What is a universal EV charging station?

Ah, yep. As if you hadn’t heard enough new EV jargon as a new (or veteran) driver, along comes the universal charging station.

Thankfully, this one is pretty easy to understand – no kWs, kWhs or HEVs, BEVs or PHEVs.

Essentially, a universal EV charging station is one that doesn’t have an attached charging cable. The reasons why we use and recommend you install a universal charging station at your public car park take a little longer to explain.

Why install a universal EV charging station?

As you may know, not all electric vehicles use the same plug types. Additionally, some EV auto manufacturers have supplied a variety of plug types in the past.

In Europe and the US, plug standardisation has mostly been completed but in Australia, the plug situation between different EV manufacturers is a whole thing. Kind of like charging your Apple iPhone vs your Samsung Galaxy.

Some EV currently on the road in Australia use the type 1 EV charger, whereas some companies like Tesla and Renault use the more efficient type 2 EV charger. However, these plugs are not cross-compatible. In a perfect world all electric vehicles in Australia would upgrade to the Type 2 EV charger...but, that would require significant infrastructure upgrades.

A more realistic solution is universal charging

A universal charger functions as an EV charging station without a tethered (attached) cable to charge your vehicle.

Instead, you use your own EV charging cable (the one that comes with your car or that you purchase separately) and plug one into your car and the unit.

Going back to the Apple vs Samsung reference, it’s like a charging cable with different connections for your phone type but that all have a USB at the other end. Think of the cord as a portable charger, usable in all universal plug-in EV stations.

The best bit is that universal chargers are compatible with ALL electric cars…unlike Tesla destination or superchargers.

Another advantage to universal charging stations is that the risk of damage or vandalism is greatly reduced.

Believe it or not, we get a number of reports each month of offline tethered charging stations due to cars running over the cables or driving away with cables still attached, damaging or destroying the charging stations completely.

We hope that’s helped explain what a universal EV charging station is and why we recommend it to site and location owners…as always, if we’ve missed anything, please let us know!