Are all electric car chargers compatible?

Say what you will about petrol-powered vehicles, but at least when you pull into a service station, you don't need to worry about whether your car is compatible with the fuel pump (beyond the petrol or diesel question).

Need to find out how long your electric car will take to charge? Use our charging calculator!

It's not so straightforward when it comes to charging an EV, so it's important to understand your options. Several EV charging standards exist in Australia, and there is not yet one charging plug to rule them all.

Unfortunately, no. In Australia, most EVs rely on a Combined Charging System 2 (CCS2) charging socket. This allows them to connect to a seven-pin AC Type 2 charging plug at home, also known as a Mennekes or IEC 62196 plug. The CCS2 socket also features two extra power contacts to support fast DC charging from public charging stations.

Australian EVs that charge via a CCS2 socket include the BMW iX3, BYD Atto 3, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, MG ZS EV, Polestar 2, Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model Y.

(Just to confuse things, Teslas use a different AC charge plug on US models, which it is pushing to become the North American Charging Standard).

There are exceptions to the CCS2 rule in Australia, depending on how old your EV is and where it was made.

Some EVs and plug-in hybrids from Japanese brands – like the Nissan Leaf or the Mitsubishi Outlander – feature a Type 2 socket for AC charging but rely on a separate CHAdeMO plug for DC charging.

In some countries, you find the SAE Combo socket that supports both Type 2 and CHAdeMO plugs.

On some older vehicles, you'll also find CCS1 plugs or Type 1 plugs, also known as SAE J-1772.

No, you can't connect a CSS2 plug to a CHAdeMO socket, or vice versa. Nor is there a simple adaptor cable, so you need to find the right charge station when you're on the road.

Thankfully, some major charging networks like Evie, AmpCharge, Jolt and Exploren support both standards – although it varies from location to location. You can use their apps, or third-party services like Google Maps or PlugShare, to see exactly what's available at each charging station.

While Tesla chargers use the Type 2 and CCS2 standards in Australia, until recently they've been locked down to only work with Teslas.

The nationwide Tesla Supercharger network is slowly opening up to other brands of EVs, beginning with several charge stations in regional NSW. Meanwhile, the Tesla Gen 3 home wall charger was initially locked down to only work with Teslas, but a recent firmware update offers the option to change this.

In the short term, there is no sign of a new universal EV charging plug emerging, with CCS2 well established as the de facto standard in Australia.

One advantage of CHAdeMO is that it supports bidirectional charging, letting you transfer power both to and from your EV. This includes vehicle-to-home (V2H) for powering your house, which is especially handy during an emergency, and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) for selling power back to the grid.

There's limited support for V2G and V2H in Australia, which also requires a compatible home EV charger, but that will likely change as CCS2 begins to adopt these standards. The CCS protocol supports V2H and aims to add V2G from 2025. 

Even then, it requires the car makers to get on board. Tesla has been a hold-out because Elon Musk is not a fan – perhaps because V2H might cut into Tesla Powerwall home battery sales. Even so, the company confirmed during a 2023 Investors Day that bidirectional charging support is coming to Teslas by 2025.