EV Charging Stations: Everything You Need to Know

Driving an electric car means never having to stop at a fuel pump to fill up. Instead, EVs can charge at your home or at public charging stations when you're on the go. Plus, with more and more public EV charging stations popping up across the country, it's easier than ever to keep your battery full of juice.

Of course, if you're new to EV ownership, you might have questions about charging your car. In this article, we'll go over some of the finer points of accessing and using EV charging stations.

Do all electric cars use the same type of charger?

That depends on your own definition of a charger. If you're talking about the station that sends electricity to the vehicle, then there aren't as many differences as you'd think; most public and private EV charging stations generally have the same setup. Instead, it's the charging cord and the vehicle's outlet that will differ from car to car.

As we discuss in this article about different EV chargers, there are essentially three types of basic chargers. Level 1 chargers use the standard outlet you will find in your home. This setup offers the slowest charging rate, and it's best for plug-in hybrids with small batteries or for when a vehicle can be plugged in for longer periods of time, like overnight.

When it comes to the actual port on the vehicle where you plug in the charging cord, that's where we see more variation. Our EV charging article goes into more in-depth information, but there are four main types of charging ports: J1772 Type 1, CHAdeMO, Combined Charging System (CCS) and Tesla North American Charging Standard (NACS).

Moving forward, many automakers will be adopting the NACS outlet in order to give more vehicles access to Tesla's vast Supercharger network. For the time being, the majority of Level 1 and 2 chargers use J1772, while Level 3 uses CCS.

What are the biggest EV charging companies in the U.S.?

ChargePoint currently operates the largest EV charging station network across the United States, with more than 31,000 locations. However, it's important to note that the majority of ChargePoint's stations are Level 2 chargers, so while the company's network is vast, it's not always fast.

Tesla's Superchargers account for the largest number of fast-charging stations. This is why it's great that so many other car companies are adopting Tesla's North American Charging Standard outlet, giving more drivers access to the Supercharger network.

Beyond ChargePoint and Tesla, companies such as Blink, Electrify America, EV Connect, Volta and EVgo are the nation's other main providers of EV charging stations. Who pays for all these stations, you ask? That depends. Some are provided by a private company or automaker for free, while for others, the costs are passed on to the customer.

How do I find an EV charging station?

If your electric car has a navigation system, you can use this software to easily find an EV charging station. Electric vehicle chargers are often set as points of interest in an EV's navigation system.

It's also easy to use your smartphone to find an EV charging station. Whether you use Apple or Android, search for "EV chargers" in your phone's map application to find the ones closest to you or near your next destination. If you run Apple CarPlay or Android Auto in your car, you can then have this information ready to go when you get in the car.

There are also third-party apps designed to help you locate an EV charging station. PlugShare is a good option, but companies like ChargePoint, Electrify America and EVgo have their own charging station locator websites.

How much does it cost to charge an electric car?

This all depends on the price you pay for electricity. The way to calculate how much you'll pay to charge an electric car is to multiply that price by the total usable kilowatt-hour capacity of the battery. For example, if you have a battery with 78.4 kWh of usable capacity and the price of electricity is $0.24 per kWh, it will cost $18.82 to fully charge the battery.

Our guide to EV charging costs will explain the different rates you might pay if you charge at home versus charging at a public station, as well as the costs typically associated with the most popular electric cars on sale today.

How to charge an electric car at a public station

You can read our step-by-step guide of how to use an EV charging station, but the process is super simple. Once you locate the charger you want to use, you pull up, plug in your car and let the charger do its thing. Some public EV charging stations will let you pay for the charging session with a credit card, while others may require you to have an account with the charging company.

How to charge an electric car at home

While you can certainly plug your car into a standard household outlet, installing a more powerful Level 2 home charger will replenish your electric car's battery faster. Our step-by-step guide goes over the process of charging your electric car at home and includes links to websites like Treehouse.pro that will help you research and set up installation of a home EV charging station.

How to charge a Tesla

Tesla offers one of the largest networks of EV charging stations in the United States. Called Superchargers, these fast-charging stations let Tesla drivers quickly charge their cars away from home. The steps for charging are the same as at any other station: Locate a charger, plug in and let the car charge. But the Tesla-specific charging port — called the North American Charging Standard (NACS) outlet — has historically only worked with Tesla vehicles.

That's all changing, though, as more and more car companies adopt the NACS outlet for their vehicles. This opens up Tesla's broad network to a wider range of electric car drivers.