Juice Technology’s EV chargers are a little different, and the Swiss firm’s motivation comes from the most recognisable inspiration – solving an incomplete product. Inspired by the lack of a charging cable with a Tesla, founder Christoph Erni has gone on to look for the missing links in electric car design. The Juice Booster 2 is arguably the most obvious one; it looks like a replacement for your car’s 13A domestic charger, but it is in fact, a wall box you can take anywhere, ready to adapt to whatever power source is available – and of course, built to the safe, robust standards expected of Swiss engineering.
It’s not cheap, but it’s cheaper than buying both a wall box and a domestic charger. The Juice Booster 2 can deliver up to 22kWh on location – if you find the electricity supply – and it's perfect for long-range plug-in hybrid SUVs and GTs, or electric motorhomes, as well as electric cars.
Score: 5/5
Verdict: Juice Booster 2 is an innovative charger that means you can take your home charger with you
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Pros
- Exceptional built quality
- Genuinely useful innovation
Cons
- Adaptors sold separately
Quick verdict: Juice Booster 2
If you’re serious about road trips in your EV the Juice Booster 2 is an essential gadget – but buy it before you get that cheap wallbox fitted. For home charging you can get a wall bracket and a lock (you can also get a box for it to live in) and simply pay your electrician to provide a suitable 16-32A outlet depending on the supply at your home and office. It’s unobtrusive and it’s easy to pack up and take on the road, replacing both your regular Type 2 cable and your domestic charger (which may be a cost accessory on your PHEV or EV).
It comes into its own when touring, camping (where it can use camping site hookups) or working on plug-in and electric vehicles, as your workshop’s three-phase supply can quickly be used for faster charging. It lacks smart capabilities, but those are available in the Juice Booster 3 Air which trades RFID/wireless control for a reduced 11kWh maximum charge.
It sounds a bit like a gimmick, but it’s not. This is a genuinely clever piece of design that benefits EVs and plug-in hybrids alike. It looks like a temporary charger, but it should be top of your list when buying a wall box.
Full review: Juice Technology Juice Booster 2
What is the Juice Booster 2?
Usually, your electric vehicle will come with one or two cables, a Type 2 lead for connecting to public and home wall boxes for higher rates of charging, and a 13A (10A rate) domestic cable with a three-pin plug for slower charging via typical household plugs.
Occasionally the domestic cable is an accessory costing around £250-300 for manufacturer-approved ones, with ‘unbranded’ third-party types around £200: this is where the Juice Booster concept becomes really interesting.
The Juice Booster 2 looks like one of those domestic chargers, except the mains power is interchangeable for connection to a variety of domestic and industrial power supplies. You can swap the three-pin plug for international ones, sure – but you can also swap it for 32A three-phase or 16A campsite sockets. That would be overkill if this were a mere domestic charger with swappable ends, but it’s not; it’s a fully-fledged wall box you can take with you.
Better yet, it’s no bigger than a typical ‘soap on a rope’ unit, yet can deliver 22kWh rather than the 2.2-2.7kWh you’re limited to with a typical portable charger (as long as you have access to the right power source).
It's not app enabled, you don’t need to register it, download anything or update firmware. Just fit the cable adaptor you need, plug it into the power socket and the car, and enable charging. It checks that earthing and safety features are operational and has the advantage of being IP67 rated, so should withstand a monsoon, let alone a spot of rain.
It’s also rated as being able to survive being driven over by 3 tonnes; I’m not sure I want to try this out, but it should mean that at campsites and similar locations it’ll be alright if a neighbour drives over it and squashes it into damp mud, for example.
What’s in the Juice Booster 2 package?
As supplied you get the Juice Booster 2 in a well-designed and nicely flat carry case, one 32A three-phase connector for full-current charging at 22kWh if you can find an appropriate source, and the temperature-sensing UK or European plug for domestic charging. Temperature sensing is important, it ensures safety should the connection or environment you’ve plugged into cause overheating due to bad terminals or inadequate wiring.
Accessory cables are around £68-89 depending on the retailer, and these are available for 16A three-phase (400V) and both 32A and 16A single-phase 230V, as well as most international plug styles. You can also get an extension cable suitable for the maximum current, and a few other gadgets like a wall hanger and security lock.
While three-phase is a relatively unusual feature for home charging, having a 32A 230V socket installed is often considerably cheaper (and less intrusive) than a wall box installation. That will allow the Juice Booster 2 to charge compatible vehicles at 7kWh.
Finally, there is an optional connector to convert the Juice Booster 2 into a replacement for your public charging lead. This is a slightly bulkier solution, but it does mean carrying one long lead and a couple of adaptors instead of multiple long cables, and you can switch it for a Type 3 connector in countries such as France where these are common. The alternative connector is less bulky than a conventional converter here.
The charging unit and several adaptors fit comfortably in the provided case, and it has stiff sides and a flat design meaning it’s as unobtrusive as it can be. If you want to check if it’ll fit in your frunk, it’s 75cm x 65cm and about 16cm deep. What that is unlikely to hold is the extension cable if you need more reach, though.
How well does the Juice Booster 2 work?
As a replacement for the standard domestic charger, it’s pretty good. It looks robust, has plenty of lights to look impressive (most of which are concerned with safety, rather than telling you anything about charging – a contrast to the cheap-and-cheerful cables you can buy from random brands, which often exceed the UK limits for charging and tell you so with little OLED displays).
It can be set to adhere to the charging and electrical compliance for different countries – such as limiting the current draw on a domestic plug to 10A rather than the maximum rating of 13A (hence why we have 2.2kWh, not 3kWh chargers).
If you do have a higher output system, it’s as easy as plugging in a domestic plug. Want to use three phase? Just connect the adaptor before connecting everything to the car, there’s nothing else to be done – it’ll deliver the most your car can handle.
It’s not really ‘boosting’ the charge though, is it?
Okay, no, it’s not doing anything like that. It’s just a name. The point is that it’s the price of a good wall box, but with much cheaper installation and the ability to take it with you – effectively replacing or providing a backup for the manufacturer's domestic plug charger and your charging cable in one package.
One ring (main) to rule them all, so to speak. Speaking of mains, the Juice Booster 2’s safety systems mean it doesn’t need Class B or Class A (EV) RCDs fitting to the distribution board, which can save money compared with installing a fixed wall box.
The Juice Phaser – a real boost for charging 3.7kW cars
But wait. There IS a booster in the range, and it’s a clever little thing. It isn’t cheap, and it’s for a very specific application, but if you’re stuck with a slow-charging PHEV or EV it may be of interest. If you do have access to a three-phase supply but your car only supports single phase (3.7kW charging), the Juice Phaser safely and legally balances the load to allow a greater current, about 5.8kW, without upgrading the car.
A significant upgrade to charging rate, and of course it’s a plug-in part of the system so it can be disconnected when charging cars with faster on-board support.
Verdict: great value if you're considering a wall box
The Juice Booster 2 is what every EV should come with as standard. Well-engineered, usefully versatile and compliant across multiple power sources and countries, it feels built to last the life of the car and provides access to the fastest possible AC charging for any given standard and supply.
The wall mounting is unobtrusive and non-destructive if you want a home wall box, and for cars parked on the road, the Juice Booster 2 could allow simple measures like installing 16A ‘camping’ sockets on lamp posts (or even 32A ones) to provide access to on-street charging without trailing cables – that also saves the expense (and maintenance costs) of fitting a full charger into the street furniture, so it's worth looking at if you're considering barn conversions or building on your own land for resale or holiday let purposes.
You could even keep one as a device to lend to Air BnB users, with a tether, as the Juice Booster 2 has enough robustness to deal with pretty much any weather or the occasional act-of-ASBOness.
However, if you’re looking at it purely as a replacement for your Type 2 cable and domestic charger it is expensive, and for international travel, there may be cheaper, less flexible alternatives. In this case, you get what you pay for.
Other versions of Juice Booster
For optimum flexibility, you can get the Juice Booster 2 Pro. This is considerably more expensive but allows conversion between Type 1 and 2 outputs to suit different cars. Juice Technology also make a portable DC charging station for workshops, and a compact, connected wall box; the same connected features are part of the Juice Booster 3 Air – which is limited to 7kWh, so lacks the outright versatility of the Juice Booster 2.