How much electricity does a car battery charger use

Jan 11, 2019

How much electricity does a car battery charger use

Recently, some users have asked me how to charge the electric vehicle battery when the electric vehicle is completely discharged. How many times does it take to charge it once? For this question, as a master, let's analyze it today.

First of all, there are many models of electric vehicle batteries, including 48V, 60V, etc., but due to the implementation of the new national standard, there is a clear limit on the battery voltage. Therefore, we are going to discuss more about 48V electric vehicle batteries today.

Take the 48V20AH battery as an example, the average charging voltage is about 51.6V, and the amount of electricity that needs to be charged is 1.05 times of the discharged power. Therefore, it charges about 1.08 kWh for one charge (the amount of electricity consumed = average charge) Voltage * battery rated capacity * 1.05).

It should be noted here that there may be batteries with the same pressure but different capacity. Once the capacity is low, the power consumption will be relatively low. For example, the battery of 48V12AH generally consumes 0.65 kWh of electricity per charge. . Therefore, the greater the voltage and capacity, the more power is required for a single charge.

In addition, one point can be explained to everyone, after the electric vehicle battery is fully discharged, it can be fully charged within 8 to 10 hours, which means that its 48V20AH battery consumes about 0.1 to 0.13 degrees per hour, while 48V12AH. The battery consumes about 0.06 to 0.08 degrees per hour. It can also be seen that in fact, charging an electric car with a single charge is not as power-consuming as imagined.

Of course, the above is also completely discharged. In fact, when the electric vehicle battery power is lower than 30%, it needs to be charged immediately, which can prevent over-discharge and damage the electric vehicle battery. In addition, electric vehicles can not be charged with charging, because lead-acid batteries have a certain number of charge and discharge times, if you charge frequently, it will shorten its life.

In short, after fully discharging, the electric vehicle battery is charged, and it takes about 0.65 to 1.08 kWh for a full charge (taking a 48V battery as an example). For the user, when charging the electric vehicle daily, it is also necessary to properly control the charging time.

How much electricity does a car battery charger use

Yes - they are more expensive to purchase. Electric cars cost more than conventional, combustion engine vehicles (not for long though), yet the costs of charging are much lower than of fueling with gasoline. Here's a short introduction for estimating how much electricity does your EV need, and how will it affect your wallet.

The energy consumption of an EV depends on the vehicle, driving habits and the weather (just like with any other vehicle). A large family station wagon consumes much more electricity than a tiny EV, and commuting at the city center is much more efficient compared to driving at the highway with full speed. Changing seasons also have a high impact on the consumption, as the electricity consumption rises a lot on cold climate. Heating and cooling decrease the charge of a battery.

An average electric car consumes approximately 0,20 kWh/km.

How much electricity does a car battery charger use

On favourable weather conditions the consumption can be even 0,15 kWh or less, but year-around average in most countries is closer to 0,2 kilowatthours.

As we are a born-and-bred Finnish company, let's use the yearly driving kilometers of a typical Finnish driver to demonstrate the consumption. On average, people in Finland drive a bit over 16 800 kilometers during one year. On a daily basis, this makes approximately 47 kilometers of driving.

In consumption this means 282 kWh of electricity in one month.

When estimating your electricity consumption, you should also take into account the yearly holiday seasons, monthly differences and your driving habits: some of us drive around more during summer months, others make longer trips during winter when using public transportation doesn't seem as comfortable as travelling from door to door in your own comfy vehicle.

Based on your driving habits, you can calculate the electricity consumption and costs just like we did here. The person in the example spends approximately 42 euros per month on EV charging, assuming that the electricity costs an average of a 0,15 €/kWh. Thus, the annual costs are approximately 500 euros. Compared to annual combustion engine fuel costs with the same mileage, driving an EV is thousands of euros cheaper.


Read more about charging power, range anxiety and other charging necessities: check out other EV Charging 101 posts from our blog.

Does a battery charger take a lot of electricity?

The truth is that the consumption is negligible. If you are one of those people who go around the house unplugging every charger that comes your way, you should know that your efforts are worth practically nothing.

How much power does a 12V battery charger use?

Amps = watts / volts. So, if the charger is delivering 12V at 20A, then it's drawing 240W. There are some efficiency losses involved, but you can ignore those by and large. Divide that by 120V (assuming you're in the US), and that's a 2A draw.

How much power does a 12V trickle charger use?

If you only run your trickle charger for two hours each day, it would cost less than 0.1 pennies per day. That's around three cents per month! Regular battery chargers put out anywhere from 1 to 50 amps, and can sometimes exceed 200 amps if they have a jump start mode.