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I live in Britain and am considering purchasing an Electric Vehicle, EV; likely the second generation Nissan Leaf. I intend to install a home EV charger at my property, however friends and family do not yet have one. I understand that charging EVs from a normal UK mains socket takes 8 or more hours, which is a little slow!

Is it possible to plug an EV into two UK mains sockets to reduce this time? If not, is there any way to reduce the charge time without a dedicated EV charger?

Thanks!

James Geddes
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    What does your electricity supply company offer? Have you asked? Because what you suggest won't work. – Solar Mike Jun 01 '21 at 10:52
  • Fair enough! I will be sorted for charging at home, it's when I visit friends and family that I need a better solution. They do not have anything in place and I don't really want to buy them all EV chargers for their birthdays! – James Geddes Jun 01 '21 at 11:17
  • Not sure about UK residential electric, but there may be a "smaller" and "larger" type (i.e. more amps, for large appliances) household electric plug type, possibly with a matching charger that is a less expensive compromise option vs the electrician-installed type. For questions on this topic, you might want to also check the Home Improvement or automotive stacks – Pete W Jun 01 '21 at 12:41
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    I agree with Pete W that [diy.SE] and [mechanics.SE] may be better suited to this question. But one thing to consider is how far you need to drive to get to your family and friends. That 8+ hours figure is for charging batteries from 0 to 100%, I believe. Unless your trips are at the very limit of the car's range, you won't need to go from 0 to 100% charge, but from 20 to 80%, for example. And given that the speed at which batteries charge is inversely proportional to charge (quickly when empty, slowly when full), you'll likely get the necessary charge in significantly less than 8 hours. – Wasabi Jun 01 '21 at 12:57
  • I do have family at the upper reaches of the range of the Nissan Leaf, but then we normally stay overnight so perhaps I'm overthinking this! Thanks for the nudge in the right direction :) – James Geddes Jun 01 '21 at 14:11
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    @PeteW The standard UK residential socket is 230V 13A (i.e. 3kW). A 5W LED bedside lamp uses the same type of socket as a 3kW cooker. We don't have the convoluted USA 120V/240V dual voltage system with 57 different sizes of breaker :) – alephzero Jun 01 '21 at 16:42
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    @JamesGeddes the EV probably handshakes with the charger, when plugged in, to determine the charging current ... the power cord for a regular receptacle would set the charging current at a low value, regardless of the number of receptacles it is plugged into – jsotola Jun 01 '21 at 17:25
  • Charging time of course depends not only on charging method, but also about EV model type and its battery size. I'd more than happy (surprised?) to get my e-2008 charged from wall plug in less than 8 hours, because it takes 24 hours to charge its its 50 kWH battery using 2.3 kW wall plug from 0 to 100%. – trejder Aug 29 '22 at 14:19

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As Solar Mike commented, "no." The cable or adapter you have which connects your car to a edited for UK 230VAC by 80A is carefully designed for safety and compatibility. Any attempt to DIY a "Y-cable" is strictly verboten. Now, in round numbers, 200 V * 60 A (continuous) is 12kW, implying that an 80 kWh battery (edit: Nissan Leaf has at most a 62 kWH battery as of 2021) will charge 0 to 100% in roughly 7 hours. Since you're unlikely to be either that low or need to go that high, sufficient charge to get back home may take more like 5 hours.

As a side note to USA-dwellers: Depending on the layout of your destination houses, it might be possible to (with an adapter) connect to a 240VAC socket in use for a clothes dryer, etc.

If you had a car which was designed with 2 parallel charging sockets, then of course you could use two sources. To my knowledge no car in existence does this.

Carl Witthoft
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