BASICS OF ELECTRIC CARS AND CHARGING

In an electric car, the battery determines how far the car can be driven. Just like in a combustion engine car, the size of the car affects the "consumption". A large battery means a long operating range, but correspondingly, this also always means a longer charging time. In winter, the consumption of an electric car is higher. This is affected both by the deterioration of the batteries' capacity and the necessary heating. After all, an electric car does not produce waste heat like an internal combustion engine, and therefore all the energy used for heating is taken from the same battery. The way you drive also has a significant impact on the consumption of an electric car. You can find the range of different cars on our website under cars.

According to the recommendations, an ordinary household socket supplies a maximum of 8 amperes from one phase to charge an electric car, which corresponds to a power of about 1.8 kW. The charging power depends on the charging station and how much power the car can receive. Charging stations are available in 1- or 3-phase, and the charging current is between 6 and 32 A, respectively. In a 1-phase installation, the maximum possible charging power is 3.7 kW with a current of 16 A and 7.4 kW with a current of 32 A. In a 3-phase installation, the maximum possible charging power is 11 kW with a current of 16 A and up to 22 kW with a current of 32 A.

Many plug-in cars, especially plug-in hybrids, can only receive 3.7 kW of power. All cars can be charged at all charging stations, regardless of their power. Most cars stand in Park all night, in which case 3.7 kW might be enough. You should also take into account that the battery of the car being charged is not always completely empty when charging starts and it does not always need to be fully charged. It is enough to charge the car as much as it is driven.

Since the car's battery must have a lot of energy, a lot of power must be used for charging or, accordingly, the charging time will increase. The cable that comes with the car is always sized so that you can charge it from all sockets. By getting your own charging station, you can charge your car much faster.

It may take up to 2 days to fully charge a fully electric car, because with 8A current (with the cable that comes with the car), the charging time is even more than 48 h. Similarly, charging with the fastest 150kW public Rapid charger can take only 20 minutes. With a 22kW charger, this takes a few hours. Of course, it's also true that often the car is parked all night anyway. In this case, even slow charging may be sufficient, at least this applies to hybrid cars.

If you want to charge the battery quickly and safely, purchasing a home charging station is a good investment. The most efficient 11kW/22kW home charging station charges the car 12x faster compared to the cable that comes with the car. When charging a car at an AC station, the charging speed is also affected by the power of your car's internal charger, and many times you may not be able to use the full power.

We always recommend that you immediately install the most efficient charging station that you can use later. The internal chargers in cars will grow in the future, and even though your current car may not be able to utilize the full power, this way you will save yourself from expensive station renewals in the future. The price difference between different powerful chargers is quite small during the installation phase

The choice of a 16A/32A charger is influenced not only by the desired charging speed but also by the type of electrical network in your house. If the electricity network and the connection enable the power of a 32 A/ 3-phase charger (22kW), it is naturally faster and a better investment for the future. In practice, however, 16A (11kw) is also sufficient for a charging station at home. When renewing the electrical network or in new buildings, you should always be prepared for the increase in the number of electric cars and also for the fact that the requirements for chargers will also increase. Oversizing is not a very big expense, but correspondingly, increasing the subscription later is always a big and expensive project.