Electric Vehicle PHEV Cars EVSE Home Charging and Public Charger

There’s no doubt about it — electric car charging is different from fueling a car with gasoline. On the whole, it’s much more convenient to charge an electric car — you get home, you spend 7 seconds plugging in, you go on with your day or night, and you spend 7 seconds unplugging when you are ready to drive somewhere again. But circumstances vary, and public charging is a whole other beast. So, here’s a thorough but introductory guide on electric car charging.

Home Charging
2013 nissan leafNissan LEAF charging with EVSE.
~95% of electric car charging is done at home. There are a couple of common ways to charge at home. One is to simply plug into a standard electricity outlet. All electric cars have what is termed an “onboard charger” in the car itself. So, all you need is to use the charging cord you get with your car to connect your car to a source of electricity.

However, simply plugging into the wall won’t charge your car very fast — you’ll add just about 4 miles of charge or driving range in one hour of charging. If you want to charge faster, you probably want a home charging station (aka “Electric Vehicle Service Equipment,” or EVSE) — I know, it’s a weird name.
EVSE is what a lot of people are talking about when they talk about a “home charger” or “wall charger” or “home charging station.” Actually, though, EVSE is any device which brings AC power to your car, where it is then turned into DC power and fills your car’s battery — via the car’s onboard charger. In other words, it’s various types of cords or cords + boxes that can be used to charge your car. There’s a wide range of EVSE on the market, and I’ll discuss several of the options in a future article.

Important to note, though, is that not all electric cars are created equal, and not all electric car onboard chargers are created equal (no matter what EVSE you buy). Below is a table of the various electric (including plug-in hybrid electric) cars on the market, the maximum charging capacity of their onboard chargers, and approximately how many “miles of charge” or “miles of driving range” can be added to these cars in one hour while charging on an EVSE.