Let’s speak ‘EV’

Be.EV has compiled a dictionary of the most common terms to help new EV drivers learn the new language in ultra-rapid time

Electric car drivers don’t just charge their vehicles, they charge up their vocabulary too! A whole new language has emerged among EV drivers to describe common occurrences they see at charging hubs up-and-down the country.

To help new EV drivers who might be confused about the new terms, national EV charging network Be.EV has compiled a list of the most common and catchiest bits of EV slang to supercharge people’s understanding.

Some slang captures the joys of EV life – like the swift Volt-and-Bolt - while others highlight the quirks, like Yo-Yoing your way to a better charge. And let’s not forget the charging etiquette offenders: Bay Blockers, Ghost Chargers, and the dreaded Charger Hoggers!

There are now 75,000 public charging points in the UK, and with the private sector committing to investing £6 billion in public chargers, new EV drivers will have plenty of places to test their new slang with fluent EV speakers.

This is the latest example of new technology taking the English language by storm, with tech-related words dominating the Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year in the last decade.

The EV revolution is in full swing and this new subculture of electrifying language proves it. It proves how creative and colourful the EV community is, but we’re aware that this might be confusing for new EV drivers and others considering the transition. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of the most common slang we hear at chargepoints across the UK.

The slang is really simple to understand once you get going in your EV, and includes lots of handy tips on how to get the most out of each charge.

There’s going to be at least 8 million EV drivers by 2030, now is the time for drivers to get ahead of the curve before the whole country starts speaking EV. So, plug in, power up, and prepare to level up your EV lingo with the top slang terms every electric driver needs to know.

The new lexicon of driving

ICEd/ICEing
The act of an Internal Combustion Engined (ICE) vehicle parking in a charging bay, preventing an EV driver from charging.
“Annoyingly that hub was all ICEd, couldn’t plug in at all that day.”

Ghost charging
The act of plugging in your EV but not charging, usually to avoid parking charges or get a good parking spot.
“That idiot is ghost charging! That’s really annoying as they’ve taken up a charging bay I could be using”

Hypermiling
The act of driving an EV the most efficiently to maximise driving range, typically by driving slower, turning off auxiliary loads like air-conditioning, and sometimes as extreme as drafting behind large vehicles.
“I misjudged my charging stops, so had to do a little bit of hypermiling on the way back to make it home.”

Charging curve
The expected charging speed of an EV between 0% and 100%, which typically slows as the battery fills up.
“It was an easy charge! Though I only charged up to 60% as that’s when my car’s charging curve really starts to tail-off.”

kW and kWh
In terms of EV charging, a kW (kilowatt) is a unit of power commonly referring to the speed of charge, whereas a kWh (kilowatt-hour) measures the total amount of electricity used, or the capacity of your EV battery
“My car reached a peak charging speed of 170 kW yesterday, and with a battery size of only 57 kWh that's pretty impressive!”

Charge grazing
The act of topping up your EV little-and-often as you drive about your daily life, instead of big designated charge stops.
“Forget the service stations, I prefer charge grazing as I do the shopping, take the kids to the park and meet friends for coffee. It’s much easier, I don’t even think about charging anymore!”

Yo-yoing
The act of repeatedly accelerating and regen braking to increase energy consumption and increase battery temperature before a charging session to improve charging speeds.
“My EV doesn’t have the option to pre-heat the battery before charging, so I have to do a bit of yo-yoing for 10 minutes before!”

Bay blocking
The act of parking in a charging bay without charging, blocking EV drivers from charging there.
“No I couldn’t charge there as there was a van Bay Blocking!”

Volt-and-Bolt
The act of stopping for a really quick charge before continuing a journey, the equivalent to a splash-and-dash in a petrol or diesel vehicle.
“I only needed a few more miles to make it home, so I did a volt-and-bolt at the Hub by the drive-thru.”

Cold-Gating
When an EV limits its charging speed because it’s got a low battery temperature.
“I got rubbish charging speeds this morning, I think my car was cold-gating because it was freezing last night!”

Charger hogging
When an EV stays on a DC rapid charger even when its speeds have dropped a very low level, typically when over 90%.
“I had to wait a few minutes to charge as there was this old EV charger hogging – it was taking up a rapid charger only doing 4kW!”

Adrian Fielden-Gray is chief operating officer at Be.EV