I have owned an ID4 for two years now and am an evangelist for EV ownership. I have had more than a handful of conversations with people stopped in their tracks to ownership by the cost of adding a charger to their homes. I live in a neighborhood with lots of older houses and I have heard that the cost of upgrading their electrical panel is the blockade. I know there is a tax incentive for the charger but is there any incentives for upgrading the electrical panels? I have heard it costs up to 5k to have a panel upgraded and if you added the charger and the feed to the panel, you could be looking at between 2k - 3k. So you are looking at 8k on top of the cost of the EV.
I’ve installed home charging at 3 homes now. The costs were $125, $400 and $300 respectively. My current utility company offers up to $1100 for EV charging installation – including any necessary electrical upgrades – on top of the federal incentives. Several EV manufacturers also offer $1000+ towards home charging installation bundled with purchase of the new car. VW wasn’t one of them, they gave you 3 years of free fuel from EA stations instead. If you drive 12K miles a year and only charge at EA, that’s another $1500+ in electric bills you’ll save on top of gas savings to put towards your installation.