Type 2 Cables & Portable EVSE (Australia)

Go the 7m if you're not guaranteed the closest bay. Learned this exact lesson — bought a 5m first, then had someone else take the near spot two nights running and I was reversing on an angle just to make the plug reach. Buy the length for the parking you'll actually get, not the parking you're hoping for.

Before deciding on length alone, ask what amp rating both cables actually hold once you're at 7m versus 5m. Some ranges quietly step down to a lighter gauge core on the longer option to keep the price sane, which means more voltage drop over that extra run, not just a longer cord for the same money.

Five months on a 5m here, on-street parking the whole time, never once caught short. Not paying an extra $150 chasing a problem I haven't actually had yet.

Same boat, still borrowing a mate's cable.

Would that actually show up on the listing somewhere, or do I need to message the seller directly and ask for the gauge on the 7m version specifically?

Don't treat whatever's in the boot as a 'free portable charger' without checking it first, that's the bit that catches people out. Seen a few mystery-brand units with the plug moulded on badly, no RCM tick anywhere, no rated amperage on the housing itself. If you end up buying your own, budget for something properly certified rather than the cheapest listing you find.

Same story with a lot of the sub-$40k Chinese brands this year, MG's not unusual here. Difference between dealers is what they'll actually organise if you push — some will source a granny charger through parts if you ask specifically, rather than asking 'aftersales' in general and getting nowhere.

Is there a specific marking or brand I should be looking for so I don't end up with one of the dodgy ones you're describing?

Look for the RCM tick and a proper AS/NZS 3112 plug moulded on, not glued or crimped on separately afterward. If the box or the unit itself doesn't list an amp rating anywhere, skip it regardless of price.

Does it matter if it's rated the same 10A as whatever the dealer would've given me, or should I actually be looking at something like the MSI EzGo people mention in the portable charger threads?

Car negotiates the rate down to whatever it can take regardless, so buy for the GPO circuit you'll actually be plugging into, not the car's spec sheet. A 10A certified unit is plenty if that's what the outlet and circuit can safely carry.

Went through the exact same thing with mine, cable only, no granny charger in the boot. Ended up just buying one off the shelf at Autobarn the same week. Wasn't the cheapest option going but I could see it in person and ask questions instead of guessing off a listing.

Mine did the same, no charger either.

Wouldn't bother chasing the dealer for it honestly. Mine tried for two weeks to get parts to sort a charger, gave up, just bought my own and got on with it.

Worth pricing the public AC charging against a granny charger before deciding it's urgent. Went a few weeks cable-only using the chargers near the servo in town and it wasn't as inconvenient as I expected, just meant charging became a Tuesday errand instead of an overnight thing.

Does the manual actually say anywhere that a granny charger isn't included, or is it just missing with no explanation at all? Trying to work out if this is a documented omission or just inconsistent delivery prep before I buy.

Nothing about it either way in the manual, that's what threw me in the first place. Just assumed it'd be standard like it apparently isn't.

If you're not buying a granny charger straight away, get in the habit of carrying the Type 2-to-Type 2 cable everywhere anyway, not leaving it in the boot for road trips only. It's the one thing standing between you and a public AC charger with nothing supplied.

Could I actually run on just public AC charging full time though, or is that only realistic as a short-term gap while I sort out something for home?

Full time is realistic if you've got a decent AC network nearby, that's basically my whole setup. Slower than a granny charger overnight, but fine if you're not doing huge daily kms and can plan around it.

Wild this isn't just included already.

Run a 7.5m for exactly this reason, been carrying it across a few different carparks for two years now. 5m catches you out the moment the charger's mounted at the far end of the bay instead of the middle, which happens more than you'd expect in older commercial buildings. 10m's overkill for anything except really wide or angled bays.

Weight difference between 5m and 10m in the same gauge is more than people assume once you're carrying it daily, not just occasionally. A properly rated 10m in decent copper is a genuine few kilos. Living in the frunk full-time, that's dead weight on every single drive, not just charging days.

Did you actually go out and measure reach distances across a few different bays first, or was 7.5m more something you landed on by trial and error over time?

Trial and error, first cable I bought was a 5m and it caught me out twice in one month. Bought the 7.5m straight after and haven't had an issue since across four different buildings.

Carry a 10m myself but that's touring gear, different use case to a daily work carpark — I need it reaching from odd angles at caravan parks and roadhouses, not just a marked bay. For a fixed commute carpark I'd go shorter, no reason to lug touring-length cable for a predictable spot every day.

Wish my building had any of these.

A few kilos sitting in a frunk isn't going to touch range or handling, feels like overthinking a boot item to me. Weight's a bigger deal on the car itself, not what's parked in storage.

Wasn't talking about range, just that it's genuinely annoying to lug in and out if you ever do need to shift it, and that adds up daily rather than occasionally. Different complaint to the one you're answering.

Pulled the plug moulding off a cheap import portable last year after a customer's melted at the pins mid-charge — internal contacts were undersized for the rated current stamped on the casing. Not saying every import's like that, just the one job that's stuck with me since.

Does the MSI actually come with any kind of warranty here, or is that also a bit of a grey-import situation once something goes wrong?

AU-specific listings usually carry a local warranty through the distributor, worth confirming who that actually is before buying rather than assuming it's covered just because the brand name's known.

Worth naming names too — EzGo and the EO Mini both go through an actual AU distributor you can chase, which is more than you'll get out of most of the AliExpress listings if the unit ever fails outside whatever window they claim.

BYD/MG/GWM owners lean toward the EzGo or the EO Mini specifically because both have been reviewed enough in the local Facebook groups that there's an actual track record, not just a listing. Nothing wrong with cheaper imports in principle, just less of a paper trail if something goes wrong at 15A continuous.

Disagree that track record alone justifies 3x. Plenty of us are running budget imports fine for years — the failures people post about are the loud minority, not the median experience.

Sample bias runs both ways though — tradespeople mostly hear about the failures because that's what generates a service call. Doesn't make the failures rare, just means both sides are working off a skewed sample of the same market.

Ran a cheap import 15A for about a year up here before the enclosure started discolouring in the heat and I got nervous and binned it. No fault as such, just didn't trust it near a full wet season anymore. Cost me the 'savings' twice over buying a proper one after.

15A continuous for 8+ hours overnight is a genuinely different thermal load to what a lot of these cheaper units are actually tested at. Worth asking for the continuous rating specifically, not the peak rating on the listing, before comparing price per amp.

How would I actually find the continuous rating if the AliExpress listing only shows one number and doesn't say which one that is?

Message the seller and ask specifically for continuous versus peak, most won't have a proper answer ready. If they can't give you a straight number for 8-hour continuous draw, that's your answer already.

That 15A blue outlet you've got is the same AS/NZS 3123 plug half the caravan parks run on. Seen more than a few vanners turn up with a cheap import portable that trips the moment two sites draw at once. Doesn't say much about the cable, more about how thin some park wiring is, but worth knowing before you buy either unit.

Carry a certified one touring for exactly this reason — if a cheap import fails somewhere between Meekatharra and Newman, that's not a $500 mistake, that's a stranded-for-a-day mistake. Closer to town the stakes are lower, but I'd still rather pay once and stop thinking about it.

Still on my slow charger here.

Bought a cheap import for the Atto 3 about a year ago purely on price, no issues yet. Not saying I'd recommend it blind, just that mine's been fine so far for what that's worth.

That tracks with most of what I see too — budget imports running fine for the majority of owners, it's just the failures that get posted about, same point trent made above.

Does the 15A outlet in the shed need anything special done to it first, or can I just plug a certified 15A portable straight into whatever's already out there?

Depends on the outlet's age and what circuit it's actually on, same as any GPO question — a caravan-style 15A socket that's original and on its own circuit is usually fine, but get someone to check it before assuming, not after you've bought the portable.

Genuinely still not sure how much faster 15A actually feels day to day versus the 10A I'm on now — is it a noticeable difference overnight or more of a bigger-trip thing?

Roughly 3.6kW at 15A versus about 2.3kW at 10A, so around 50% more overnight. Noticeable if you're topping up a lot each night, less so if you're already finishing well before morning either way.

Wild this got so complicated.

It's very real for me, but I've got no home charger at all — live entirely off carrying my own cable to untethered public chargers. Any trip longer than a day and I hit at least one Type 2-only destination charger with no cable supplied. Less critical once home charging's sorted, but the first time you're standing there with nothing to plug in, you stop calling it a spec-sheet line.

Sparky's not wrong that it's the simpler install, there's genuinely less to go wrong long-term with a fixed cable — that's a legitimate reason on its own, not just him being lazy about the job. Whether that outweighs the portability upside is a personal call, not a safety one, so don't let him frame it like there's a single right answer here.

How often in practice though? Trying to work out if it's a genuine feature I'd use or a nice-to-have I'd reach for twice a year at most.

For me it's weekly because I've got no other option. For someone with a home charger already sorted, probably just road trips and the odd destination charger — a handful of times a year sounds about right, not weekly.

Half the destination chargers we've hit touring the east coast are untethered, no cable supplied at all. If you're planning any caravan or road trip life down the track, having your own cable in the boot's saved us more than once, tethered home setup or not.

Is there actually a price difference worth mentioning between the two versions of the Ocular unit, or is it the same box with a cable swapped in or out?

Small difference, usually under $100 between the tethered and untethered version of the same unit — same story with the Wallbox Pulsar, not just Ocular. Mostly a plug and enclosure change rather than different internals.