If one averages fewer than 40 miles per day Level 1 charging can certainly work fine. L1 recharges the car at roughly 4 miles of range per hour of charge. I was on L1 with my Volt for nearly 18 months.
A few things to consider:
- The car will max out the safe capability of a 15A 120V circuit as you can only legally continuously pull 80% of a circuit's capability to prevent a fire. The car should be the ONLY device drawing current on such a circuit during charging.
- L1 charging is less efficient than L2. There is a fixed overhead during charging of ~300W used by the car for cooling, electronics, etc. A 12A continuous, L1 can provide 1.44 kW of power. Minus the overhead, you're looking at ~1.1 kW net to the car's actual battery pack. The ratio is much more favorable at L2 as the Soul can draw 7.2 kW from an L2 EVSE (30A @ 240V) so you get a net 6.9 kW into the pack. So if you're recharging at L1 for ten hours to recover 40 miles of driving, you're going to "lose" 3 kWh to charging losses. At L2, the same 40 mile recovery will take two hours and "lose" 0.6 kWh.
- The L1 outlet should be a modern commercial grade piece and should not use "stab" connectors as it may overheat and cause a fire. The car's charge cable should not be repeatedly plugged and unplugged from the outlet as it will weaken the connection over time, increase resistance, and overheat. It should almost always remain static, plugged into the outlet even when not in use. Periodically (monthly?), the outlet should be inspected after several hours of charging to make sure it isn't getting hot. An hour of an electrician's time to install an industrial 120V outlet with no stab connectors is cheap insurance.
- While many EVs top out at 12A on a 120V circuit the Soul may be able to charge at up to 16A on a 120V circuit like the i3 or Model S. This is a bigger deal than it sounds because of that fixed overhead mentioned before. At 16A/120V you're pulling 1.92 kW from the wall and will get ~1.6 kW to the pack instead of 1.1 kW, almost a 50% increase in charging speed. Something like this http://www.clippercreek.com/store/product/charging-station-acs-20-level-1-permanent-install/ would do 15A or 1.8 kW. Generally upgrading a 120V 15A feed to 20A is a matter of an electrician's inspection and a breaker/outlet change if the wiring is capable.
-Even though you've got only a 120V supply running to your garage, the same wiring may be capable of handling 240V at 12A (2.9 kW) if the breaker and outlets are upgraded. Consult an electrician. If so, this is a cheap way of getting L2 in your garage and there are EVSEs just for this situation, such as http://www.clippercreek.com/store/product/charging-station-lcs-15-level-2/ As a matter of fact, the Soul's included charge cable is capable of being upgraded to 12A/240V for a modest fee at http://evseupgrade.com/?main_page=product_info&cPath=9&products_id=30 If the existing wiring is up to it, your outlet would be changed to an L6-20 240V 15A (max, 12A continuous) outlet and you could just use what comes with the car. Consult your electrician as I think this is your best potential bang for the buck.
