If you’re new to running an electric car there’s a vast amount of new words you’ll be exposed to. One area that’s particularly useful to understand is the terms for the speed at which a charging point can operate. After all, there are times when you will need to be stopped for the shortest amount of time to recharge and willing to absorb a higher cost for that convenience. And there may be other times when you’ll be stopped for much longer and simply want the least expensive charging option.
On top of this, the car you drive may have a charge speed limit that stops you taking advantage of the quickest charging. In which case, when quicker charging is typically more expensive than slower charging, why pay for what you don’t need?
Firstly, why pick a certain speed?
There are two main reasons for picking a particular speed of charger and that’s to balance time spent recharging (sometimes referred to as ‘dwell time’) and the cost of the charge.
If you don’t need the quickest charge, why pay extra for it? Equally, if you don’t have time to hang around, go for the highest speed. So depending on your needs, here’s the lowdown on charging.
Slow charging
Slow charging is officially anything up to 6 kilowatt (kW). Typically, we’re talking about plugging in to a three-pin socket or specially adapted on-street charger.
Slow chargers are also, usually, the least expensive.
If you’ve got an electric car with a 70 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery and you want to charge from 20% to 100%, on a 3kW socket that will take nearly 19 hours, but depending on when you next need to travel, this might be fine for your needs.
Fast charging
The criteria for fast charging is between 7-22kW. Seven is typically what a home wall-charger delivers and would see a 70kWh battery go from 20-100% in eight hours. Find a 22kW charge point – these are often found at offices or hotels – and the charge time would drop to less than three hours. Although this isn’t super-fast in the grand scheme of things, it may enable you to charge up while you’re stopped at a meeting or overnight.
Rapid charging
Rapid charging is classed as between 43-100kW (you don’t tend to find charge speeds between 22-43kW). Rapid chargers are also the entry level speeds you’ll find at motorway service areas. They enable you to top up on a journey to help you to get to a location where you can charge for a longer duration, if needed.
Ultra-rapid charging
For those needing to drive higher miles using the public charging network and making shorter stops, Ultra-rapid is what will generally suit your needs. It represents speeds of 100kW or higher. In the UK the fastest you’ll typically find is 350kW. However, many electric cars won’t accept the fastest charging speeds, instead they will self-limit to a lower speed, for example 170kW to help protect the battery.
With these speeds, car makers more typically quote charge times from 10% to 80% capacity. However, even with a maximum charge speed of 170kW, that could take as little as 18 minutes for a 70kWh battery pack.
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If you'd like to discuss your EV needs in more detail, please get in touch with your Arval Business or Account Manager.
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