Its not like I could haggle, its an OEM part. It looks well built and its a 110 or 220 32 amp. Perfect for "destination" charging. I have a home on lake Superior, an area severely underserved by EV infrastructure, as is all of mid to north Wisconsin. Having a portable 220 charger that can be used at home or pretty much anywhere, makes the entire area easy to navigate comfortably without any range anxiety.

 

Its not like I could haggle, its an OEM part. It looks well built and its a 110 or 220 32 amp. Perfect for "destination" charging. I have a home on lake Superior, an area severely underserved by EV infrastructure, as is all of mid to north Wisconsin. Having a portable 220 charger that can be used at home or pretty much anywhere, makes the entire area easy to navigate comfortably without any range anxiety.

 

I want to APOLOGIZE for my comment suggesting you could have got a similar charger for less. I looked it up and most of the chargers are either 110v or 220v at the $200-300 price point. For an L1/L2 30A portable what you paid makes sense. I would have still stuck with the wall charger and skipped the portable, but everyone has different use cases. My thinking is that if I charge away from home it would always be at a commercial L3 charging station so I don’t see need for a portable, let alone one that supports 120v charger.

 

My ChargePoint was installed last Friday.

I don’t have the installation costs yet. The wiring crosses 3 garage bays - including a new breaker.

The charger cost, freight included, was $743.00.

The closest public charger is 40+ miles from me.

 

No sweat thats my portable charger to keep in the car. At my main home I have a chargepoint flex directly wired to a fifty amp fuse I could charge at 40 amps but as we know that is more than the car will use with its US 9kw charger.

 

Could you educate me a bit about the US residential electric circuits. I understand a common approach being a three wire two phase system, 110 V between neutral and phase but the two phases at 180 degree offset, enabling 220 V supply if neutral is not required?

Is it the car that limits AC charging to 9 kW or is there a limit on the supply side not allowing more than 40 amp at 220 V, approximately 9 kW?

The European approach is typically minimum 25 amp three phase supply where obviously phase offsets are 120 degrees, this at 230 V neutral to phase (phase to phase 400 V). Three phase wall sockets are typically 16 A but 32 A is possible in practise at any private residence. This allows 11 kW or 32 kW AC wall boxes for EV charging. Mercedes as well as many other brands do not support more than 11 kW AC charging, some models only two phase charging at 7.3 kW, the first generation plug-in hybrids sometimes only singe phase. The EQS can be charged at 11 kW at any home in practise (AC charging obviously).

 

All circuits here have ground. To make 220 you simply tie 2 110 circuits together (2 pole breaker) . Normal residential wire is to 50 amp , however by code cabling is 125% higher rating than maximum current thus the highest current allowed on regular hosehold circuits is 220v 40 amp. In very old homes the mains is 100 amp and no ground. More modern construction is 200 main.

 

Clearly this whole topic of charging is going to want a FAQ here on the forum if and when folks start to take delivery of their EQS.

The batteries in your EQS are charged only by direct current (DC.) DC fast chargers provide high voltage, high power direct current to your EQS. The EQS can accept up to 204KWh of DC power (up to 480 Volts DC, and up to 300 AMPS) The EQS also has an internal AC to DC converter that allows charging at up to 9.6KW - it converts an alternating current power source to direct current that is used to charge your batteries.

There are four main places most people will be charging their EQS. Note that you can utilize any combination of these four, but most people will use #2 most of the time, plus #1 occasionally and #4 rarely.

1) Commercial DC fast chargers - such as Electrify America - but also many others like Tesla Superchargers, local city-operated chargers, etc. The EQS can charge at up to 204KWh (up to 480 Volts DC, and up to 300 AMPS) at a DC fast charger.
2) Permanently installed level 2 AC-based home or commercial chargers - the EQS can charge at up to 9.6KWh (40 AMPS @240 volts) with one of these.
3) Permanently installed home DC fast charger - these are relatively expensive and unlikely to be common - but they act just like #1 on this list. The charging speed is really limited only by your budget, up to the full 204KWh DC charging capacity of the EQS.
4) Portable level 1 or level 2 AC charging cord - this is a cord that you can plug into an available power outlet anywhere - such as the $250 cord you can buy from Mercedes that charges using 120VAC only, or the $400 Ford cord mentioned above that can charge using either 120VAC or 240VAC. 120V AC portable charging is limited to 1.8KWh (15amps * 120 Volts) which is why the Mercedes charging cord is so slow as to effectively be useless, while the Ford charging cord maxes out at 7.6KW (32amps @240 volts) when plugged into a 240-volt outlet.

There is another discussion going on above about the wiring infrastructure you need in your home to enable #2 above - a home-based level-2 AC charger that supports up to 9.6KW continuous charging (40amps @ 240 Volts). For continuous loads like EV charging, you need to install 240V wiring that is at least 125% more capable than the maximum current draw for charging the EQS. Since the max 240VAC capacity of the EQS internal AC/DC converter is 40 AMPS, you need to install wiring capable of 50 AMPS. For MOST homes, this means a 50AMP circuit breaker coupled with 6-gauge copper wire from your breaker box to your charging location. Since you only need 240AC to support level 2 chargers (you don't need 120VAC, therefore you don't need a neutral wire), you or your electrician will be installing 3 conductors - 2 hot legs and a ground. If you have an unusually long run between your circuit breaker box and your charging location, you might need even thicker wire. If you want to future proof, you should run 4-gauge copper wire and install a level II charger that supports up to 50AMP continuous charging - your next EV (and future versions of the EQS) may support home charging at up to 12KW.

Here is a link to the EQS charging specifications on the Mercedes website -https://www.mbusa.com/en/vehicles/model/eqs/sedan/eqs580v4#specifications

 

Absolutely correct! As you very well pointed out if you are going to direct connect you charger you might as well go 50 amps just for futureproofing. The additional cost is negligible (just thicker wire) and even though our present electric cars don't need it future ones certainly will.
BTW given the EQS long range the overwhelming charging source will be at home, DC fast charging will only be necessary if your trip is longer than 350 miles round trip! personally till the charging infrastructure in my area improves I have to "sacrifice" and use our GLS 580🤣🤣🤣

 

EQS now going to be offered with a 22 kW AC charger, Europe at least:
https://jesmb.de/10618/

 

Yep they had been saying they would from the beginning. About 5 hr charge at home👍

 

My installation for the NEMA 6-50 plug recommended by MBUSA in the paperwork my dealer showed me was expensive. The electricians had to do a run from the back of my house, where the high voltage box was ( the breaker box in the garage was only for 120 volt stuff), through the attic, and a wall drop beside my car's parking place. It was $1900. The ChargePoint Home Flex was $699 if purchased through the MB part of their website. I installed it myself in about 10 minutes (very simple). It charges (on the 40 amp circuit through the NEMA 6-50 plug) at 7.7kw, and can charge the car from around 50% to 80% in about 4 hours. This is handled through the Mercedes Me app, and the car turns off charging and sends me a charge complete message from the app when it is at 80%. It is a very simple process. I also have a 100% charge program for trips, but have not used it yet. I have been impressed with how simple the process is, after the intial investment to get the garage ready. I used the 115 volt charger until my garage was ready. It charged the car about 12% overnight, so it gave me enough power for limited driving daily until I got the NEMA plug and the ChargePoint charger installed. Level 3 (fast DC) charging is available publicly, but not optimal, because of ultimately reducing battery life. I will use it only when I am traveling, and cannot reach a destination Level 2 charger for an overnight charge. There are lots of chargers out there, But I will use my EQS primarily as a local car (still have the ICE GLE 53 for trips). Hope this helps folks who are contemplating this understand....It is such a great car, and the paradigm shift from gas stations to level 2 charging is not that hard.

 

My EQS 450+ is on the way and this post of yours is exactly the type of information I have been looking for. Our dealer had no answers to these questions. THANKS!

What connector am I supposed to get - J1772 or CCS - to plug into the car? Where is the socket on the 450+? Driver side front or passenger rear?

 

J1772 connector is what you're looking to use at home. CCS is only for fast charging. It's combined into the same charging port - you uncover the bottom portion under the J1772 charging port on the car when you go to a DC fast charger and it fits into both parts of the socket. The charging port is located on the pax rear similar to a gas tank.

 

BTW another level2 road charging option. Tesla Tap. Lets you use any tesla level2 destination charger.

 

The specifications link is for a 580. Is there a different link for the 450?

 

chrging is identical for the 450 and 580

 

I got a JuceBox from Costco - it has worked great so far.

https://www.costco.com/juicebox-40-a...100574926.html

 

Another good choice

 

Another good choice

 

Sorry to ask dumb questions. Which plug should I get for the level 2 charger for home. A 14-50/6-50?

 

Either
A 14 50 install is more expensive but more heavy duty. Its also more common in camping sites and so on. IMO 1450 is a better one plug solution particularly if you have a mobile charger.
Itll save you carrying another plug adapter

 

thanks. Just got my 580 today

 

Congrats. Still waiting for mine.

 

If you are planning to use a wall mount charger it really doesn't matter. ChargePoint actually recommends the 6-50, because installation is a little less expensive, but the 14-50 is a little heavier-duty with an extra ground wire. I'm using a 6-50, on a 50 amp breaker, and getting the maximum 9.6kW charge available for the EQS. But I totally agree with c4004matic, if you buy a mobile charging unit, the 14-50 is more readily available out in the wild. Congrats, and hope you enjoy your 580!