An electric vehicle charging station, also called EV charging station, electric recharging point, charging point, charge point, electronic charging station (ECS), and electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), is an element in an infrastructure that supplies electric energy for the recharging of electric vehicles—including electric cars, neighborhood electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.
For charging at home or work, some electric vehicles have converters on board that can plug into a standard electrical outlet or a high-capacity appliance outlet. Others either require or can use a charging station that provides electrical conversion, monitoring, or safety functionality. These stations are also needed when traveling, and many support faster charging at higher voltages and currents than are available from residential EVSEs. Public charging stations are typically on-street facilities provided by electric utility companies or located at retail shopping centers, restaurants and parking places, operated by a range of private companies.
Charging stations provide a range of heavy duty or special connectors that conform to the variety of standards. For common DC rapid charging, multi-standard chargers equipped with two or three of the Combined Charging System (CCS), CHAdeMO, and AC fast charging has become the de facto market standard in many regions.
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