The question everyone shopping for an EV is considering. There are many variables to consider and hopefully this article will help break down charge times based on the vehicle’s battery size, charge station capacity as well as the charging cable you would use.
Figuring out precisely how long it takes to charge an EV is like to asking, "How long does it take to run a marathon?" It depends on your physique, weather, types of shoes, endurance – you get the point. Recharge time is dependent on a few variables, many of them nuanced—even the length of the charging cable can influence it—that make providing a precise answer impossible. But we can give you some reliable guidelines.
Set aside the marginal variables, there are three major factors that impact EV charging time:
1) the power source
2) the battery size
3) the vehicle's charger capacity
Ambient weather conditions generally play a smaller part, though both cold- and hot-weather extremes can considerably increase charge time.
Power Source
Let's start with the power source. Not all electrical outlets are created equal. The common 120-volt, also known as a Level 1 charger, 15-amp receptacle in a kitchen and 240-volt outlet that powers an electric dryer, also known as a Level 2 charger, are the two most common power sources. All electric vehicles can, theoretically, charge their large batteries off the standard kitchen outlet, but imagine trying to fill a bathtub with a squirt gun.
If you own or plan to own an EV you'll be wise to consider having a 240-volt Level 2 charger installed in your home. A typical Level 2 connection is 240 volts and 40 to 80 amps. Because, if you're not maximizing the effectiveness of the vehicle's onboard chargers, a lower-than-optimal power source like a household outlet is basically an unnecessary length delay to your charge time.
For the fastest charging possible, you'll want to plug into a Level 3 connection, colloquially known as a DC fast-charger. These are the EV equivalent of filling that bathtub with a hose. A certifiably lethal current of DC power is pumped into the car's battery. Tesla’s V3 Supercharger station pumps out up to 250 kW, while certain charging stations on the outskirts of metropolitan cities can be found to fire out up to 350 Kw of heat-stopping defibrillating power.
A vehicles' ability to accept DC charging varies widely. The Porsche Taycan EV, for example, can charge at up to 320 kW, while a Nissan Ariya EV can only manage up to 130 kW.
Generally speaking, when an EV battery's state of charge (SoC) is below 10 percent or above 80 percent, a DC fast-charger's charging rate slows considerably; this optimizes battery life and limits the risk of overcharging or overheating which in the long term can affect the battery’s overall efficiency. This is why we only recommend you use a DC fast charger when you need that quick added juice on a road trip. A typical EV which accepts DC fast charging, you can on average charge your vehicle EV's battery from 10 to 80 percent” charge within 20 minutes. That last 20 percent of charge may double the time you're hooked up to the fast-charger however.
Battery Size
As the race for range supremacy continues, the battery capacity of some EVs has ballooned to absurd levels. Others are targeting increased efficiency. While a GMC Hummer EV is built on an architecture capable of 350-kW intake, filling its 205-kWh battery compared to the 112-kWh pack found in a Lucid Air requires exponentially more time, even if the charging rate is similar. The Lucid can travel over 40% further on a charge while having 93-kWh fewer in its battery pack than the Hummer. That has to do with the vehicle’s overall efficiency such as weight and aerodynamics just to name a few.
Soon, manufacturers will certainly settle on a single metric for expressing charge times. But for now, know that filling up an EV's battery still takes considerably longer than topping off your gas-powered cars.
Charger Capacity
There is a common misconception that the thing you plug into an electric car is the "charger." In fact, there's a battery charger in the car that converts the AC electricity from the wall into DC electricity to charge the battery. Onboard chargers trickle power into the battery pack safely and have their own power ratings, typically in kilowatts. If a car has a 10-kW charger and a 100-kWh battery pack, it would, in theory, take 10 hours to charge a fully depleted battery. This is assuming the power source can maximize the vehicle's charger.
Typical onboard chargers are at least 6.0 kW, but some manufacturers offer nearly twice that. The current Tesla Model 3 Performance, for instance, has an 11.5-kW charger, which can take full advantage of a 240-volt, 60-amp circuit to recharge its 80.8-kWh battery, while the rear-wheel-drive Model 3 comes with a 7.6-kW charger. Doing the recharge-time math indicates that it will take nearly the same time to fill the two cars' batteries, though the Performance model's is roughly 30 percent larger. You can also find approximate recharge times on some EV manufacturers' websites.
There are a wide range of possibilities when answering the question of how long it takes to charge an EV. Using a level 3 charger (DC connector), charge times can take as low as 20 minutes to go from 10 to 90% charge on a Porsche Taycan but as high as two hours on a GMC Hummer EV SUV.
For Level 2 connections, the time variation is much more dramatic. The Lucid Air Pure is the quickest from 0 to 100 percent at a hair over five hours, and the longest is the Nissan Ariya at over 13 hours, while the average falls in the seven-to-eight-hour range. And even though 13 hours feels excessive (because it is), the Ariya is still capable of charging from fully depleted to fully charged after a typical 9-to-5 with an appropriately powerful source of electricity.
In conclusion, if you are considering buying an EV, take into consideration your lifestyle, charging infrastructure where you reside and the type of commute you need to go about your day to day with the least amount of inconveniences going around charging your car.
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