Anyone who has driven an electric car can feel the fascination: they accelerate beautifully, are extremely quiet and have zero emissions. But how do you actually charge an electric car?? Vattenfall presents the possibilities and explains how to refuel at a charging station.
Where to charge an electric car?
At home: wall socket or wall charging station
At the socket
Charging the electric car is possible in principle, but many experts advise against it. A power socket heats up considerably during continuous charging for several hours. If it is not installed properly or is defective, it can overheat, melt or catch fire. If you still want to use this charging option, car manufacturers recommend that you have the condition of the socket and the power grid checked by a technician.
Apart from that, the charging process for an electric car at the household socket takes much longer than charging with a wallbox, for example. This is simply more efficient in charging with higher performance.
At the wallbox
Wall charging stations are available from different manufacturers in different designs and equipment. They are particularly suitable for homeowners or apartment owners with a parking space in a collective garage. But since 2020, tenants have also had the "right to a wallbox", which is intended to simplify the purchase and installation of their own charging station. Probably the biggest advantage of a charging station at home is that you don’t have to make trips to the (electricity) filling station in your everyday life on the road. In addition, wallboxes are designed for high continuous charging power and thus ensure efficient and safe charging at home with significantly shorter charging times. Use our expert tips and read what you need to know when buying a wallbox.
Electric car: why the wallbox is more efficient?
During the charging process, additional systems are activated in the electric car, for example the battery monitoring system. These systems also consume energy during the charging time, but independent of the charging power. A wall charging station shortens the charging time, which means that such systems are deactivated more quickly and require less energy.
Another aspect is that energy loss is lowest at high charge rates. The effect of the charger depends on its capacity utilization, i.e. the ratio between the current and maximum charging capacity. The efficiency is therefore significantly worse at low utilization than at maximum charging power.
How to charge an electric car?
On the road at the charging station: refueling with an electric car at a public charging station is basically similar to "normal" refueling: drive up to the pump, fill up, drive on. Quite simple. A charging cable is required for the charging process, which is either part of the equipment of an electric car or is already permanently installed on the charging station. There are charging cables with different plug types. The prerequisite for refueling is that the plug fits into the socket of the charging station or that you have an appropriate adapter with you.
In germany, the type 2 plug, also called the mennekes plug, is established. It can be found at most charging stations. The EU member states have agreed that this type of plug will become the uniform standard for public charging stations in Europe.
To refuel, you also need a suitable charging card or a charging app. This is needed to unlock the charging station. Since the charging station ordinance passed in 2017, it has also been possible for consumers to use newly installed charging stations from different providers with their charging card. There are now over 35.000 charging points in germany and the expansion has just really begun.