Normal ev chargers are most efficient at 240v (low 90s) and very low at 120v (low 80s). Add to that the battery management fixed load of a few hundred watts, this leaves us with 900w usable on a tesla car.
The solution is simple, use 2 single voltage chargers made for peak efficiency at 115vac, this gets us to 96% efficiency easy.
Then for 240v charging we just stack the charger inputs. The biggest win is havinf 2 120v inputs, this lets us charge at 3kw or 30 mph!! On a model 3 to get 30 mph requires a 40 amp 240v dryer plug. Over night you would get 360 miles making road trips charger free because you can just charge at your airbnb. This is crazy valuable for many parts of the world where ev chargers do not exist.
Doesn't that mean that you need a neutral then? My Tesla was wired with just the two hots and one ground into the Wall Connector
I believe some on-board chargers do this internally. Half of the charger is used on 120 volt, and the entire charger is used on 240 volt (two halves run in series).
What makes 120 volt charging so inefficient is the increased charge time resulting in overhead loads staying active for longer (cooling systems, contactors, computers).
ya current onboard charging systems do not use a neural. They are a big switch mode power supply with an input from 90-270 volts ac. What i am recommending is a narrower input to range 90-135 volts ac and a virtual neural when charging at 240v. To make a virtual neural you just drive the second charger from the first chargers brain, that give you the same voltage across each charger and zero current on neutral therefor you delete neutral wire,
That's a bit over my head, but I like the idea of double-110v charging for road trips. For daily use just single-110 on Aptera gives you over 300% of the average daily drive during 8 hours of sleep plus an hour each for dinner & breakfast.
On a side note about charging, since many of us keep the little 110v EVSE in the car for emergencies, I wouldn't mind if it was built in, with a socket to just plug an extension cord. It wouldn't add as much weight as carrying the whole thing around, with its J-plug & rugged case.
Retired Electrical Engineer here. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's not how electricity or home electrical wiring works.
In North America the 120 Volt circuits are formed from a split 240 volt circuit coming into your home. If you plug something into 2 120 volt outlets next to each other you just get the same 120 volts from each. All you did was use twice as much wire. You won't be able to draw more total current than from the (single) circuit going to those outlets (typically 12 or 16 amps continuous), without popping the circuit breaker.
I have read of people making a custom cord designed to get 240 volts by plugging the other end into 2 120 volt outlets that are wired from opposite sides of the split 240 volt circuit coming into the house. Those 2 outlets are usually wired into different rooms or at least different sides of a room.
That's not a good idea. It's dangerous. If you wire that Frankenstein cord wrong, you could create a short circuit and start a fire.
Better to simply have an electrician add a new 240 volt circuit to your garage, if you need the higher power. That's probably not needed for an Aptera unless you often need more than an extra 150 miles of charge overnight.
If you do need such a 240 volt circuit, it may cost only $150 in hardware plus an electrician's time, depending on the distance to your circuit breaker box. You could get a book from the library and learn how to do it yourself. I'd leave the inspecting and connecting of your work to the live breaker box to a licensed electrician, who can also take care of getting the required town permit and inspection done.
I planned on adding a 240 volt outlet to my garage in 2013 when I bought my Chevy Volt. Never got around to it because I found that the existing 120 volt outlet was enough to fill its little 10.5 KWH battery overnight. (That's 40 miles worth in a Volt and 100 miles in an Aptera.)
I believe there was a commercial device that provided 240 volts from two out-of-phase 120 volt outlets called the Quick220. It had plenty of safeties built in so that it either worked when connected properly or didn't work at all (it would only energize the output when properly connected).
I charge my Bolt using 240 volt at home, even though I only drive 40 miles a day. I tend to go about a week between charges. This is more energy efficient, saves wear and tear on the charging system, and is easier on the battery than constant shallow cycles at the top end of the charge. I would probably do the same with the Aptera, especially with the solar charging taking care of most of my usage (the interior better have some good UV protection).
Ideally, Aptera is able to use Tesla's system as their network is the best out there. We'll have the most efficient EV out there with insane range, but charging will still be necessary on long road trips. Why not use the best?
@PV1 Thanks for the info. I googled "Quick220". It's still available in various wattage ratings. If you have the rare wiring they require: 2 nearby out of phase 120 (normal) outlets that don't have GFI circuits, it might be worth it. However, national code for the last decade or 2 no longer allows 120 volt outlets in garages without GFI, so you can't use it with newer circuits.
You might be able to get an electrician to install a proper 240 volt, much higher wattage circuit for close to the same price, so you wouldn't need to mess with all those unsafe, non-GFI protected extension cords.
The whole point of using the EVSE box to plug in an EV is to prevent unprotected wires from being powered up. The EVSE box adds GFI protection to unprotected circuits, and keeps the high powered cables from being powered up until they are plugged into your EV securely.
I thought I was so clever when we moved into this house 20 years ago. I had two circuits wired to the same area in the garage so I could create 240v for an electric car. Then when I finally got said car years later I built the little box that wires the two outlets into a single 240v outlet. Plugged the car in and boom the GCFI blew. If you are thinking you can use one of those clever boxes to create 240v in your garage and there are GFCIs anywhere (which have been code for quite some time now) you are better served by running a new line to the breaker box with thick enough wire to handle the draw.
If you have a dryer outlet and still use the dryer, I have seen smart boxes that switch the power from the dryer outlet to the car when the dryer turns off. But they cost about as much as running another circuit. Most houses have room for more circuit breakers and if you are charging at night you likely will have enough current to feed an electric car.
During dinner/sleep/breakfast you can add 130 miles to each of 2 Apteras from standard 120v outlets on 2 separate circuits.
One of the ideas I was thinking in my earlier post was charging 1 Aptera from 2 separate circuits, adding 260 miles overnight.