Forget the brochure peak numbers. Here is how to think in kilometres added per hour — and what actually limits your speed at home.
Think in km added, not kilowatts
Kilowatts matter to engineers. Drivers care about how much range arrives by morning.
On a typical home AC setup you add roughly 30–40 km per hour of charging. Plug in at 7 pm and by 6 am you have added 300–400 km — several times the average Australian daily drive.
That is why home charging is overnight AC, not half-hour DC like a highway stop.
What actually sets the speed
Three things cap your speed, in this order:
Your home supply. Single-phase homes usually top out around 7.4 kW on a dedicated circuit. No charger can beat what the property can feed it.
Your car's onboard charger. The box in the car converts AC to DC for the battery. Many cars limit AC to 7 or 11 kW even if the wall unit offers more.
The charger you plug in. It must be certified and set to a current your circuit allows.
The slowest of those three wins. Buying a faster charger than your car or supply can use does not help today.
Overnight vs a quick top-up
Overnight is the default pattern: arrive home, plug in, leave on a schedule. You rarely think about it again.
Top-up before a short trip — school run, evening outing — needs only an hour or two on AC if you are not starting from empty. You do not need DC fast charging in the driveway for that.
If you regularly arrive home at 2 pm and leave again at 5 pm with an empty battery, that is when faster AC or a bigger supply window matters — and it is worth reading our guide on 7 kW vs 22 kW before spending.
Why DC fast charging feels different
Highway DC fast chargers bypass the car's onboard limit and can add hundreds of kilometres in half an hour — but they cost more per km and are harder on the battery as a daily habit.
Use DC when travelling. Use AC at home. The time you spend asleep is the time the car should be charging.
A simple rule of thumb
If you sleep eight hours at home and charge on AC, you can recover most of a week's commuting in one night.
If that is true for you — and for most first-time EV owners it is — you do not need to optimise kilowatts on day one. You need a reliable, certified charger and a routine.
Key takeaways
- Home AC typically adds 30–40 km per hour — enough for normal daily driving overnight
- Speed is capped by your home supply, then your car's onboard charger, then the wall unit
- DC fast charging is for travel; AC overnight is the everyday pattern
- Eight hours plugged in at home beats obsessing over peak kW numbers