The charging time of an electric car depends on several factors such as the capacity of the vehicle’s battery, the type of charger used, the charging power and the current state of the battery. In this post we talk about the different types of charging and how long it takes to charge an electric car. We tell you that it can take from a few minutes to several hours to fully charge.
Types of charging
There are three types of charging for electric vehicles depending on their speed:
- Slow charging – 5 to 8 hours
- Semi-rapid charging – 1.5 to 3 hours.
- Fast charging – 5 to 30 minutes.
Let’s look at each of them in detail.
Slow charging
This is the charge supported by all electric cars on the market. It is the simplest and therefore the most common. It is the charging that is usually done at home or in the office and at low power.
To carry out this charging, it is necessary to connect the car to any “domestic” socket (Schuko type), where it will be charged with single-phase alternating current at 230V, 16A and with 3.6 kW of maximum power.
The charging time varies greatly depending on the capacity of the battery fitted in the electric vehicle, being between 5-8 hours.
This type of charging has a variant that uses three-phase alternating current at 400V and 16A, with a maximum power of 11 kW, which allows full charges in 2-3 hours.
Semi-fast charging
This type of charging is not very widespread. It is powered by single-phase 230V, 32A and 8-14 kW, allowing a charging time of between 1.5 and 3 hours, or by three-phase 400V alternating current, up to 63A and 22 to 43 kW, which recharges a battery in 30 minutes.
This charging is designed for public areas such as public, semi-public and private charging points. There are several options for charging your electric car.
It is a good option if you go shopping in a shopping centre, for example, and leave your car charging while you shop.
Fast charging
This type of charging is intended for service stations that offer electric charging, as well as petrol stations.
The necessary installation is complex as it requires a direct current of up to 600V and 400A, and can reach 240 kW of power, which allows 80% of a battery to be charged in an interval of 5 to 30 minutes. Also by using alternating current, 500V, up to 250A and 220 kW it achieves recharge times of 10 minutes (for 80% capacity).
As you can see, how long it takes to charge an electric car depends on where it is charged and on different characteristics of both the car and the charger. It is a matter of choosing the option that best suits your needs.