CarGearBench

We don’t test the gear. We read the people who do — and we show our working.

Every figure names its lab and its conditions · We earn a commission if you buy through our links

Home charging, without the guesswork.

Almost every home charger sold now has a selectable output, which makes the headline amperage the least useful number on the box. What decides your charging speed is the circuit your panel can spare and the ceiling built into your car, and both are knowable before you buy anything. This is the section of the site where much of the answer is arithmetic rather than measurement — so the arithmetic is shown, and you can check it.

A row of public charging posts standing in empty parking bays at dusk, their cables hanging, against a clear gradient sky.
Illustration, not evidence. The circuit, not the charger, is what usually decides your charging speed — and it is the one part you cannot change without an electrician.

Three questions, in the order they come up

How fast can I charge at home?

That is decided less by the charger than by your circuit and your car. Charging counts as a continuous load, and a circuit may carry only part of its rating continuously, so a 48-amp charger needs a 60-amp breaker. Your car's onboard charger can then cap the rate below what the circuit allows. The page works both out for your own panel and battery.

The amperage you can actually use

Which charger should I buy?

On the eight Car and Driver tabulated, the output figure separates few of them: all eight publish a ceiling and five stop at the same 11.5 kW. The cord does separate them, at 16 to 25 feet. Every one of those numbers is the maker's rating, and the page marks it as one.

Buy the cord, not the output figure

What will winter cost me in range?

AAA ran five electric cars on a dynamometer at 20 °F, once with the heater off and once with it on. Cold alone cost 12 per cent of combined range; with the cabin heated it was 41. Most of the loss is the heater, which is the part you can manage.

The cold takes an eighth, the heater takes the rest

Three pages, resting on different kinds of evidence. The winter range figures were measured, on a dynamometer. The charger ceilings and cord lengths are the makers’ own ratings, marked as such on the page. The amperage page is arithmetic you can check line by line. See the method.

What this section recommends

One product per page, each chosen on the measurement that page reports. Amazon holds the live price; we do not copy prices onto the site.