How long does fast charging your car take?
When you are on the road and your electric car ‘s battery is in danger of running out, the last thing you are waiting for is a long wait at a charging station. In such cases, the fast charging station comes as a welcome solution. You usually find these along busy roads, often near large petrol stations along motorways. But how long does quick charging your car actually take?
At fast-charging stations, you usually enjoy many choices when it comes to payment methods. Whether you want to pay via an app, PayPal, credit card, or your debit card, almost all are possible. Still, it is advisable to bring your charging card with you. Not only because the charging session will then be credited to the same account, but mainly because the charging card is the most widely accepted payment method at European fast chargers.
More and more electric cars prefer to find a fast charger themselves via their built-in navigation system. This allows the battery to prepare for fast charging before you arrive, resulting in faster charging speeds.
The charging time of an electric car depends on three main factors:
- The power of the charging station.
- The on-board charger in your car, which determines how much power your car can handle.
- How empty the car’s battery is.
With home charging, power connection also plays a role, but in practice, one hour of charging with a charging station with a capacity between 3.7 and 11 kW equates to a range increase of 20 to 60 kilometres. That means you can add around 100 to 300 kilometres to your range in 5 hours.
The on-board charger, a crucial part of your electric car, converts alternating current into direct current, which is necessary because electric cars can only use direct current. The output of the on-board charger affects the charging speed, so this is an important factor to keep in mind.
And we are talking about fast charging, the fastest way to charge your electric car. At a fast charging station, you can usually charge up to 80 per cent of your battery within 30 minutes. It is really fast up to 80 per cent, but after that the pace slows down considerably.
So now you have an answer to the question how long does fast charging your car take, the time it takes to charge your electric car depends on several variables, but with fast charging you can get back on the road quickly.
