Explained: EV charging levels for beginners

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To fuel a gas powered car, you stop what you’re doing for a few minutes, fill the tank, and then hop back in and carry on your way – maybe even driving 1,000 kilometres before you then stop what you’re doing for a few minutes to fill the tank, and carry on once again.

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To recharge an electric car, you treat it like your smartphone – just plug it in while you’re not using it.

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Explained: EV charging levels for beginners Back to video

When your Civic is low on gas, you just take a stop on the way to work and fill it up. When your EV needs juice, you’d instead plug it in at work and let it fill up slowly, all day, while it’s just sitting there doing nothing.

Later, at home, plug it in again for further recharging. After all, the car’s just sitting there. Heck, you might as well just leave it plugged in all night long while you’re sleeping, too.

Normally we fill the gas tank when stopping for gas – it’s just convenient that way. In an electric, if you’re got a plug where you work and a plug where you park, you just take 10 seconds to connect before you walk away, and the battery fills while you’re off living your life.

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These days, you’ll usually go more miles on a tank full of gas than on an EV battery full of electricity. For the moment, more affordable electric models offer somewhere between about 300 and 400 kilometres of driving per charge; with a full tank of gasoline, a compact car can drive double that distance, or more.

If you’re a frequent long-distance driver who doesn’t like to stop very often, then gasoline power can be more convenient. I can add hundreds upon hundreds of kilometres of range to a Jeep Gladiator EcoDiesel in a matter of minutes.

Adding that many miles to the battery of a Mustang Mach E, Porsche Taycan, Nissan Leaf or Kia Soul EV can take tens of minutes – or maybe even many hours – but it all depends where you plug in.

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You charge electric cars at three levels – 1, 2, or 3.

Level 1 is a standard household outlet at 120 volts. Unplug your Christmas lights and plug in a Ford Mustang Mach-E First Edition like my recent tester, and you’re adding about 1 percent per hour back into the battery. That battery is capable of about 435 kilometres in ideal conditions, making that 1 percent worth about 4 kilometres.

The sticky? Every hour you can leave your car plugged in while its parked adds about 4 kilometres of driving back to the battery. That’s 50 kilometres during an overnight charge; 35 more if you can plug in for the day at work.

On a standard wall outlet, Level 1 charging can take days to fill an empty battery, though it might be all you need if you’re driving infrequently or or just making short trips. The average Canadian driver does fewer than 50km per day, and most of the EV-driving ones charge exclusively at home.

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Level 2 charging runs on 240 volt power. So might your dryer, an electric welder, or a garage heater. If your house has the proper electricals you can have a Level 2 charger installed at home if you like. They’re commonly used as public charging stations, too.

With more power, a Level 2 charger can refill an electric battery much more quickly than a Level 1.

In the Taycan Turbo, Leaf Plus or Mustang Mach-E, you can totally refill a depleted battery overnight if necessary. About 10 hours on my Level 2 charger totally refilled a near-empty Taycan Turbo, I-Pace and numerous others overnight with no issue – even in extreme cold.

With the Mustang Mach-E, my Level 2 charger added about 40 kilometres back to the battery for every hour of charging. That’s a complete fill up over night, and a near fill of your battery on the daily if you’ve got Level 2 charging at work.

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Whether you’re a busy family that’s constantly using the car, or running a business, a Level 2 charger can help ensure you’re grabbing a fully-juiced car every time you set out. Level 2 charging while you go for a hike, visit a science centre, or see a movie could add 150 kilometres or more.

Level 3 is my favourite way to charge an EV because it’s the fastest. These public charging stations are becoming more common along major highway routes and elsewhere. On a Level 3 charger, I was able to consistently add 80 kilometres to the Mustang Mach E’s battery in 10 minutes, or 160 kilometres in 20.

Translation? The average family road-trip bio-break is enough time to put a hundred miles or more back into the battery, and there’s no need to spend extra time standing around to pump gas.

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Level 1 charging adds 4 kilometres per hour to the Mach e’s battery. Level 2 charging makes it 40 kilometres per hour. On level 3? Call it about 500 kilometres per hour. My tester’s battery only held about 435 kilometres worth of juice, so we can call that a total recharge in an hour or less.

I achieved similar results in the more affordable Nissan Leaf Plus, and in the exotic 670-horsepower Porsche Taycan Turbo.

So, on road trips, if you plan around the biological reality that you’ll probably need a few stops, and plan to make those stops at Level 3 charging stations – which are appearing everywhere, by the way – it’s easy to leapfrog from snack break to washroom break to snack break, charging while you’re parked, and then carrying on with your trip.

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Your results will vary from mine – not immensely – but there are a lot of variables at play. If it’s very cold outside and you blast the heat, your EV’s range might fall by 100 or 150 kilometres—perhaps not ideal for road tripping in some locales, but still sufficient for comfortable commuting on the daily.

For instance, I lived with an electric Jaguar I-Pace for 2 weeks in mid-February last winter. I live in Sudbury. It was cold.

At room temperature, a full charge is good for about 388 klicks in that machine. At zero degrees, make it about 320, or about 300 if you’re blasting the heat. At 27 below, with every heat-source in the vehicle maxed, I was still clear for 240 kilometres of driving, complete with beautiful electric AWD traction and plenty of power to spare.

So, that’s what I can tell you about my experience reviewing electric cars in real world conditions over the last several years, all while making many hours-long road trips in the process.

If you’re considering making the switch to electric, these are exciting times. There are some remarkable things coming to universe, and they’re coming fast.

LISTEN: A Truck Guy’s take on the electrification of the pickup

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