20A/240 is all I need. It puts some range on the car overnight even with the battery well below freezing and when not fighting the cold reliably puts 11 miles an hour onto the car. Normally I charge at work 2-4 times per week (4 hours at a time).

For me at least, the difference between using an existing 12 gauge wire run and bumping a circuit from 120 to 240 vs “doing it right” means getting a new panel installed, a new feed from the utility, a new meter outside the house, and goodness knows what else. Let’s say that all in I might get a new 50a/240v circuit pulled for $5000?

Prior to hiring an electrician, I verified that the wires in question are less than 15 years old (they were installed as part of an air conditioning retrofit and are modern romex 12/2 with a date stamp on it). Presumably the “next owner” would hire an electrician or would understand that a white wire with red electrical tape on it, connected to a 240v circuit breaker or a 240 v plug, is … hot. And considering that much of the wiring in my house is 70 years old and not properly polarized, presumably they’d be in the habit of checking if a plug or wire is what the color says it is. (typically the color of the wire is correct but they’re connected to the wrong pole on the plug because “back in the day” plugs were not polarized).

The electrician cheaped out and put a medium quality NEMA 6-20 plug in which I’ll eventually replace with a clipper creek lcs-20, but considering that I use the whole thing 2 times every 3 months anyhow, I’m not really all that worried. Even if my workplace charging situation changed, or if my commute changed, or if my wife got an EV, I believe that 20a/240 would cover the vast majority of my needs

This is my long-winded way of saying “hey — not everyone lives in an 8 year old house in phoenix with a 500a panel. Sometimes it is very expensive to add new wiring. Like, really really expensive. And it turns out that maybe not everyone needs to add 300 miles to their car overnight every night.”