A charging station, also called an EV charger or electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), is a piece of equipment that supplies electrical power for charging plug-in electric vehicles (including hybrids, neighborhood electric vehicles, trucks, buses, and others).
Although batteries can only be charged with DC power, most electric vehicles have an onboard AC-to-DC converters that allows them to be plugged into a standard household AC electrical receptacle. Inexpensive low-power public charging stations will also provide AC power, known as "AC charging stations". To facilitate higher power charging, which requires much larger AC-to-DC converters, the converter is built into the charging station instead of the vehicle, and the station supplies already-converted DC power directly to the vehicle, bypassing the vehicle's onboard converter. These are known as "DC charging stations". Most fully electric car models can accept both AC and DC power.
Charging stations provide connectors that conform to a variety of standards. DC charging stations are commonly equipped with multiple connectors to be able to supply a wide variety of vehicles.
Public charging stations are typically found street-side or at retail shopping centers, government facilities, and other parking areas.
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