Can my electric car be lightning-fast?

With a lightning charger, you can charge your electric car up to seven times faster than with a fast charger. Most lightning chargers have an output of 150 kW, and are now expandable to be able to serve 350 kW to the right cars, when the technology is in place. It is quite quick to charge an electric car with such powers!

Wow! That sounds nice, you're probably thinking. And, yes, it's very nice, but whether you can use all this niceness depends entirely on your car.

Also read: Is the electric car's battery damaged by too much rapid charging?

Limited by the car

An electric car is limited by what it can accept. For example, if you have a 30 kW Nissan Leaf, this is limited to being able to accept a maximum of 50 kW for fast charging. The same applies to several of the most common electric cars that roll around on Norwegian roads. There are a couple of exceptions, such as the Hyundai Ioniq (which can charge at 70+ kW) and the Kia Soul, which can be charged at 62.5 kW.

If you have a CHAdeMO car, you cannot charge with a higher output than 62.5 kW anyway, since the Asian CHAdeMO system (so far) does not support anything more. Then it is different with the European standard for fast charging, CCS (Combined Charging System), which can give your car much more battery juice.

New generation of charging stations

This new generation of charging stations is built to serve the future generations of electric cars as much electricity as possible in the shortest possible time.

For example, if you have an old Leaf, you will not be able to charge it in a shorter time, because it cannot handle a higher charge than a 50 kW fast charger can provide. In addition, it will be financially disadvantageous for you to use a lightning charger, as lightning charging will cost you much more per minute than fast charging.

If you have a newer CCS car, it can quickly become something else.

Popular cars such as the Hyundai Kona and Tesla Model 3 benefit from lightning charging. The same applies to premium cars such as the Jaguar I-Pace and Audi e-tron. The electric car fleet is constantly being expanded with new models, so expect both range and charging speed to increase in the future. Both the announced all-electric Peugeot 208 and Volkswagen's new ID series will be able to charge at higher speeds than 50 kW.

Also read: Avoid the fast charging trap - How fast does my electric car charge?

Feel free to read the article in the link above, to familiarize yourself with how your electric car charges best on a fast or lightning charger. If you want to be even more economical, it is always best to charge at home, and the very best is to use smart home charging .