Driving an EV is one thing, topping up its batteries another.
Most drivers resort to AC charging at home or at the office, which is possible at a rate of anything between 3.7kW (e.g. Citroën C-Zero) and 16.5 kW (e.g. Tesla Model S and X). It depends on the output of the wallbox, but also on the capacity of the EV’s onboard charger, which has to convert AC from the grid to DC for the battery. Even if the wallbox is rated at 11kW, you can never charge faster than the capacity of the on-board device.
Milton Keynes ‘Mushrooms’ Charging Hub (Image: T. Larkum)
In the case of DC fast charging, which is only done occasionally by most, the limitations don’t stem from AC-DC conversion, but (mainly) from cooling. Most DC fast chargers today offer 50kW, but the latest ones reach 150kW. BMW, Jaguar Land Rover and Porsche have already tested fast chargers at 350kW, which are indeed seven times faster than most stations today. These would reduce the charging time for a big 100kWh battery to just fifteen minutes (from 10 to 80% State of Charge).
We thought it would be interesting to draw up a top 10 of the fastest charging sub-80,000-euro EVs (excluding VAT) that have officially been presented and can be ordered today, expressed in kilometres of range added per charging hour.
Read more: Fleet Europe