Why is a charge cord so expensive?

5619 Views 16 Replies 14 Participants Last post by Rampage_Rick, Nov 28, 2016

dharper

Discussion Starter · Nov 27, 2016 (Edited)

I finally cleaned out the junk from the garage, and now I can finally park my Volt inside. Although I had no problem with the 120V/12Amp charge outside, it would be nice to have a proper L2 charger in the garage, as the main panel is right beside the Volts charge port. I live in BC where there is no incentives for single home EV chargers, so I have been searching hard for a charger that isn't so expensive. $700CAN seems to be as cheap as I can find for a complete unit. I have found some for $450-500CAN after US conversion, but they don't have a cord. If I look for the price of a cord, they run from $150-200CAN. Why they heck are charge cords so expensive? The cord itself shouldn't be worth more than around $2/ft, that would be about $50 for a 25 foot cord. I looked for the price of a J1772 connector to connect to a EV, with no cord, and I only found 1 at alibaba for $96. Add the two together and that is the $150. But why the heck is the connector so expensive?

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Prohidium

· #5 · Nov 28, 2016

Many of these units are built in North America so no cheap labour. These units are pretty much hand assembled and cannot be quickly mass produced either. It is a new market so the product life cycle is still at the expensive end.

Also, the cost for getting electrical devices approved by the various electric safety authorities is quite high (UL/CSA) which adds cost. These units are also shipped one at a time to people as many do not keep them in stock so shipping is high.

I do suspect that there is a good markup from cost happening too.

When Chinese manufacturers get geared up, the prices will come down a lot.

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