Many thanks @kezo and @MFillingham I think I’m slowly getting there and I really appreciate you trying to explain it all. I think I now understand that you divide the kWh figure by the kWh charger speed to work out how long it will take to charge. Do public chargers have universal charge cables that fit all cars (in the same way the petrol or diesel pumps do), or do you have to have cables of your own for the different types of charger? There was a really heavy and bulky charging cable in the iX1 I had the other day. Would that be the sort of thing you have to have with you in order to charge at 130kwh? I still don’t understand why EVs quote two different figures (e.g. VW ID5 128kw & 77kwh, Audi Q4 150kw & 82kwh and Mustang 198kw & 70kwh). What does the first kw figure mean? I presume it’s not battery capacity, because that’s the kWh figure, and it’s maybe not power either as BEVs still quote a bhp figure?
The 198 kw is the motor’s power, the 70kWh is the battery capacity. So the more powerful the motor, the quicker the car and the quicker the battery empties.
As for cables, there’s 3 cables associated with BEVs, there’s a portable but quite heavy power cable that connects a destination charger and the car, it’s also good for most home chargers. There’s a 3 pin plug connected to a box and then a thicker cable to one that connects with the car. Finally there’s a really heavy cable attached to a rapid or ultra rapid charger. These have thick power cables and cooling tubes to keep the cable manageable and safe.
There are 2 types of connector on rapid chargers, a ChaDeMo connector that came from Japan and is mainly found on the Leaf. There’s the much more common CCS connector which looks like the one in the BMW but with 2 extra pins below the circle. These take the high power direct current feed into the car to charge it most quickly.
In reality there’s one cable I keep in the car, the portable destination one, and a 3 pin charger that stays at home unless I’m going somewhere I know I can safely charge from someone’s house. When I go to a rapid, there’s 2 connectors, picking one up and looking at the connector confirms whether it’s the right one.
As you say, once you’ve charged a few times, it’s easier than a petrol pump.
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