Do you have a level 2 JuiceBox EVSE at home or at work? With the company calling it quits on the North American market, you might be confused as what you should do next. Let’s breakdown what we know and what you should do if you have one of these chargers, like thousands of people do.
My JuiceBox is at home
If you have a JuiceBox charger at home, it’ll stop connecting to the internet on or around Oct. 11, 2024. After that point, the charger will revert to a “dumb charger” and the app on your phone will also not work. The charger should continue to charge your vehicle when you plug it in, but any time of use or smart features will stop functioning. If your charger talks to your local power company in exchange for a discounted rate, that connection will also stop working.
ChargeLab, one of the companies trying to help out, is not going to work on a home fix because there’s probably not a ton of money in fixing home users. But Noodoe is apparently working on a solution for home users. Lots of power companies use Enel X chargers in homes, and the company sees solutions there. The company even has a migration solution page on its website.
If you were using the time of use function for off-peak charging, you can continue to use your JuiceBox as a dumb charger. You’ll just have to program your time of use information in your electric vehicle’s infotainment system. Every EV allows this to some extent, and there’s no need to replace your equipment if this is the case.
If you frequently have different EVs plugging in to your charger, it’s often more convenient to set up a charging schedule on the EVSE itself. This is mostly an “auto journalist problem,” but setting up time of use in multiple EVs on the regular is a pain in the rear. If you have to do that, you might consider replacing your equipment.
You might also consider replacing the equipment if you’re worried about a warranty. There’s not much to these chargers from a technical standpoint, but if you want someone to complain to if something goes wrong, you no longer can with JuiceBox. Additionally if there is an electrical problem that results in a fire, there’s no company you can reach out to for help. In that case, you might want to consider just replacing your unit.
My JuiceBox is at work
If you have chargers at your workplace, and you’re responsible for them, you’ll want to reach out to either ChargeLab or Noodoe. Both companies are working on solutions for your installs. For the level 2 chargers, when the system goes off line you’ll no longer be able to use electricity consumption, view problems remotely, have access control or credit card payment processing. Basically the chargers will convert to a dumb charger, just like the home units.
For some businesses, this is probably not a big deal. For others, this is a big problem that will need to be addressed soon. If those business don’t want to look at the cost of replacing the units, reaching out to one of the two companies we listed is a good first start.
These chargers, for the most part, are using open connectivity standards. There apparently is some on-site work that needs done, but once that’s completed the chargers can connect to other software. This is hopefully going to be what saves a bunch of businesses from having to replace these units.
My JuiceBox is a DCFC
If you have an Enel X DCFC, you’re going to for sure want to reach out to either of the companies here. Once connectivity is lost, payment processing goes out the window, and it’s unclear if they’d even work in a dumb operating mode. Some chargers were only recently installed at a considerable expense to a site owner, so hopefully there’s a solution for those businesses. While the numbers of installed DCFC are relatively small compared to other providers, there’s still a bunch of people with very expensive hardware that are being left out in the cold.
Should I replace my hardware?
If you have an expensive DCFC, we’d explore options for getting it to work rather than pulling the plug on it. Odds are you don’t want to spend big replacement costs, and would likely just leave the charging hardware sit non-operational. We’d encourage you to reach out to either of the companies here to see if they can help.
For level 2 hardware, either at home or at work, we’d explore what replacement looks like. We don’t want to create a bunch of e-waste by throwing the equipment out, but without a warranty or support you might not feel comfortable keeping it installed. For home users specifically, you’ll have to decide on your own.
If we already have these units hardwired in our garage and don’t need the smarts, we’d probably keep them installed and keep using them. The risk is low for physical hardware failure and it’s unlikely anything would go wrong in dumb operation mode. When the unit does fail, then you’d look at a replacement.
Of course, depending on what happens over the coming weeks, our recommendation may change. It’s still a fluid situation and both companies working on the problem haven’t rolled out solutions yet.
User efforts to save the hardware
In addition to the businesses listed above, there’s a group of people online trying to save functionality of the JuiceBox chargers. You can check out Juice Rescue for updates.
Updated (2:02pm EDT, 10/07/2024): Updated to add the user efforts section.