What sort of plug does my electric car take?

Refuelling an electric car is a simple task; plug it in and let the electrons flow in order to replenish the battery – just like your phone.

But not all EVs have exactly the same type of charging plug. As it is with mobile electronic devices – some of which use proprietary cables like Apple’s Lightning while others use the more universal USB-C application – car-makers are choosing different methods when it comes to recharging ports and plug types.

Most electric vehicles are equipped with an external charging cable as standard (or offer them as an option if not included in the purchase price) that allows owners to plug their vehicle into a household power point and refill the battery.

That particular cable will obviously have the correct plug type for the vehicle.

But what about those who choose to recharge a vehicle from a public charging station, which can appear to be as confusing as a petrol bowser with different types of plugs and rates of power?

Many EV owners or prospective buyers are fearful of using the wrong plug for their vehicle at a public charging station. Will the plug be compatible with the vehicle? Could the wrong plug blitz the electrical system or battery of the vehicle, leaving it immobilised?

Fear not, connecting electric vehicles to a charging station is no more complicated than connecting the head and hoses to your vacuum cleaner.

Unlike a petrol bowser, where it is still possible to fill a diesel-powered vehicle with unleaded gasoline (which causes catastrophic engine damage), it’s literally impossible to connect the wrong charger to an electric car in the same way you cannot plug an American or European two-pin electrical device to an Australian three-pin power point.

They don’t fit.

In simple terms, there are three commonly used ‘to car’ adapters and two common ‘to power supply’ adapters for recharging EVs.

The three main adapters used to connect rechargers to electric cars are J1772, Mennekes and CHAdeMO.

The first, also known as a ‘Type 1’ adapter, the J1772 complies with a Japanese design standard for charging EVs and was specified for the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and earlier electric vehicles.

The plug has a five-pin configuration with two pins used to communicate between the vehicle and charging station to determine the maximum current available and monitor the battery’s state of charge. The other three pins deliver the AC power flow.

The Mennekes adapter is also referred to as a ‘Type 2’ plug. It is now the standard fitment for all electric vehicles in Australia and is fitted to EVs like the Nissan LEAF, Hyundai Kona Electric and Audi e-tron, as well as plug-in hybrids such as the Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid and the BMW X5 xDrive40e.

This has a seven-pin layout with the additional two pins supporting the use of high-voltage three-phase charging.

Lastly, CHAdeMO (short for CHArge de Move) is another plug type legally approved for use in Australia that allows vehicles to connect to faster rapid chargers that use DC power.

In addition to those three main types, there is also the Combined Charging System (CCS) which allows for both AC and DC charging and is available with either Type 1 or Type 2 configurations.

CCS has become the default connection for public charging stations, and companies such as JET Charge are building a wide network of public charging outlets in Australia that cater for both J1772 and Mennekes adapters.

And, finally, Tesla has its own unique adapter which looks the same as a Type 2 connector but uses two of the five pins for DC charging via its network of high-voltage Superchargers which communicate exclusively with Tesla vehicles.

While this means that Tesla cars can charge via Type 2 public charging stations, vehicles from other brands cannot use a Tesla Supercharger as they won’t unlock without a virtual ‘handshake’ between the car and charger and could remain stranded.

The recharging station installed by JET Charge in the Cremorne (Melbourne) head office of carsales has two leads, which can be unplugged from the charger itself for the other vehicle adapter to be used, according to application.

Take as an example a Nissan LEAF owner pulling up and finding that the wrong (Mennekes) lead is coupled to the charger because the previous person to use it was recharging the battery of a Renault ZOE.

The Nissan LEAF driver unclips the lead from the charger and fits the J1772 lead in its place, before plugging the other end into the LEAF’s charging port to recharge the battery of that vehicle.

JET Charge uses only a ‘Mode 3’ charging cable to its charging station, but a ‘Mode 2’ charging cable is the type normally supplied by the car manufacturer with the electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid to charge from a standard three-pin domestic power outlet.

Explaining why the EVs are recharged using different charging standards around the world, JET Charge director Tim Washington said: “There are different plugs for the same reasons why we have different plugs for mobile phones: a struggle for power between different interest groups, I guess.

“In Australia, we now have a single approach to plug standards, which is Type 2 for AC charging, and CHAdeMO (Japanese vehicles) or CCS2 (everyone else) for DC charging.”