Review - MSI EVSE EZgo charger
Last month I took the plunge and bought my first EV, a Subaru Solterra. I had been looking into everything I would need to consider, and one thing I was still undecided on was what to do for charging at home. From what I had read, the "granny charger" that would come with the car should be sufficient for topping up after my regular commutes, but what about those weeks where I travel further afield each day?
At the same time as I was picking up my new car, the team from MSI were looking for reviewers for their MSI EVSE EZgo charger and I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity, and within a week I was sent the product for free, in exchange for sharing my honest review of the product. Never having owned an EV before, I am sharing my experience of their product as someone who has no preconceived notions about how a, EV charged "should" work.
Before receiving the EZgo, I got by with the charger that came with the car. It seemed simple enough, plug it in at night, let the car charge up while I sleep, wake up, unplug and off I go. At first I wondered what could be done to improve on that, it seemed so simple, until the EZgo arrived.
On setting it up I was impressed out of the box. The build quality and presentation looked impressive, with an included mounting bracket and hook to mount on the wall, I wouldn't have to worry about packing the charger back into its bag after charging each time. While this may not be a selling point for renters if you are unable to mount any hardware, for those of us fortunate to own our homes, this makes for a much tidier setup while still making it easily removable when you want to take the charger away with you when you travel.
The charger came with 2 tails, one for a standard 10A powerpoint, and another for a 15A powerpoint, which many people will already have installed in their garage or at their workplace. Both tails are easy to swap, with a simple twist and lock plug to connect them to the charger body. I used the 10A tail for the first couple of nights until I had a 15A socket installed by my electrician.
Thanks to two other great features of the EZgo, I know that using a standard 10A socket I was able to charge at 1.7kW. With the 15A socket on its own circuit, I am now able to charge at 3.1kW. How do I know this? I can see both on the integrated LCD screen on the charger, and in the free MSI aConnect app, that can connect to the charger by Bluetooth. Using the controls on the charger itself, or via the app, you are able to set a timer for the charge and adjust the charging current to suit your needs.
With the app, you can monitor the charging status at anytime (within Bluetooth range of the charger) which is handy by itself, but you can also view details about previous charges, which is handy if like me you are on a single rate tariff, so you can work out exactly how much your charge has cost you. Best of all no subscription is required for the app! My car doesn't have any kind of app connect, so it's handy to be able to monitor the charging without having to walk out to the garage. I can also stop the charging at any time from the app if I need to. I have included some screenshots from the app, so you can see the details it gives you.
Setup for the charger and the app was fairly painless. Apart from having to power cycle the charger at first to update the firmware the first time, the experience was smooth the whole time. Mounting it on the wall was equally simple with the supplied hardware. I mounted to brick, but with the right anchors it could easily be mounted to a plaster wall if that's what you have in your garage or carport. If you're not fortunate enough to have undercover parking for your car, the charger is IP66 rated, and for a temperature range of -30°C to 50°C, which should cover anyone in Australia.
If I was looking to buy a charger, would I buy the EZgo? Absolutely, it seems great value for all of its features and seems very well built. I have already recommended it to my friends with EVs from my early experience with it.
Shout out to the team at u/micro-star-intl for reaching out to the EV community here in Australia to get some real world reviews and for putting together a great product for the Australian market.
#MSIEZgo