How to charge an electric car without a charging station?

EV drivers can charge their cars at a public charging station or at home, but when they need to travel longer distances or remote countryside, How they can charge their cars? The portable EV charger will easily let you charge your electric cars without hassle.

The common portable EV charger on the market now is 3.5kw 16A, which has the following advantages

1. easy to carry, the weight of the device is only 3kg, take it with you, convenient storage.

2. easy to charge, the household plug can be used, of course, to choose a 16A socket, such as an air conditioning socket. If you can’t find a 16A socket around you when you go out, you can also use an ordinary household three-hole socket (10A), but because the 16A plug is larger than 10A, so you need a 10A to 16A socket to meet the temporary charging needs when using a 10A socket.

If the cable is not long enough for charging, you can also use an extension cord (flywire), but be sure to choose a 4mm²  cable, and the length should not exceed 30m.

Relatively speaking, the disadvantage of 3.5KW 16A is also quite obvious, that is, charging is not fast enough, and the charging speed of different brands is also relatively large, some electric vehicles equipped with portable EV chargers even one night is not enough, maybe these manufacturers mainly produce vehicles, there is not too much investment in household portable EV charger. So when we choose or as far as possible to choose a professional brand.

The biggest difference between 32A and 16A is charging speed. The power of a 16A portable EV charger is about 3.5KW, while the power of a 32A portable EV charger is about 7.4kW, and charging efficiency is twice as fast.

However, the corresponding charging environment also has requirements. When using a 32A portable charging pile, the family shared electricity meter and public switch must be above 60A, otherwise, other electrical appliances in the home will not be able to use normally when the car is charging. If you want to connect the 32A7KW portable charger separately, you need to reconnect it from the meter and connect it to the 32A socket. The 32A 7KW wire shall not be less than 6mm² cables.

For hybrid new energy vehicles, 16A 3.5KW is the most suitable, convenient, and practical. For purely electric vehicles, it is best to choose 32A 7.4KW portable charging with high power.

Additional question 1: The charging pile is 7KW, and my car is 3.5KW. Will there be any problem with charging?

It won’t be a problem.

The 7kW charging pile is the capacity of the charging pile, and 4.5kW is the charging power required by the electric car, which seems to be in danger of overcharging. But in reality, electric cars have a BMS system inside that controls charging power to ensure they don’t overshoot. Generally, a 3.5kW car adapter and input current should be around 16A. The overcharge protection will be based on the capacity of the battery, the allowable charging voltage and current, and whether to support high current charging.

Additional question 2: What is the difference between a 7KW AC Charge and a 7kW DC charger?

The 7kW AC EV charger is used to input 220V AC power from the household to the vehicle charger. The onboard charger converts alternating current to direct current into the vehicle battery. This involves a conversion efficiency problem. If the conversion efficiency of your car charger is 90%, the power output of your charging pile is 7kWh per hour, and the power input into the battery is 7kWh×0.9= 6.3kwh per hour, which is commonly referred to as 6.3kWh electricity.

The 7kW DC EV charger directly outputs direct current through the charging gun, which directly inputs the power into the battery in the car without the conversion of the vehicle charger. It is equivalent to putting the car charger outside. If your 7kW DC EV charger produces 7kW, you can roughly equate the charge in your rechargeable battery to 7 KWH, which is slightly faster than an AC EV charger. However, compared to 7/8 hours of charging time, the two charging times are relatively close.

No matter what kind of charging, for the power battery of the car, the final input is DIRECT current, AC EV charger is nothing more than AC to DC equipment in the car, and DC EV charger is to directly change the AC into DC charge to the battery.