http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=5792
From that and similar threads on Teslas, the caveats seem to be:
- Need a sine wave generator vs the cheaper square wave ones.
- Some cars allow you to adjust the current draw to match lower output generators, some don't. Cheap generators probably don't output enough current.
- You have to tie neutral to ground and use a real ground rod.
Not that a pure sine wave generator isn't superior to noisy, cheap square wave 'inverters' or that grounding a charging EV is a bad idea, but that's the attitude I have picked up from seeing ground pins cut off of various farms and tools. I'm sure their EEs would make sure that the thing was double-insulated and otherwise capable of dealing with this need.
For a simple example of this, Tesla's mobile connector will signal different maximum currents depending on which outlet adapter you have on it. If you have a NEMA 14-50 adapter it'll tell the car to draw up to 40A, but if you swap in the NEMA 5-15 adapter it'll tell the car to only draw 12A.
That seems really weird; I'd expect that the big charging station you install in your garage would convert from home AC into some high-current DC. Batteries don't actually charge on AC, do they?
And their rectifiers expect nice sine waves.
The super charge ports (CHAdeMO/CCS/etc) use DC power and are basically direct hookups to the battery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHAdeMO