In 2018, 9,579 electric cars were registered in Italy (of which 5,010 pure electric and 4,569 hybrid), according to the Smart Mobility Report 2019 published by the School of Management (E&S Group) of the Politecnico di Milano. It is still a small number (0.5 per cent of all cars sold in Italy) but constantly growing in recent years. In the first 7 months of 2019, sales increased further, reaching almost 6 thousand new cars registered, one thousand more than in the same period of 2018. This growth is also due to government incentives for those who bought an electric or hybrid car (the so-called “eco-bonus”), with savings of up to 6 thousand euros (with the attached scrapping of an old vehicle).
Those who buy an electric car usually do so because they know well how these vehicles work or after having thoroughly informed about the various pros and cons compared to normal fuel-powered ones. For the less experienced, however, it can be quite complicated to understand how to use an electric car in everyday life, especially as regards the power supply. How is it recharged? Where is it? And how much is it? This minimal guide is designed specifically for people who are approaching the world of electric cars for the first time.
The basics
Charging an electric car is not that different from charging a smartphone or any other appliance with a battery. The big difference, as you can imagine, is the size of the battery and the energy needed to fully recharge it. All electric cars on the market can also be recharged at home, but the limited power of domestic contracts means that you have to wait a few hours before the battery of your car is fully recharged. The alternative is to recharge the car at the so-called charging stations that are increasingly found on the street. In the columns, the charging time is usually faster than the domestic one, but there is no standard time: it can vary from a few minutes to several hours obviously depending on the battery capacity, the state of charge and above all the characteristics of the individual stations. .
How home charging works
Assuming that the power of domestic meters in the most common contracts does not exceed 3.3 kW (kilowatts), the electric vehicles that can be recharged simply using the electrical socket of your home (usually located in the garage), can be divided in two large groups. As for electric scooters and other light means of transport – whose charging power does not exceed 2 kW – a simple domestic socket or an industrial socket can be used.
Electric cars can also be charged at home, but their larger batteries take longer to recharge. Cars generally have a current limiter (at 10 amps), using about 2/3 of the available power: it is designed to recharge the car at night, when the electricity in the home is less used. It is not necessary to have an industrial type socket – even if it is recommended and it is still a simple operation – while it is necessary to evaluate whether to modify the contract with your supplier to have a higher power: it is not possible to increase the voltage network (in homes it is 240 volts and works in alternating current, unlike the columns: now we get to it) but with a higher power contract the cars are able to absorb more current and recharge in less time.
In case you decide to increase the power of your home network, it is advisable to purchase a wall box, a device that is installed where the socket is located, which is used to recharge the car safely and modulate the load of energy destined for the various household appliances. Recharging your car at home in this way is not very fast, but still allows you to have the battery to the maximum in a few hours.
How the charging columns work
The fastest way to recharge your car, on the other hand, is by using the columns that are located in the charging stations of the various cities. According to the Smart Mobility Report, in September 2019 there were 8,200 public and private charging points in Italy, of which about 20 percent were of the “fast charge” type, ie fast charging. This is still a rather limited amount, especially when compared to a growing market. The charging stations are managed by various operators, but the one that has the largest number of stations in Italy is Enel. There is not a complete list of all the columns in Italy, so you have to check the sites and apps of individual operators or sites managed by private individuals, which are updated regularly with the new columns (like this one, for example).
Charging through public columns can take place in two ways: there are columns that supply electricity in alternating current (therefore like home charging) up to a maximum of 22 kW, and those that can supply electricity in direct current, up to 150 kW of power, recharging the car in minutes. The first way allows you to recharge the car in a few hours, generally less than a home recharge. The exact duration can vary greatly depending on the car model and the power of the charging station, and the type of car's internal charger.
Many cars, in fact, have chargers that are not able to absorb the maximum current delivered by a column, and therefore recharge slowly even when using high-power columns. This means that a 22 kW maximum power column will not recharge every car at the same speed: a car with a system capable of fully exploiting the 22 kW will recharge completely in 1-2 hours, one limited to 11 kW in 2-3 hours, and so on. The cable to be used is sold supplied with the vehicle and connects to the charging stations with a standard European Type 2 connector (the other most common connectors are Type 1, especially in North America and Japan, and Type 3A, used usually from electric scooters).
As regards the second mode, with direct current, it should be specified that not all cars can be recharged like this: they must in fact be equipped with the “CHAdeMo” or “CCS” standard. Recharging in direct current takes place in much shorter times, even in a few minutes: the columns with CHAdeMO connectors recharge with power ranging from 50 to 150 kW, while the CCS ones range from 43 to 200 kW. In this case the cables are not supplied with the cars, but are located directly on the columns. Cars that have a DC charging connector also have a Type 2 AC charging connector.
How much does it cost to recharge an electric car
Here too there is not a single answer, but you have to consider the battery capacity of your car and the type of service you use. The payment method also differs from column to column: there are operators who provide for a pay-as-you-go payment, as happens in petrol stations, or more often forms of subscription in which for a fixed monthly cost (usually between 20 and 30 euros ) you are entitled to an unlimited number of top-ups. Generally recharging the car using your home network is cheaper (an average cost of 20 euro cents per kilowatt hour is calculated) while in charging stations, where this happens faster, it goes from 45 to 50 cents per kilowatt hour. There are also free charging stations, usually offered by shopping malls and other outlets in parking lots. In view of the economic advantage, it must be said that charging here often takes place with a power comparable to the domestic one, and in some cases there is a time limit for parking. Considering that the main electric cars on the market have batteries up to 40 kWh, a full tank can cost up to twenty euros for about 300 km of autonomy.
In the columns that recharge in a few minutes with direct current, the cost can rise up to 55 cents per kilowatt hour. For an electric car of average size and performance, a full battery charge costs on average between 4 and 6 euros, while for more performing cars such as those produced by Tesla that have much larger batteries, a full charge can exceed 20 euros. . The Tesla Model S with the 60 kWh battery, for example, has a range of about 390 km and in Italy you pay around 24 euros to recharge it, writes Infodata. Tesla also has its own private network of DC fast charging stations, called Superchargers, which can provide more than 100 km of range in 5 minutes at a cost of 30 cents per kilowatt hour: here you will find the list of all the distributors present in Italy.
