Overview

• Charging from a household outlet incurs losses of 10–30 percent, while home wallboxes cut that to 5–10 percent.
• DC fast charging avoids AC-to-DC conversion losses but still wastes 5–15 percent of energy, rising when battery heating is needed.
• Warm batteries limit fast-charging losses to about 1–4 percent, but cold packs drive heating losses to 6–10 percent.
• Battery preconditioning shaves charging time without reducing total energy consumed, since heating draws stored power.
• ADAC advises topping up batteries to higher states when heating is required to dilute the percentage lost to thermal management.