Charging points

After purchasing an electric car, you would prefer to be able to leave every morning with a full battery. Nothing more practical than having your own charging station at home. You can also charge at a public charging station, but that is 2 to 4 times more expensive than charging at home. Some can also charge at work, but sometimes you have to share the charging station with your colleagues. There, the principle of first come, first served often applies! This is another reason why you prefer to have your own charging station at home.

When you want to charge the car through an ordinary household outlet, this is called "mode 2 charging."

A household outlet always provides a very limited amount of current. This form of charging is possible, but is very slow and not recommended for safety reasons. With a household outlet, charging power is limited to 10 amps and 2.3 kW. Thus, for a plug-in hybrid with a 25 kW battery, it would take 10 hours to charge the car.

For an all-electric car with a 65 kW battery, the charging time would be 30 hours. Moreover, this is not always without danger. An extension cable is often needed because you cannot place the car close enough to the wall socket. The temperature in such an extension cable can get very high and cause additional loss. A home charging station is connected to a separate electrical circuit with its own fuse. That makes this solution much better toward overloading and fire safety.

Home charging stations are offered with different maximum powers. Versions with higher powers are usually more expensive, and of course charge faster. The most common power ratings are 3.7 kW, 7.4 kW, 11 kW and 22 kW.

There are three different factors we consider when charging an electric car:

1) Connection to your home's electrical grid:

The days when your power connection served only to keep the lights on are gone forever. Today, more and more things are happening electrically, like driving a car. Therefore, the charge point battle shows: electric driving has already won for the future.

Charging points and networks of fast chargers are rapidly rolling out around the world. Almost all major energy producers, oil companies as well as car manufacturers are getting ready to power electric cars. So the industry is moving incredibly fast. That means a lot of changes, too.

To still be ready for tomorrow, EnergyKing is convinced that we need to start from a 3-phase connection and power supply. Today there are still a lot of cars that can be charged monophasically, but this will evolve very quickly to more and more three-phase charging systems. In addition, monophasic charging takes too much time which compromises practical use.

Once the power supply is in place, we can get started on the right choice for your vehicle and application. It is therefore important that the connection capacity of your home is sufficiently strong. If you have any doubts about this, one of our advisors will check this thoroughly with you and advise you accordingly.

If it is necessary to increase the load on your connection, we will help you with that procedure. Switching from a single-phase to a three-phase connection may also be interesting. You can simply request an upgrade from the distribution system operator Fluvius (www.fluvius. be). The cost of this can vary greatly and lies between €134 and €1,345.

2) The internal converter of your car

There is a difference between Alternating Current (AC) or alternating current and Direct Current (DC) or direct current. A car's battery operates on DC, while the power grid operates on AC. When charging an electric car, AC is converted to DC so that the battery can recharge. This conversion of power is done by an inverter. The power of this inverter determines how fast a car can charge.

So the more powerful the inverter, the faster your car is charged. As long as the charging point can provide enough power, of course! Each electric car has its own allowed charging rate in both AC and DC.

3) The charging cable

Every charging solution always comes with a charging cable, whether it's a charging station or wallbox that you attach to the wall. Each cable has a certain type of plug and each electric vehicle needs a certain type of plug.

Currently there are 2 types that are the standard worldwide. Type 1 connection is mainly for Japanese and American brands. In Europe, the Type 2 connection is the standard. All public charging points are also equipped with this Type 2 connection. Charging points are sold with or without a cable.

In turn, the advantage of a charging station with a fixed cable is its ease of use. Upon arrival, you can simply plug the cable into your car without having to take the separate charging cable out of the trunk. Some EV drivers find aesthetics more important and find it nicer to just hang a wallbox against the wall without a cable hanging from it at all times. The choice between a charging station with or without a fixed cable is primarily one of personal taste.

Electric charging via smart charging means that the charge point can dynamically adjust its charging power according to the other consumption in the home. When the car is paired with the charging point, this technology will measure the total amount of energy consumed in the home. The amount of power that is additionally available will be used by the charging station to charge your car.

Thanks to this technology, the main fuse will not overload and you can charge the car in the most efficient way. While the car is charging, you can continue to use large energy consumers such as a washing machine, dishwasher and refrigerator without problems.

If you prefer not to invest in a charging station, a mobile charging solution is also an option. This is the only charging solution that does not require any special installation at home. This is a cable with a box that ensures that electricity consumption, GPS info,... is monitored. All the information ends up in a cloud, where you can access all this info. Nexxtender Mobile is the most common smart charging cable.

By providing charging infrastructure in your company's parking lot, you highlight your vision for the future and sustainable nature.

At work, your car is often stationary, so it's the ideal time to recharge.

As a company, you can also open your charging stations for use by visitors or other members of the public. You can determine the rate at which charging can take place. This settlement is quick and easy.

From a fiscal point of view, it is certainly interesting as a company to install a public charging station. Your public charging station will then be part of one of the largest charging station networks in Europe. Electric drivers will find their way to your charge point.

Of course, you also want to have visibility of the public and private charging sessions of your charging station at all times. This information can be found in a convenient portal for monitoring charging sessions and accounting processing.

EnergyKing is a true specialist in charging solutions for your electric fleet. We provide a smooth installation of the charging infrastructure both on your company premises and at your employees' homes.

As an employer, you can automatically reimburse your employees' home charging sessions. The platform provides one invoice for the employer and reimbursement to each employee.