Onboard Battery Charger

by Brian
(Stockton, CA)

Manzanita Micro PFC-20

Is an onboard battery charger less efficient than the kind that stays in your garage? I'm considering which type of charger I want in my conversion, and I do have the garage for a charging station. Does the convenience of an onboard charger justify the weight?

Hi, Brian -

The Manzanita Micro website (a very popular onboard charger manufacturer) says, "
The PFC20 weighs 16 pounds and resides in a box that is 13 x 9 x 5.5 inches." So don't worry about the weight or the size, it's not that significant. A good onboard charger, like this one, is very efficient, no worries; )

Most EV converters use an onboard charger, because they're convenient for opportunity charging.

The exceptions are the production EVs with special chargers and a charging station infrastructure (only in California), and the do-it-yourself bad boy chargers which tend to be left in the garage...although you can take your bad boy with you (see Lee Hart's message in this evdl thread).

Personally, I'd rather have my charger in the car.

Regards,
Lynne