Electric Car Charging: How Long Does It Really Take?

Charging times vary due to things like the temperature, the EV itself, and the type of charger. Today, we are gonna to talk about how different EV charger types caused different charging times.

Level 1 Charging (40-50 hours)

You can plug an EV into a standard 120V outlet to charge its lithium-ion battery. 120V outlets are easily accessible. But most EV owners won’t pursue this option.

The main drawback with Level 1 charging is how slow it is. Car batteries are way bigger than smartphone batteries and take far longer to charge with a household outlet.

Level 2 Charging (4-10 hours)

Most home EV chargers and many public EV chargers are Level 2 chargers. Level 2 chargers are dramatically quicker than Level 1. A Level 2 charger allows owners to charge their EVs “fully” overnight. L2 charger is a good option to for home charging.

Level 3 DC Fast-Charging (20 minutes to 1 hour)

The fastest way to charge an EV is with a DC fast charger.

The most common Level 3 charger use case for most owners will be occasional top-ups on longer drives. Or in commercial, public, coffee shop, big market areas.

Why is the L3 charger can be charged so fast? L3 charger is what we called EV DC charging station. It can send DC power to car battery directly, usually with high power. Inside the charger, the most important component is AC/DC charging module, this is the key component to transfer AC power from grid to DC output power.

The power of the charging module largely determines the charging rate of the charger. By connecting multiple modules in parallel can increase the output power of the charger. The higher power of each single unit, the higher total output power of the charger can reach.

Speaking of the AC/DC charging module, I would like to talk about our newly 50kw@1500Vdc charging module. This module is designed with high power, high efficiency and high output voltage, which can be used in Mining charging and heavy electric car charging that requires high voltage charging. It will also be a good option for HPC (High power charging).