Doesn't charging take too long compared with filling up with petrol?

“Petrol takes three minutes; an EV takes tens of them” is a standard line about the weakness of electric cars. Charging is indeed slower than filling a tank, and that fact is not going to change. But whether it is inconvenient does not follow from the number of minutes alone. An EV charges while you sleep, so the occasions when charging costs you time are few — a fundamentally different way of using a car.

The short answer: (1) day to day, charging happens at home and feels close to no waiting at all, (2) the fast charging you need on a long trip is improving quickly, with around 400 km of range in ten minutes already in service in 2025, and (3) even so, there are inconveniences a petrol pump does not have, such as queues at holiday peaks. Let’s take those in turn.

Comparing charging with refuelling is the wrong frame

Start with the premise. A petrol car that runs low has no option but to visit a station. The fill takes three minutes, but making the trip costs time every single time.

An EV inverts this. With a slow charger where you park, you plug in when you get home and the car charges while you sleep. You leave in the morning with a full battery, and the time spent going somewhere to refuel is zero. The everyday experience is less “charging takes a long time” than “you stop thinking about charging”. Given that most charging happens at home or at work, the argument narrows to one case: charging time matters on long journeys.

Slow charging runs at 3–6 kW and takes several hours to a whole night for a full charge — which is no problem at all, because the car is parked overnight anyway. It even has an advantage: cheap overnight electricity.

Fast charging on long trips: the technology is moving quickly

The case that matters is a drive beyond the car’s range, where you use a fast charger. This is the real battleground of the charging-time argument.

Fast charging has improved a great deal in a few years. Under CHAdeMO, the Japanese fast-charging standard, the next-generation SERA-400 — up to 350 kW per point at up to 1,000 V — became the first in the world to be certified in 2025, with installations starting that autumn [1]. At that output, a compatible car recovers around 400 km of range in just ten minutes (at 7 km/kWh) [1]. That is close to charging what a long trip needs while you take a break at a service area.

The cars are improving too. Batteries that cut 10% to 80% to around ten minutes or less have been reaching the market since late 2024 [2]. Because fast charging tapers around 80% to protect the cells, the practical pattern is not “0 to 100%” but “10 to 80%, quickly”.

So the image of fast charging as tens of minutes of waiting is becoming a thing of the past, at least in the newest generation. To get that performance, though, both the charger and the car have to support the high output, and today the models and sites that do are still limited.

What remains inconvenient: queues, and a mix of standards and outputs

The inconveniences that petrol does not have deserve stating honestly. First, queues when demand concentrates, as it does over long holidays. Where a service area has only a few fast chargers, a handful of cars ahead of you adds their charging time to yours. That does not happen at a pump, and it is the biggest source of stress on long EV journeys. More points per site and higher outputs are the answer being built, but whether supply keeps up with demand varies by region.

Second, the mix of outputs and standards. “Fast charger” covers anything from 50 kW to 350 kW, and an older, low-output unit will not charge as quickly as the label suggests. Without checking the output at your destination in advance, charging can take longer than you planned.

Third, slower charging in winter. Internal resistance rises in the cold and the battery accepts less power, so charging takes longer in cold regions. That is worth understanding as a premise rather than a surprise.

Driving so that you wait less, and what comes next

Both technique and technology ease these problems. The trick is not to aim for a full battery. Fast charging slows sharply above 80%, so on a long trip, topping up to 80% and moving on to the next stop gets you there sooner overall. Planning charging stops into the route also lowers the risk of queueing.

On the technology side, alongside ultra-fast chargers, the megawatt charging system (MCS) for heavy vehicles is becoming real, bringing shorter charging to trucks and buses. As high-output batteries and chargers become standard, covering a long distance on a single break’s worth of charging should become ordinary. And as EV adoption accelerates along its S-curve, the density and number of chargers rise with it, which eases the queues structurally.

In short, the worry that charging is slow and inconvenient barely applies day to day: an EV that charges at home frees you from the errand of refuelling. The inconvenience is on long trips, and even there the gap is closing fast now that ten minutes buys 400 km. What is left — queues above all — is a question of how much equipment is installed, and that is for infrastructure to solve.

Summary

Day to day, charging happens at home while you sleep. There is no trip to make, so it feels close to no waiting at all.
Fast charging is improving quickly: CHAdeMO 350 kW ultra-fast chargers entered service in 2025, restoring about 400 km in ten minutes.
Cars are keeping up, with batteries that do 10% to 80% in around ten minutes.
What remains: holiday queues, mixed outputs and standards, slower charging in winter.
Topping up to 80% saves time. Megawatt charging for heavy vehicles is on its way.

The question is not “is it faster than a pump?” but “how often does charging actually cost me time?” In everyday driving, hardly ever.

References and data sources

[1]: e-Mobility Power / Takaoka Toko. (2025). A world first: the SERA-400 next-generation ultra-fast charger, up to 350 kW and 1,000 V, receives CHAdeMO 2.0.2 certification [in Japanese]. https://www.e-mobipower.co.jp/news/5259/ / Nikkei xTECH. (2025). A TEPCO affiliate’s 350 kW CHAdeMO fast charger: 400 km in ten minutes [in Japanese]. https://xtech.nikkei.com/atcl/nxt/news/24/00856/

[2]: Nikkei xTECH. (2024). Lower internal resistance brings ten-minute charging, arriving from late 2024 [in Japanese]. https://xtech.nikkei.com/atcl/nxt/column/18/02935/102700008/