Electric Vehicles are getting popular by each passing day and new models are being rolled out faster than ever. Few models have a drive range of hundreds of miles before they need to be charged. But do you know, how long does it take to charge an electric vehicle?

Well the simple answer to the question is ‘It Depends’. Yes you heard it right, the speed and time taken by EV to charge depends on a number of factors on how and where you charge it. It can take you anywhere between few minutes, hours or a full day or night.

You should have a sound knowledge of the factors influencing the time taken to charge an electric vehicle before making a buying decision. This will save you time money and also give peace of mind in the long term.

Factors impacting how long does it take to charge an electric vehicle?

1 Type of charger
2 Size of battery
3 Acceptance Rate or charging Rate
4 Battery depletion

Let’s take a quick look at each one of these.

1 Type of charger.

Every EV comes with a charger as a standard accessory. Some of these are slow in charging or are manufacturer specific. Example tesla offers fast charges however they work exclusively with tesla cars. There are third party chargers that are fast and are compatible with various EV models. These third party chargers require experienced electricians to install them at homes.

There are different types of chargers classified as:
1. Level 1 charger – These are comparatively slow and you will take 8-12 hours to fully charge your EV
2. Level 2 Charger – These are faster than the Level 1 charger and will charge your EV in 4-6 hours.
3. Fast Chargers: Using these chargers your EV will get full battery just in a span of 40 minutes to 1 hour.
4. Ultra-fast chargers: These give your EV full battery in 25 to 40 minutes.

Apart from these manufacture provided chargers you have an option of third party chargers. These are normally used at public charging stations and fall under level 2- fast charger categories.

2. Size of battery.
How long it will take to charge your electric vehicle? Is also dependent on the size of battery used in your EV. Size if normally measured in kWh (Kilo Watt Hour) and charging is measured in kW a unit to measure power. Using the following formula you can calculate the time to charge your EV

Charging time = kWh/ kW

Assuming your EV battery size is 35 kWh and is connected to 7kW charger then it will take 35/7 = 5 Hours to fully charge your EV.

3 Acceptance Rate or charging Rate.
Batteries have an upper limit of kW it can take. Meaning batteries will charge with that maximum speed even if connected to a higher power charger.
Let’s take an example. If a battery have a max acceptance rate of 5kW and takes 7 Hours to recharge from 0-100% then if connected to 7kW power charger it won’t charge faster.

4 Battery depletion
Normally you would not like to charge your EV when the battery is going dead, rather you will ensure a comfort level like in the gasoline engines where you refill with few gallons still left in the tank. Similarly, you will normally plug your EV with some power left so your charging time will depend on how much your battery have depleted before the charging.

Manufacturers are fast innovating in this sphere and who knows, one day you’ll be able to charge the EV just in a flash of in few minutes just like the gasoline engines. Innovation is not only being done on chargers but also on the batteries that are now being used in the EV’s

Author:

Crystal has been associated with Noodoe from quite some time and have been maintaining their website content. Crystal is a consistent writer for Noodoe and it is due to his efforts that Noodoe has a very attractive and informative blog.