Any point in getting home EV charger?

We've been running a full EV using just the granny charger since March. We also have solar, without a storage battery just yet. This is coming soon - I'm in the process of upgrading the setup I have at the house as I run a business from home and need more power than I used to anyway, plus we're about to change to a day/night tariff - but here's how things have been working for us.

The car is often at home during the day, so it just gets plugged in to trickle charge - especially whenever there's enough sunshine to generate a surplus from the panels (not as much at this time of year!). Up to 2-3 weeks ago, I've often been able to charge the car for free just from the solar excess - if I don't need a lot of range in a hurry, I can slow the charge rate on the granny charger to just 6 amps, which translates to adding about 5km of range in an hour. If I want it to charge faster than that, or if it's particularly bright, with the touch of a button I can adjust it to 8 amps, 10 amps or 13 amps - the latter will add about 16km in an hour. On the occasions when we know we're going on a long trip, we just leave it to charge all day or else overnight, depending on how much range the car needs to add. We only rarely need to use public chargers, even though one of the longer trips we do regularly is 300km each way, as we can trickle charge overnight when we get there.

Your use case seems to involve doing slightly less day-to-day driving than we do, and your regular longer trips are half the distance of ours if not less. If your car also spends a lot of its time on the driveway at home, and if you have a suitable outdoor 3-pin socket (or can get one fitted), I think you'd be fine with just a granny charger, as you'd be able to fully charge your car's battery in under 5 hours. Depending on the size of your solar array, if the car is parked on the driveway during daylight hours you may even be able to charge it from the sun for free. In your shoes, I'd save the money and not bother with the home charger.

There's no need to blow €1k+ in that scenario OP, you'll be perfectly fine with the granny charger long term as long as it's plugged into a suitable socket.

The granny cable will be pulling 10 amps for hours on end. Thats close to the max that a standard 13amp socket can handle. If the socket is old or worn it could overheat. Think of the granny charger as like having your kettle turned on and heating constantly…. thats the draw the granny cable will have. If the socket, or cable feeding it, are worn in any way it will be a problem.

You should not use extension leads.

You should regularly check that the socket and granny plug do not get hot, particularly the first few times you use it.

If in doubt get an electrician to check it and maybe replace the socket if it is old.

By suitable I mean a properly installed (correct cable size) and good quality socket.

Long term use of an extension lead can result in overheating and damage, I've seen examples of melted plugs and sockets.

As well as that, it will get very boring very quickly running extension leads or cables in and out of windows on a long term basis.

If you're planning on living with a granny charger long term, I'd recommend either get one with a cable long enough to reach the car or install another outdoor socket closer to the car.

I mounted my charger semi-permanent to the wall and it was far more convenient than setting it up each time.

Got it.

Over here we refer to that as FUD.