EV charging comes with an alphabet soup of plugs: Type 2, CCS, CHAdeMO, NACS, GB/T. This guide explains what each connector is, how AC and DC charging differ, and how to know at a glance which chargers your car can actually use.
Why connectors matter
Unlike a petrol nozzle, EV connectors are not universal. The plug on your charging cable, and the socket on your car, decides which chargers you can physically use. Get it wrong and you arrive at a working, available charger that simply will not fit. Knowing your car's connectors is therefore the first thing every EV driver should nail down.
The reassuring news is that the landscape is far simpler than the jargon suggests. Standards bodies such as the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and SAE International have consolidated the market around a handful of connectors, and within any given region most cars share just one or two. Once you know yours, the rest of the alphabet becomes background noise.
AC versus DC: the key distinction
Every connector falls into one of two families, and understanding the split explains almost everything else. AC (alternating current) charging is what happens at home, at work and at most on-street or destination points. Your car's onboard charger converts the AC to DC to fill the battery, which caps the speed: typically single-digit to low-tens of kilowatts. DC (direct current) charging bypasses that onboard converter and feeds the battery directly, which is where the genuinely fast road-trip charging speeds come from.
Crucially, AC and DC often use different pins on the same physical socket. Many cars accept a Type 2 plug for slow AC and a CCS plug for fast DC through one combined inlet. Knowing both of your car's connectors, not just one, is what lets you use the full range of chargers on the network.
The main standards, one by one
- Type 2 (Mennekes). The standard AC connector across Europe, mandated for public AC points in the EU. Used for home and destination charging, commonly up to around 22 kW. Most European EVs do their everyday AC charging through Type 2.
- Type 1 (J1772). The older single-phase AC connector, common on earlier North American and Japanese EVs. It has no pins for three-phase power, so it is slower than Type 2 and is gradually being superseded.
- CCS (Combined Charging System). Type 1 or Type 2 with two extra high-power DC pins added below, hence "Combo 1" in North America and "Combo 2" in Europe. This is the dominant DC rapid-charging standard across Europe and much of North America, spanning roughly 50 kW to 350 kW.
- CHAdeMO. An early DC fast-charging standard developed in Japan and still found on models such as the older Nissan Leaf. It is being phased out in many Western markets but remains worth filtering for if you drive one.
- NACS / Tesla. Tesla's slim, single connector handles both AC and DC. Standardised by SAE as the North American Charging Standard, it is now being adopted by other manufacturers across North America.
- GB/T. The Chinese national standard, with separate AC and DC connectors. It dominates the world's largest EV market and matters chiefly if you drive there.
Same socket, two jobs. On most modern EVs the DC pins sit directly beneath the AC ones. That is why a "CCS car" also charges happily on a Type 2 AC point: the top half of the plug is identical.
Regional differences in plain terms
Where you are shapes which plugs you meet. In Europe, the practical answer for most drivers is simply Type 2 for AC and CCS (Combo 2) for DC. In North America, the market is mid-transition: CCS (Combo 1) is widespread, Tesla's NACS is expanding fast as other brands sign on, and CHAdeMO lingers on a shrinking set of older cars. In China, GB/T is effectively universal. Japan blends CHAdeMO with newer standards.
This is why buying advice that made sense a few years ago can mislead today. A used import may carry a connector that is common in its home market but sparse where you now drive, so it pays to check the local charging picture before you commit to a car.
A real-world scenario
Imagine you drive a recent European hatchback with a CCS (Combo 2) inlet and plan a long weekend away. At home overnight you use the Type 2 half of the socket on your wallbox, waking up to a full battery. On the motorway, you pull into a rapid-charging hub and use the CCS half to add a large chunk of range during a coffee stop. If your route also passed an older site offering only CHAdeMO, you would simply skip it, not because it is broken, but because it cannot fit your car. One vehicle, two connectors, and a clear rule for which chargers to target.
How to find compatible chargers
On the Refuelia map, set the connector filter to your car's plug: CCS, CHAdeMO, Type 2 or Tesla, and every charger shown will be one you can physically use. Layer a power filter on top to match your need for speed, and you have eliminated the two most common wasted trips in a single step: turning up to a plug that does not fit, or one that is far slower than you hoped.
Adapters: helpful, with limits
Adapters can bridge some standards, for example, Tesla-to-CCS or CHAdeMO-to-CCS in certain regions, but they do not cover every combination and can cap charging speed or restrict which sites will authorise them. Treat an adapter as a backup for the occasional gap, not as a substitute for the right connector, and always confirm the adapter is approved for your specific car before you rely on it on the road.
Ready to use it? Open the live map to find real stations and chargers near you, check their current status, and add what you see for the next driver.