Electric car how long to recharge

Don't see the model you were looking for in this table? Browse other EVs here. Tip: Almost all full battery electric cars can rapid charge, most plug-in hybrid electric cars can not. Most electric car drivers plug-in to charge whenever they park , be it at home overnight or during the day at the supermarket, gym or their workplace. This is called top up charging. Tip: In cold weather, bringing the cabin space and battery up to temperature takes energy not used to drive the car.

If the car regularly heats then cools down after short journeys, you use much more energy and your range significantly reduces. On longer trips the effects of cold weather are less pronounced, though still noticeable. Charge at Work Buy a Home Charger. Jump to Section: How long it takes to fully charge an electric car What is top up charging?

How much range you get per hour of charging Factors that affect charging speed. But, broadly speaking, the biggest determinant of charging speed is your power source: where the energy destined for a vehicle's battery pack is coming from. There are three categories of charging potential EV owners should know. In a pinch, you can charge an electric car using a standard household outlet. This is called Level 1 charging, and EVs typically come with a cord to make it happen.

But, as you might imagine, it's painfully slow. It's kind of like filling a car's gas tank with an eyedropper. Plugged into a volt outlet for an hour, an EV will gain around miles of range. Completely topping up a car's battery, which is typically good for anywhere between and miles of range, can take days.

Level 2 chargers utilize a volt connection like you'd use for a high-powered appliance or power tool, and lots of EV owners get one installed in their garage. Level 2 plugs are also what's offered at the vast majority of public charging stations. Power ratings range from 6 kilowatts to around 20 kilowatts, many multiples of the 1. The speed you get varies by vehicle and by charger, but Level 2 charging can deliver some miles of range per hour.

That last 20 percent may double the time you're hooked up to the fast charger. The time-consuming affair of completely filling the battery via a DC charger makes them best utilized on those days when you have anxiety about exceeding the range of your car, or when you are traveling and need to fill-up to reach your destination.

Charging at home overnight is a better solution for getting the juice you'll need for daily, local driving. There is a common misconception that the thing you plug into an electric car is the "charger," when in fact there's actually a battery charger in the car that converts the AC electricity from the wall into DC 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 kW charger and a kWh battery pack, it would, in theory, take 10 hours to charge a fully depleted battery.

This is, of course assuming the power source can maximize the chargers. Typical on-board chargers are at least 6. The current Tesla Model 3 Performance, for instance, has an Doing the recharge-time math indicates that it will take about the same time to fill the two cars' batteries, though the Performance model's is 50 percent bigger.

The beauty of a well paired electricity source and onboard charger is that you can plug your EV in at home with a nearly depleted battery and have a fully charged steed waiting for you in the morning. Some workplaces are now installing charging stations, but you could find yourself competing with your co-workers to plug in.

Undaunted, Pearl leased a newer e-Golf with miles of range, allowing him to make his entire commute while charging at home at night when the electricity rates were much lower. Public charging is predicted to improve steadily as the network is expanded. Many EVs offer a fast charge feature, usually as an option at the time of car purchase, allowing the battery to be charged at Level 3, or volts — much faster than home charging. Only 20 minutes of charging adds at least 50 miles of range, according to fueleconomy.

Department of Energy. However, few of these fast chargers are available now. If you buy a Tesla, however, you get access to a nationwide network of 20, superchargers that can add miles of range in just 15 minutes. When people hear about EV charging times, they often compare them to the 10 minutes it takes to fill a gas tank, which provides more range. Here are a few recommendations from EV insiders to make charging a bit easier:. Sign up for a service such as ChargePoint in case you unexpectedly need more range to take a side trip.