A level 2 EV charger is a charging station that runs at 240 volts on a dedicated circuit, like a dryer or a range. Plug’n Drive Canada puts it at about 35 km of driving range per hour of charging. That is enough to refill a typical day of driving in a few hours, overnight, in your own driveway.
That is the whole definition. The buying decision has four more parts, and the price tag on the box is the least important of them.
The car sets the speed, not the station
The name misleads people. The box on your garage wall is not really the charger. It is a controlled switch with a cable, and its job is to tell the car how much current it may draw. The equipment that turns household power into battery charge is inside the car, and it has its own ceiling.
So the first number to find is not on any charger. It is in your owner’s manual, and it is the maximum AC charging rate the car accepts. If the car accepts less than the station can supply, the extra current in the station is never used.
This matters because stations are sold on current. The Grizzl-E range, a Canadian-made line, runs from 40 A plug-in models to 48 A and 80 A hardwired ones. The bigger number looks like the better buy. For many cars it is money spent on a capacity that nothing will ever draw.
Most stations let the installer set the current lower than the maximum. The Grizzl-E Classic, for example, can be set to 32A, 24A or 16A as well as its full 40A. That setting is how a station gets matched to the circuit that feeds it, and to a service with limited room.
Plug-in hybrids may not need one at all
Plug’n Drive notes that level 1 charging from an ordinary outlet will fully recharge most plug-in hybrids overnight. If yours is a plug-in hybrid, test that for a few weeks before you buy anything or look for a charger rebate. The EV charger installation load calculation guide gives the numbers for level 1, and its closing section makes the same case for short commutes.
Ontario’s overnight price is the reason to own one
Here is the local argument for level 2, and it is about the clock more than the speed.
The Ontario Energy Board’s Ultra-Low Overnight plan charges 3.9 cents per kWh from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., every day of the year. The same plan charges 39.1 cents on weekdays from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Those prices are for the period that started November 1, 2025, and the OEB resets them once a year.
A car that comes home at supper and starts charging at once draws its first hours at the most expensive price on the plan. A car that waits for 11 p.m. pays a tenth of that. The station’s job is to fill the battery inside the cheap window, and at 240 volts it usually can. A car on level 1 often cannot recover a long day’s driving in that time, so it charges into the expensive hours.
Two notes before you switch plans. First, ULO prices every other hour of the weekday, and the on-peak price is high. A house that cooks and runs the heat pump through the late afternoon can pay more on ULO, not less, so run your own usage through the OEB bill calculator first. Second, the schedule has to live somewhere. Many cars can hold a start time themselves. A station with no internet connection, such as the Grizzl-E Classic, then does the job. A connected station adds an app to schedule, monitor and track costs, and that is a convenience, not a requirement.
Plug-in or hardwired
A plug-in station goes on a NEMA 14-50 or NEMA 6-50 receptacle. A hardwired station is connected directly to its circuit.
The plug-in version is simpler to replace when a unit fails, and you can take it with you when you sell. In the Grizzl-E range, the plug-in models stop at 40 A. Anything above that is hardwired.
Either way, the circuit is dedicated to the car, the receptacle or the connection is rated for it, and the notification of work goes to the ESA before the job starts. Our guide to the ESA permit for electrical work in Ontario explains who files it and why a buyer’s lawyer will ask for it later.
The connector question is mostly settled
Plug’n Drive notes that all electric cars and stations in North America use one of two plug standards: J1772 or NACS/J3400. With the correct adapter, any car can use any level 2 station. Buy the connector that matches your car. Do not pay extra to future-proof it.
Built for a driveway, not a showroom
A station that lives outside through a winter in Midland or Huntsville needs two ratings on its spec sheet: an outdoor enclosure rating and an operating temperature range. The Grizzl-E Classic is rated from -30C to +50C with a UL Type 4 enclosure, and that is the kind of line to look for on any brand.
Then measure the cable before you choose the wall. Plug’n Drive notes that most stations come with a 20 ft. or 25 ft. cord and that extensions are not readily available. Stand in the garage with a tape. Measure from the station location to the charge port on the side the car actually parks, with room to walk past. A cable that reaches only when the car is parked perfectly will not reach on the night the driveway is half plowed.
Keep the station out of the path where snow falls off the roof, and away from where the plow leaves its bank. A cable that freezes into a snowbank is a cable that gets pulled.
What the installation adds
The station is one purchase. The circuit that feeds it is the other, and on some properties it is the larger one.
On a service with room, the job is a dedicated circuit, a breaker and the notification. Our page on EV charger installation around Georgian Bay lists what we charge for that, from $900 on an adequate existing service with the load calculation included.
On a service without room, the answer might be an energy management system or a larger service. Our guide on whether 100 amp service is enough sets out which loads usually push a house over the limit. Get that answer before you choose a station. If the circuit your service can spare is smaller than the station, the installer turns the station down to match, and the extra capacity you paid for sits idle.
The order to do it in
- Find the car’s maximum AC charging rate in the owner’s manual.
- Have the service assessed for the load before you buy hardware.
- Choose plug-in or hardwired, and a current setting that fits both.
- Pick the wall by measuring the cable to the charge port.
- Decide where the schedule lives: in the car or in the station.
Done in that order, the station fits the car, the circuit and the driveway it will live in.