AC Chargers are typically able to charge an EV to 80% capacity within just 2-4 hours, depending on the battery capacity and charge speed of the vehicle. The future for EVs is to have the capability to charge at 22kW or 43kW as standard using an AC charger. Currently many models can only charge at 7.4KWh or 11KWh.

A 7.4KWh AC Charger will typically take 4-6 Hours to charge to 80%
A 22KWh AC Charger will typically take 1.5-2.5 Hours to charge to 80%
A 43KWh AC Charger will typically take 45-90 Minutes to charge to 80%

Type 1 and Type 2 AC chargers are different connectors found on EV charging cables. A Type 2 AC connector has 7 pins and is commonly used to charge electric cars across Europe. This connector comes with an in-built locking mechanism designed to deter people from tampering with your charger.

A Type 1 AC connector was the UK standard until around 2018. The main difference between the two is that the Type 2 connector has 5 pins, no locking mechanism and carries single-phase power only. Type 2 chargers are now the industry standard in the UK.

Type 2 sockets are normally used for fast home charging. Typically a type 2 AC charger has a charging speed of around 6-8 hours.

Most UK charging stations will use AC charging. The core difference between AC charging and DC charging is the location where the AC power gets converted. It either gets converted inside the car or outside the car. DC chargers have the converter inside the charger itself whereas AC chargers do not. That means the DC charger can feed power directly to the car’s battery and doesn’t need the onboard charger to convert it. DC chargers are bigger, faster, and perfect for charging bigger fleet vehicles. We’ve written an article diving into more detail about the difference between AC and DC charging.