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I guess we\u2019ve all noticed by now that EVs (either hybrids or full-time electric vehicles) are getting common on the roads.\u00a0 Maybe you\u2019re considering getting one for your next car.\u00a0 Charging stations for EVs are popping up left, right and centre.\u00a0 This is because the battery in an EV, just like the battery in any other device powered by electricity, needs to be recharged.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of like charging your phone or your laptop.<\/p>\n
Most, if not all, of us have had some experience with charging up things with batteries and know that it can take some time.\u00a0 This raises a rather important question about EVs: how long does it take to charge one?\u00a0 We\u2019ve mostly become familiar with how to fuel up an internal combustion engine (ICE) car: you pull up to the bowser, you open the fuel cap, you fill up with the liquid fuel of your choice, then you nip in and pay for it, possibly picking up a packet of peanuts or a coffee while you\u2019re at it.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t take too long \u2013 maybe 10 mins max, depending on how long the queue at the checkout is, how big your fuel tank is and how empty it was when you started.\u00a0 But what about an EV?\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing physical going into the tank and we all know that it can take a while for a battery to recharge (I usually give my rechargeable AA batteries about 4 hours, the laptop takes 2 hours and the amount of time for the phone varies depending on who else needs the charger and whether I need the phone!).<\/p>\n
The good news is that on average, it takes 20\u201330 mins to get to 80% when charging an EV, especially if you\u2019re using one of the public charge points around town.\u00a0 This means that most of us might have to plan a charging session into our days \u2013 during lunchtime, maybe, or while picking up groceries.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a certain strategy to ensuring that your EV has the charge it needs to keep ticking on around town.\u00a0 I\u2019m assuming here that you are based in the city and do most of your driving in the city.\u00a0 If you\u2019re in a rural area and do a lot of open road running, things will be a bit different and given the range of what\u2019s currently on the EV market, you might either consider sticking with an ICE vehicle or at least a hybrid, or you\u2019ll have to try another strategy.\u00a0 Anyway, for the typical suburban driver, the best strategy is to use the public charging points around town for top-up charging, and you do the full charge to 100% overnight at home if possible.<\/p>\n
The reason why it might not be best to try charging your EV to 100% charge at one of the public points is because charging an EV isn\u2019t like filling up a petrol or diesel vehicle. With the ICE, you pump in the fuel at a steady constant rate and if you graphed it, it would make a straight line \u2013 as long as your grip on the pump is nice and steady.\u00a0 However, the graph for charging time is more like one of those curved lines related to quadratic equations \u2013 you know, the ones we all struggled through at high school and couldn\u2019t see the point of.\u00a0 Charging starts with a hiss and a roar and you can get to 80% charge pretty quickly.\u00a0 It\u2019s the final 20% needed to get to full charge that seems to take forever. \u00a0It\u2019s more like pumping iron at the gym than pumping gas \u2013 you do the first round of sets and reps quickly, but those last few when you\u2019re getting tired tend to be a bit slower.\u00a0 This is why charging to 100% is best left for overnight charging sessions at home.<\/p>\n
The good news about overnight charging is that night rates for electricity are often lower than daytime rates.\u00a0 This is because all the commercial users of electricity \u2013 factories, shops, heavy industry \u2013 don\u2019t put as much demand on the power grid outside working hours, so there is plenty of power for everybody else.\u00a0 Whether this will remain the case when EVs are adopted more widely is uncertain \u2013 let\u2019s hope that lower overnight rates remain a thing.<\/p>\n
Of course, the exact time of charging will depend on the individual EV and it also depends on the type of charger that you\u2019re connecting your car up to.\u00a0 Chargers come in three types: Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3.\u00a0 Levels 1 and 2 use AC current but Level 3 uses DC current.\u00a0 Level 3 DC chargers generally are only compatible with Tesla models, which is ironic, given that Nikola Tesla specialised in AC current.\u00a0 Level 1 chargers just plug into a typical 10-V socket and are best kept for emergency top-ups, as they charge pretty slowly.\u00a0 What you will generally come across both at home (if you install one) or around town are Level 2 chargers.\u00a0 Level 2 chargers have a charging rate of 15\u2013100 km\/hr, meaning that in one hour they give your vehicle enough charge to take it 15\u2013100 km.\u00a0 The low-power Level 2s installed at home tend to be towards the 15 km\/hr end and the public ones are at the other end.<\/p>\n
The different levels are not the same as the plug types, which are known as (predictably) Types.\u00a0 There are four types: Type 1 (J1772), Type 2 (Mennekes), Type 3 (Scame) and Type 4 (CHAdeMO).\u00a0 Tesla, being a posh marque, has its very own type of charging plug, rather like Apple, although it\u2019s based on the Type 2 Mennekes.\u00a0 Type 3 is also pretty rare in Australia.\u00a0 There\u2019s also a combo plug (known as a Combined Charge System or CCS) that combines either the Type 1 or Type 2 (it varies depending on the marque) with a pair of DC connectors.\u00a0 Charging stations generally have CHAdeMO and CCS to make thing simpler.\u00a0 The different plug types are quite a lot to wrap your head, so I might have to explain all this in another post.<\/p>\n
Anyway, in a nutshell, here\u2019s the basics you need to know:<\/p>\n
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