Your guide to electric vehicle jargon

We’re in the midst of an electric revolution in the motoring industry and that means a whole lot of new terms are cropping up.

Don’t know your ACs from your FCVs? We’ve put together a guide to busting electric vehicle (EV) jargon, so worry no longer.

Types of electrified vehicles

If you’ve shopped around for an electrified vehicle recently, there is no doubt you’ll have come across a whole host of different options — BEVs, hybrids, PHEVs and possibly even FCVs.

It may seem confusing to understand at first, but they’re pretty simple once you dig in:

Current affairs

This may feel like a return to a secondary school science classroom, but when it comes to electric cars, it’s key to know the difference between AC and DC:

Charging your knowledge

Perhaps the most complex part of electric car ownership is understanding the different types of charging, so we’ve broken up the key points:

What else should I know?

There’s a whole host of other terms in the world of EVs, but as for key ones, there’s just a few more.

The difference between kilowatts (kW) and a kilowatt hour (kWh). A kilowatt is simply a measurement of how many watts of energy a car can develop, while a kilowatt hour is how much energy a car will use in the space of an hour.

There’s also range, which is the distance a vehicle can cover on one full electric charge. Following that, many people have discussed range anxiety — the fear that one full electric cycle just won’t be enough to get them to their destination.

As electrified vehicles become more integrated into our lives, now is as good a time as any to get your head around complicated terms and understand what you’re looking at when the time comes to buy your own.