Fueling cars with fossil fuels has remain the same for a many years. With electric vehicles or EV, it is not the case. As it involves different levels of electric power and different types of charges that use advance technologies.
AC Charging vs DC Fast Charging
AC charging is the simplest kind of charging, and a Level 2 AC charger is found in most homes, offices, parks, shopping plazas, etc.
The charger supplies AC to the vehicle’s onboard charger which then converts it to DC and supplies to the battery.
These chargers can be plug into normal outlets.
Level 1 charging can be plug into a 120-volt household outlet, and it would take about 8-12 hours to fully charge an average 250km range EV battery.
Level 2 chargers need 208-240V electric supply and usually come in the form of wallbox chargers installed at homes or charging stations.
A Level 2 charger takes about 3-8 hours to fully charge an average EV battery.
Most EV owners choose Level 2 chargers to install at home because they can use a domestic power supply and charge the vehicle up to 10 times faster than by Level 1 charging.
DC Fast Charging or Level 3 charging on the other hand bypasses all the limitations of the onboard charger and require conversion and provides DC power directly to the battery.
This increases the charging speed and significantly reduces charging time.
Charging times are depend on the battery size and the output of the dispenser but many EVs can get an 80% charge in or under an hour using DC fast chargers that are currently available.
Older EVs had limitations that only allow them to charge at 50kW on DC units.
Modern EVs don’t have that limitation anymore and some EVs even accept up to 270kW.
The battery size has increase significantly since the first EVs and DC chargers have been getting progressively higher outputs to match with some now delivering 350kW.
Most EVs currently on the market charge at a maximum of 50 kW, but there are modern EV models capable of charging at over 200 kW, including the Porsche Taycan and some Tesla models.
DC Fast Chargers are extremely costly putting them out of reach for the public.
They draw huge amounts of power that a domestic circuit can’t support.
That is why these charges are only found at public charging stations.
Charging your EV with a DC Fast charger can cost up to 3-4 times more than charging at home.
The most commonly use DC Fast Charging technologies are Tesla’s level 3 charger, call as Superchargers, the Combine Charging System, and the CHAdeMO plug, which is a DC charging standard for electric vehicles. In India, CCS/CHAdeMO chargers are available at public charging stations in cities like Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad.
