How Long Does It Take To Charge An EV? Here’s The Real Breakdown

“I can’t drive an electric vehicle. I don’t want to sit there for hours waiting for it to charge.”

That’s a frequent complaint we hear about EV ownership. And to tell you the truth, I also don’t want to sit in a car for hours, waiting for it to charge. Luckily, that’s a gross misconception of how modern EV charging works—as long as you know your different types of chargers and speeds, and what your car needs at any given time. 

But here at InsideEVs, we don’t just aim for an audience of EV drivers: we also seek to inform and empower those who are curious about the plug-in world. And quite honestly, EV charging is a little more complicated at first than the universal and proven experience of just filling up your gas tank. Most people don’t even really understand how a gas engine works; now, the car industry has expected them to learn about kilowatt-hours all of a sudden. I don’t blame any newcomers for being confused, because I was too, once. 

But if you have the right tools at your disposal, and you’re willing to plan ahead a bit more, charging an EV is actually a better experience overall than paying for gas. 

Tom Moloughney, a world-renowned EV charging expert, host of the State of Charge YouTube channel and a contributing editor here at InsideEVs, explores this topic in a beginner-friendly way with his newest video. While there are lots of guides to EV charging out there, including on our website, this video is another great breakdown from someone who knows what he’s talking about. 

“One of the questions I seem to always get is, ‘Tom, how long does it really take to charge an electric vehicle?'”, Tom said in the intro. “Now, the quick down and dirty answer might be, if you can charge at home, it’ll be fully charged by the morning as long as you can charge from a 240-volt Level 2 charging source, which most people can install in their homes.” 

He added,” And when you’re on the road, if you plug in at a low state of charge and charge up to about 80%, it’s going to take around half an hour. And for many people, that quick answer is enough.”

That’s a good summary of how things work right now. But Tom also digs into the nuances of the different levels of charging and explains what they mean.  

The Basic Terms

EV Charging Basic Terms

Photo by: State Of Charge

I write about this stuff for a living, and even I wish I had paid more attention in high school science class. But at the outset of the video, Tom points out some basic terms that most EV owners ought to know. Of them, I think two are the most important here: kilowatt-hours and kilowatts.

Kilowatt-hours is a measurement of energy. As Tom notes, it’s kind of like the equivalent of a gallon of gas, and also like a combination of your gas tank and your engine size. A battery is measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh) because that’s the amount of energy it stores. A good baseline is the Tesla Model Y, probably the most ubiquitous EV out there: in most configurations, it has a 75 kWh battery. Some EV batteries are smaller, and many are bigger. 

Kilowatts (kW) are a measurement of power: how much power a charger can deliver, and how much power an EV can accept. 

It’s good to know the maximum kW charge level your EV can accept. To keep our Tesla Model Y example going, it can take up to 250 kW on a public fast-charger and 11 kW on a home charger. That means a Model Y likely won’t charge any faster on a 350 kW charger, but it will charge more slowly on a 100 kW charger. 

Level 1 Charging: Wall Charging 

I used a Level 1 wall outlet extensively to charge a Rivian during a road trip. 

Photo by: Patrick George

Yes, an EV can charge off any wall outlet. No, it is not very fast. But it’s extremely useful under the right circumstances. “A few years ago, most electric vehicles came standard with a level one charger,” Tom said. “This allowed you to plug into a regular household outlet and charge your electric vehicle, albeit very slowly.” 

In America, a standard 120-volt wall outlet won’t charge a big EV battery very quickly. “Most electric vehicles will add between three and five miles of range per hour,” Tom said. “But if you were to plug in overnight, let’s say for 10 hours, you could add between 30 and 50 miles of range to your EV, depending on how efficient the electric vehicle is.” 

Level 1 wall charging is actually great in a pinch. On a holiday road trip last year, I used wall charging extensively to power a Rivian R1T. There were no faster chargers nearby and the car sat parked all day, so when it was doing that, I could add more than enough juice to get to a nearby charging station when I needed to “fill up.” 

Some EV owners who don’t drive very often or very far still rely exclusively on wall charging, especially if their electric car is their second car. A gas car can’t add range when it’s sitting parked anywhere, but an EV can as long as it’s next to an outlet.

Level 2 Charging: Home Or Public Overnight Charging

2025 Hyundai Ioniq 5 XRT

Photo by: Patrick George

Behold: by far the most common sort of EV charging and what most owners use. Level 2 charging requires a home charging unit on a 240-volt circuit—the same as a standard electric dryer outlet. And as Tom says here, your electrician should be able to set things up this way.

Go here to see Tom’s list of the best home EV chargers. I use a ChargePoint Home Flex unit and it works flawlessly. (I’m also not being paid to say that—it’s just what I own and I’ve been happy with it!)

Level 2 charging usually replenishes your battery at speeds of about seven to 11 kW. On most EVs, that means going from low to full in a few hours, often overnight and when electricity rates are cheapest. Keep in mind that a bigger battery means charging will take longer and require more energy—the General Motors electric trucks, for example, have huge batteries, so they’ll need over 12 hours or more to fill up. 

To use our Model Y example again, you’re looking at low to 80% (it’s best to keep your EV at that level under most circumstances to preserve battery life) in eight to 12 hours. Tom’s video goes into a lot of detail about the relationship between your home circuit, the charger, and the EV itself. 

Most EV chargers cost about $500 to $1,000, and installation costs vary. Go here for a list of carmakers who include a home Level 2 charger with purchase, and keep in mind some of them cover installations too.

But once everything is set up, this is the easy part. Plug in at home, and you’re ready to rock after a few hours—or you wake up to a completely “full” car every morning. 

Level 3 Charging: Public DC Fast-Charging

2026 Subaru Solterra

Photo by: Patrick George

Here’s the type of charger that won’t take hours. (Or shouldn’t, anyway.) DC public fast chargers, aka Level 3 chargers, are high-voltage plugs that deliver enough energy to recharge an EV in mere minutes. 

EV charging speeds are getting better all the time. The Porsche Cayenne Electric that debuted recently, for example, can go from 10% to 80% in less than 16 minutes on a fast enough charger—pretty impressive considering its 108-kWh battery. 

On our Tesla Model Y example, in my experience, you can go from a low battery to 80% on a public Tesla Supercharger between 25 and 30 minutes. Maybe you wait in your car while that happens; maybe you walk around and run some errands, as I often do. But it’s not so bad.

The days of public EV charging taking well over an hour are largely behind us. Keep in mind that this is where it’s best to charge only to 80%, unless you really need that totally full charge for a road trip; plus, the remaining 20% of charge will take longer on a public charger, to preserve the battery. 

EV Charging Curve

Photo by: State Of Charge

Tom has a wealth of data around charging curves—how much power the EV takes in, and at what level of charge. “Most all electric vehicles, when you first plug in, will take a lot of power,” Tom said. “The maximum charging rate that it’ll accept, but it does it for a short period of time—and then it slows down the charging rate as the state of charge increases.” This is also why charging when the battery is somewhat full, like around 60%, will yield lower speeds than when it’s very low. 

To help the EV charge quickly, make sure to activate battery preconditioning. This is a setting in the car that warms up the battery and prepares it to take in a lot of electricity. On some EVs, you can activate this yourself in a menu setting. On others, it happens automatically when you set a public charger as your destination in the navigation system. 

As Tom explains here, there’s a wide spread of EV charging performance. My advice: know the maximum kW charging speed of your car, and try and match that to a similar or greater public EV charger. My Kia EV6 can take up to about 230 kW, so I always aim for a 250 kW or 350 kW charger when I’m out and about.

How the heck do you know where to go? Well, modern EVs are getting better and better at this. Most EV navigation systems will tell you the speeds of nearby chargers, and so will Google Maps or dedicated apps like A Better Route Planner.

Also, keep in mind that DC fast-charging is more expensive (cost per kWh) than home charging. In my experience, public charging is a bit cheaper than a tank of gas, depending on prices near you and the car you’re driving. But relying solely on DC fast-charging won’t really save you much on gas costs. 

EV Charging: What Do I Really Need To Know?

Hyundai Kona L2 Charging

Photo by: InsideEVs

Tom’s video goes into a lot more detail about the nuances of charging, including electrical architecture voltages, and if you want to go deeper I highly encourage watching more. 

But if you’re new to the world of electric driving, know this: get a home charger for your garage (or have access to one at work or near your home) and know which kinds of DC fast-chargers your car will work best with. And remember: this stuff gets better, easier and faster with each passing year. 

What questions do you have about EV charging? Or, what advice do you have for newcomers? Drop them in the comments.

Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com