Do I need to upgrade to a 400A panel with solar?

Do I need to upgrade to a 400A panel with solar?

I'm getting solar installed with some powerwalls. As it stands I'm going to have my entire house backed up.

However, I plan to add two EV chargers in the future and I don't want these backed up.

The solar contractor told me this:

Main has to have no other breaker except Gateway supply breaker and main breaker to comply with 705.12.(D)(2)(3)(c)

After doing my own research, that makes sense to me.

They told me I would have to upgrade to a 400A main panel so I can feed the existing 200A gateway/sub and then a second 200A sub for my EV chargers.

After running some numbers (and just looking at what is here today) I don't think I need anywhere near 400A of power for my property. That's A LOT of power.

It's not a massive 4000sqft mansion with 10 AC units, it's 2000 sqft with a single 5ton AC and a pool and a few gas applicances.

We currently have a main with a 100A breaker and all of our loads work fine.

Even if we do decide to add 2 EV chargers we would be at 180A max, but we wouldn't have everything on while the 2 EV chargers are in use.

In my mind 200A should be just fine, am I missing something?

This was quoted as an additional $2-3k

It may even just be cheaper to just get a second meter installed for just the cars, the SCE site estimates that at $1500.

My question is, do I need to upgrade to 400A service to add my EV chargers?

I'm located in Southern California on SCE.

Link to proposed electrical plans

Edit 1

Solar array size is 10.89kW DC - 10.17kW AC

submitted by /u/cr0ntab
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