Faster charging does not always mean better charging
For years, the EV industry has chased ever-faster charging. Ultra-rapid DC hubs have become the symbols of progress, leading many to assume AC charging will soon disappear. The reality, however, is far more nuanced than that.Most EV drivers are not constantly travelling long distances. The majority of journeys are short and routine, and vehicles spend most of their time parked. A car sitting outside an office for eight hours or at home overnight does not need 150 kW. It simply needs convenient access to energy while the driver is busy doing something else.
That is why AC charging still matters.
The real strength of AC charging has never been speed, it has always been convenience. Charging at home, at work, on the street, or at destinations where vehicles naturally remain parked allows energy to flow in the background, without turning charging into a dedicated activity.
Connected EVs could reshape the grid
Ilja Maas, EV Product Specialist and Partner at TandemDrive, has a clear view on this:
“Every electric car that is not rolling should possibly be connected to a charger.”
Not because vehicles need to charge constantly, but because being connected creates valuable flexibility. On sunny, windy days, such as May 1st 2026 in the Netherlands, wholesale electricity prices turned negative, reaching -48 cents per kWh. Drivers on dynamic contracts could literally get paid to charge their cars. Yet evening peak demand remains a serious challenge.
Connected vehicles, mostly through AC charging, can absorb surplus renewable energy during the day and shift demand away from peak hours. They can even feed energy back to the grid when needed (V2G). This transforms millions of EVs from just another load into a distributed, flexible battery asset.
New business models are already emerging, including fixed monthly subscriptions where operators intelligently manage charging based on price, forecasts, and grid conditions.
The real challenge is not electricity, it’s timing
One of the biggest misconceptions in the EV transition is that the only challenge is producing enough electricity. In reality, when energy is used may be the bigger issue.
If millions of drivers rely primarily on fast charging during the same peak hours, the pressure on infrastructure and the grid becomes enormous. Charging hubs would need far more capacity, queues would form, and costs would rise sharply.
AC charging helps solve this by spreading demand naturally throughout the day and across many more locations. Instead of short, high-intensity bursts, energy flows over longer periods when it suits the grid.
This is especially important in cities, where space and grid capacity are already under pressure.
AC and DC are not competitors
None of this diminishes the importance of DC fast charging. It remains essential for long-distance travel, motorway corridors, and drivers without home or workplace charging.
However, a system built mainly on fast charging would be inefficient and extremely expensive. As Ilja points out, replacing every fuel pump with a DC charger creates a fundamental mismatch: one driver now stays 20–30 minutes instead of 3–4 minutes. You would suddenly need many times more charging points to serve the same number of vehicles.
AC and DC are not competitors, they are complementary. AC handles the vast majority of everyday charging (studies suggest 85–90% of sessions happen at home, work, or familiar locations), while DC serves as the high-speed safety net.
The future is smarter charging
The future of EV charging will be hybrid and intelligent:
- AC for daily, convenient, background charging (home, work, destination)
- DC for when speed is genuinely required
Reports of the death of AC charging are greatly exaggerated. Paired with smart energy management, AC may well become one of the quiet heroes that makes the entire energy transition workable and affordable.
At TandemDrive we see this shift every day. The winners in the next phase of electrification won’t just be the companies that charge cars fastest, they’ll be the ones that charge them smartest.