In many ways electric cars require a change of mindset from motorists who drive them. For instance, with good-old petrol and diesel engines nobody gave a thought to the speed a car was capable of refuelling but with EVs, charging speed has been pushed into sharp focus. It’s not quite as simple as how much juice your EV can suck out of the national grid in a given timeframe but the fastest charging electric cars are generally models that can refuel and get back on the road again more quickly.
When we’re talking about electric car charging there are lots of factors to consider. Manufacturers will quote a maximum charging speed for their cars and that is the highest amount of power in kilowatts that the car is theoretically able to draw from a rapid charger.
It’s theoretical because the charger will also have a maximum possible power output and it may not even be able to deliver that maximum depending on the local electricity supply at the time. If lots of EVs are plugged in at a charging station, for example, you might see charging speeds throttled back. Then there are constraints within the car itself. Factors like the ambient temperature, the battery temperature and the battery’s current state of charge will all impact the speed at which an EV will draw power.
What this means is that the fastest charging electric cars we list below are capable of the faster charging speeds that any other models on sale. The quoted speeds, however, should only be taken as maximum potential speeds because the kind of charging rates actually achievable in the real world, on the UK rapid charging network, are likely to be somewhat slower.
