The Electric Car Dictionary
Blog post
Feel like you’re getting lost in the electric car lingo? We’ve got you covered. This dictionary will take you through everything you need to know about the world of electric vehicles – so you can become an EV expert before you know it.
So whether you’re a seasoned car professional or someone looking to buy their first electric car, you know what to look for.
Contents:
Alternate current (AC)
Battery’s capacity (kWh: Kilowatt hour)
Charging cycle
Direct current (DC)
EV Range Tests: EPA vs. NEDC vs. WLTP
Electric motor
ICE’d
Lifecycle
Regenerative braking
SOC (State of Charge)
Single-phase charging
Smart Charging
Three-phase charging
Torque
Trickle charging
Types of electric vehicles
Vehicle to Grid (V2G)
Alternate current (AC)
There’s two kinds of ‘power’ that can be used in electric cars. The first is called alternating current (AC), the other is direct current (DC) power. The power that comes from the grid is always AC. However, batteries, like the one in your electric vehicle, can only store power as DC, so it needs to be converted. Electric vehicles have converters built inside the car, known as ‘onboard chargers’, which converts the power from AC to DC and then feeds it into the car’s battery. This is the most common charging method for electric vehicles today, and most chargers use AC power.
Battery’s capacity (kWh: Kilowatt hour)
The kilowatt hour, or kWh, is a unit of energy equivalent to the energy transferred or expended in one hour by one kilowatt of power. Electric car batteries are measured in kilowatt hours, so think of it as an electric car's equivalent of a tank of fuel.
Charging cycle
This means each period of fully recharging and discharging. That is, if one day we recharge our electric car to 60%, we will not have completed a charging cycle until another day we recharge the remaining 40% to reach 100%.
A charging cycle is a process of fully charging and discharging your electric car’s battery. After a significant amount of charge cycles, a lithium ion battery’s maximum charge capacity will decrease. For these batteries, this degradation process typically begins at around 1500 – 2000 cycles.
Direct current (DC)
Unlike AC chargers, a DC charger has the converter inside the charger itself. That means it can feed power directly to the car's battery and doesn't need the onboard charger to convert it. DC chargers are bigger, faster, and an exciting breakthrough when it comes to charging an electric vehicle.
This is the type of current that allows semi-fast charging at 22 kW, fast charging at 50 kW, super-fast charging at 100 kW and 150 kW and ultra-fast charging at powers of between 175 kW and 350 kW.
EV Range Tests: EPA vs. NEDC vs. WLTP
If you’ve been researching electric vehicles, you might have noticed that there are a few different ‘real world range’ figures, depending on where you look. This is because there’s three different testing standards that are used across the world to determine an electric car’s range: EPA, NEDC, and WLTP.
The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA range is the standard that is used in the United States and Canada. The other two testing standards, the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC), and the Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP), are European-based. These two are what we are more likely to use in Australia too. Each of these testing standards will produce wildly different results, based on their different testing methods, so make sure you’re looking at the right range test results when comparing vehicles!
Electric motor
The electrical heart of an electric car. It converts electrical power into mechanical power by running a current through multiple circuits of wound copper wire shaped in a cylinder – creating a rotating magnetic field. The rotation of the magnetic field moves a rotor housed within the cylinder. This rotor then rotates an axle and an electric vehicle’s wheels.
ICE’d
This is when an internal-combustion engine (ICE) vehicle blocks a carpark or space so that an electric vehicle driver is unable to charge their car. For electric vehicle owners, it’s an often disappointing and frustrating time – especially if you’re low on charge!
kW and kWh
A kilowatt is a unit of electricity which is used in all sorts of measurements for electric car owners; from battery size and energy efficiency, to charging speeds and energy costs.
The kW can also indicate how fast a car will charge and how much it will cost. In its simplest terms, compare a 2kW ‘granny charger’ to a 150kW rapid charger and you can guess how long it will take to charge up a 100kWh battery.
Lifecycle
This is the total number of charging cycles a battery is capable of withstanding over its lifespan, while maintaining 100% of its capacity. Current lithium-ion batteries have a lifespan of between 8 and 10 years (coinciding with the warranty period most offered by brands), which is equivalent to about 3,000 complete charging cycles.
Please note! After this time, it doesn’t mean that the battery is no longer useful. It means that it will have undergone a degradation process and that it will go from offering 100% of its capacity to 80% or 70%. Even so, it can still be bundled together with other batteries and reused, for domestic energy storage at schools, hospitals, or energy captured by solar panels.
Regenerative braking
One of the really cool things about electric cars is their regenerative braking system. This is a system that allows the battery of your car to be recharged when you brake or whilst you’re at a standstill. The kinetic energy generated during deceleration is transformed into electricity, to give you a bit more range.
SOC (State of Charge)
This is the indicator of the level of charge available to the electric car at a given moment and is expressed as a percentage (100% fully, for example). DOD (Depth of Discharge), on the other hand, is the opposite concept, as it indicates the depth of discharge of the battery (100% empty, for example).
Single-phase charging
The biggest difference between single-phase and three-phase charging is the speed in which they both can charge. Single-phase charging, which is the most common option in homes, is where power flows through a single conductor, and is slower than three-phase charging.
Smart Charging
Smart Charging is a system that allows electric vehicles, charging stations and operators to share data connections and optimise charging times.
Three-phase charging
Three-phase charging, in which the power flows through three different conductors, is faster than single-phase charging, and outputs a steadier and faster flow via your electric car charger.
Torque
This is the engine's rotational force. It differs from horsepower as it refers to the amount of work an engine (or electric motor) can exert, while horsepower defines how quickly that work can be delivered. It’s why torque is often referred to in layman’s terms as ‘pulling power’, ‘oomph’, or ‘grunt’. Electric vehicles deliver 100% of the torque instantaneously, meaning they’re going to give you very powerful acceleration.
Trickle charging
A trickle charger is a battery charger that delivers a very low voltage. This means that the battery will be charged slowly over a period of time.
Types of electric vehicles
HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicle)
These are conventional hybrid vehicles that do not need to be recharged. In these cars, the main engine is the internal combustion engine (mostly petrol) and they have a battery and electric motor that serve as back-up at certain times. They can only be driven in electric mode for short distances and at low speeds. The battery is recharged by the braking recovery system and the internal combustion engine itself.
PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle)
These are plug-in hybrid vehicles. They work thanks to the combustion engine, but have an electric motor and battery. They can be driven in 100% electric mode (with a very limited range), in hybrid mode or only with the combustion engine. This type of vehicle must be charged by plugging the car into the electric grid.
BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle)
These are 100% electric cars. They’re powered exclusively by the energy of their batteries, which are usually lithium-ion batteries. A small part can be charged through the energy recovery system (regenerative braking), but the majority of the car’s charging will usually be done by connecting to the electric grid, either at home or at specific charging stations.
FCEV (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle)
These are fuel cell electric cars that use hydrogen as fuel to produce the electricity needed to move the car. In this case, if we talk about green hydrogen, we are talking about a zero-emission vehicle, as it only emits water vapour.
Z.E. or ZEV (Zero Emissions Vehicle)
Means a vehicle that does not emit CO2 or pollutants. It refers to both 100% electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
Vehicle to Grid (V2G)
V2G / V2X, or “vehicle to grid”, is a technology that enables energy to be pushed back to the power grid from the battery of an electric car. There are more than 80 V2G trials globally, with the majority of trials taking place in Europe, where the world’s major automobile companies, distribution network service providers and electric car charger manufacturing companies are collaborating.
There are many benefits of V2G technology. V2G directs the charging and discharging of electric vehicle batteries based on users’ needs and the grid’s electricity supply, it allows the electricity grid to optimise the supply of local renewable energy and reduce infrastructure costs, while the vehicle owner can enjoy greener, more economical consumption of electricity and be financially rewarded for serving the electricity grid.