The VW ID.4 comes with a 120-volt portable charger that can deliver 10 amps, 12 amps or 16 amps of power at 110 or 120 volts ( less than 1 kW). The charging rate ranges from 2 to 5 miles of range per hour. Most people aren’t going to use their Level 1 charger because it charges pretty slowly.
If you don’t drive many miles and only go 20 or 30 miles a day or maybe the car’s parked in your garage for 23 out of the 24 hours a day, you can live with the Level 1 charger.
However, we believe that most people are going to want to keep the Level 1 charger in the car for emergency use and get a proper Level 2 charger so they can charge their ID.4 much faster in their garage.
Best Home Chargers for Volkswagen ID.4
The ID.4 can charge at 11 kW which is a robust charge rate. It’s one of the best or fastest charging on Level 2 electric vehicles available in North America.
However, it doesn’t mean that you have to get a charger that can deliver the full 11 kW. The difference between charging at 9.6 kW (40 amps) and 11 kW (48 amps) is about 27 miles an hour to about 33 miles an hour.
That extra 7 or 6 miles per hour really isn’t going to make much of a difference for your daily charging, especially because most people plug in overnight, and in a couple of hours, you’re fully recharged.
In addition, when you charge your ID.4, the power will change from unit to unit and from manufacturer to manufacturer, but it doesn’t make a difference if you get a 32-amp charger made by JuiceBox or Wallbox. They will deliver almost the same amount of power.
Therefore, all of the chargers can charge the vehicle just fine, but they do have different features, prices, manufacturer reputations, etc.
Let’s look at top 8 best VW ID.4 home chargers one by one. Of course, the rank and the information will be updated with time.
| EV Charger |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amp Rating | 16 – 40 Amp | 16 – 50 Amp | 16 – 40 Amp | 16 – 48 Amp | 16/24/32/40 Amp | 16 – 32 Amp | 16 – 40 Amp |
| Cable Length | 24 feet (7.3 meters) | 23 feet (7 meters) | 25 feet (7.6 meters) | 25 feet (7.6 meters) | 24 feet (7.3 meters) | 25 feet (7.6 meters) | 25 feet (7.6 meters) |
| Max Power | 9.6 kW | 12 kW | 9.6 kW | 11.5 kW | 9.6 kW | 7.7 kW | 9.6 kW |
| NEMA | NEMA 14-50 | NEMA 14-50 & NEMA 6-50 | NEMA 14-50 & Hardwired | NEMA 14-50 & Hardwired | NEMA 14-50 & NEMA 6-50 | NEMA 6-50 | NEMA 14-50 |
| BUY | BUY ON AMAZON | BUY ON AMAZON | BUY ON AMAZON | BUY ON AMAZON | BUY ON AMAZON | BUY ON AMAZON | BUY ON AMAZON |
Electrify America HomeStation EV Charger – Most Suitable VW ID.4 Home Charger
Electrify Home is the residential charging division of Electrify America, so this is basically an Electrify America home charging station, but they have it in their home charging division called Electrify Home.
The HomeStation is a 40-amp Wi-Fi connected smart charger with a NEMA 14-50 plug. It needs to be mounted on a minimum of a 50-amp circuit.
The HomeStation is a Wi-Fi enabled smart charger. You can use your Electrify America app for public charging as well as to monitor and control your HomeStation. When you have the HomeStation linked to your account, you can view your current charging session, look at past charging history, start and stop a charging station remotely, pair this to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant if you have a smart home with these services. You could also schedule charging if you use a time-of-use electricity plan to save yourself money, and take advantage of off-peak lower electricity rates.
ChargePoint Home Flex Charger – Most Powerful VW ID.4 Home Charger
A premium electric car home charging station with a gray and silver sleek design, the ChargePoint Home Flex is a popular and extremely well-built gadget on the EV market.
It is the first Energy Star certified electric car charger, using 40% less energy than other e-car chargers when not in use.
The power selection varies from 16 to 50 amps, which is powerful. Also, its 240-volt, 32-amp performance will speed up the charging process by 6 times, adding up to 25 miles of range per hour, so you’ll always know how far you can travel if you have only 60 minutes available to charge your car.
The ChargePoint Home Flex comes with an incredibly useful smartphone app that helps you schedule charging when electricity rates are low, in order to save money and use your home charging station in the most effective way possible.
JuiceBox Charger – Most Cost-Effective VW ID.4 Home Charger
Proudly built in the USA, the JuiceBox 40-amp EV charger is a 40-amp, 240-volt high power home charging station that is portable and rated for both indoors and outdoors.
The JuiceBox charger can plug into any NEMA 14-50 outlet and can charge any electric car, including Tesla if you apply a Tesla’s charging adapter.
The smartphone app provides you real-time and historical charging data. It allows you to set wire limits and perform circuit load balancing to ensure that you never exceed the limit of your electrical supply circuit.
Wallbox Pulsar Plus Charger – Most Portable VW ID.4 Home Charger Overall
Built with electric cars that have bigger battery packs, the Wallbox Pulsar Plus Level 2 EV charger is a perfect fit for high-capacity electric vehicles like the VW ID.4.
The tool-less, non-permanent installation of this home charging station makes it easy to mount on any wall, and you can even carry it with you when you move away from home.
The Pulsar Plus has a generous 40-amp output and works on 240-volts, meaning that it can charge electric vehicles way faster than Level 1 120-volt chargers.
Grizzl-E Classic Level 2 Home Charger – Highly Recommended VW ID.4 Home Charger
United Chargers is, without doubt, one of the most trustworthy electronics manufacturers in the world. It’s no wonder that their Grizzl-E Level 2 EV home charging station has received such overwhelmingly good reviews.
This Level 2 charger is almost 5 times faster than the basic Level 1 models, with 40 amps of power and 240-volts. This home charging station is compatible with the VW ID.4.
The Grizzle-E home charger was rated as one of the best-built and strongest EV chargers on the market, impressing with its robust construction.
EVoCharge Level 2 Charger – Another Best Smart VW ID.4 Home Charger
The 32 amp, 240-volt EvoCharge is built to work with absolutely any electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle that is sold in the United States and Canada.
This home charging station is having three adjustable current output settings (16, 24 and 32 amps) and a modern design that perfectly complements your VW ID.4.
Suited for both indoor and outdoor uses, the EvoCharge is easy to install and use. The whole charging process is highly intuitive and extremely straightforward.
MUSTART Level 2 EV Charger
The MUSTART Level 2 EV charger is a great value charging station that doesn’t cost a fortune but brings many amazing features to the table.
With its Level 2, 40-amp power output, this electric car home charging station is able to charge your VW ID.4 5 times faster than its Level 1 16-amp station that the ID.4 comes equipped with, which means that you’ll have your ID.4 ready to roll in a jiffy.
All you need for this charger to work is a 220 or 240-volt NEMA14-50 outlet to plug it into, and the MUSTART will turn into one of the best home charging stations you could ever have for your VW ID.4.
Blink HQ Level 2 Home Charger
Blink HQ is one of the most elegant home charging stations on the market. With a shiny black finish that makes it stand out in an elegant way, this charger has a standard 32-amp output. It works with 240 volts and is extremely convenient to use.
All you have to do is plug it in your vehicle, push a button to select the appropriate start delay so that you can avoid peak utility hours, and the Blink HQ will charge your EV 6 times faster than a Level 1 charging station.
All You Need to Know About the Volkswagen ID.4 Charging
The VW ID.4 has an 82 kWh battery of that 77 kWh is usable.
With all electric vehicles, there’s the size of the battery pack that’s installed in the vehicle, and there’s the size that the manufacturer allows the customer to access.
You never get to use 100% of the battery because they reserve a certain percentage as a buffer. It’s not good for batteries to be fully charged and fully discharged.
What happens if you do that? The battery degrades quicker, and its life is shorter. You don’t want that with your electric car, so Volkswagen has decided to reserve a 5 kWh reserve buffer from the 82 kWh that the battery has to the 77 kWh you get to use.
When manufacturers choose to reserve a small percentage of the pack, they usually recommend that the customer doesn’t fully charge the battery on a daily basis.
That’s just what Volkswagen is doing. In the vehicle setting, it recommends that you only charge to 80% during daily charging.
For most people, it shouldn’t be a problem because even if you’re charged to 80%, you still have about 200 miles of range on a daily basis (250 miles of estimated driving range with a full charged battery).
On the occasion when you need to go further, such as you’re going on a road trip where you just feel like you might be pushing the limits of your range, it’s not a problem to charge to 100%.
Volkswagen just recommends that you don’t do that on a daily basis.
Basically, there are three types of charging for VW ID.4: Level 1 charging, Level 2 charging, and DC fast charging.
Home Charging
Level 1 Charging
Level 1 charging is from a regular 120-volt household outlet. Any electric vehicle can be charged from a simple household outlet.
The only problem is that it charges really slowly because it doesn’t deliver a lot of power to the car.
In the case of the ID.4, it charges at a rate of 2 to 3 miles of range per hour on Level 1 charging source.
If the ID.4 can go about 250 miles per charge, you can do the math. You’re not talking about hours, but you’re talking about how many days it will take to fully charge the ID.4.
It’s pretty slow. You can use it in an emergency, but you definitely don’t want to be relying on Level 1 charging as your daily charging for the ID.4.
Most people are going to want to upgrade and get Level 2 charging which is our next type of charging.
Level 2 Charging
Level 2 charging is from 240-volt supply appliances in your home, like an electric clothe dryer, an electric kitchen oven or an electric water heater.
They all use a 240-volt supply, so what the ID.4 will be charging on is something very similar to what you already have in your home. You can have different power Levels, 16 amps, 32 amps, 40 amps, and even 48 amps on 240 volts.
On Level 2 charging, the ID.4 can recover as much as 33 to 35 miles of range per hour. Compare that to Level 1 charging where it was 2 to 3 miles of range per hour, on Level 2 charging, you’re able to get your car charged up more quickly at home.
You’ll find Level 2 charging both at home and in public. There are Level 2 charging stations that you can use when you’re at shopping centers, movie theaters…
Most home charging equipment today comes available in pluggable units, some of which you can hardwire if you choose, but most people prefer to install a plug.
Typically it’s the NEMA 14-50 that can deliver 40 amps to the car and charge at a rate up to about 9.6 kW.
The Tesla Wall Connector, a 48-amp charger, can deliver up to 11.5 kW. This would be able to fully charge the ID.4 at the top charging speed it can accept at which is 11 kW.
Volkswagen announced that they’re actually going to be selling a Level 2 charger for their ID.4 customers through their partner company Electrify Home.
The unit is called the Home Station that is a 40-amp smart charger.
You can use a home charger from any company, so you don’t need the one that Volkswagen recommends or the one that your friend uses for his ID.4.
Level 1 and Level 2 Charging Curve
The power draw from AC charging stations is linear.
For instance, you charge your ID.4 on a 40-amp Level 2 home charger that can deliver 9.6 kW. When you plug the ID.4 in, the charge rate is going to ramp up to 9.6 kW immediately, and it’s going to hold that charge rate for nearly the entire charging session.
Once it gets up close to 100%, like 98% or 99%, the charge rate is going to taper down slowly. That’s because as batteries get near to 100% full, the charger or the vehicle has to balance the cells because all the battery cells don’t have the exact same state of charge.
When the charge rate slows down dramatically, the battery management system can slowly charge all the cells and allows them to reach the same state of charge.
DC Fast Charging
The third type of charging is DC fast charging, sometimes referred to as Level 3 charging (400-900 volts).
DC fast chargers can charge the ID.4 at a rate of up to 7 miles per minute, not per hour or per minute. That’s how much faster DC fast charging is than Level 1 or Level 2.
The ID.4 is equipped with a pretty robust DC fast charging capability, so even compared to other electric vehicles, it’s faster than many.
It can charge from 10% to 80% in about 38 minutes, so during road trips, you can replenish 200 miles of range in a little bit longer than a half an hour.
So with the ID.4’s 125 kW DC fast charging capabilities, the VW ID.4 can be a very competent road tripping car without really experiencing much inconvenience.
Downloading Charging Station Apps
There are Level 2 chargers and DC fast chargers out in public. Most of them are going to require some sort of a subscription or a membership before you can plug in, so you might want to identify which chargers from which networks, use and sign up with those networks ahead of time.
There are apps such as PlugShare and Open Charge Map that will help you identify what type of connector the charging station has.
All of the new charging stations that are being installed have both connectors on them, and you get to select either the CHAdeMo port of the Combo port.
However, there are some older charging stations that are CHAdeMo only, so downloading these apps before you visit a public DC fast charging station is highly recommended.
One DC fast charging network that you’re definitely going to want to join is Electrify America. That’s because Volkswagen is offering three years of unlimited DC fast charging for ID.4 customers.
That’s right! You can charge for three years as many times as you want for free. That’s a great perk that Volkswagen is offering for ID.4 customers.
DC Fast Charging Curve
With DC fast charging, the charge rate doesn’t remain the same the entire time till it gets to 99% charged. The charging curves are much different. This happens for all electric vehicles, not just the ID.4.
While the ID.4 can accept 125 kW of power, it only accepts that at a very low state of charge. When the battery is empty, it’ll only continue to charge at 125 kW until the battery is about 30% full, then it starts to slowly ramp down its charging speed.
By the time you get to 80%, the ID.4 is barely accepting over 50 kW. That’s one of the reasons why people recommend that you don’t charge on a DC fast charger all the way up to 100%.
Volkswagen doesn’t recommend you charge to 100% because from 80% to 100%, the car charges very slowly.
As a matter of fact, it may take longer. It may take longer to charge the ID.4 from 80% to 100% on a DC fast charger than it does to charge it from 0 to 80%.
When you’re on a long road trip, unless you absolutely need that extra 20% of range to make it to your destination or to the next DC fast charger, set the car to shut off at 80%.
It absolutely is a waste of time if you sit at a DC fast charger to charge your ID.4 from 80% to 100%.
How Can You Charge Your ID.4 on A Tesla Charging Station?
Tesla has four different types of charging stations.
Mobile connector that comes with the vehicle. It’s a Level 1/2 charging station that can deliver up to 32 amps. It charges Tesla vehicles pretty robustly. You can use the mobile charger from Tesla to charge your ID.4, but you need an adapter and the a Lectron Tesla to J1772 is a good choice.
You could use the Tesla wall connector.
You can also use Tesla destination chargers which are a version of the wall connector that Tesla installs at destinations across North America.
They literally have thousands of them installed at hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, wineries, amusement parks, all different types of destinations, so when their customers arrive, they can plug in and charge their electric car while they’re at that facility.
Tesla uses a different connector for Level 1 and Level 2 charging, so you wouldn’t just be able to plug the connector in and charge your ID.4. You need an adapter. Tesla tap mini is a good pick, which is small, light and is rated at 60 amps.
The fourth type of Tesla charger is Tesla Superchargers. Every electric vehicle owner would love to be able to charge on a Tesla Supercharger network. Fortunately, on November 1, 2021, Musk announced that you can charge your Non-Tesla on a Tesla Supercharger.