What types of electric car chargers are there?

Like the charger for your phone, electric vehicle (EV) charging stations have different connectors and cables. These are compatible with different types of hardware on both your EV’s end and at the charging point itself.

To get up to date guidance on home charge point options, and prices along with EV energy tariff guidance visit Rightcharge

Vehicle-side electric car charging cables

When you’re using a standard charging station found in most homes and in public, the connector you plug into your EV will have one of two connector types:

Using a rapid charging station, your EV will have a choice of connectors to plug in:

All these figures assume a standard EV with a 60kWh battery.

Chargepoint-side electric car charging cables

Standard charging stations will usually use a Type 2 AC connector. This is seen as a universal connector suitable for most common charging points.

It typically provides 7kW (single phase) or 22kW (three phase) of power. That provides around 25 or 75 miles of range respectively per hour of charging.

At home, it’s also possible to use your standard three-pin plug socket. This option is not recommended except in emergencies. It only provides 2.3kW of power, 8 miles of range per hour of charging.

When using a rapid charger, you won’t need to worry about the chargepoint-side connector, it’ll be integrated with the charging station itself.

Electric Car Cable Types

All fully electric vehicles require a cable connection to a chargepoint, whether thats at home or out and about. There are two types...