Review: Emporia 48-amp NACS EV Charger Does That Special Tesla Trick

Emporia is one of our favorite electric vehicle supply equipment companies. The company’s J-plug-style 48-amp level 2 wall-mounted EV charger has become the literal standard by which we judge all other chargers we test. We use the charger for our media vehicle testing, and find ourselves frequently comparing it mentally to the new EV chargers we test on a regular basis. Now, Emporia is making this charger with the NACS Tesla-style connection.

Read Our Full Review of the J-Plug Emporia Charger

The Neat Tesla Trick
One of many reasons we feel that Tesla vehicles are the easiest to charge is the operator need not open the charge bay door. One simple waves the NACS charging handle close to the charge door of the Tesla and the little charge door automagically opens. We are thrilled to report that the Emporia charger can do this trick! We verified it ourselves. Here is a quick TikTok video showing it in operation. 

Black or White, App Or Manual, Plug-in or Hard-Wired
The Emporia 48-amp wall-mounted charger is a very easy to live with EV chargers. We found installation to be super simple. From unboxing to charging is under 15 minutes and you only need a cordless screwdriver and drill bit. The unit is available in either black or white. Choose whichever suits your taste. We have one of each.

The Emporia EV charger can also be hard-wired to a 60-amp circuit and provide up to 48-amps to the vehicle, or it can be ordered with a plug-end and be used with a NEMA 14-50 socket. In our images you will see that we opted for the plug-in version. We don’t recommend that. We chose it since we test different EV chargers frequently and it is much easier to plug it in than to hard-wire. However, there are numerous advantages to having an electrician hard-wire the unit for you.

Simple App
One of the things we love most about the Emporia units is that the app is very simple to load and use. It words great with our Samsung Galaxy S24, and worked with our older phone as well. Even better, if you just want to use it manually with no app integration, you can. 

Quality and Safety
The Emporia units are clearly made to a high standard of quality. During our initial installation, we dropped the charging handle on the concrete floor twice accidentally, and it was not damaged in any way. The Emporia unit is also UL-listed, and Emporia provides that certification document to its customers. 

Differences Between J-Plug and NACS
Other than the color and the charging handle one difference we noted between our two Emporia test units is the cable. The NACS cable is thinner and easier to manage. Also, the handle holder is different. Both work equally well. You can see the differences in our side-by-side image.

Pricing - Emporia NACS 48-amp EV Charger
Emporia’s EV charger is available at the very competitive cost of $399. This is a tremendous value given all of the features offered based on our close examination of competitive products. 

Conclusion - Emporia NACS EV Charger
Like its J-plug counterpart, the Emporia NACS 48-amp charger is a very high-quality unit that we find to be among the very best on the market today. Those looking for a wall-mounted EV charger with up to 48-amps of current delivery would be wise to put it at the top of their list of considerations. 
 

Image Note: You may notice that the protective film remains on some of the images we offer. We leave that film in place so that the unit can be sent to other testers without risk of damage. 

Author Note: This is not an advertisement. Torque News does not accept payment of any kind for the reviews we conduct. We do accept demonstration units at no charge from manufactuers. Following our testing, we offer to return the units loaned to us, or we pass them along to our colleagues for them to review. 

Special Thanks: Tesla does not support the automotive media. Therefore, we borrowed a Tesla Model 3 from Shivani Shah-Raghavan for our testing. We are thankful to be blessed with such generous neighbors. 

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John Goreham is an experienced New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. In addition to his eleven years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on Linkedin and follow his work at our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John's by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ Grammarly grammar and punctuation software when proofreading. 

Image. of Emporia 48-amp NACS EV charger by John Goreham.