How To Charge Your Electric Vehicle

I get asked this question a lot.

And most people don't believe me when I tell them how easy it really is!  On an electric vehicle charging station, there will always be a connector that you can release and then plug into the inlet on your electric vehicle.  This cord is standard, and it is formally called a J1772.  I like to call it the "connector."

Why a J1772?  Not sure, you can ask the Society of Automotive Engineers.

This connector is safe, reliable and easy to use.  There are 5 pins if you look into the connector directly.  3 pins are used to deliver the electricity to your vehicle, and 2 pins are for transferring and collecting data.

All you have to do when you get to an EV charging station is release the connector from the charging station, plug it into your vehicle and you're ready to go!

Although you should keep in mind that as more and more EV charging stations get deployed, you will see an influx of charging station passes, or what we refer to at SemaConnect as our SemaCharge Pass.

This card works very similarly to your average metro pass, with some sophisticated add-ons.

In order to use the card, you'll have to sign up and put a balance on the card.  Then each time you go to charge your electric car, all you have to do is hold the card up to the charging station, and it will authenticate your unique card and information.

So what makes it sophisticated?

When you set up your card information, you'll also be setting up your online account in order to use the web-based software.  Here you can manage your charging bills, add more money to your card, run sustainability reports, and locate charging stations.


Need more info? Check out this video I made:


Send me your feedback and tell me how easy it was for you to charge your EV!