AC alternating current charger advantage

AC charging principle

When charging an electric car with alternating current, the car's on-board system (also called the on-board charger) is used and it takes care of the conversion of outlet current into battery current. It therefore receives alternating current (AC) and converts it into direct current (DC), which is then sent to the car battery.

How to choose AC charger power?

The key parameter when choosing an electric car is the capacity of this on-board (built-in) charger, because the car's AC charging speed depends on how fast this on-board system can receive the alternating current from the source and also on how many phases it is able to use.

AC charging station

When charging with AC stations, the electrical grid is connected to the on-board charger.

The AC charging station thus regulates the charging according to the current possibilities of the house or the charging point, so that the network is not overloaded.

The main advantage of AC stations is that they are affordable. They are 10x-20x cheaper than DC charging stations with the same performance. Their other advantage is that they are much more widespread due to their lower price. At the same time, they are significantly smaller and their installation is simpler, faster and less expensive. Thanks to their characteristics, AC chargers is preferred for long parking and AC chargers are generally found in the home, workplace settings, or public locations and will charge an EV at levels from 7.2kW to 43kW. Our AC chargers support the Type 2 / type 1/GB/T different charging protocol. These are TPU cables. You’ll often find these stations in a carpark or workplace where you can park for above an hour. 

The AC charging tariffs will go up with increasing power of the chargepoint.

Note that this does not take into account the charging speed of your car. So if your car can not charge on high capacity, but you’re connected to a high output AC chargepoint (e.g. 43 kWh) you may pay a very high price for a low amount of energy.