Charging station

An electric vehicle charging station, also called EV charging station, electric recharging point, charging point, charge point and EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment), is an element in an infrastructure that supplies electric energy for the recharging of electric vehicles, such as plug-in electric vehicles, including electric cars, neighborhood electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.

As plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicle ownership is expanding, there is a growing need for widely distributed publicly accessible charging stations, some of which support faster charging at higher voltages and currents than are available from residential EVSEs. Many charging stations are on-street facilities provided by electric utility companies or located at retail shopping centers and operated by many private companies. These charging stations provide one or a range of heavy duty or special connectors that conform to the variety of electric charging connector standards.