How long does it take to charge an electric car?

Electric vehicles are an alternative to combustion vehicles for everyone who wants to help reduce air pollution. A goal towards which the countries of the European Union are moving and which requires an infrastructure of recharging points, facilities for the purchase of these cars and the ever-increasing reduction of charging times. Because,how long does it take to charge an electric car?

To answer this question, it is necessary to mention the different types of electric vehicle charging currently available in Spain. Keeping in mind that a good parallel is charging cell phone batteries: not all phones are the same and don\’t take the same amount of time to charge.

Most effective for the electrification of the car park in Spain It will happen that the charging points at the stations will allow fast times, something that is not currently happening, according to a report by the National Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers (ANFAC). Which is not positive, not only for private vehicles, but also for electric truck transport fleets, to give an example.

Therefore, in addition to being available to citizens charging solutions for electric cars you have to focus on the time required to charge an electric vehicleoy upgrade to speed them up. In this way, it will be possible to better promote the purchase of these vehicles and promote 100% renewable and low-pollution energies.

Charging times for electric cars today

Let\’s now see the load times in Spain today. We can divide them into the following four types.

Slow charge: more than 5 hours

First of all, the lazy loading electric or plug-in vehicles (the different types of electric cars include hybrids) take more than 5 hours to recharge cars.

In this case, for vehicles of type M1 and N1, which are utility vehicles, it is usually used single-phase systems and what is recommended is a power of 7.4 kW to reduce charging times to about 4 hours. On the contrary, if the power is about 3.7 kW, charging is slower, reaching up to 8 hours.

Single-phase systems are those energy production, distribution and consumption systems consisting only of alternating current. We remember that when recharging, the electricity is transformed from alternating current to direct current because that is what the batteries of electric cars allow.

Semi-rapid charging: 1 to 3 hours

Secondly, semi-fast charging of electric vehicles at charging stations or electrolinearas well as in internal points, allow loading in an hour or two. These times fluctuate due to power differences.

For example, for vehicles of type M1 and N1, the power reaches 22 kW, with a charging time of one hour or one and a half hours. While with a power of less than 11 kW, which is the minimum for semi-fast charging, the time is longer: about 3 hours.

Fast charging: less than 30 minutes

The fast charging of electric vehicles has a time of less than 30 minutes (charged to 80% in half an hour) and as in semi-rapid, it is necessary to differentiate the power used for utility vehicles and for heavy industrial vehicles.

In the case of the first ones, the power with three-phase systems reaches 50 kW; and for the second, the power is greater than 350 kW. For this type, you need to go to charging stations that have specific DC chargers available to drivers for this power.

Ultra fast charging: between 5 and 10 minutes

Finally, reload times are reduced to just 5 – 10 minutes in the ultra fast charging of electric cars. For this, there must be charging points with a power of 150 kW, in addition to a current intensity of 735 Amps.

As we can see, there are many differences when talking about how long it takes to recharge an electric car in the different types of recharging that we have just described. The last type being the most suitable to charge it when we go on a trip and cannot wait for a long time.

What influences the charging time of electric cars

In Spain, according to ANFAC data, there are more than 11,000 charging points distributed throughout the national territory, with Catalonia and Madrid leading the way. In all plug-in vehicles they can be recharged at the times described.

But what factors influence the charging time of electric vehicles?

Types of batteries in electric cars

Returning to the parallelism of mobile phones, they do not have the same types of batteries. In the case of electric cars, the batteries in which the electricity is stored influence the charging time to be longer or shorter. The relationship is simple: the smaller the battery, the less time it takes to charge. That\’s taking into account the fact that the minimum power is 25 kWh.

Vehicle load capacity

The chargers are also different and since there are 5 types of connectors or plugs, the charging times vary from one to another.

The load level of the machine

Although it may seem trivial, depending on the charge level the car has when it starts recharging, it will take more or less time. In this sense, the relationship is inversely proportional: the more charge the electric vehicle has, the less time it will take to recharge.

Weather conditions

Finally, how long an electric car takes to charge also depends on weather and weather, as it affects batteries and the range of electric vehicles. In this sense, it should be borne in mind that the cold reduces this autonomy and increases charging times. And at the same time, in situations of extreme heat and high temperatures, the battery also suffers and cars need to be charged more often.

As we have seen, therefore, electric car owners have several options for charging times, which need to be improved so that most charging stations allow fast or ultra-fast speed and extend electric mobility in Spain.