Charging an electric car
Plugging in your electric car is as simple as turning a light switch on. However as with everything there are a couple of things to note which will help you make this activity like second nature. Electric cars now come in all shapes and sizes and as the battery technology has evolved so has the charging capabilities of electric cars. Gone are the day where charging an electric car took 8 hours and gave you a measly 50 miles charge. Which is frankly not good for anything. Now some electric cars are boasting charge times as little as 15 mins for unto 80% charge which can give you over 200 miles in range. However this is limited to “Super Chargers” which are specially commissioned fast chargers for Tesla cars and are not as common as some of the other slightly slower chargers. There are predominantly two type of charging that can be done; which are AC and DC. Normally charging via AC is slower compared to DC chargers however AC chargers are much more abundant.
Charging at home - Wall chargers are dedicated boxes installed on your drive or in you garage to provide higher voltage electricity to your car so it can charge quicker. These can reduce the charge time significantly. The most common charge time for 7kW (typical wall charger) is around 4 hours. This means if you plug your electric vehicle in to the wall charger around 6PM you would usually have it fully charged by 10PM. At Work For some having a wall charger is not possible or they have the luxury of a electric car charger in work which they can utilise, in this case if you have a long commute then you can charge your car while you spend your typical day at work (usually 8 hours) so by the time you are ready to go home your car would be fully charged.
"You have to match the convenience of the gasoline car in order for people to buy an electric car."
Public charging - Public car parks are now starting to make electric charging point available for their customers. These are usually reserved prime spaces in multi-storey car parks and dedicated parking bays in shop car parks such as Ikea. These are handy for when you need some emergency top up or when you plan to spend a number of hours in the shopping centre.
Services - In the UK no long trip is complete without an obligatory stop at one of the service station along the motorway. Usually its an opportunity to recharge your body, however this can now also be an ample opportunity to recharge your car. Usually services are equipped with fast chargers which means a 30-40 min charge can provide up to 80% battery life.
Destination Chargers - The term has been characterised by Tesla, for chargers at a point of interest e.g hotel. However you can see that as a point of interest charger; at hotels, resorts, theme parks and tourist attractions. Dedicated Charge Points And finally you also have dedicated charge points at on street parking bays which allow for quick and easy access while your car is parked on the street. Usually these are a coming sight in busy cities. You would normally find these in streets of London, Manchester and Edinburgh.