For home charging, you can use either the cable supplied with your electric vehicle (often called a ‘Granny Cable’), or a home charge point.

A home charge point has a number of advantages over a Granny Cable, such as safety, speed and convenience.

The charger would be wall mounted either inside a garage or outside the wall of your property. You need to think about where the charge point is on your car and cable length.

You want to pick a charger that suits the house and location.

All chargers are weatherproof.

Chargers can not be fitted where a cable would fall across public property.

The charge cable of a tethered charge point is permanently attached to the unit. When you finish charging the unit, you simply coil the cable onto the unit.

An untethered unit is supplied with a universal socket and can be used with any cable, including the cable supplied with your electric vehicle.

As a tethered charge point comes with a cable, it also comes with an additional cost of around £100, depending on cable length and voltage.

Type 1 is a single-phase charging cable whereas Type 2 charging cable allows both single-phase and 3-phase main power to be connected to the vehicle.

The majority of newer vehicles are being made with Type 2 connectors.

Fast charging refers to any vehicles or chargers that are capable of charging from 7kW to 22kW. They can charge a typical Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) in around eight hours, depending on the size of the battery. While the 22kW fast chargers are quicker, they require a 3-phase connection which are not usually found in the average domestic property.

Rapid charging refers to vehicles or chargers that are capable of charging from 43kW to 150kW. They are not available in domestic properties and are usually located at service stations, cities, and supermarkets, although rapid chargers at fuel stations are expected to become commonplace.

A 22kW charger has the capability to charge your EV up to 22kW per hour. It is 3 times faster than a 7kW charger. 22kW charging can only be supported by households that have a three-Phase electrical set up. Most houses in the UK are single-phase and can only support a maximum 7kW charging output.

Bear in mind that the charging speeds from fast chargers will depend on the car’s onboard charger, with not all models able to accept 7kW or more. These models can still be plugged into the charge point, but will only draw the maximum power accepted by the onboard charger.

For example, a Volvo XC60 T8 PHEV with a standard 3.5kW onboard charger will draw a maximum of 3.5kW from a 7kW power supply or three-phase power supply.