per hour. It’s fine to charge overnight at home. But if you’re stranded 25 miles from home with no juice and can only find a standard outlet, it will take hours to recharge.
Because Level 1 is so slow, it’s not used for public charging stations – they’re all either Level 2 or level 3. Level 2 delivers about 25 miles an hour. Level 3, also known as direct current fast charging, is the fastest. It’s for when you’re in a hurry – if your battery is nearly empty or if you’re on a road trip. It will get most EVs from empty to 80 percent of a full charge in 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the car and the charger.

Will all public chargers plug into my car?

The short answer? Usually.

Chargers are either made by Tesla for its own cars or are public stations that accommodate every EV.

All Level 2 chargers, except for Tesla’s, use the J-plug.
In Canada and the United States, all cars accept the J-plug – except for Teslas.
While Tesla has its own plug, all Teslas come with an adapter that lets you connect to a J-plug.

So, you can charge any EV at any Level 2 or 3 charger.

Do I need to join
every charging network?

There are more than a dozen charging networks across Canada and the United States. To use their chargers, some of them require you to set up an account and either download an app or get an access card in the mail.
Some may require you to add value to your account using a credit card, debit card or PayPal.
But depending on where you travel, you might be able to find chargers that are all on the same network.
Some networks will let you use chargers from other networks. There’s been a general trend toward eliminating free public charging so people aren’t treating them as their own personal chargers or aren’t just parking there connected to it.