How to charge an electric car
Charging EVs at home
Most people charge their electric vehicles (EVs) at home, because it is easy, convenient and affordable.
Here are some options to consider.
Use the ‘granny charger’ that comes with the EV
All EVs should come with a basic charger cable (granny charger) that is compatible with the car.
This option is cheap, easy and sloooow!
The granny charger plugs into a normal power point at one end, and the car’s charging port at the other end.
If you need to use an extension lead, make sure that it is an ‘extra heavy duty’ one and follow all manufacturer’s instructions. The lead or cable needs to handle lots of power drawing through it into the car over a long period of time without getting hot and starting a fire…. make sure it is good quality.
The granny charger will charge the car at around 1.8 kw per hour. One hour of charging will give you about 15km of driving. A 60kwh battery will take around 30 hours to charge from empty to full.
Install a home charger
This option is much faster. We used our granny charger for a year, but eventually decided we needed a faster and smarter option.
A home charger costs between $500-$2000 depending on the model, brand and features. It also needs to be installed by a licensed electrician (like us!).
In general, the cost of installation will depend on where you want the charger installed. The closer it is to the home switchboard the easier (and cheaper) the install will be.
These chargers can charge a car at a minimum of 7kw per hour, which will give you around 45km of driving per hour of charge. A 60kw battery takes about 8 hours to fully charge.
Some ‘smart’ chargers can be programmed to only use excess solar power, or charge overnight when the power price is lower.
Chargers can come with a cable attached (tethered), or you can buy cable separately (untethered; see more information on cables below).
We specialise in EV charger installations and repairs (our EV charging services page is here), so get in touch with us if you would like a charger install quote or would like to chat about your options.
Here is Phil talking about a recent charger install for a Nissan Leaf, which needed a special adaptor plug for the cable.
Public charging
We generally charge our EV at home from our solar power, but we do need to use public charging options sometimes, on longer trips away from home.
The easiest way to find public charging options is visit the Plugshare website (or download their app).
Plugshare has a map of all public chargers, explains what type of charger they are (see more info below) and allows people to ‘check in’ to the charger so other drivers know if it is occupied.
If you need to plan a long trip, it can be helpful to work out where the best places to stop and charge will be.
Check out A Better Route Planner for this.
Some public charging etiquette tips:
disconnect and move your EV as soon as you’ve finished charging (fees may also apply for failing to do this in some locations)
generally only charge up to 80% (rather than all the way up to 100%) as the last 20% the charger will sloooow down, and there might be people waiting in the queue, and
the software Need To Charge might be handy as it sends you notifications when someone else is waiting to charge and you’re still plugged in but not at your car.
Rapid chargers
These chargers are sometimes called DC chargers, because of the type of electrical current they use.
They suck lots of power from the grid really quickly and pump it into your EV battery as fast as possible.
They can charge a whole battery in 15-40 minutes, so are great for road trips and when quick charging is needed. They are generally located on busy highways and in busy towns and CBDs.
Cables are generally supplied, so no need to bring your own.
Power can be more expensive than other types of chargers (they often charge a price per kwh used, plus a fee per minute) and they can be a bit less reliable (needing regular repairs + maintenance).
Destination chargers
Destination chargers use AC current, and are slower than DC rapid chargers. However, they can be a bit more reliable as they are simpler technology and don’t have such a huge impact on the grid or network.
They charge at a similar speed to a home charger. They can charge a car battery in a few hours (the exact rate will depend on your car and how quickly it can draw the power).
These chargers are often found in public car parks, shopping centres, cafes and tourist hot spots where people park for a few hours.
Also can be installed in workplaces for staff or customers!
Some public AC chargers supply a cable but others rely on the driver bringing their own cable….
Which brings me to…
Charging cables
We recommend taking a charging cable with you on longer trips, just in case you get stuck and need to use a public charger.
The charging cable that we generally recommend is called a Type 2 cable, which is compatible with most cars and chargers. Some cars need another type (Nissan Leafs for example, see the video above) because they have a different shaped charging socket.
We can help you work out which one you need depending on the model of your car.
Just make sure the cable you buy is long enough to easily charge your car, noting charging ports on different types of cars are in different locations (usually either at the front or side).
Software and RFID cards
Many public chargers use software to make it possible to pay for the power that is used during a charging session.
There are soo many different apps and software out there - it is almost like every charger is using a different one :/
Downloading the following charging software should have you pretty well covered in lutruwita / Tasmania (but there are always new ones popping up):
We also help our customers set up an RFID card.
This is essentially a key card or fob that you can connect to each of the different apps and software platforms. It means you can access public chargers and pay for power used without needing to log into all the different software every time.
It also helps if the networks are down or if the charger location doesn’t have good reception for the app or software to work. An RFID card should still work and allow charging in these situations.
We can help you get an RFID card set up. If you prefer to do it yourself, you can order one through the Evie app (it works for Evie but also the other software too).
You need to set this card up with a valid debit or credit card as your payment method in each of the apps, and off you go.
That is enough for now I think…
We hope this information has been useful, and helped answer some of the questions you might have about charging EVs.
Please get in touch if you think we’ve missed anything important or you’d like more info or still have questions.
You can check out our EV charging services, and request a callback or a quote at any stage.
We’d love to hear from you.