[Tek-dad]

Quick question. Car is dispatched from factory and I’m having an electrician install the charger. I bought a charge point level 2 charger that goes from 20-80amps. Electrician asked what the car can handle as that’ll determine the wiring he uses. He suggested 40. Can it go higher?

Thanks!
PS It’s for an i5 m60

[pgershon]

I have the i4 and it takes 48 amp. I cant give you the exact spec but the i4 will take more than the 40 amp can provide, but not the full 48 amp offered by my charge station . I presume the i5 will be similar if not better. I suggest you push the electrician to use 50 amp wire. That is what I did for the two outlets I installed last year (one for the i4 and one for the i5).

[Tek-dad]

Yeah our electrician is really pushing the 40amp. What kind of difference am I really looking at? It’s going to be plugged in every night, overnight.

[PingBeamer]

Unless you empty your battery every few hours you will be fine with 40 amps

[Sequence001]

Originally Posted by Tek-dad

Yeah our electrician is really pushing the 40amp. What kind of difference am I really looking at? It’s going to be plugged in every night, overnight.

Faster Charging. I literally just had mine installed minutes ago. The charging settings in the i5 will allow you to choose 48A or “Auto” charging.
50 or 60 is needed to use the 48A charging in the car. But if you’re charging everyday at home, It won’t matter much, especially to get to the recommended 80% charge level.

There’s a great thread on the “i 4 t a l k” forum here:

https://www.******.com/threads/level...er.6389/page-2

Edit: the link is blocked by this app but you can still google it.

[pgershon]

If the i5 is like the i4, you will never max out the full 48 Amp that BMW says it will give, but you will charge faster than 40 Amp, which is what I said.

I agree that 40 Amp charging is sufficient most of the time - but there are times that the extra speed is helpful.

If its not to hard to run the higher amp wire, i would do it. Remember you need a 60 amp breaker for a 50 amp circuit running at 48 amp. (I am pretty sure I have that relationship correct)

[Scrapula]

We have an 80amp that was included with our F-150 Lightning. We used an existing 50 amp circuit and installation was $1,200, but we had quotes up to $6k. Make sure to shop around for quotes.

[pgershon]

I priced it out and paid a lot more - but I had to run 100 amp service from my main house to detached garage that only had 30 amps of total power coming in before. Necessary, and I put in two charging ports while I was doing the work anyway.

[CaboM4]

Why set you setup for having to redo this in the future. Install a 60A circuit now (or be better prepared and use larger than necessary gauge wiring than required for 60A to go even higher in the future if you plan to live there a while). The 60A circuit will provide 48A charging at 11.6 kw/hr charging speed. The expense is mostly the labor ... not the cost of material (Wire). That said, copper is more costly today than 2 years ago.... but still a no-brainer for future-proofing!