Let’s be real for a second: nobody wants to sit around and wait hours and hours for their electric vehicle to charge. The fear of long charging times, along with nowhere to actually do it, is what scares many people away from owning an EV. And certainly, the time it takes to charge from a standard wall outlet—which might take anywhere from 60 to 200 hours depending on the car—isn’t very encouraging.
Most EV owners plug in at home and use faster Level 2 chargers to get juiced up in a matter of hours, not days. Others rely on public DC fast charging, whether regularly or on road trips, to recharge in mere minutes. Yet all EVs can also plug into a standard 120-volt wall outlet. But what good is that, really?
It’s actually very good, believe it or not. I found this out during my road trip out to the far West Texas desert in a 2025 Rivian R1T. That experience convinced me that so-called Level 1 charging, the slowest form of EV charging there is, can be an immensely useful tool—if you use it correctly.
In fact, wall charging saved my bacon on this trip. I’ll tell you why.
(Full Disclosure: Rivian loaned me an R1T for a road trip over the 2024 winter holidays.)
Over the holidays, I drove about 400 miles from San Antonio to the remote town of Marfa, Texas near the Mexican border. As you might guess, there aren’t many EV charging options out that way. One hotel near the house where I was staying had a Level 2 charger, but it was for guests only and I wasn’t staying there. I probably could’ve talked my way into borrowing it a few times, but didn’t want to take advantage.
Photo by: Patrick George
No, I don’t normally park like this. But there was nobody around.
My best bet was a Tesla Supercharger station in the town of Alpine, which I used quite often on this trip thanks to the adapter Rivian included. But that was 30 miles away before any highway range losses, and in the opposite direction of all the things I enjoy doing out in Marfa. In short, depending on that meant a range hit almost as soon as I drove away from the parking lot.
Luckily for me, Rivian also included a portable wall charger. I decided to throw the R1T on that when it was parked in the driveway. Lo and behold, it was just what I needed.
Level 1 Charging: What To Expect
A standard 120-volt wall outlet typically provides 1 to 2 kilowatts (kW) of electricity. That translates to about three to five miles of range per hour.
On a 149-kilowatt-hour battery pack (with 140 kWh usable) like my R1T Dual Motor Max Pack tester, you’d be looking at around 30 to 40 hours to charge from 20% to 80% capacity, depending on the speed. Around 2 kilowatts of electricity for each kilowatt-hour of battery capacity, best-case scenario. Makes sense, right?
That’s a lot less than my own home ChargePoint Level 2 charger, which runs a steady output of 7.2 kW. That means it can charge my Kia EV6, with its 77.4 kWh battery, from 0% to 100% in around 10 hours, though my typical time is around five or six hours. I’ve never run that car all the way down to 0%, and I don’t intend to ever do that.
Photo by: Patrick George
So if you’re new to EVs, you may scoff at Level 1 wall charging as being too slow. But remember this: What is your car doing most of the time? Well, it’s just sitting there parked.
Since it’s just sitting there, that means you can “refuel” it. This is a kind of secret superpower for EVs that few people talk about. With a gas-powered car, you have to drive somewhere and get gas. With an EV, for the 95% of the time the car is parked, it can be recharging its battery so long as it’s near an outlet.
Photo by: Patrick George
This was extremely useful to me. On my trip, I wasn’t driving all of the time. I was walking around town, seeing the sights, eating and drinking with family and friends or taking photos. Like any car does, the R1T just sat there a good amount of the day. I figured I might as well keep it charging while it was stationary.
That paid off handsomely. Just from the wall outlet, I was adding about 30 to 40 miles of extra range per day, much of it done in the evenings and overnight when I was sleeping. I never ran the Rivian down to 0% so I didn’t have to start from scratch. And I always had some juice in the system from that Tesla Supercharger. The wall outlet just ensured that I had more than enough range to cover most of my daily activities and errands.
I have found that EV charging is typically less of a “now it’s empty, so I must fill it up” proposition like it is for gas-powered cars. It’s more about getting the range you need for exactly what you need. I didn’t need the R1T to be “full” every day; I needed enough range to comfortably cover my driving. Using the wall outlet gave me a great daily buffer until I had to go back to the Tesla Supercharger station. With EVs, you start thinking more strategically about your energy use. That’s not a bad thing.
That extra 30 to 40 miles from daily wall charging powered a lot of my trip. It’s why there’s also a not-insignificant number of EV owners out there who only use Level 1 wall charging for the job. My colleague Kevin Williams has written about this extensively; he’s an apartment-dweller and uses slower charging with great frequency.
Think about people who own a smaller EV with a smaller battery, or who have an EV as a second or third car primarily for around-town errands. Why would you not use a wall outlet, especially when you don’t need something as fast or as costly as a Level 2 home charger?
For me, at least, I do enough driving at home that a Level 2 charger is a necessity. I think living solely with Level 1 charging wouldn’t really suit my needs. But now, I think of it instead as another tool—a very powerful and convenient tool—in my arsenal. This is especially true on road trips and vacations. If you’re going to a new place and you aren’t guaranteed to have tons of fast charging options along the way, I would very strongly recommend bringing a portable wall charger. Even if it’s not the fastest option, it’s better than nothing and may keep you from real trouble.
I’ll add the typical caveats here and say that it’s imperative to make sure the electrical system you’re charging from is safe, modern, robust and able to handle the load. If you’re renting an Airbnb, definitely check with the hosts to see if EV charging is cool (and it probably won’t hit their electric bill all that much.)
Some manufacturers advise against using an extension cord for this sort of thing. Extension cords on any long-duration, high-draw application can be problematic. While an industrial-grade, low-gauge extension cord would be best here, I recommend always defaulting to what your owner’s manual says—or if you have further concerns, talk to an electrician about the best course of action for longer cords. Don’t just assume you can plug and play with any extension cord lying around. Level 1 charging can certainly help keep you on the road, but burning out a charger or starting a fire will turn this solution into a bigger problem.
So long as you can do it safely, do not rule out Level 1 wall charging, especially on your next EV road trip. Always remember: if it’s parked, maybe it can be plugged in somewhere.
Photo by: Patrick George
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