Like your petrol car, your electric vehicle needs to refuel. However an electric car is like a mobile phone, you just need to plug it into an electricity source and leave it to charge.

Continuing with the mobile phone analogy, each model of electric car needs a different kind of cable to make the charging connection. These will normally be provided with the vehicle and you’ll need to know which one you have to ensure that you can charge your EV.

We’ll help you understand which connector matches with which charging station and how the different charging speeds you get affect how long you need to leave your electric car to charge.

To charge an electric car you need to use direct current (DC), however the grid provides alternating current (AC). Changing the current from AC to DC can either be done by your car or the charger.

A DC charger will charge your car faster as it will perform the conversion for your car. If you use an AC charger it will be the car doing the conversion which means that it won’t be able to charge as fast.

AC chargers cap out at about 22kW, whilst DC chargers can reach 100kW or above, which means that if you want a rapid or ultra-rapid charger you’ll need to get a DC charger.

There are four speeds of electric vehicle connector:

• Slow: 3-7kW.

• Fast: 7-22kW.

• Rapid: 50-100kW.

• Ultra rapid: 100+kW.

These speeds determine how fast your EV can be charged. You’ll tend to find that home EV chargers are slow or fast, whereas public charging points can be rapid or ultra rapid.

Faster charging speeds are great, however they can cost more than a slow or fast charge. It’s best to check the cost per kW before choosing where to charge.

To have an EV charger installed you’ll need:

We’ve put together a useful guide on how you can charge your EV at home, including how to get a charger installed, what you’ll need to do to charge and what tariffs are available. Getting an EV home charger.

Check out our guide to understand how to find your nearest public EV charging point, step-by-step guide on public charging and what you’ll need to do to pay for one. Using a public EV charger.