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Review: GIGER 3-Phase 22kW Portable EV Charger

One of the great things about being an EV owner in Australia is the proliferation of 400V 3-phase electricity. Most factories, camping grounds and even a large amount of homes have access to up to 22kW of electricity to juice up your EV on the go or even at home. Most EVs don’t come with a charger capable of handling 3-phase, but EVolution Australia’s GIGER Portable Switchable EVSE EV Charger can open up those chargers for you.

On one end of the charger is an Australian 5-pin 3-phase plug. On the other is a Type 2 Mennekes plug. In the middle is a metal cased charger that’s fully certified for use in Australia and can handle up to 400V & 32A of electricity.

Using it is a piece of cake. Plug the Type 2 end into your car, plug the other end into the 5-pin outlet, wait 15 seconds and that’s it, the electricity will start flowing as fast the 5-pin outlet can put it out. Here’s my Ioniq charging up at a wild 3-phase outlet.

The LCD screen on the GIGER Portable Switchable EVSE will show you the charge rate, power supplied, time you’ve been charging and the temperature. The Time button can be used to delay charging for between 1 to 5 hours and the Amps button can be used to dial down the electricity supplied to the car if required.

A flashing blue LED ring will let you know from a distance if the car is charging. Here’s a video of it in action:

How quickly can it charge your car? Depends what is plugged into it! Not all 5-pin, 3-phase outlets have the same electricity supply. Some will only output say, 10A, or 20A, but a large majority will output the full 32A and the GIGER Portable Switchable EVSE will suck it all in and spit it right out to your EV. A Nissan LEAF, Hyundai Ioniq or Kona will max out at 7kWh, a Tesla Model S/X can do at least 11kW, but a Renault Zoe will take all 22kWh. Regardless of the plug it’s connected to, the GIGER Portable Switchable EVSE will handle the maximum both your car or the power supply can handle.

If you’re a renter with an EV, the GIGER Portable Switchable EVSE is a great way to get something faster than a normal 10A household socket without getting a dedicated wall charger installed. If your property has 3-phase supply already, buying this charger for $1,395 and getting a socket installed for ~$300 is a much more palatable than ~$2,000 for a wall charger you can’t take with you when your lease ends. There’s no reason why this “portable” charger can’t be used as your primary charger at home. It even comes with a bracket to hook it on the wall.

You also get the added bonus of being able to quickly unsnap it from the wall, throwing it in the boot and taking it with you on road trips! If you tick the “Three Phase” option on PlugShare, you can see that there’s around 250 3-phase sockets across Australia, typically where there’s no other EV infrastructure. Many public parks, showgrounds and caravan parks have 3-phase sockets.

Not all EV owners need this portable charger – but if you’re the type of EV owner to go on long road-trips where there’s 3-phase power, stay in caravan parks with 3-phase power or rent a home with 3-phase power, you aren’t going to find a more practical or cost effective charger for you EV than EVolution Australia’s GIGER Portable Switchable EVSE.

Anthony also produces The Sizzle - a daily email newsletter covering all aspects of technology with an Australian point of view.

5 Comments

  1. Hey Anthony – nice overview. What’s the highest power AC charging your Ioniq will take from this unit?

    1. 7kW is the max the Ioniq handles over AC (via the Type 2 port) and this charger when hooked up to a 32A 3-phase socket will throttle itself down to supply the full 7kW to the Ioniq.

      1. Thanks for that. Would be helpful if more car manufacturers would put in faster AC charging hardware – must be a significant enough cost difference to justify it, or I guess they would.

  2. On a JDM vehicle with 3kw onboard charger, there is no advantage .

    The best option to increase charging speed is still a portable DC chademo like a Setec

  3. will this work on single phase at home? and how many kms will i expect per hour on 32amps?

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