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The top 10 fastest-charging EVs currently available

With a tremendous number of bespoke EVs that have already arrived this year, there has never been a more exciting time to switch to go all-electric. A number of factors will play into your EV decision, regardless of whether it’s a lease or a purchase. Aside from the obvious preference for a certain model design, things like cargo space, range, acceleration, and technology are all important to consider. So is charging speed. Some of the data below could be the deciding factor in choosing one EV or another. Check out the top 10 fastest charging EVs currently available.

Background

As the EV world currently operates, there are three levels to charging your vehicle, offering varying speeds and levels of power – Level 1 AC (120V), Level 2 AC (240V), and DC Fast Charging.

These levels are important to understand as they each offer pros and cons. Furthermore, each will be preferential at some point, given your driving circumstances on a given day. Below, a new study has compared the charge speed of fifty-five different EVs to see which were the fastest when it comes to both AC and DC power. Here’s how the data was gathered.

Methodology

The study itself comes from the website USwitch, which compiled and compared the EVs you’ll read about below. Here is how the EV data was gathered and compiled, according to them.

  • Vehicle performance statistics were acquired from the EV Database
  • AC and DC fast charging speeds for each EV in the EV Database were collected
    • Note – Charging speed and rapid charge speeds were calculated based on 3-phase grid and CCS (350 kW DC) connections respectively
  • Each vehicle was subsequently ranked based on a normalized index accounting for regular and fast charging speeds
  • In the case of EVs with multiple trim options, only the highest-ranking variants were used

Ranking the top 10 fastest charging EVs

Below are the results of the study, ranked from fastest charging EV to, well, 10th fastest. The “mph” in this case does not pertain to actual movement but rather how many miles of range were gathered during one hour of both AC and DC charging.

RankEV Make/ModelAC Charge
Rate
DC Fast
Charge Rate
Charging
Speed
Score
1Porsche Taycan Plus33 mph650 mph8.80/10
2Kia EV6 Long Range 2WD32 mph650 mph8.55/10
3Mercedes EQS 580 4MATIC33 mph490 mph8.37/10
4Tesla Model Y Long Range Dual Motor34 mph370 mph8.25/10
5Hyundai IONIQ 5 Long Range 2WD31 mph580 mph8.14/10
6Audi e-tron GT quattro29 mph640 mph7.92/10
7Polestar 2 Long Range Single Motor33 mph340 mph7.79/10
8BMW i4 M5031 mph370 mph7.57/10
9Volkswagen ID.3 Pro Performance*35 mph300 mph7.16/10
10CUPRA Born*35 mph300 mph7.16/10
* – Not currently sold in the US

As you can see, the Porsche Taycan Plus is the fastest charging EV according to USwitch, with an indexed score of 8.8/10. This was led by the 650 miles of range the electric sports car can garner in one hour on a DC fast charger. If only its battery were large enough to hold that much energy!

The Kia EV6 and Mercedes EQS 580 4MATIC follow the Taycan, in second and third place respectively. The EV6 was a very close second, falling to the Taycan by only one mile during a typical AC charging session.

We were surprised the Hyundai IONIQ 5 wasn’t ranked higher, especially since it shares the same E-GMP platform as the Kia EV6, plus we’ve seen evidence of its superfast charging speeds in the past.

What do you think? Have you witnessed faster charging speeds with your own EV?

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Avatar for Scooter Doll Scooter Doll

Scooter Doll is a writer, designer and tech enthusiast born in Chicago and based on the West Coast. When he’s not offering the latest tech how tos or insights, he’s probably watching Chicago sports.
Please send any tips or suggestions, or dog photos to him at scooter@9to5mac.com