The ultimate electric car jargon buster - from AC Charging to Zero Emissions
A is for AC charging
There are two types of ‘fuel’ for electric cars – AC current, or alternating current, is the type of electricity that powers your home from the national grid. Charging at home is AC charging. All batteries, however, store power as DC, or direct current. When you charge your car or smartphone there’s an adapter that converts AC to DC. This has nothing to do with the Australian heavy metal band.
B is for BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle)
EVs that run exclusively on battery power and need to be charged. What it says on the tin, basically.
C is for CHAdeMO (Charge de Move)
A rapid-charging DC standard, established by Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi and other Japanese companies in 2010. It’s currently competing with CCS (Combined Charging System), a rapid-charging DC standard developed by German carmakers Volkswagen, Audi, BMW, Mercedes and Porsche in 2012. Most rapid charging stations have both, but CCS is more popular than CHAdeMO in Europe.
D is for DC charging
The way rapid and ultra-rapid charging works, taking between 15 and 45 minutes to charge most passenger electric vehicles up to 80 per cent. DC chargers require a lot of power and are usually found in commercial or public locations.
E is for EREV (Extended Range Electric Vehicle)
A version of a plug-in hybrid, the EREV’s small petrol generator charges the battery if it runs out of juice while the electric motor always drives the wheels.
F is for FCEV (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle)
These EVs use hydrogen fuel cells, producing electricity from a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen to power electric motors rather than stored energy in a battery. More efficient than internal combustion engines, they emit only water vapour and warm air.
G is for GOM
The name of the display on the dashboard estimating the range remaining. GOM stands for Guess-O-Meter. Seriously.
H is for HEV (Hybrid Electric Vehicles)
Low-emission vehicles that use an electric motor to assist petrol powered engines. All energy comes from the petrol engine.
I is for ICE (Internal Combustion Engine)
What you find under the hood of a regular motor car – it converts stored chemical energy into power, releasing heat, noise, carbon, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide among other things. Electric motors convert electricity to motion three times more efficiently than the internal-combustion engine, but it is not currently possible to recharge an electric battery in the time it takes to fill a petrol tank.
J is for J1772 (aka Type 1)
A five-pin AC charge standard for plugs and sockets used by the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi i-Miev.
K is for kW, kWh and kWh/100km
Think of kWh as the size of your battery – your new fuel tank capacity. When charging, the amount of energy transferred from the charger to your car is measured in kWh. The cost of charging is typically based on pence per kWh. kWh/100km is the energy used to drive 100km (62 miles), the equivalent of miles per gallon.
L is for Lithium-ion battery
The current industry standard for EV batteries, converting electrical energy into chemical energy for storage. The industry is searching for a better option, such as lithium-sulphur.
M is for Mennekes (or Type 2) connector
The seven-pin AC charging plug with one flat edge now becoming the industry standard in much of the world.
N is for Newton Metres
The unit of measurement for torque, the force applied to the drive shaft. High torque means the shortest possible delay between stomping down on the accelerator and leaping away from the lights. In ICE cars there’s always a lag in reaching maximum torque, to do with forcing air into the engine. With EVs there is no lag. Maximum torque immediately.
O is for Oil
A thing of the past for you, when you switch to EVs, as the electric car’s engine lacks moving parts.
P is for PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle)
Unlike a conventional hybrid, the battery of a PHEV is much larger and can be charged via the combustion engine and via the power grid. Short distances can be purely electric, on longer distances the engine cuts in.
Q is for Quiet
No engines, no traffic noise. Inside the car that means just the tyres, wind and whatever’s on the stereo.
R is for Range Anxiety
The worry that an electric car will run out of battery power before the destination is reached. The reality is the average new electric car does 200 miles on a charge while the average UK household does around 100 miles a week.
S is for Solid State Battery
Lighter, faster to charge and far less likely to burst into flames than a lithium-ion battery. Why? Because fast charging needs a metal anode, which creates tendrils of metal called dendrites and these can short circuit. The ceramic-based solid-state battery blocks dendrites, allowing fast metal anodes.
T is for Towing
Most electric cars cannot be towed and have trouble towing. There are some exceptions – the VW ID.4, the Audi E-tron or the Mercedes-Benz EQC, for instance – but being towed can damage an EV as it doesn’t have a neutral gear.
U is for Utility Rate
Essentially, utility companies charge less for electricity when fewer people are using it, so charge your car at night.
V is for Vehicle-to-Grid
Using the power stored in your electric car battery to power your house or to sell back to the grid, offering the dizzying concept in power arbitrage where you fill your car at night then sell the power back to the grid at peak times for a profit.
W is for Wallbox
Up to 90 per cent of electric vehicles are charged at home, but it can take a long time if you just plug it into the socket by the TV. A charging – or wall – box, is faster and if you buy a newer smart wallbox, it can ride the off-peak electricity tariffs. These can be eligible for grants of up to £350, but you need a driveway. Sorry.
X stands for… a lot of things.
Since the Tesla Model X, car brands are using X to indicate a cool EV, as in the HiPhi X from Chinese automaker Human Horizons, the Genesis X hi-tech luxury model, the BMW iX, the Alpine A110 SportsX and so on. To date, Generation X is the biggest EV-buying generation, but Gen Z is ‘most likely to buy’ in 2022.
Y is for Yet-To-Come
A number of alternatives to EVs are currently in development, including solar-powered vehicles such as the Lightyear One and Alternative Fuel Vehicles running on biofuels, synthetic fuels and e-fuels. Porsche is exploring synthetic fuels to keep classic cars on the road.
Z is for Zero Emission Vehicles
A vehicle with zero tailpipe CO2 emissions, natch, that can travel at least 70 miles without any emissions at all. Strictly speaking, this requires a charging network powered by renewable energy.
To find out more about the ES campaign for electric cars visit standard.co.uk/plugitin
