- Existing Dryer Receptacle
Not a great option, but technically you can install a 2nd 30A receptacle and use a plug-in charger. A hardwired charger (which is preferable for many reasons) is not possible unless you get rid of the dryer. The problem with 2 30A receptacles is that you are on your own to make sure they are not in use at the same time to avoid (a) nuisance trips - 23A typical on the dryer at full heat plus 24A on the charger at full permitted load will trip the breaker pretty quickly and (b) improper overload - 15A on the dryer (estimated, low heat) plus 16A on the charger (set as if it were a 20A circuit) will result in a continuous 31A load which will likely not trip the breaker but may eventually burn up the wires, which is Not A Good Thing.
- Induction Cooktop Circuit
Not an option as the existing hardwired load takes > 50% of the circuit capacity. If you replaced it with a 30A cooktop then you would have 20A available (but some additional wiring or a subpanel would be needed to do this in a code compliant way) and that would give you reasonable charging capacity.
- New Circuit from Primary (not "main") Panel
Why am I calling this the "primary" panel? Because it has most of your circuits, but the reference to running a circuit from the meter (option 4) implies you have a "meter main" with several spaces, in which case the meter main is actually the true "main panel". But that is actually not that relevant (except for load calculation) to the problem.
This is really the best thing to do. But you probably can't avoid running the cable. Note that you don't have to run a huge cable. For most EVSE you just need 2 wires plus ground, so a very standard 2-wire (plus ground) NM 12 AWG cable will give you 20A and 10 AWG will give you 30A.
- New Circuit from Meter Main
This is often the best solution. You don't necessarily have to install a subpanel. An advantage of a subpanel is that it lets you add more circuits later. So you could run 12 AWG 2-wire cable and have 20A 240V charging, 10 AWG 2-wire cable and have 30A charging, or run larger 3-wire cable and connect a subpanel and put a 20A or 30A circuit in the subpanel for charging. If you run a larger cable then you can use aluminum wire/cable, which will give you much larger capacity without spending a lot more on the wire.
- Repurpose an Existing Circuit
There is another possible option. If you have any spare circuits at all in or near the garage - e.g., a 120V 15A or 20A lighting or receptacle circuit - you can rewire it for 240V operation (switch single-breaker to double-breaker, use white wire as 2nd hot wire instead of neutral). 20A 240V is enough for most people. 15A 240V is not quite as good, but very possibly still good enough, depending on your driving and charging patterns. However, you can only do this if the things currently powered by the circuit can all be removed or (more likely) moved to other circuits in a safe and code-compliant way. For example, if you have two 120V 20A circuits in your laundry room and they both serve only the laundry room then you can repurpose one of them. But if one of them serves only the laundry room and the other is shared with other rooms then you have a problem because you can't repurpose the dedicated circuit (required by code) and it would probably be very hard to repurpose a typical snakes all over the house lighting/receptacle circuit.
Remember the Load Calculation
An NEC Load Calculation is supposed to be done any time you add new significant loads to determine whether or not you can add those loads. This applies at the top level (utility service - e.g., typically 200A but less in many older houses) and at each panel based on its feed breaker. Adding 20A isn't a lot, but because it is a continuous load you really need to do the math. That is a complicated thing to do - it is not "I guess we use..." (that always ends up low) and it is not "add up the breaker handle numbers" (that always ends up high). Ask for more details if you need them.
