Portable EV chargers, compared on published specifications

A portable charger lives in the car rather than on the wall, and usually runs from either a household socket or a dryer outlet. It is the cheapest way to charge and by some distance the slowest.

We do not test chargers. The median portable charger here outputs 16 A and therefore needs a 20 A breaker — the two numbers worth carrying into any listing you read.

Every figure below is taken from the manufacturer’s published listing and measured against the rest of the category. An output amperage is published by 100% of the portable EV chargers here; where a listing is silent, the page says not stated rather than filling the gap.

A small category, and worth saying so first. 25 listings is a narrow sample. The figures below describe what this site can see rather than the category as a whole, and a handful of new listings could move them noticeably.

Where the data runs out. 2 output classes hold too few listings to support a median: 17 – 32 A (6 listings), 33 – 40 A (5 listings). Below 8 a median describes the sample rather than the market, so the table prints the count and leaves the median blank.

What the numbers say about this category

Baselines for this category. A specification needs at least 8 listings stating it before a median is published.
Specification	Stated	Median	Middle half	Full range
Charger output	25	16 A	16 A – 32 A	10 A – 40 A
Breaker required (derived)	25	20 A	20 A – 40 A	15 A – 50 A
Power	20	3.8 kW	3.5 kW – 7.7 kW	1.4 kW – 9.6 kW
Cable reach	22	25 ft	20 ft – 25 ft	16 ft – 28 ft
Voltage	23	240 V	120 V – 240 V	120 V – 240 V

The middle-half column is the more useful one. It spans the 25th to 75th percentile, so it describes where most of the category actually sits, and it is far less sensitive than the full range to one unusual unit.

The circuit each one needs

An EV charger runs at its full output for hours at a stretch, which makes it a continuous load. The branch circuit therefore has to be rated at least 125% of the charger’s output. That single rule is the largest hidden cost in buying one, and almost no listing states it plainly.

Charger output against the smallest standard breaker that satisfies the 125% continuous-load rule. Power assumes 240 V.
Charger output	Breaker required	Power at 240 V	Listings
10 A	15 A	2.4 kW	1
12 A	15 A	2.9 kW	1
15 A	20 A	3.6 kW	2
16 A	20 A	3.8 kW	10
32 A	40 A	7.7 kW	6
40 A	50 A	9.6 kW	5

This is arithmetic, not a design. The breaker figures here are the manufacturer’s published output multiplied by 1.25 and rounded up to the next standard size, which is what the continuous-load rule requires. They tell you what to expect before you call an electrician; they are not a substitute for one, and they say nothing about whether your panel has the capacity, what wire the run needs, or what your local code requires.

How this category spreads across output classes

Where this category’s 25 listings sit by output, and the circuit each class needs.
Output class	Listings	Breaker required	Median output
up to 16 A	14	15 – 20 A	16 A
17 – 32 A	6	40 – 40 A	Too few for a median
33 – 40 A	5	50 – 50 A	Too few for a median
41 – 48 A	0	None in this category
49 A and above	0	None in this category

How to choose one

Dual voltage is the whole point

Almost everything in this category runs at both 120 V and 240 V, with an interchangeable plug. That is what makes it portable in a useful sense: a household socket exists everywhere, so the charger works at a relative’s house or a holiday cottage, and the same unit steps up when there is a dryer outlet to hand. The trade is output — this is by far the lowest-amperage category on the site.

A 120 V socket is slower than people expect

At 12 to 16 A and 120 V a charger delivers well under 2 kW, which is roughly four to five miles of range per hour. Overnight that is a useful top-up and it is not a way to refill a large battery. Treat 120 V as the fallback and 240 V as the actual use case.

Check what the socket behind it can take

A portable charger is only as good as the circuit it is plugged into, and a household socket shared with a fridge and a freezer on an old circuit is the constraint rather than the charger. This is the category where the charger is cheap and the electrical question is the same one everyone else is asking.

What the listings do and do not tell you

Specification coverage is uneven, and that unevenness is itself worth knowing before you shop. A missing figure is not a worse product — it is a less completely described one — but it does mean you cannot compare on that axis without contacting the manufacturer.

How many listings in this category publish each specification.
Specification	Stated	Share
Output amperage	25	100%
Voltage	23	92%
Power in kW	20	80%
Cable length	22	88%
Connector type	24	96%

Where a listing is silent, this site prints not stated. It never fills the gap with a plausible default, because a specification table that looks complete and is partly invented is worse than one with visible holes.

Sizing the charger to the house

Most buyers reach for the highest amperage they can find, and most do not need it. A 40 A charger adds roughly 30 miles of range an hour, so an overnight charge covers several times a typical day’s driving. The step up to 48 A is worth paying for when the daily distance is genuinely long, when the battery is large and regularly run low, or when one charger serves two cars.

What decides it more often is the panel. A 60 A circuit needs heavier wire and more spare capacity than a 50 A one, and in an older house the honest answer is sometimes that the panel is the constraint rather than the car. That question is worth asking before choosing a charger rather than after.

Cable length is the specification owners most often say they would change. Measure from where the charger will actually be mounted to the furthest charge-port position you expect to use — including the car parked the other way round, and a second vehicle.

Mistakes this data makes visible

Reading the charger’s amperage as the circuit’s

A 48 A charger does not go on a 48 A circuit, and there is no such breaker anyway. It needs 60 A, with the wire to match. Buyers who size the circuit from the charger’s headline figure discover the difference when the electrician quotes.

Assuming a NEMA 14-50 outlet is free

A new 240 V receptacle circuit needs GFCI protection under current code, and a 50 A GFCI breaker costs several times a standard one. Plugging in is cheaper than hardwiring by less than the listings imply.

Buying amps instead of cable

The difference between a 40 A and a 48 A charger is about ten minutes on a typical overnight charge. The difference between a 16 ft and a 25 ft cable is whether the charger reaches the car at all. One of those is on every listing in large type and the other is not.

Find one that fits

The EV charger finder filters on output, connector, install method and app control, and shows each result against the median for its own output class — with the breaker it needs on every card. Chargers that do not state a value are kept in your results rather than hidden, and labelled.

Individual chargers in this class

One page each, with the circuit it needs and how it sits against the median above:

Related categories

Hardwired EV Chargers — A hardwired charger is wired straight to the panel with no plug in the path.
Plug-In EV Chargers — A plug-in charger hangs on the wall and plugs into an outlet, almost always a NEMA 14-50.

Figures on this page were computed from the corpus on 2026-08-29. How we compile these figures.