Can electric vehicles be charged at home

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​Buying or planning to buy an electric car?

Better performance, lower running costs, obvious advantages to the environment- electric vehicles or EVs are probably a worthy spend. They have been a hot topic for quite some time now. What's more! One even gets income tax benefits on an EV. They do score over diesel and fuel in some areas and in a few others, they fall short. If buying an electric car is on your mind, you, like many other, must have at least some questions about the process of charging the vehicle.

Here are the answers to 7 common questions that potential buyers have, including how, where to charge your electric vehicle and how much you will pay for it.

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​Can the electric car be charged at home itself?

Yes, you can charge it at home. With Type 1 AC charger, you can charge from an AC socket, but at 3 kWh it is too slow. The Type 2 or wallbox charger is usually installed by car companies (for free currently) at home and is faster. Besides these, there are other faster chargers too.

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​What are other suitable charging places?

You can similarly charge the car at your office, using a wallbox charger. Besides, like a petrol pump network, a public electric charging station network is being established by various companies like Tata, EESL (Energy Efficiency Services Ltd), BOLT, Indian Oil Corp, EVRE, Kazam, among others, across the country. This is a cheaper and faster way to charge.

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​How often does one need to charge?

While most of the current electric cars run for 220-280 km on a single charge, the more expensive ones with bigger batteries offer a range of 400 km, as per the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP).

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​What's the duration of a charging session?

Depending on which car model you have, how big the battery is and how fast the charging point is, it can take anywhere from around 60 minutes to 8-9 hours for an electric car to charge up to 80%. However, with rapid chargers, you can reduce this time to 30-40 minutes. While you can get your petrol/diesel car filled within minutes, it will easily take 6-8 hours to charge your car at home. Even with fast chargers and bigger batteries it will take 35-60 minutes to get an 80% charge.

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​Does charging cost at home vary from that at a public station?

The battery capacity usually ranges from 20-45 kWh. If you charge at home, the cost will depend on the power tariff in your state, which ranges from Rs 8-10 per unit. In Delhi, the cost at charging stations is Rs 4-4.5 kWh, while domestic rate varies from Rs 3-8 per unit. This means you will spend Rs 80-202 to charge your EV at a station but the cost will be higher at Rs 160-450 if you do it at home. In Mumbai, the cost is Rs 15 per unit at charging stations, so you will end up spending Rs 300-675.

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​How long does a battery last?

Since most electric car batteries are lithium ion-based, they will degrade over time. Currently, most electric cars are coming with a battery warranty of 8-years or 1.6 lakh km.

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​How can I find a nearby public charging station?

There are several mobile apps and websites that can help locate EV charging stations closest to you. Some of the aggregator websites include Tata Motors and Charge-List, while apps include Kazam, EV Plugs, Tata Power EZ Charge, Battre, Zeon, among several others. Some of these apps are by companies who have established a network of charging stations across the country.

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