Range anxiety is the fear that the electric vehicle does not have enough capacity to travel anywhere that is far away. This means no EV road trips, no leisurely drives through the mountains, potentially even no cross-city travel. Yes, EV range is continuing to grow, but it is nowhere near the range of its gas-powered equivalent and the charging times are still relatively longer.

Mitigating this issue is DC fast-charging. They can charge many electric cars to 80-percent capacity in around 30 minutes, though charging rate slows down significantly after that to avoid damaging the battery pack. The tradeoff is that DC fast-charging stations are more expensive to install and operate. Large scale adoption of electric cars is possible with higher charging powers and more fast-charging stations. This allows the car makers to use smaller battery packs, thus reducing the cost of an EV’s most expensive component. Hence, could be a possible solution for the range anxiety.

We know that fast charging is quite attractive in the sense of high power charging with short charging times. But how does a DC fast charger work? What are the different DC charging systems around the world? Gautham Ram Chandra Mouli will be answering these question for you in this lecture. Find out now!

Learning goals:

1. 1. 1. 1. What are key parts of an DC charger?
         2. What types of connectors are used for DC charging?
         3. What are the limitations of DC fast charging?