You've decided to buy your first electric car. In your burst of enthusiasm, you're still wondering which charging station to install in your home. There are many criteria to consider. How do you make the right choice?
You've decided to buy your first electric car. In your burst of enthusiasm, you're still wondering which charging station to install in your home. There are many criteria to consider. How do you make the right choice?
One of the main criteria to take into account when choosing your charging station is its power. Indeed, a powerful terminal allows you to charge your vehicle battery more quickly, but it will cost more.
Overall, the power of a charging station varies from 3.7 to 22 kW. One hour of charging on a 3.7 kW terminal allows you to recover 20 km of autonomy, while on a 22 kW terminal, for the same duration, you recover up to 150 km of autonomy.
In most cases, for a daily trip in the city, a 3.7 kW or 7.4 kW charging station is still more than sufficient. Only those who make long trips and who use vehicles with larger batteries need a more powerful terminal.
Far beyond choosing the power of the electrical terminal, you must, above all, check the power of your electrical installation in order to adapt that of the terminal accordingly. In fact, to recharge an electric vehicle, a power of between 6 and 12 kVA will be required.
If your electrical installation is not very powerful, and you do not want to change it, opting for a 3.7 kW terminal seems the most appropriate solution. On the other hand, if you have an efficient installation, or if you want to update it, you can choose a 7kW terminal or even opt for a three-phase circuit in order to accommodate an even more powerful terminal.
A charging station can have a wide range of functionalities to facilitate its use. Depending on the model you buy, you will have different options to choose from. For example, some so-called “smart” charging stations have a function that allows them to program the right time to start charging the vehicle, taking into account the electricity needs in the house.
In other words, when you use many electrical devices at the same time, vehicle charging will stop automatically and will only resume when consumption decreases. This provides the maximum power needed to quickly charge the car.
There are other practical features that vary depending on the model, including the connected function that allows you to manipulate the terminal remotely from your smartphone. You can also opt for a terminal with a security function such as access control. This limits the number of people who can use the terminal. Finally, some models have numerous other ports to allow the charging of various electrical devices.
