When it comes to charging your electric vehicle, there’s a lot to learn. To help make your switch to battery-powered mobility easier, we explain everything you need to know about the basics of EV charging.
Whether it is at home or on the road, Ayvens provides an extensive guide for all your electric charging needs.
How to recharge your battery at home, work, or in public
Whether you’re using a home charging point or a public one, it’s easy to recharge your battery if you follow these simple steps.
Home charging
Charging at home conveniently enables you to wake up to a fully charged electric vehicle. But it’s only an option for specific living situations. If home charging is for you, you’ll need to know all about the advantages and costs. You’ll also need to learn about the different types of charging points and how to get, install and manage one of your own.
Public charging
Do you need to charge on the go? Public charging networks are growing each year across Europe and beyond. No need to worry about running out of range when there's always a public charger close by. We've got you covered with everything you need to know about using public chargers. From the speed, the costs, and using charge cards.
Charging speeds: How fast can I charge?
The answer is - it depends.
Different types of charging points offer different speeds, and your EV will be limited by its ability to receive and convert that electricity. If your car has an 11 kW onboard charger and you plug into a 7.4 kW home charger, you will only be charging at 7.4 kW. The car could take more power, but the charging point is limited. If your EV has a 6.6 kW onboard charger and you plug it into a standard, single-phase home 7.4 kW charging point, you will be limited to charging at 6.6 kW because the EV can’t take more.
How can I charge my electric vehicle?
How should I charge my electric vehicle? The battery is the heart of your electric vehicle, so you must take good care of it. When you fill up your car with petrol or diesel, you usually think: "The fuller, the better". In electric vehicles, lithium batteries will last longer if you keep them charged between 20% and 80%.
Although a full charge is not ideal, it’s not the end of the world – so long as you don’t leave your car parked for a long time after a full charge. Fully draining your battery’s charge is also not advisable. If this happens, it is important to recharge your car as soon as possible.
Where can I charge my electric vehicle? You can charge your electric vehicle **at work, at home or on the road**. There is an extensive and growing network of electric chargers in Portugal and in Europe (more than 150,000).
How long does it take to charge an electric vehicle? Different chargers offer different charging speeds, although charging time is also influenced by the vehicle’s capacity.
PHEVs charge at speeds of 3.7 kW to 7.5 kW, and as a rule in slow charging. In these types of vehicles, the battery has a capacity of about 10 kWh, so in order to fully charge the battery, which has a charging speed of 3.7 kW, it will take approximately 3 hours.
100% electric cars charge at speeds of 7.5 kWh to 22 kWh or up to 150 kW, depending on the current used – alternating (AC) for slow charging or direct (DC) for fast charging.
For example: a car with a 50 kWh battery, with a charging speed of 22 kW in AC, will take approximately 2.5 hours to charge. If in direct current, with a charging speed of 50 kW, it will take approximately 45 minutes to reach the maximum limit of 80% of battery capacity (in DC, in order to preserve the battery life).
If I move to a new home, what happens to the charger? If you move, the equipment can be transferred to your new home, but the deinstallation and installation costs must be paid by you or by the company.
Will my building have the energy capacity to install the charger? To determine whether buildings have the proper energy capacity, a technical visit will be done by the LeasePlan partner responsible for charger installation.
It is important to meet one of the following conditions:
- single-phase installation with a minimum contracted power of 5.75kVA;
- three-phase installation with a minimum contracted power of 13.8 kVA.
If neither of these power conditions can be met, is important to determine if the capacity can be increased.
Are charging costs billed to me or to the condominium? Billing will depend on the type of charging solution chosen, which falls into one of two categories:
- **Plug & Charge**, with no connection to the Mobi.E network: we offer an account settlement wallet solution between the condominium member and the condominium.
- **DPC, with a connection to the Mobi.E network**: use of an EMSP card which unlocks the charger and allows charging, with all charges done using the card, and not the joint condominium account. This is also the best solution for automatically reimbursing charges between the company and the employee.
For more information, please see the website of our mobility partner Mobi.E. If you have any questions, contact our specialists via e-mail at [consultoria@leaseplan.com](targetSelf:consultoria@leaseplan.com "consultoria@leaseplan.com").
