How long does it take to charge an electric car

According to motoring research organisation, the RAC Foundation, around one in five job adverts require the applicant to be able to drive. With more than 15 million people regularly driving to work in England and Wales, and light vans accounting for more than 50 billion vehicle miles each year, plenty of people rely on their car or van for work.

So it’s not surprising that one of the biggest issues on people’s minds usually revolves around how long it takes to charge an electric car. If you are on the road a lot or using your car or van for work you might think that charging times or charging rate mean an electric vehicle just isn’t for you.

But you may be surprised to learn that charging up might not take anywhere near as long as you think.

Put simply the time it will take to charge will depend on the size of your car’s battery and the speed of the charger you’re plugging into.  Illustrated in the image below, using the Nissan LEAF and a home charger as an example.

There are different speeds of chargers depending on whether you're at home, in the workplace or using a public network. And in our experience it's charging at home (usually overnight) which is the most convenient way to keep your EV topped up with electrons.

But if speed is your thing, or you need to add a few more miles of range, then charging from a rapid or ultra-rapid public charging unit can add a significant amount of vehicle range in a surprisingly short amount of time - depending on EV model you're driving.

If you knew that you could put more than 30 miles into your car battery in just 10 minutes, (or 70 miles in 10 minutes if you have a Tesla hooked up to a supercharger), would that change your opinion on whether an electric vehicle is suitable for your job or busy life?

Although public rapid charging can be utilised on longer journeys, the majority of EV drivers will find that for their day-to-day driving it’s enough to plug in overnight at home, so your car charges while you’re sleeping. Car charging is just like plugging in your mobile phone, but the plug is a bit bigger, and the car isn’t on your bedside table!

Electric cars are available in a variety of battery sizes to suit different driving needs.  In terms of charging; the bigger the battery in your car, the longer it’s going to take to fully charge. The current Nissan LEAF has a 40kWh battery, whereas the Jaguar I-Pace has a larger 90kWh battery, and as a result, the I-Pace will take longer to charge to its full capacity as it has a bigger battery to fill.

To sum up, it could take anything between 30 minutes and 15 hours or more to fully charge an electric car or van.

This depends on how much energy you need, and the speed of the charging point you use, giving you lots of flexibility and convenience to suit your needs for different journeys. The table below shows how many miles different speeds of charger can add to your car battery in 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes or an hour.

On average, 80% of people do charge their electric cars at home overnight.

Home charging is the most convenient and cost-effective way to charge. To charge an EV at home, all you need is a professionally installed home charging point. From time to time some manufacturers also offer to install a charging point free of charge when you buy one of their electric cars. Your home charging point will be installed on an exterior wall of your house or in your garage. Once your charger is installed you are good to go. Some home chargers also allow solar panels to be connected, now or in the future, to charge up your EV just by catching the sunshine!

It’s also possible to use a 3-pin charging cable to charge at home, but this is best kept as a backup (i.e: when visiting friends or family who don’t have a home charger) and isn’t advisable for using on a long-term basis.  As we mentioned before, this cable provides a ‘slow charge’, half the speed of a 7kW home charge point. So it’s much more efficient to have a home charger installed.

For further savings when home charging you might want to consider choosing an EV-friendly electricity tariff that offers cheap overnight electricity, there are a number of these tariffs available now. To make the most of off-peak energy prices you can set your car to charge at certain times. This means you can plug in as soon as you get home, but your car won’t start charging until the time you choose. So you won’t have to get out of bed at midnight to plug in when your cheap overnight tariff kicks in!

There are several ways you can set up a charging schedule for your car. One option is to use the car manufacturers app in some cases, if you don’t have an app for your car you can change the car’s charging settings though it’s dashboard touchscreen instead, or alternatively with a smart charger you can set your charging preferences though your charge point app. Oh, the possibilities.