First: do you need to buy anything at all?
Toyota says the bZ ships with an “included portable dual-voltage charging cable” that gives you “Level 2 charging capabilities at home without needing additional charging hardware”. Read that carefully, because it is doing a lot of work: it means you can plug the car into a 240-volt outlet on day one, and it does notmean the included cable will draw 11 kW.
Toyota publishes no amperage for that cable on its bZ page. Dual-voltage travel cordsets in this class are typically 16 to 32 amps, which is 3.8 to 7.7 kW — well short of the car’s 11 kW ceiling. So the honest sequence is:
- If you already have a 240-volt outlet in the garage, use the included cable first. It costs nothing, it will add plenty overnight for a normal commute, and it tells you whether you actually need more.
- If you have no 240-volt outlet,you are hiring an electrician either way — and at that point a dedicated wall charger costs a few hundred dollars more than a bare receptacle while using all 11 kW. See plug-in vs hardwired and our installation cost guide.
- If you drive a lot or charge on a narrow overnight window, the 48/50-amp units at picks one and three are the only things on this page that use the whole onboard charger.
Why a native-NACS charger, and not a J1772 charger plus the adapter
Toyota ships a J1772 adapter in the car, so a J1772 wall charger genuinely works. We still rank NACS units first, for three reasons that have nothing to do with brand loyalty.
One: the adapter is the thing you need on the road. It is in the trunk for public J1772 stations. Leave it permanently clipped to the charger in your garage and it is not in the car on the day you need it.
Two: every adapter is one more connection. An adapter in a home charging stack adds two mated interfaces where there was one, and it hangs weight off the charge port. Our adapter safety guide makes the full argument: good adapters are safe, and the best place for one is still a public station rather than a nightly habit.
Three: it costs nothing to choose correctly. NACS versions of the chargers on this page sell for about the same as their J1772 siblings. When the native option is the same money, buying the one that matches the car is just tidier.
The published figures, side by side
Every number here is the manufacturer’s own. Where a cell says “Not published” it means we looked and the manufacturer does not state it.
| Charger | Max output | Install | Cord | Uses all 11 kW? |
|---|
| ChargePoint Home Flex NACS | 50 A | Hardwired | 23 ft | Yes |
| Grizzl-E Classic Connect 40A (NACS) | 40 A | Plug-in (NEMA 14-50) | 25 ft | No — 9.6 kW |
| Autel MaxiCharger Home NACS | 50 A (70 A circuit) | Hardwired | 25 ft | Yes |
| EVIQO NACS 40A | 40 A | Plug-in (NEMA 14-50) | 25 ft | No — 9.6 kW |
| Grizzl-E Mini Connect 40A (NACS) | 40 A | Portable, plug-in | 25 ft | No — 9.6 kW |
One footnote that matters more than it looks. Autel’s own store page publishes a 70-amp circuitfor full 50-amp output — not the 60 A most buyers assume, because a 50-amp continuous load sized at 125% is 62.5 A and the next standard breaker up is 70 A. On a 100- or 125-amp service that is often the difference between an afternoon and a service upgrade. Our Autel vs ChargePoint comparison works that question properly, and best for a 100-amp panel is the page to read if your panel is the constraint.
What about 9.6 kW versus 11 kW in practice?
The gap is 1.4 kW, which is roughly 15% of the car’s AC capability. Toyota publishes “around seven hours” for 10% to 100% at 11 kW; the same charge at 9.6 kW takes roughly eight. For almost everybody that is the difference between finishing at 2 a.m. and finishing at 3 a.m., which is to say no difference at all.
So buy 48 or 50 amps if the circuit is easy and you charge on a tight window. Buy 40 amps if the panel is tight, if you want a plug-in unit you can take with you, or if you simply do not want to pay for a bigger feed. Our 40A vs 48A page has the full arithmetic, and amps and circuits covers the 125% continuous-load rule that drives breaker sizing.
The Supercharger side, briefly
Toyota states that the NACS port gives the bZ “access to a growing network of public chargers, including the Tesla Supercharger Network”, and that the car ships with a CCS1 adapter for the rest. That is a genuinely good position to be in: DC fast charging needs no adapter at a Supercharger, and the CCS1 adapter in the trunk covers everything else. If you want the background on how that connector transition is going, read Supercharger access for non-Tesla EVs and the connector explainer. None of it changes the home-charging answer, which is settled by the 11-kW figure and the port on the car.
What we left out, and why
- Every J1772 charger on the site. They all work on a bZ through the included adapter, and if you already own one, keep it. We are not going to rank an adapter-dependent setup above a native one at the same price.
- Emporia’s NACS units. Both the Level 2 NACS and the Pro NACS are chargers we rate highly elsewhere, and both returned no live price in our daily check when this page was written. We do not feature a product we cannot show you a real price for. The J1772 versions are on best smart chargers.
- The Tesla Wall Connector. It is a NACS charger and our reviewcovers it, but it is the most expensive unit in the category and Tesla publishes no ambient temperature range for the Gen 3 in its installation manual. There is no bZ-specific reason to pay the premium.
- A 19.2-kW charger.They exist for commercial use; nothing in the residential market we cover goes past about 50 amps, and the bZ could not use it anyway at 11 kW. The one car where that ceiling genuinely bites is on our Cadillac LYRIQ page.
The short answer
Native NACS, 48 to 50 amps if the circuit allows, 40 amps if it does not, and try the cable Toyota already gave you before you spend anything. Pick one does all of that with the best-documented specification sheet in the category; pick two does almost all of it for a lot less money and unbolts when you move.
