What’s the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 EV chargers?

What is a Type 1 EV charger?

Simply put, a Type 1 EV charger has a five-pin design. Type 1 EV connectors are commonly used for electric cars in Asia. Because of this, you typically won’t find Type 1 EV chargers in the UK, nor electric cars with a Type 1 connector – this is especially the case with new electric vehicles.

That said, in very rare cases, you might find a Type 1 connector on older electric cars. For example, the first generation of the Nissan Leaf and the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV have Type 1 connectors.

Untethered, or sometimes called socketed, home EV chargers can come in the Type 1 form. However, tethered chargers tend to only come in the Type 2 format.

What is a Type 2 EV charger?

A Type 2 EV charger has a seven-pin design, and is the most common EV charger type in the UK, given the wide adoption of Type 2 electric cars in Europe. What’s more, Type 2 EV chargers are used for fast EV charging using Alternating Current (AC). With this in mind, AC public electric car charging points (such as 7kW and 22kW EV chargers) are Type 2.

Most home EV chargers come in the Type 2 form, too – especially tethered chargers.

Electric vehicles with a Type 2 connector include the VW e-Golf, Renault Zoe, Tesla Model S and most new EVs on the market.