MSI EVSE EZgo review

I recently took delivery of a lovely Zeekr 7x earlier this month, however what wasn't so lovely was the fact that a customs issue meant that I had to drive home without a single way to recharge the car at home. So when the good folks at MSI put out a call for reviewers for their MSI EVSE EZgo charger, I leapt at the chance. For some background my house is a single phase and I only have a 10A GPO in the garage. I have solar and Sigenergy batteries.

The carry bag was quite light, measuring around 36cm square and 13cm deep. At a guess, it weighed around 4kg. It would be very easy to load and fit in the front trunk of any EV.  Inside, everything was neatly arranged with plastic protecting things from scratching each other.

And here is what was actually included: The charger unit (IP66 rated) with a Type 2 CCS connector (5m cable length) Two tails. A 10A and a 15A which both connect via a collar that twists to lock. A hook that you can install onto your garage wall to take up the cable slack. A holder you can install to mount the charger unit. Hardware to mount both of the above. A quick start guide. A warranty card (the unit has a 2 year warranty). And lastly, the bag itself of course.

--- The charging unit has a nice, bright screen that displays the charging time, voltage, charged voltage (kWh), charger temperature and current. There is a big blue LED that indicates the status of the charger. e.g. "filling" like a loading bar for charging status. It can also go red if anything goes wrong. The bottom left "A" allows you to change the current setting.  You can cycle between 8A, 12A, 16A, 24A, 32A, and finally 40A. The bottom right clock allows you to delay the charging, handy for those who want to be able to plug the unit into their EV at night and go to sleep without having to manually turn it on when cheap overnight electricity rates kick in.  You can only delay the charging in increments of 1 hour. Note: Both current and time settings need to be set before plugging in the unit to your EV. 

--- I also linked the charger to their app which is called MSI aConnect. This was quite fast and painless, taking probably no more than a minute. Once connected and charging, you can view: Charging energy: this is how many kWh the charger has currently fed to the EV. Charging power: the amount of instantaneous kW the charger is supplying. Charging time: how long the unit has been charging for. Charging current: the current it is charging at. In this case, it has been set for 8A and is charging at 7.8A. Charging voltage: the voltage it is charging at. You can also remotely stop and start the charging via the big green button at the bottom which is a great feature for the purposes of safety or even laziness.  Also buried within the app is the ability to set a schedule to charge via a 7 day calendar .There was also a page to view your charge history and a page to analyse the exact amount of kWh charged over time.

--- So overall, how is the MSI EVSE EZgo? The hardware itself is high quality and easy to use. The 5m cable length means it can extend the full length of any car, should your GPO be in one corner of the garage and your EV charging door be in the other corner of the same wall. It comes with a nice carry case and thoughtful extras like both a mount for the charging unit as well as a hook to take up the cable slack, not to mention the mounting hardware too, saving you from a trip to Bunnings. It would have been nice to have the timer delay work in smaller time increments like 30 or even 15 minutes. The charging unit has 90 degree celsius overheat protection which will cause the circuit to shut off, a major tick for those nervous about charging EVs at home. IP66 rating is nice icing on the cake meaning you can use it outside in the rain without fear. App connectivity was great and worked without a hitch. It was good to see how many kWh had been transferred in real-time via the app. If your EV doesn't come with an app (Skoda and Jaecoo, I'm looking at you), this feature will be a godsend for tracking your battery charge amount remotely without you having to go up to your car and peer through the driver side window. In my case, even when Zeekr finally gives me the charger that is meant to come with the 7x, I'm definitely going to stick with the MSI EVSE EZgo. It has many more great features and inclusions like supplied mounts and hardware and great app connectivity and control versus the basic Zeekr one. If you're looking for a no fuss granny charger that can pretty much do it all, you'll be pretty much covered by the EZgo. --- I received this product as a free sample from MSI EVSE in exchange for my honest review.