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Slow Charging
A charging speed of 3.7kW which usually charges up an all electric car in 6-12 hours and a plug-in hybrid in 2-4 hours. It’s slow, but still provides faster charging times than a 3-pin socket and is the typical speed of older charging points.
Second Use Battery
Used power packs from electric cars which have been reused for other purposes, such as electricity storage in homes and electricity grids.
Self-charging Hybrid
There’s no such thing as a free lunch. And the same applies here, this is marketing talk for a Hybrid Electric Vehicle. It’s a petrol or diesel car that also has a very small battery which can’t be plugged in and it gives you no emission free driving. See ‘LOL’.
Smart Charging
A system controlled by your energy provider that automatically charges your EV less when electricity is expensive and increases the charging when it’s cheap. The bonus is that cheap electricity often corresponds to times when there’s plenty of renewable energy available. Which is something we like a lot.
Smart Meter
An electricity meter in your home which is connected to the internet and can be used to charge electric cars at the cheapest time of day.
SoC
State of Charge. The percentage of power in a battery. Details of how to check your state of charge are usually in the owner’s manual.
Supercharger
Tesla’s dedicated rapid chargers. The envy of all non-Tesla electric car owners.
Solid State Battery
It might sound like a German techno rock band, but it's actually a new type of battery which promises more capacity, faster charging and longer life. It's not yet ready as boffins are a bit baffled and can't get the electrodes to last longer than a few years. Once it's fixed, it will really make EVs the logical choice for everyone.
Swarm data
Information which is shared between moving vehicles to warn of traffic, accidents and weather issues. Sort of like Google maps data but better and built into the car.
