How fast do electric cars really charge?

With the adoption of electric cars only accelerating as manufacturers put more and more money behind them, and customers moving in greater and greater numbers to trade in their combustion-engined cars in favour of them, one main barrier to ownership looms in the minds of those unsure whether an EV will meet their needs: the charging question.

How and where will I charge? How long will it take? And is the infrastructure in place?

For most owners who’ve already adopted, and many of those still to, home charging is and will remain key to making an EV practical. But for plenty of others, home charging will never be possible, and urban charging infrastructure on residential streets is proving slow to appear. 

Public DC rapid charging, then, will remain critically important for a great many, and for a considerable time. But even now, there are big differences in the rate at which one electric car may be capable of charging, out in the real world and away from the spec sheet, compared with another. So how fast can new EVs charge right now, assuming you find the right charger? And which are the quickest?

Top 10 fastest-charging electric cars on sale 2023

Since the autumn of 2022, Autocar has been benchmark testing the rapid-charge performance of all electric cars that undergo our full road test, and below you can see the results. They reveal several important facts: that true charging speed can be a far cry from any car’s claimed peak rate, when you calculate an average across the full breadth of available battery capacity. Also, that the rate of rapid charge of all EVs should be expected to slow down considerably as their batteries fill up. Some cars, however, slow considerably more than others.

How we test electric car charging speeds

Our approach to our rapid charge test is simply to use a rapid charger of sufficient capacity to meet the test car’s peak charging rate; and to observe and record how much power is actually drawn by the car as it passes a 10%, 30%, 50%, 70% and 90% state of charge (SOC). 

Practicability dictates that we cannot use the same DC charger for every test and, while we pre-condition the car’s battery before charging where possible, many EVs don’t allow this once battery condition has dropped below 10%.

We then average our test results with a weighting that reflects the need that rapid charging typically meets for EV drivers. Public rapid charging is relatively expensive compared with home charging. Most use it to extend the range of their cars for a particular journey, rather than as a regular habit, and as a result few rapid charge from less than 20% charge, or to beyond 80% (because doing that isn’t time-efficient or beneficial to battery longevity).

For that reason, the rapid charge rate demonstrated by a new car as it passes 50% SOC contributes three times as much towards our aggregated charge rate result as the equivalent rate indicated at either 10% or 90%; and likewise, the rates recorded at 70% and 30% are doubly important as those at the extremes of the battery condition spectrum. 

So, would you expect one of the best-value electric cars in Britain to appear within the top 10 of this list? Would you expect to see a top three without a Tesla in it? Here are the quickest- and slowest-charging electric cars that Autocar has yet road tested.

 

1. Porsche Taycan GTS Sport Turismo (2023)

Claimed peak rate: 270kW

Peak rate on test: 263kW

Weighted average test charge rate: 198kW

Usable battery capacity: 83.7kWh

Indicative charging wait, 10%-90% SOC: 22.2min

Test charger: Ads-tec/Porsche Engineering HBD 1120, operated by Porsche

Test charge conditions: dry, 22deg C

 

2. Audi E-tron GT Vorsprung (2023)

Claimed peak rate: 270kW

Peak rate on test: 248kW

Weighted average test charge rate: 189kW

Usable battery capacity: 83.7kWh

Indicative charging wait, 10%-90% SOC: 22.8min

Test charger: Tritium TRI 121-350, operated by Gridserve

Test charge conditions: dry, 7deg C

 

3. Hyundai Ioniq 6 RWD Ultimate (2023)

Claimed peak rate: 233kW

Peak rate on test: 229kW

Weighted average test charge rate: 180kW

Usable battery capacity: 77.0kWh

Indicative charging wait, 10%-90% SOC: 22.2min

Test charger: Tritium TRI 121-350, operated by Gridserve

Test charge conditions: dry, 13deg C

 

4. Kia EV6 GT

Price: £62,645

Rapid charge power, claimed: 233kW

Usable battery capacity: 77.4kWh

 

5. BMW i7 xDrive60 M Sport (2023)

Claimed peak rate: 195kW

Peak rate on test: 196kW

Weighted average test charge rate: 148kW

Usable battery capacity: 101.7kWh

Indicative charging wait, 10%-90% SOC: 34.1min

Test charger: Tritium TRI 121-350, operated by Gridserve

Test charge conditions: dry, 8deg C

 

6. Mercedes EQE 350+ AMG Line Premium (2022)

Claimed peak rate: 170kW

Peak rate on test: 165kW

Weighted average test charge rate: 131kW

Usable battery capacity: 90.6kWh

Indicative charging wait, 10%-90% SOC: 35.1min

Test charger: Tritium TRI 121-350, operated by Gridserve

Test charge conditions: dry, 13deg C

 

7. Volkswagen ID Buzz SWB Style Pro (2023)

Claimed peak rate: 170kW

Peak rate on test: 185kW

Weighted average test charge rate: 114kW

Usable battery capacity: 77.0kWh

Indicative charging wait, 10%-90% SOC: 31.6min

Test charger: Tritium TRI 121-350, operated by Gridserve

Test charge conditions: dry, 9deg C

 

8. Polestar 2 (2024)

Price: £48,950

Rapid charge power, claimed: 205kW

Battery capacity, usable: 79.0kWh

 

9. Volvo C40 Recharge Plus, Single Motor (2023)

Claimed peak rate: 150kW

Peak rate on test: 134kW

Weighted average test charge rate: 104kW

Usable battery capacity: 67.0kWh

Indicative charging wait, 10%-90% SOC: 32.6min

Test charger: Tritium TRI 121-350, operated by Gridserve

Test charge conditions: dry, 14deg C

 

10. Polestar 2 BST Edition 270 (2023)

Claimed peak rate: 150kW

Peak rate on test: 150kW

Weighted average test charge rate: 97kW

Usable battery capacity: 75.0kWh

Indicative charging wait, 10%-90% SOC: 39.4min

Test charger: Alpitronic HYC 150, operated by Instavolt

Test charge conditions: light rain, 12deg C

 

11. BMW iX1 30 xLine (2023)

Claimed peak rate: 130kW

Peak rate on test: 125kW

Weighted average test charge rate: 96kW

Usable battery capacity: 64.7kWh

Indicative charging wait, 10%-90% SOC: 33.6min

Test charger: Hypercharger HYC_150, operated by MFG EV Power

Test charge conditions: dry, 7deg C

 

12. Toyota BZ4X AWD Motion (2022)

Claimed peak rate: 150kW

Peak rate on test: 147kW

Weighted average test charge rate: 89kW

Usable battery capacity: 64.0kWh

Indicative charging wait, 10%-90% SOC: 36.5min

Test charger: ABB HP CP500C, operated by Ionity

Test charge conditions: not recorded

 

13. Tesla Model Y RWD (2023)

Claimed peak rate: 170kW

Peak rate on test: 127kW

Weighted average test charge rate: 89kW

Usable battery capacity: 82.0kWh (est)

Indicative charging wait, 10%-90% SOC: 48.2min

Test charger: V2 Supercharger, operated by Tesla

Test charge conditions: dry, 16deg C

 

14. Lexus RZ 450e (2023)

Claimed peak rate: 150kW

Peak rate on test: 138kW

Weighted average test charge rate: 84kW

Usable battery capacity: 64.0kWh (est)

Indicative charging wait, 10%-90% SOC: 40.2min

Test charger: ABB HP CP500C, operated by Ionity

Test charge conditions: dry, 12deg C

 

15. Subaru Solterra AWD Touring (2023)

Claimed peak rate: 150kW

Peak rate on test: 147kW

Weighted average test charge rate: 78kW

Usable battery capacity: 64.0kWh

Indicative charging wait, 10%-90% SOC: 42.8min

Test charger: Tritium TRI 121-350, operated by Gridserve

Test charge conditions: dry, 6deg C

 

16. BYD Atto 3 (2023)

Claimed peak rate: 80kW

Peak rate on test: 89kW

Weighted average test charge rate: 62kW

Usable battery capacity: 60.0kWh (est)

Indicative charging wait, 10%-90% SOC: 46.8min

Test charger: ABB HP CP500 CJ, operated by Gridserve

Test charge conditions: dry, 12deg C

 

17. Citroën e-C4X Shine (2023)

Claimed peak rate: 100kW

Peak rate on test: 89kW

Weighted average test charge rate: 61kW

Usable battery capacity: 46.2kWh

Indicative charging wait, 10%-90% SOC: 37.7min

Test charger: Tritium TRI121-350, operated by Gridserve

Test charge conditions: dry, 11deg C

 

18. Renault Megane E-Tech EV60 Techno

Price: £39,495

Rapid charge power, claimed: 130kW

Battery capacity, usable: 60.0kWh 

19. Kia Soul Urban (2023)

Claimed peak rate: 50kW

Peak rate on test: 45kW

Weighted average test charge rate: 38kW

Usable battery capacity: 39.2kWh

Indicative charging wait, 10%-90% SOC: 51.4min

Test charger: ABB HP CP500 CJ, operated by Gridserve

Test charge conditions: not recorded

20. Abarth 500e Tourismo

Price: £38,195

Rapid charge power, claimed: 85kW

Battery capacity, usable: 37.8kWh