EV Terminology, Acronyms, and Glossary

B

brianc35

Administrator
EV ownership is full of acronyms and terms that can discourage new or prospective owners from making the jump from ICE into an EV. This list will give you a leg up on learning about the cars, how they operate, and help define common phrases used on the forums.

EV Acronyms​

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1​

A​

  • AC​

    • Alternating Current

B​

  • Battery Chemistry​

  • BEV​

    • Battery Electric Vehicle

  • Bi-Directional Charging​

    • Allows your EV to power other items and connect via the charge port.
    • see also V2L, V2G, and V2H

  • BMS​

    • Battery Management System
    • Used to control charge and discharge to the battery to protect it and balance the cells

C​

  • CCS​

    • Combined Charging System
    • CCS Type 1 - more common in the North America and Japan
      • Offering a standard J1772 plug with 2 additional DC connection points to enable Level 3 fast DC charging
      • Often called the SAE Combo
      • CCSComboType1.webp
    • CCS Type 2 - more common in Europe and Australia
      • Offering a Mennekes Type 2 plug with 2 additional DC connection points to enable Level 3 fast DC charging
      • CCSComboType2.webp
    • Both CCS Type 1 and CCS Type 2 connectors are designed to be backwards compatible with their respective AC charging connectors.
      • CCS Type 1 EVs can charge at both CCS Type 1 and J1772 stations
      • CCS Type 2 EVs can charge at both CCS Type 2 and Mennekes Type 2 stations.
    • EVs with only a J1772 or Type 2 connector cannot use the DC rapid capability of CCS1 or CCS2 stations, respectively.

  • CHAdeMO​

    • Level 3 charging port
    • Bi-directional for V2G connectivity
    • CHAdeMO.webp

  • Charging Levels​

    • Level 1 - Generally 120 AC
      • Standard home outlet, 5-10 miles per hour of charge (varies by model)
      • 1.3-2.4 kW
    • Level 2 - Generally 240 AC
      • Most home EV charging systems provide this level, and offer about 30 miles of range per hour (varies by model)
      • 3-20 kW
    • Level 3 - DC, Voltage Varies
      • 100-200 miles range per hour charge (varies by model and amp)
      • 50-350 kW

  • Control Pilot​

    • The Control Pilot (abbreviated as CP or EVCP) signal enables basic communication (sometimes called Basic Signaling, or BS) between the EVSE (charger) and EV (electric vehicle). This is a standard defined in IEC standard 61851-1
    • This signal is a pulse width that sends information about max charge rates to the EV and signals like charge complete back to the EVSE.
    • There are 6 main statuses:
      • A - EV Disconnected - +12V signal
      • B - EV Connected - +9V signal
      • C - EV Charging - +6V signal
      • D - EV Charge, Ventilation Required - +3V signal
      • E - Error Condition - 0V signal
      • F - Fault Condition - -12V signal

D​

  • DC​

    • Direct Current

E​

  • EV​

    • Electric Vehicle

  • EVSE​

    • Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment
    • This is your charging equipment, cables, etc

F​

  • FCEV​

    • Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle
    • Generally powered by hydrogen fuel cells to produce electricity for the electric motor(s)

G​

  • GBT​

    • Charger connection type mostly found in China and Eastern Europe
    • Supports Level 1 -3 charging
    • GBT.webp

  • GoM​

    • Guess o Meter
    • Estimate of range left based on historic driving patterns and various sensor readings

H​

  • HEV​

    • Hybrid Electric Vehicle
    • A Vehicle that usually has a gasoline engine and an electric motor, but lacks plug-in charging and relies mostly on regenerative braking to charge a small battery bank (eg, the first gen Prius)

I​

  • ICE​

    • Internal Combustion Engine

J​

K​

  • kW​

    • Kilowatt - 1000 Watts
    • 750 Watts = 1 HP

  • kWh​

    • Kilowatt-hour
    • Energy consumption, as in supplied by the power company.

L​

M​

  • Mennekes Type 2​

    • Common European Charger connector type
    • MennekesType2.webp

    • see CCS Type 2 for Fast Charge by adding the DC ports
    • DCComboAdder.webp

  • MPGe​

    • Miles per Gallon Equivalent
    • Used to measure efficiency in comparison to an ICE vehicle. 1 Gallon of gasoline is 33.7 kW

N​

  • NACS​

    • Level 3 charging port, Tesla proprietary but they have opened up the technology to other makes to leverage the port and network of chargers in recent years.
    • J34002 standard
    • Many major auto brands in the US are adopting this as the go-forward standard for North America charging stations.
    • NACS.webp

  • NMC​

  • NMCA​

O​

  • One Pedal Driving​

    • Some EVs have a setting to allow the accelerator pedal control both acceleration and deceleration by engaging regenerative braking when the throttle is reduced, slowing the car down by simply reducing throttle input
    • Sometimes abbreviated as 1PD

P​

  • Pb​

  • PHEV​

    • Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (eg, the Honda Clarity)
    • Larger battery bank vehicles that can operate as pure electric with more electric range than HEV, but still rely on the ICE system to travel longer distances

  • Plug Type​

  • Proximity Pilot​

    • A safety feature in EV charging that prevents the car from being driven while the charging cable is connected and confirms a proper connection before charging begins
    • Controls a 'soft' shut down to reduce the chance of electric shock or short circuits when disconnecting cables

Q​

R​

  • Range​

    • How far you are able to travel on the available energy in the battery and average MPGe

  • REEV​

    • Range Extended Electric Vehicle
    • These vehicles tend to have a 'generator' engine running on gasoline or diesel fuel which charges the battery bank to run the electric motor(s)
    • The Ram REV and the Scout Harvester package are good examples

  • REX​

    • Range Extended Vehicle
    • See REEV

S​

  • SAE Combo​

  • SOC​

    • State of Charge
    • The battery's fullness from 0 to 100 (where 0 is empty/dead and 100 is full capacity)

  • SSB​

    • Solid State Battery

T​

U​

V​

  • V2G​

    • Vehicle to Grid
    • Allows your battery to communicate with the power company to control charge rates
    • see also: Bi-Directional Charging

  • V2H​

    • Vehicle to Home
    • Allows your car battery to act as a home battery back up system to power your home in a power outage
    • see also: Bi-Directional Charging

  • V2L​

    • Vehicle to Load
    • Allows your car battery to power electronics directly via invertor to AC 120 or can sometimes be used to power/charge another EV directly
    • see also: Bi-Directional Charging

  • Vampire Drain​

    • The loss of range when sitting/parked, usually a percent or two a day

Y​

X​

Y​

Z​


1 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z​
 
Last edited:
"Range" needs a more complete definition.

"GOM" could start the "G"s

In V2G, change "co" to "to"--but isn't it really the ability of the power company to take power back from your EV when needed?
 
Control pilot, proximity pilot, CCS types 1 and 2, NACS is currently J3400 SAE standard officially designated.
Some common charging term additions, maybe include some Wiki links.

Expansion on the difference between kW and kWh ( ie kWh measure energy usage over time and kW a unit of the rate at which energy can be used or delivered) - a common mistake EV novices tend to confuse.;)
 
Last edited:
My 'nits'

  • "Kilowatt - 1000 Watts" is power, 745 W is 1 HP.​

  • "Kilowatt-hour" is energy, what costs money from the utility.​

  • "LiFePo4" I would abbreviate to LiFePo or LiFePO and drop the "4" (KISS)​

Excellent first stab!​

​

Bob Wilson
 
(I'll die on this hill) it's phosphate, not phosphorus. :D I'll leave the 4. Thanks for the other suggestions and everyone else providing notes and feedback. As I find more things, I add more things. I hope this can be a great resource and become the wiki - not just link to a wiki.
 
CO2(e) (Grid Intensity) - the amount of greenhouse gases emitted (i.e grams of CO2 per kWh, or kg CO2 per MWh) utilizing electricity from the regional grid. For example, MA has a 373.03g CO2e/kWh, HI 628.27g CO2e/kWh, CO 492.15g CO2e/kWh, and British Columbia, Canada has a grid intensity of 18g CO2e/ kWh!

Carbon intensity of gasoline - 1,000 grams of CO2 per 9.46 gallons of gasoline, or 105.71g CO2 per gallon of gasoline. For example, 10,000 miles/year traveled at 20MPG = 500 gallons = 4.73 metric tons of CO2/year for ICE. The equivalent 10,000 miles on a 2.5mi/kWh vehicle would be 1.492 metric tons CO2e/year in MA, 2.5t CO2e/year in HI, 1.97t CO2e/year in CO, and 0.072t CO2e/year in British Columbia.

Phases of vehicles - production phase, use phase, and end of life phase. OEMs are only obligated to reduce their CO2 emissions from the production phase and do not get credit for the use phase or end of life phase.

Also keep the 4 in LiFePO4 because there are decades of intellectual property disputes and industrial espionage that sparked the rise of EVs.
 
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