Got three quotes for an EV charger and they're all over the place
Quote from Yasmin Penrose on September 22, 2026, 5:00 amWe're picking up a used Leaf next month for my commute and I figured getting a Level 2 charger installed would be the easy part. I was wrong. First quote came in at a number that made me laugh out loud, second guy said he could do it cheap but then started backpedaling when I asked about permits, and the third one told me I might need a panel upgrade but couldn't really explain why. Now I'm sitting here with three wildly different estimates and no idea who to believe. I started reading up on EV charger and electrical panel services in Palo Alto because I want to understand what actually matters here, like load calculations and whether my old 100 amp panel is really a dealbreaker. Has anyone else gone through this? How did you figure out which quote was legit and which one was just guessing? I'm fine paying for quality work but I don't want to get fleeced because I don't know the difference between a real upgrade and an upsell. Any advice would be appreciated before I just pick the middle number and hope for the best.
We're picking up a used Leaf next month for my commute and I figured getting a Level 2 charger installed would be the easy part. I was wrong. First quote came in at a number that made me laugh out loud, second guy said he could do it cheap but then started backpedaling when I asked about permits, and the third one told me I might need a panel upgrade but couldn't really explain why. Now I'm sitting here with three wildly different estimates and no idea who to believe. I started reading up on EV charger and electrical panel services in Palo Alto because I want to understand what actually matters here, like load calculations and whether my old 100 amp panel is really a dealbreaker. Has anyone else gone through this? How did you figure out which quote was legit and which one was just guessing? I'm fine paying for quality work but I don't want to get fleeced because I don't know the difference between a real upgrade and an upsell. Any advice would be appreciated before I just pick the middle number and hope for the best.