Wallbox Pulsar Plus 48 Amp Hardwired EVSE — CleanTechnica Review
The EV charging geniuses at Wallbox have been building up their residential EV charging lineup over the last few years and recently rolled out a higher amperage 48 amp version of the Pulsar Plus.
The new version carries forward the same compact form factor and ditches the wall plug for a hard wired connection into the home in order to achieve the higher power rating. They sent us one to install and play with for a few weeks. After a few weeks of testing, we’re back to talk about how it performed and how it compares to the other home EVSEs on the market.
Disclaimer: Wallbox sent us the hardwired version of the Wallbox Pulsar Plus free of charge for the purposes of this review.
Installation
Installing the Wallbox Pulsar Plus wired version is about as easy as it gets for a wired charger. Before we dive it, it’s worth restating the obvious: we are not electricians and as such, we highly recommend having this or any EVSE installed by a licensed and bonded electrician. The installation starts by mounting the wallplate to the wall with a few mounting screws. We locked ours directly into a stud and as a unit that’s on the small side, it was plenty secure.
To get the unit connected to power, we started by pulling the faceplate off the unit. It comes off easily by removing 5 torx screws and giving it a gentle tug. Opening the unit reveals the power electronics of the unit and the faceplate with a simple ribbon cable connecting everything together. Pulling up on the ribbon cable disconnects the faceplate from the main unit, minimizing the potential for damage while connecting it to power.
For our review unit, we wired the Pulsar Plus directly into a dedicated 50 amp circuit in the garage with some 6 gauge wire. Per the general guidelines for EV charging, a charging circuit should only be used at 80% of its total capacity so we’re limited to pulling 40 amps on this circuit.
Thankfully, both the hardwired and the plugged version of the Wallbox Pulsar Plus can be throttled down to lower power levels two different ways. Internally, a series of dip switches lets the owner set the charger to a lower power level at a hardware level at the time of installation. After installation, the charger can be dialed back to a lower power level from the app.
The Wallbox app sports a little digital dial in the app that makes it easy to dial back the power output of the Pulsar Plus with just a quick slide of a finger. In the photo above, we throttled our Pulsar Plus back from its rated capacity of 48 amps down to just 40 amps.
Charging
Using the charger can be as simple as plugging in and walking away. That’s 99% of the base use case for residential EVSEs and the same holds true for the Wallbox Pulsar Plus 48A. One of the huge bonuses it packs over the competition is the ability to really crank out the power, up to 48 amps. That translates to faster charging times and more flexibility for whatever cars might find themselves parked in your garage in the years to come.
The Pulsar Plus offers far more than just a plug and play EV charger, though you can simply install it and get to charging if that’s what you’re looking for. Looking under the digital hood of the Pulsar Plus 48A, the smartphone app unlocks a ton of additional features that extend its functionality and might even save you some money.
The app uses your smartphone to connect to the charger via bluetooth. After the initial connection, you’re able to add it to your home wifi network for connectivity on the go. Doing this allows Wallbox to push software updates to the unit, adding new functionality over time as the electricity market evolves, vehicles change, and other local features.
The Wallbox Pulsar Plus 48A adds hard wired installation capability to the Wallbox charging lineup and increases the peak charging output. We love that it is so compact and feature rich, thanks to its connectivity and the Wallbox app that adds meaningful capability to it.
The Pulsar Plus 48A retails for $699 and is available from a range of online retailers or directly from Wallbox at Wallbox.com. Stop by their official website for all juicy details about the Pulsar Plus 48A, manuals, documentation, and photos of much more beautiful people than me looking far too excited about plugging in their electric vehicle.
Specs
- Charger: AC Level 2
- Rated Current: 48A
- Maximum Power: 11.5 kW
- Connector: SAE J1772
- Dimensions (without cable): 7.8”x7.9”x3.9”
- Cable: 25ft (7.6m)
- Power Input: Hardwired
- Current Range: from 16A to 48A
- Connectivity: Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
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