There are actually lots of ways to live with an electric vehicle even if you don’t have access to a home Level 2 charger. But in general, if you can install a home plug, you’d be kind of crazy not to. Of all the benefits to going electric, that one is probably the strongest.
Evidently, more and more EV drivers are figuring this out. Charging installation giant Qmerit told InsideEVs that the first quarter of 2025 was the best one in the company’s nine-year history for home charger hook-ups in North America. In fact, installations even went up 57% compared to the final quarter of 2024.
Those results mirror the EV sales growth seen in the United States over the past few months, even as many experts predicted a downturn if tax credits were to go away. They have not yet, and many customers could be rushing to buy new cars before any tariffs go into effect. But no matter the reason they’re buying cars, they’re turning to home plugs more and more as part of the deal, Qmerit Chief Operating Officer Oliver Phillips said in an email.
“Once they experience the convenience of home charging, of waking up every morning with a fully charged vehicle, then that sows the seeds for more acceptance,” Phillips said.
Photo by: Hyundai
Qmerit declined to offer the exact number of installations it performed in Q1, but said that they happened across a wide swath of the U.S. and not just a few electric-friendly states. “Our numbers not only signal that EVs can grow, but that they can cross geographic and ideological boundaries,” Phillips said. “EVs can represent the next chapter in that story as charging becomes more reliable, home-based and streamlined.”
Qmerit is one of a growing field of companies that offers full-service EV charger installation, from home assessment to permitting to the job itself. That process can sometimes be a complex and onerous one, especially if electrical work is needed that a contractor isn’t familiar with.
But Qmerit may want to thank the car companies for getting their acts together here above all.
For the longest time, automakers wanted to focus solely on making electric cars while other companies handled everything else. They never had to get into the gas station business, for example, and few wanted to deal with the potential liabilities involved with a home installation.
Now, however, more and more of them are realizing they need to make charging easy from the get-go, and that includes throwing in a home charger—and sometimes helping with or covering install costs—when the car is purchased. Several automakers offer this now, including General Motors, Honda, Ford, Hyundai and others. Many will partner directly with Qmerit for this service, while others simply refer new EV drivers to the company.
Most EV drivers charge their cars at home. But in recent years, as automakers sweetened purchases with deals around free public fast-charging, many of them treated those as replacement gas stations instead—leading to long lines at chargers when they could be doing it at home more easily and cheaply. The emphasis finally seems to be shifting to home chargers instead, and that’s the better way to go for anyone with a garage and a panel.
“The power of partnerships is reflected in these numbers,” Phillips said. “We are working creatively with automakers and dealers to reduce the friction in acquiring home charging—to make it a less expensive, more embedded part of the car-buying experience.”
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com
