[skiflyer]

The dealer mentioned that the new plug for the 2017 is 240V compatible, and I see plenty of information on the web about how to wire up an adapter to plug it into a 240V receptacle, but given that it's now officially supported, does GM have some sort of adapter/replacement pigtail?

I don't mind wiring up something myself, but I would be curious to know what sort of official options exist since I don't really love the idea of having an adapter around that could fry any other 110V device accidentally plugged into it (can you tell I have kids?).

 

[mpmoore1979]

GM does not support this and there is not a adaptor from GM to convert your charge cord to 240 volts.

 

[Chris TX]

That's funny that this adapter mod has made it all the way to a dealer and they are touting it as a great thing. Hilarious, even.

Skiflyer, check out the second link in my signature for the details. Contact me if you want a professionally made adapter.

 

[hellsop]

That's funny that this adapter mod has made it all the way to a dealer and they are touting it as a great thing. Hilarious, even.

Dealers are not GM. I know we all know this intellectually, but it gets forgotten when thinking about consequential things.

 

[Qinsp]

The dealer mentioned that the new plug for the 2017 is 240V compatible, and I see plenty of information on the web about how to wire up an adapter to plug it into a 240V receptacle, but given that it's now officially supported, does GM have some sort of adapter/replacement pigtail?

I don't mind wiring up something myself, but I would be curious to know what sort of official options exist since I don't really love the idea of having an adapter around that could fry any other 110V device accidentally plugged into it (can you tell I have kids?).

No matter what, you will have to do some wiring if you want safety.

I have quad box that is L1 hot on the left, and L2 hot on the right. So you see 4 normal 120v outlets that are safe to use. They are connected to a 20 amp double breaker using 12a wire and the outlets are 20a outlets.

It's the Y connector that does the magic. One plug goes into the left, the other into the right, and female outlet is now 240v instead of 120v. However the neutral is HOT. It should only be used for the 2016+ Volt EVSE and nothing else.

 

[mike100]

It is handy to have a patch cord to charge off a 30a dryer outlet at guest locations with the oem mobile evse, but you really should resign yourself to getting a proper evse that will let you charge at the full 3.7kw the car is set up for. The money spent on one will be quickly forgotten as it makes the car much more useful with the faster recharging.

 

[KenC]

That's funny that this adapter mod has made it all the way to a dealer and they are touting it as a great thing. Hilarious, even.

Skiflyer, check out the second link in my signature for the details. Contact me if you want a professionally made adapter.

I told my Chevy salesperson about the EVSE being 240v capable, and he later called and asked for more info that he could pass on to another customer.

 

[Loboc]

No matter what, you will have to do some wiring if you want safety.

I have quad box that is L1 hot on the left, and L2 hot on the right. So you see 4 normal 120v outlets that are safe to use. They are connected to a 20 amp double breaker using 12a wire and the outlets are 20a outlets.

It's the Y connector that does the magic. One plug goes into the left, the other into the right, and female outlet is now 240v instead of 120v. However the neutral is HOT. It should only be used for the 2016+ Volt EVSE and nothing else.

With an adapter like ChrisTX', the outlet itself is 240v. No mistaking it for a 120v. It's the adapter that switches around the inputs. Keep the adapter in the trunk and kids won't see or use it.

"They are connected to a 20 amp double breaker using 12a wire and the outlets are 20a outlets. " Not a good idea. The breaker may not trip properly if overloaded on one leg only.

 

[skiflyer]

It is handy to have a patch cord to charge off a 30a dryer outlet at guest locations with the oem mobile evse, but you really should resign yourself to getting a proper evse that will let you charge at the full 3.7kw the car is set up for. The money spent on one will be quickly forgotten as it makes the car much more useful with the faster recharging.

So the 240V "mod" doesn't deliver the same total charge as the dedicated EVSE station? The more I try to figure this solution out the less sense it makes.

 

[Tom17]

Buy a Juice Box, Clipper Creek or Leviton plug EV Charger for your house. The adapter and portable charger that comes with the Volt should be used for on the road. You could take your Level 2 plug EV charger with you, if you know the destination has the appropriate outlet(s). Most 40 amp chargers want a 50 amp breaker and appropriate wiring with is typically 6 gauge. If you plan on a Tesla in the future, wire for a 60 amp outlet. The lower end Tesla wall charger wants a 60 amp outlet for the 48 amp charger. I believe 4 gauge wire is good for the 60 amp breaker. You could get by with 6 gauge wire for short distances since, in theory, you will have losses an technically not have a load of more than 48 amps.

 

[Arcanox]

So the 240V "mod" doesn't deliver the same total charge as the dedicated EVSE station? The more I try to figure this solution out the less sense it makes.

The stock EVSE is not able to provide as much current as the car is capable of receiving because it's small and relatively cheap. A dedicated 240V EVSE will be able to, as they are built to charge larger vehicles like the Leaf or Bolt.

 

[voltron2017]

So the 240V "mod" doesn't deliver the same total charge as the dedicated EVSE station? The more I try to figure this solution out the less sense it makes.

correct. the adapter will only pull 240v at 12a whereas a dedicated station will pull 240v at 15a. The adapter will give you 3kw charging vs. 3.6kw charging of a dedicated station. This translates into a little over 5hrs to fully charge using the adapter vs 4.5hrs using a station. either way, i've been using my homemade adapter since last june and i couldn't be happier. cost me $15 in materials and there's never been a moment where i wished my car would charge from empty in 4.5hrs instead of 5hrs.

 

[skiflyer]

Don't see a Tesla in the future, but wouldn't be surprised to see a second plug in parked next to me, so I may opt for the 60a circuit either way. Need to see what the electrician says regarding costs/panel when he stops by.

Thanks for all the great information in the thread everyone, I know the topic has been discussed a fair bit, but it's all so scattered that having the condensed responses was very helpful.

 

[mike100]

... cost me $15 in materials and there's never been a moment where i wished my car would charge from empty in 4.5hrs instead of 5hrs.

The difference from the portable oem evse that comes with the car and one that runs at 15-16 amps is about 25%. So what takes the included brick 5 hours will take a dedicated unit 3.75 hours to do.

Anyhow, my point was the better evse makes the car more useful. You don't always have to charge up the battery to capacity- sometimes you are home for an hour and 10 minutes and that could be 12-14 miles of extra range for an errand. Obviously, charging on 120v is a waste of the car's potential...but I never saw anybody on here that said they wanted to switch back to 2800 watt charging from 3700 watts.

 

[mike100]

Don't see a Tesla in the future, but wouldn't be surprised to see a second plug in parked next to me, so I may opt for the 60a circuit either way. Need to see what the electrician says regarding costs/panel when he stops by.

Thanks for all the great information in the thread everyone, I know the topic has been discussed a fair bit, but it's all so scattered that having the condensed responses was very helpful.

You could keep it affordable by just using your 30A dryer outlet. The 20A evse's will do 4.8kw if you ever get another EV.

 

[voltron2017]

The difference from the portable oem evse that comes with the car and one that runs at 15-16 amps is about 25%. So what takes the included brick 5 hours will take a dedicated unit 3.75 hours to do.

Anyhow, my point was the better evse makes the car more useful. You don't always have to charge up the battery to capacity- sometimes you are home for an hour and 10 minutes and that could be 12-14 miles of extra range for an errand. Obviously, charging on 120v is a waste of the car's potential...but I never saw anybody on here that said they wanted to switch back to 2800 watt charging from 3700 watts.

given the choice of spending $15 for 2.9kw-3kw charging versus several hundred dollars JUST to get you to 3.6kw, it's a no brainer for me. it doesn't matter if you think your station is delivering 16a vs. 15a...the onboard charger on the car will only accept 3.6kw. telling someone that they'll get another 12-14 miles of range during an hour or so of charging with a station is misleading. that roughly boils down to a difference of 1.25-1.3kw/hr. If you can squeak 12-14 miles of range out of that, i'd like to congratulate you.

 

[Chris TX]

given the choice of spending $15 for 2.9kw-3kw charging versus several hundred dollars JUST to get you to 3.6kw, it's a no brainer for me. it doesn't matter if you think your station is delivering 16a vs. 15a...the onboard charger on the car will only accept 3.6kw. telling someone that they'll get another 12-14 miles of range during an hour or so of charging with a station is misleading. that roughly boils down to a difference of 1.25-1.3kw/hr. If you can squeak 12-14 miles of range out of that, i'd like to congratulate you.

Exactly. By spending hundreds of dollars more for a wall mounted EVSE, you're only getting a ~30 minute savings. If it's really worth it to you for that extra 30 minutes, go for it. The OEM unit from GM is made by Clipper Creek, so you're already starting out with a high quality unit that has thermal protection INSIDE the plug, itself.

 

[mike100]

... If you can squeak 12-14 miles of range out of that, i'd like to congratulate you.

That's the difference. You can get 12 mi per hour of charge instead of 9 miles.

The total charge time from dead is going to be 5.7 hours vs 4.3 hours (assuming 16kwh needed including losses) so it is more like an hour saved. Also, you don't have to be kicking around, loading and unloading the oem brick as I just leave it in the car. I'm not telling anybody to not use the 240v conversion (I do it), but you can tell the difference in charge time at full rate of charge.

 

[Qinsp]

With an adapter like ChrisTX', the outlet itself is 240v. No mistaking it for a 120v. It's the adapter that switches around the inputs. Keep the adapter in the trunk and kids won't see or use it.

"They are connected to a 20 amp double breaker using 12a wire and the outlets are 20a outlets. " Not a good idea. The breaker may not trip properly if overloaded on one leg only.

It's why I don't use individual breaker on 240 or 3-ph devices. If one leg trips, the entire device is powered down. It's what that connector strap is for. They are just two single breakers that are force to trip if any circuit shorts/overloads.

The downside to how I do it is, is if you using it as 120v, and the left side trips, anything plugged into the right side shuts off. Not a big problem though.

 

[marcusm]

The dostar Duosida dual 120/240 units arrived. I had them wired with a regular 3-prong end just like the OEM charger for dual voltage. It says it is 16 amps at 240, and could produce 3.8 kw. I have them testing connected via Chris TX's adapter and they work totally fine. It charges pretty darn fast, faster than the oem it seems, but I'm not really sure whether it is at 3.6 kw which is all the Volt could draw. I had 2 40 amp 240 lines (in case of future higher charging needs) installed for our two 16s. The whole exercise cost me $1150, including the two Duosida evses (they were a combined $360 shipped). The oems work fine on this setup also. I may leave the oems in the trunk.


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