An EV charger – sometimes called a chargepoint or wallbox – is a dedicated unit installed at a property that supplies power to an electric vehicle safely and, in most cases, considerably faster than the cable that came with the car. It’s not just a fancy extension lead: it includes its own protective devices, communicates with the vehicle to control the charge, and in most modern units, connects to the internet for smart scheduling.
Why Not Just Use a Standard Socket?
Every EV comes with a basic charging cable that can technically be plugged into a normal 3-pin socket, but this is the slowest possible way to charge – often adding as little as 8–10 miles of range per hour – and it puts a sustained heavy load on a socket and circuit that generally wasn’t designed for hours of continuous high-current use. A dedicated EV charger is built specifically for this job, with the right protection and a much faster charge rate.
The Main Types of Home and Workplace Charger
Most home and workplace chargers fall into what’s often called “fast” charging – typically 7kW on a single-phase domestic supply, which can add somewhere in the region of 25–30 miles of range per hour, or up to 22kW where a three-phase supply is available. Chargers also come as either tethered, with the cable permanently attached to the unit, or untethered, where you plug in your own cable – useful if you might switch vehicles or cable types in future. We’ve covered the fuller breakdown of charging speeds, including the rapid public chargers you’ll see at motorway services, in this guide to charger types and speeds.
Smart Chargers
Since 2022, new chargepoints sold in Great Britain for home and workplace use are required to have smart functionality – the ability to schedule charging automatically, typically defaulting to off-peak hours, and to respond to signals from the electricity network. In practice this generally just means lower running costs, since you end up charging when electricity is cheapest without having to think about it.
Where It Gets Installed
Most home chargers are wall-mounted close to where the car parks, though a post-mounted unit is an option where there’s no suitable wall nearby – on a driveway with no garage wall in reach, for example. The main practical factor is the distance and route from your consumer unit to the parking space, since a longer cable run generally means more work and cost. It’s worth having this looked at on site rather than guessed from a floor plan, since the actual route often isn’t a straight line.
Charging Away From Home
It’s worth knowing that the “Level 1/2/3” split, and the tethered/untethered question, only really applies to charging at a home or workplace unit you control. Public rapid and ultra-rapid chargers – the Level 3 equivalent – are a different type of connection entirely and always come with their own tethered cable, so they’re not something you choose in the same sense; you simply use whatever’s available at that location.
Getting One Installed
Whatever type suits your vehicle and property, installation needs to be carried out by a properly qualified, registered electrician – see why that matters. For the full detail on our home and workplace charging service, see EV charger installation, or get in touch to talk through what would work for your property.