Electric Vehicle plug and socket guide

EV plugs and what sort you need can be confusing. We have created an EV charger guild so you know what sort of Plug or charger to purchase. 

There are three two types to consider when buying a charger or cable.
Type 1 (J1772)
Type 2 (Mennekes)

There is also Tesla, charge port that is unique to Tesla’s that are imported from USA or some other countries. The New Zealand standard for new Tesla’s is Type 2.

The other types of connectors are for Fast charging using D.C power, you can’t purchase cables for these but we will touch on them further down.

Type one female port in a car and Type 1 plug end

Type One or J1772 

Type One or J1772 on the left is commonly used in older and newly imported Japanese Vehicles such as

Nissan Leaf & eNV200 (including imports)
Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV & iMiev
Nissan e-NV 200
Kia Soul EV
Holden Vault
Toyota Prius Plugin (not Prime)

The Type One port is capable of charging up to a maximum of 7.4kW or 32a. This is often limited by the onboard charger in your car. Most PHEV’s will only charge at 3.6kW or 16a

For cars that have a Type one port and support Fast charging, they will have a separate larger CHAdeMO port beside the Type 1 port.

Type 2 to Type 1 Cables
To use public chargers that only have a Socket. You will require a Type 2 to Type 1 cable

Type 2 cable and Type two connector with CCS port EV

Type Two or Mennekes

Type two is now the Australian and New Zealand Standard. It’s found on most New Zealand charge stations and all New Zealand new cars such as
Tesla Model 3 & Y
BMW, Audi, VW eGolf and Mercedes eqc
Hyundai Ioniq, Kona
NZ new Renault Zoe and Kangoo Z.E.
Jaguar i-Pace
Tesla cars imported from UK or Australia
Toyota Prius Prime
BYD Atto 3
LDV
Polestar

The Type 2 socket at the car end can also have the D.C connector below it.
If you have the type 2 + DC type plug also known as CCS combo you can still plug a type 2 in to the top of the charge socket to charge at home.

Type 2 to Type 2 cables, these come in 3 Phase & Single Phase depending on what your car supports. Single phase suppots up to 7.4kW charging speeds and 3 phase supports 22kW charging speed. 

tesla-and-CHAdeMO-DC plug

CHAdeMO Fast DC charger

You can’t buy a Chademo cable, these are already attached on some Fast DC chargers. Tesla Model S/X come with an adapter to use this.

Tesla Charger
Not supported by New Zealand charging stations. Tesla can supply adapters to convert this to another type for charging. Such as the Type 1 to Tesla adapter