DucRider
Well-Known Member
A guide to often misused terms on EV forums - and beyond - with what the person posting usually intends:
Battery size or capacity.
Usable Capacity
Charger
L3 or Level 3 charging
Fast Charging
Supercharging
110V or 220V
Break or Brake (breaking/braking)
Loose or Lose (loosing/losing)
Battery size or capacity.
Amount (in kWh) a battery can hold. Easy for the consumer since electric fuel is sold by the kWh and the capacity of the “tank” will define how much it can hold.
Usable Capacity
Amount (in kWh) actually available when operating the vehicle. Most manufacturers will restrict full access to the battery by limiting upper and/or lower voltages to less than the batteries rated specifications to help prolong battery life.
Charger
Usually refers to an EVSE or sometimes DCFC equipment. Almost never to the actual charger built into the vehicle.
L3 or Level 3 charging
Often intended to denote DC charging of any speed
Fast Charging
Occasionally used to denote L2 or 240V charging. Most often by dealers or owners new to EVs that have heard it from their dealer.
More commonly refers to DC charging
More commonly refers to DC charging
Supercharging
Sometimes used to refer to any DC Fast Charging and not just the Tesla proprietary standard and network. Like Fast Charging above, usually by new owners or dealers
110V or 220V
These are holdover terms from prior to 1984 and respectively refer to the 120V and 240V currently provided by utilities (+/- 5%) and used by the NEC for load calculations, etc.
Break or Brake (breaking/braking)
Used interchangeably. Important to look at the context in which it is used to discern the intended meaning
Loose or Lose (loosing/losing)
Also used interchangeably and important to look at the context in which it is used to discern the intended meaning
Sponsored