When you decide to buy EV then you must ask one question from the dealer and that is how long do EV cars take to charge? As the EV cars are dependent on electricity this question is legit because once you know better, you can plan your trip better, otherwise you may put yourself in big trouble.
As you know in petrol based cars the wait is hardly 1 or 2 minutes but in case of EV cars the waiting is quite longer which is around 1 to 8 hours even higher, depends on how fast or slow charger you use to charge the EV car.
Normally in an EV car, you get 2 charging sockets #1 is AC and #2nd is DC. Mostly at home you charge vehicle using AC charger, but if you traveling then at the charging stations both charging units (AC & DC) are available to charge vehicle.
Remember that AC charger takes time but DC charger charge the car batteries in much faster way!
Note: Batteries always accept DC, hence direct DC charge battery in much faster way as compared to AC because in AC, the AC is converted to DC and DC charge the battery. But in DC, no conversation required hence battery charge in fast way which is why people prefer DC charging as compared AC while traveling.
Now as you know about what charger provides fast charging and you know also about the socket then it’s time to take an idea how long an EV car take to charge.
Here are the estimated charging times for a 24 kWh EV battery from 20% to 100% with different charger power levels:
#1. 3.3 kW AC charger: Around 8 hours
– Battery capacity to charge: 24 kWh * (100% – 20%) = 19.2 kWh
– Charging power: 3.3 kW
– Time to charge = Energy to charge / Charging power
= 19.2 kWh / 3.3 kW
= Approximately 8 hours
#2. 7.2 kW AC charger: Around 4 hours
– Same capacity to charge: 19.2 kWh
– Faster charging power: 7.2 kW
– Time to charge = 19.2 kWh / 7.2 kW = Approximately 4 hours
#3. 7.2 kW DC charger: Around 3 hours
– DC is slightly more efficient than AC, so time reduces
– Time to charge = 19.2 kWh / 7.2 kW = Approximately 3 hours
4. 20 kW DC charger: Around 1 hour
– Much faster charging power of 20 kW
– Time to charge = 19.2 kWh / 20 kW = Approximately 1 hour
5. 25 kW DC Charger: Around 45 minutes (if your car supports 25KW DC charger)
– Even faster 25 kW charging
– Time to charge = 19.2 kWh / 25 kW = Approximately 45 minutes
So in summary, a higher power charger significantly reduces charging time. DC chargers are faster than equivalent AC for the same power level.
I would like to point one thing that, all cars do not support fast charging options of 50 KW, 60 KW, or 120 KW. It is advised, please contact to dealer or car provider and ask about for what are the limitations? Can we charge car using 60 KW DC charger?
Being a proud owner of entry level cars like Tata Tiago EV, Tata Tigor EV, Citroen eC3 you can safely charge the cars using a 7.2KW which will take around 3 hour or 20KW fast DC charger which will take around 1.5 hours to charge vehicle from 20% to 100%. Remember, you can even connect the 30 KW or 60 KW DC fast charger in these entry level cars (some people do as they don’t know, but my advice just avoid it), but the output wouldn’t be more than 17 KW, hence for a car having 24 kWh EV battery, you have to wait again for 1.5 hours or bit more to charge EV car from 20% to 100%.
So far in India one of top selling cars is TATA Nexon EV Max, and it supports the charging up to 50 KW only. If you will try to connect higher value charge like 120 KW then it won’t accept, the max output would be delivered as per 50 KW charger. Hence there is no benefit in terms of faster charging and this EV car will be fully charged in 56 minutes if connected to 50 KW fast DC charger.
Apart from that, it is not recommended to make a regular practice of this. Again and again if you connect a fast DC charger more than what is recommended, this might burn the batteries and related circuits. So it’s better to know about the EV cars before using a fast DC charger at the charging stations.
Overall the long story short – if you own an EV car (doesn’t matter how premium version you bought) you have to wait for 1 hour. So just plan your trip according to that.
What else you would like to know? Do you own an EV? Please let us know about the EV car model in comments and share the details of charging time. This way we can help better!
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