Charging station
infrastructure that supplies electric energy for the recharging of electric vehicles
A charging station, also known as a charge point, chargepoint, or electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), is a power supply device that supplies electrical power for recharging the onboard battery packs of plug-in electric vehicles (including battery electric vehicles, electric trucks, electric buses, neighborhood electric vehicles, and plug-in hybrid vehicles).
There are two main types of EV chargers: alternating current (AC) charging stations and direct current (DC) charging stations. Electric vehicle batteries can only be charged by direct current electricity, while most mains electricity is delivered from the power grid as alternating current. For this reason, most electric vehicles have a built-in AC-to-DC converter commonly known as the "onboard charger" (OBC). At an AC charging station, AC power from the grid is supplied to this onboard charger, which converts it into DC power to recharge the battery. DC chargers provide higher-power charging (which requires much larger AC-to-DC converters) by integrating the converter into the charging station, thereby avoiding size, weight, and cost constraints in vehicles. The station then directly supplies DC power to the vehicle, bypassing the onboard converter. Most modern electric vehicles can accept both AC and DC power.
Public charging stations
Public charging stations are typically found street-side or at retail shopping centers, government facilities, and other parking areas. Private charging stations are usually found at residences, workplaces, and hotels.
The public source identifies “Charging station” as infrastructure that supplies electric energy for the recharging of electric vehicles. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Charging, station and infrastructure.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2140665. The Library of Congress control number is sh2012003590. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Charging station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.