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How Long does it Take to Charge an Electric Car?

How long does it take to charge an electric car? It depends on the type of EV charger you are connected to and the size of the battery inside your vehicle. To bring some order into planning your daily car journeys, it’s crucial to know how long you need to charge your car.

Whether you are using your home EV charger, or one of the public chargers that are being installed across Ireland, our guide should help prevent you from running out of power while on the road.

Calculating the Average Time for Home EV Charging

You only need to find out the kW rating of your vehicle’s battery and your home charger. Batteries come in a range of sizes to suit the size and power of your vehicle. A compact car may run on a 32.6 kWh battery, while a powerful car’s battery could exceed 75 kWh. As an easy to understand example, we’ll base our calculation on a 70 kWh battery.

When you decide it’s time to install an EV home charger, consider its capabilities. You can choose from several power outputs such as 3 kWh, 7 kWh and even 22 kWh. However, the most popular version for Irish homes is the 7 kWh EV charger.

Our calculation for the average electric car should therefore take the 70 kWh battery described above and theoretically connect it to a 7 kWh EV charger. To fully charge the battery, divide the battery capacity of 70 kWh by the strength of the 7 kWh EV charger. The answer is 10, which is the number of hours this car needs to be fully powered.

How to Calculate EV Charging Time for Your Vehicle

The principle of dividing the car battery rating by the home EV charger’s capacity remains the same for any vehicle. If your car has a battery of 54 kWh and your EV charger is 7 kWh, follow the same formula. The answer should be 7.7 but always round up the figure to the nearest hour.

Therefore, you’ll need just under eight hours to fully charge your 54 kWh car. A compact vehicle with a 32.6 kWh battery connected to a 7 kWh charger requires 4.7 or up to 5 hours. A more powerful EV charger should shorten the amount of time.

How Long does it Take to Charge an Electric Car?

Charging your vehicle at a public, rapid EV charging station is a much faster process. The first thing you must do is choose the most suitable EV charging cable to take with you. Rapid chargers are far more powerful than a standard 7 kWh version designed for home use. You’ll usually find them rated at between 50 kWh and 150 kWh. How does that affect your car’s charging time?

Let’s say, for example, you’re in a vehicle with a battery of 54 kWh and you stop at a rapid charger rated at 50 kWh. Remember that charging at your own home takes almost eight hours. To fully charge your car in public, you’ll need just over one hour. Most times, people only need a small top-up to help them reach their destination. Perhaps adding 25% to your battery is enough to complete your journey. That means you’ll need a quarter of a full charge, which should last around 16 minutes.

Why are Rapid EV Chargers Different to Home EV Chargers?

Rapid chargers are powered by a Direct Current (DC) whereas your home EV charger runs on an Alternating Current (AC). However, your car battery takes in its power as a DC current and not an AC current.

The rapid charger takes much less time to charge your car’s battery because the current doesn’t have to be converted. When connected to your home EV charger, AC must be converted to DC to be compatible with the battery. It’s converting the current that adds on so many hours. Its important to have the correct one in place, especially when property surveys are carried out.

Conclusion

Many cars are connected to a home EV charger for eight hours every night even if they don’t need it. An economical alternative could be a Smart EV charger to help monitor your car’s electricity consumption.

For more advice on which home EV charger you should install, contact us on 1800 99 88 77 for a no-obligation free quote. Alternatively, contact us online right now.

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Fill out the form and one of our team will contact you within 24hrs or simply mail us at info@epower.ie


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