Charging en-route

The key point is that drivers do not generally stay with their vehicles, but leave them charging while they do something else, have a coffee or the supermarket shopping for example.

How long will I need to wait to charge an electric car?

This depends on:
1. How fast your car can accept charge
2. How fast the charger is
3. Battery capacity when new
4. Current Percentage of Battery capacity remaining
5. Percentage charge you want to achieve

How fast your car can accept charge

Different Electric cars have different limitations.

Early EVs might manage 6kW per hour, increasingly new ones can handle 50kW or even 350kW per hour.

How fast the charger is

A Home charger might charge at 7kW per hour, although for 3 Phase electricity it may be 22kW per hour.

With a 7kW charger you can expect a Nissan Leaf with a 40kW battery to be fully recharged in about six hours, while a Tesla with a 75kW battery will require about 12 hours.

Autocar – March 2021

Destinations such as a supermarket are often 22kW per hour.

If your car can accept this rate of charge, then expect charging times to be slashed by around half compared to the 7kW unit, so a 75kW Tesla will be charged in under six hours.

Autocar – March 2021

Motorway Service Stations, and their equivalents, may offer 50kW – 350kW, however if your car can’t cope with these rates it will only charge at its own rate.

In approximately 30 minutes, our 50kW DC chargers can typically charge from 0-80%

Shell Recharge

 A 40kW Nissan Leaf using a 50kW charger (currently the most popular in the UK, but more 150 and 350kW units are coming on stream all the time) can be charged to 80 percent of its capacity in as little as an hour, which is around the same time it takes to charge a 75kWh Tesla using a 150kW charger.

Autocar – March 2021

Battery capacity when new

Early Electric Cars had 24kWh batteries offering a limited range, these were superseded by 30kWh then 40kWh with a longer range at each increase. New cars often have 64kWh with higher ranges, but at a price.

Current Percentage of Battery capacity remaining

The State of Health (SoH) is the measure of percentage of the original capacity. Batteries degrade with usage. How to minimise Electric Car Battery Degradation.

What percentage charge you want to achieve

The charging rate is non-linear and can be expected to slow down at 80% to protect the battery.

So, unless you really need more than 80%, it’s best not to exceed that figure.

Understanding how charging rate varies over the time plugged in

Charging rates

Charging with a Home charging point is normally at 3 – 7kW and can take 5 -7 hours, however if you’re asleep it probably doesn’t matter.

Plugging in using a 13A domestic socket will be much slower. A 64kW battery could take 24 hours!

Lamp post charging points generally provide 5.5kW.

Fast chargers are 7kW to 22kW, with 7kW being the most common.

Rapid chargers charge at 43kW (AC) or 50kW. Not all cars can handle this.

Ultra-rapid chargers charge at over 100kW, generally 150kW but can be up to 350kW. Currently very few cars can handle this and their use should be kept to a minimum as it can reduce battery life.

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