Fisker Partners w/ Wallbox for Global Home EV Charging Solutions

Anyone seen this 

www.autocarpro.in/news-international/fisker-and-wallbox-ink-global-partnership-for-home-ev-charging-solutions-102853%3famp=1

@jesper_denmark Just saw it and added as topic in general discussion. Just deleted since this post is up

Posted by: @seancallahan

Announced this morning, we now know our home charging partner. 

Big giant yawn for me. IMO the Wallbox chargers are way overpriced and not very useful. I was hoping they would be announcing the bi-directional charging solution but this only talks about their old wall units.

https://electrek.co/2022/09/20/fisker-partners-with-wallbox-to-bring-competitively-priced-chargers/

@bayoubob Wallbox has a bi-directional charger called the Quasar 2.  No price listed on their site, but I think it's ~$4-5K from the articles I read on it.  I'm guessing Fisker Ocean will be announced as a compatible Quasar 2 vehicle for bi-directional at some point.

@bayoubob When I read the press release, I was hoping to see the Quasar 2 mentioned which we saw briefly at Fully Charged Live offering the V2H solution for Fisker PowerBank. On the bright side we know who Fisker is working with for home EV charging. I’ll continue to use my Tesla Wall Connector for the time being.

https://wallbox.com/en_us/quasar2-dc-charger

So this is interesting... I used to assume that Fisker, like Tesla and others, would be providing a mobile charger at no additional cost (Tesla now charges $200 for the mobile connector).  If that was the case, then I could simply plug my new One into my current NEMA 14-50 outlet (with adapter plug) in my garage.  I checked the Big List of Questions topic and didn't see the answer yet?  Anyone know Fisker's plans on including mobile connectors or if they're only going to be selling the Wallboxes via their website?  I'd really rather avoid paying for a dedicated Wallbox when I can get the juice directly from my 14-50 via a mobile connector and plug adapter.

Posted by: @fiskerdu

So this is interesting... I used to assume that Fisker, like Tesla and others, would be providing a mobile charger at no additional cost (Tesla now charges $200 for the mobile connector).  If that was the case, then I could simply plug my new One into my current NEMA 14-50 outlet (with adapter plug) in my garage.  I checked the Big List of Questions topic and didn't see the answer yet?  Anyone know Fisker's plans on including mobile connectors or if they're only going to be selling the Wallboxes via their website?  I'd really rather avoid paying for a dedicated Wallbox when I can get the juice directly from my 14-50 via a mobile connector and plug adapter.

Still an open question. We are hoping a mobile connector is included but if not, I will be keeping my Tesla Mobile unit or buying a MuStart from Amazon. I soured on dedicated wall chargers long ago and have hanging in my garage a broken blink unit from 2011 as a reminder to stick with travel chargers 🙂

@bayoubob I was talking with the wall box people in San Diego at the fully charged event. They do have reverse charging equipment but they couldn’t tell me what the price would be.

Other than the issue of reverse power, what really is the advantage of a dedicated unit over just the NEMA 14=50?

Posted by: @beemerbum1

Other than the issue of reverse power, what really is the advantage of a dedicated unit over just the NEMA 14=50?

 

In a nutshell: a hard wired unit can be wired to a 60A circuit and deliver 48A, the NEMA 14-50 will deliver 40A. Most travel chargers will plug into a 14-50 but top out at 32A (some can do 40A). 

In my experience, the portable plug-in is the best and most flexible. You can grab it and take it with you on a road trip; if it breaks you can just unplug it and plug in a spare; it takes up less wall space; it typically has fewer things to go wrong because they do not typically include wi-fi or bluetooth which offer little value add above what is already built into the vehicle. But that is my personal view and others can offer an alternative. 

On a Model 3, the 32 A portable charger will give you about 30 miles per hour of recharge. On an Ocean I would bet (we will see) that it will be around 25 miles per hour of recharge. For me, that is plenty. I can fully recharge overnight from near zero, and if I need a very fast charge I will go to the DCFC that is 1.5 miles from my house anyway (though to be clear, I have literally never done this even once over the past 4.5 years on either of our Teslas so I expect it to never happen). 

Here is a useful go-by from Tesla:

48A - 44 mph on Model 3, 34 mph Model S

40A - 37 mph, 29 mph

32A - 30 mph, 23 mph

My guess is that Ocean is a bit more efficient than a Model S but should be reasonably close. 

@BayouBob Thanks for the primer. It sure sounds like I don't need to spend all that money on a special charger. I rarely go more than 20 mi in a day and actually only use my car every other day on average. When I do go farther, it's typically no more than 175 mi. Certainly would make sense to start out with just the NEMA 14-50 and see how that works out. YMMV.

On the subject of charging, I understand that it is better for the battery to only charge to 80% under normal circumstances. Is there any benefit to charging even less, say 60%? This should be on the order of 200 mi range which is way more than enough for the great majority of my driving.

Posted by: @beemerbum1

@BayouBob Thanks for the primer. It sure sounds like I don't need to spend all that money on a special charger. I rarely go more than 20 mi in a day and actually only use my car every other day on average. When I do go farther, it's typically no more than 175 mi. Certainly would make sense to start out with just the NEMA 14-50 and see how that works out. YMMV.

On the subject of charging, I understand that it is better for the battery to only charge to 80% under normal circumstances. Is there any benefit to charging even less, say 60%? This should be on the order of 200 mi range which is way more than enough for the great majority of my driving.

I normally charge my Tesla between 50-90%.  If I am leaving it alone for a week or two, I set it at 50%.  If I know I need to drive a lot of miles or going on a trip, I charge to 90-100%.  Normal use is 80%.   This is for a NCA/NMC pack and that's the large pack for the Ocean.  If you get the short range Ocean Sport (LFP), keep the setting at 100% and charge to that as often as possible.

Yes, the name brand EVSEs tend to be on the expensive side ($600-800).  I have an AmpRoad iFlow P9 40 A EVSE and it's a high quality unit that only costs $310!  Much longer cable than Tesla, has more features and runs cooler. https://amzn.to/3xEapZ1

Another option is for a 40 A EVSE is the Tesla corded mobile connector at $200 (though you do need to get a Tesla->J1772 adapter and that makes it about the same price as the AmpRoad.  Corded Mobile Connector (tesla.com)

I too stopped and spoke with the folks at the booth at the San Diego show recently.  I was most interested in their Quasar 2 bi-directional charging, to use as a power backup in my home.  Fisker has already mentioned that the Ocean will have this capability, so it makes sense to use it, especially in earthquake prone Southern California.

The rep said that they are still in development testing with the various utilities and expect to have this product available for sale by the end of the year.  When i asked about price, he kind of danced, and finally admitted it would probably be in the $4K to $5K range.  That is a big jump from the $650 range for the charger box alone.

I signed up for their mailing list, just to keep up on their latest.