Here’s a glossary of some of the common terms you’ll hear when dealing with Electric Vehicles
- AC – Alternating Current
- Ah – Ampere hour
- Amp – unit of electrical current
- BEV – Battery Electric Vehicle
- BMS – Battery Management System
- CCS – Combined Charging System (a type of rapid charger)
- CHAdeMO – An abbreviation of “CHArge de MOve” (a type of rapid charger)
- Charge Point – Equipment to charge an EV
- DC – Direct Current
- EV – Electric Vehicle
- EVSE – Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (chargers outlets and cables)
- Granny Charger – Charges car from regular 3-pin socket
- HEV – Hybrid Electric Vehicle
- HFCEV – Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle
- Hybrid – A vehicle with an electric motor & batteries plus an ICE
- ICE – Internal Combustion Engine
- ICE’d – Being blocked from charging by an Internal Combustion Engined vehicle
- kW – kilo Watt (unit of power)
- kWh – kilo Watt hour (unit of energy)
- PEV – Plug-in Electric Vehicle
- PHEV – Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle
- PV – Photovoltaic Solar Panels
- Regenerative Braking (Regen) – Using motor as generator to slow & recharge batteries
- REX – Range EXtending
- RFID – Radio Frequency ID (tech used by many charge cards)
- Self-Charging Hybrid – Marketing bluff for chargeed by fossil fuel
- SoC – State of Charge (the percentage of your battery’s charge)
- SoH – State of Health (the long term health of your battery)
- Type 1 – Charging socket (J1772)
- Type 2 – Charging socket (standard on most new cars now)
- V2G – Vehicle to Grid (sending energy from EV back to the grid)
- ZEV – Zero Emissions Vehicle