Eli5 why does dc charging work so much faster than ac charging?
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I’m guessing that you are asking specifically about electric car charging as that’s the only place the question really makes sense.
DC charging is faster than AC charging because more power is being supplied. You might get 11 kW from an AC charger at home, and 350 kW at a public DC charger.
So why is AC less power than DC for car charging? For AC charging, the actual charger is inside the car; the thing you plug into the car is a glorified extension cord with some safety features built in. Lower power makes the charger smaller and lighter. It converts AC power to DC (what the batteries require). It is sensible because most homes and small businesses just don’t have electrical service that can support huge amounts of power.
In DC charging, the charger in the car isn’t used. The car is connected to a charger outside the car (there’s a giant power supply in the charge station or in a nearby cabinet) and goes directly to the batter pack. They handle much more power (more than a typical house would have access too) and require larger parts that would be hard to fit inside the car.
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