What the speeds mean in practice
A 7kW charger is the standard home unit: on a typical EV it adds roughly a night's worth of range every night, which is why it fits the way people actually run cars, plug in at dinner, full by breakfast. Fitted, it runs £700 to £1,200 with around £900 the common landing point.
A 3.6kW unit starts nearer £500 and charges at roughly half the speed, and a 22kW unit is the top of the range on paper: three times the power of 7kW, with a matching jump in what it demands from your electricity supply.
The three-phase reality
22kW charging needs a three-phase supply, and most UK homes have single-phase. Getting three-phase installed is a job for your network operator, priced by the state of the local network, and it costs far more than the charger does. That alone rules 22kW out for most houses before any other argument starts.
The quieter problem is the car: many EVs cannot accept 22kW from a home charger anyway, because their on-board charging hardware tops out lower. Paying for capacity the supply cannot deliver and the car cannot swallow is how 22kW became the most over-recommended box on the order form.
Compare EV charger quotes
Up to three trusted chargepoint installers quote for the work. Free, no obligation.
Compare EV charger quotesChoosing for your actual house
Default to 7kW. Choose 3.6kW when the budget is tight and the car is a plug-in hybrid or a small-battery EV that fills overnight even at half speed. Consider 22kW only if the property already has three-phase and the car can use it, which describes some rural properties and very few others.
Once the speed is settled, the remaining choices are cable style, covered in tethered or untethered, and the install itself. Compare quotes from trusted chargepoint installers: the speed decision takes a minute of an installer's time to confirm against your supply, and it costs nothing to ask.
Compare EV charger quotes
Up to three trusted chargepoint installers quote for the work. Free, no obligation.
Compare EV charger quotes