Anyone else running EV charging from an off-grid cabin setup?

Got a small solar cabin running a 5kWh Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 bank with a 1.2kW array (4 × 300W Renogy panels) and a Victron Multiplus-II 3kVA as the inverter/charger. It's handling lighting, a small fridge, and occasional power tools fine — but I'm now wondering if I can squeeze EV top-ups out of it too.

The car is a Nissan Leaf (24kWh battery, usually arrives at the cabin sat around 40–50%). I'm not expecting a full charge — even getting it from 40% to 70% would be useful. That's roughly 7kWh, which is already more than my whole battery bank. So realistically I'd be running the charge directly off solar during daylight with whatever the bank can contribute when clouds roll in.

Has anyone actually tried this with a similarly-sized setup? I'm thinking a basic 7kW Type 2 EVSE is overkill here — would a 3-pin granny cable running through the Multiplus even be sensible, or would I need to throttle the charge rate somehow? Curious whether a Zappi or similar smart EVSE would actually play nicely with Victron kit and only draw what the solar is genuinely producing.

@OffGridFreak oh mate, I feel this post in my soul.

Running very similar — Victron Multiplus-II 5kVA, 10kWh Fogstar bank, 2kW of panels — and I've been shoving electrons into an old Nissan Leaf from it for about eight months now.

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@OffGridFreak oh this is my exact rabbit hole right now! I've been doing something similar with the van — Victron MPPT feeding a Fogstar bank — and the temptation to just plug the car in is real.

The thing nobody warns you about is State of Charge management. Your Multiplus-II is more than capable of handling the load, but if you're attempting EV charging while clouds roll in across whatever field you're parked in, your battery bank will quietly weep.

My approach: set a SOC threshold of 80%+ before the charger even gets a sniff of power. Victron's ESS assistant makes this genuinely straightforward to configure.

Also worth considering a Type 2 EVSE with power limiting — some will throttle down to 6A (1.4kW), which is much kinder to a 5kWh bank than hammering it at full whack.

@OffGridFreak the maths is the brutal bit — 1.2kW array into a 5kWh bank doesn't leave much headroom once you factor in cloudy days. I'd be watching SOC like a hawk before plugging in anything EV-sized.

What I've found useful on my setup is using the Victron ESS assistant with a hard SOC floor — so the EV charging only kicks in once the bank is genuinely topped up, not just sitting at 80% and pretending. Stops you accidentally pulling the battery down overnight.

Also worth considering whether a timed charge makes sense — only run it midday when generation is actually covering the load rather than draining storage. The Multiplus-II handles that logic pretty cleanly once you've waded through the VEConfigure settings.

What's your average daily generation looking like in practice?

Hey @OffGridFreak, great setup! One thing worth exploring if you haven't already — have a look at the scheduled charging options in VictronConnect. You can set charging windows to coincide with your peak solar hours, so the car only pulls power when the bank is genuinely full and the panels are producing surplus. Avoids that nasty scenario @HazelPaddy's hinting at where you're essentially draining storage you'll need overnight.

Also, what car are you charging? If it accepts 6A minimum (some older EVs don't), a basic Type 2 EVSE with adjustable current lets you throttle right down to 1.4kW — much kinder on a system your size. Myenergi Zappi in eco mode would be ideal if budget allows, as it can respond dynamically to available solar. Might be worth a thread of its own!

@OffGridFreak curious what your actual usable SOC window looks like day-to-day — are you running the Fogstar bank down to 20% regularly or keeping it shallower?

I've been wondering whether a setup like yours could realistically trickle-charge something like a Nissan Leaf overnight if the cabin's idle load is low enough. The Leaf's onboard charger will throttle down to around 1.4kW minimum on a Type 2 though — does the Multiplus-II handle that gracefully when the battery's already partially depleted, or does it start hunting for power it can't sustain?

Also — @HazelPaddy makes a fair point about headroom. What's your worst-case winter scenario looking like with that 1.2kW array? Suspect that's where EV charging becomes completely impractical rather than just marginal.

@OffGridFreak running EV charging from a 1.2kW array is basically asking your solar to sprint a marathon — my boat setup taught me that lesson the expensive way before I started treating the Victron MPPT's yield history like scripture.