Update 23-PU0105-DC-CHG2

[Logal727]

There is a whole lot going on in this comment, but here is the breakdown of how it works

A L1 "charger" supplies 120 volt AC to the car and the car uses its on board charger to convert that AC to DC for storage in the battery.

A L2 "charger" does the same thing, the only difference is 240 volt instead of 120 volt. It still uses the onboard charger in the car to convert the 240 volt AC into DC for storage in the battery.

A L3 charger is where things change. With these, the charger is off board, it's typically not even in the cabinet that you plug your car into, but rather in a separate cabinet that's nearby. Take a look around at a level 3 charge station and you'll probably find some big power boxes behind a fence, those are the actual chargers and they are responsible for converting the power from the local utility into DC for the car. Notably, at a level three charger, this AC to DC conversion is not done by the car. The car communicates with the charging system to tell it how many volts it needs to be charged at (typically somewhere around 400 or 800 volts) and how many amps it can accept, the off board level 3 charger then delivers power at the requested voltage and up to but not exceeding the requested amperage (this is a little bit of an oversimplification of how the power delivery actually works, but it's close enough for the purposes of this discussion). On a CCS plug, this DC power is delivered via the two extra pins at the bottom of the connector.

It is incorrect to say that all charging happens via the charger on the vehicle because that only applies to level one and two charging. Level three charging is handled via a charger built into the charging station, not the car.

careful some wiseass on here said I was spreading lies cause L3 is something that doesn't actually exist! Even though everyone knew what I was talking about.

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[cryptk]

careful some wiseass on here said I was spreading lies cause L3 is something that doesn't actually exist! Even though everyone knew what I was talking about.

Whoever did that is definitely a pedantic ass... Sure, technically it's level one, level 2 and DC fast charging. Everybody also knows what everyone means when they say level three charging so it is still a useful distinction to make.

You could also call out some of the technical minor inaccuracies in the description surrounding how charge current is delivered to the vehicle, and that would be equally useless for this conversation, lol