The actual difference
Every electric vehicle battery stores DC. The question is only where the conversion from AC happens.
With AC charging, the charge point supplies alternating current and the vehicle's own onboard charger converts it. That onboard unit is small, which caps the speed — typically 7.4 kW to 22 kW. With DC charging, the conversion happens inside the charge point itself, which can be far larger, so power goes straight to the battery at anything from 30 kW to 240 kW and beyond.
That is why DC units are physically bigger, draw far more power, and cost considerably more.
The question that actually decides it
How long do vehicles stay at your site?
If the answer is hours — a workplace car park, a housing society, a hotel, a mall — AC charging is almost always right. Vehicles are parked anyway, so charging speed is irrelevant; what matters is covering more bays for the same budget and the same electrical supply.
If the answer is minutes — a forecourt, a highway stop, a fleet depot between shifts — AC is useless. Nobody is waiting four hours. You need DC, and the site has to have the supply to support it.
A rough guide
- Workplaces and offices — AC 7.4 to 22 kW
- Housing societies — AC 3.3 to 7.4 kW per bay, or shared 22 kW points
- Hotels and overnight stays — AC 7.4 to 22 kW
- Malls and retail — AC 22 kW, with DC where turnover is faster
- Fuel stations and highway stops — DC 60 kW and above
- Fleet depots — DC, sized around shift patterns
Connectors in India
India has largely settled on two standards, which simplifies the decision considerably. Type 2 is used for AC charging and CCS2 for DC fast charging, and between them they cover most electric cars and commercial vehicles sold here.
Two- and three-wheelers are a separate case, generally served by smaller AC sockets where the driver brings their own cable.
The mistake worth avoiding
Installing DC fast charging at a site where vehicles park for hours is the most common and most expensive error in this field. It buys speed nobody needs, at several times the cost, and often triggers a supply upgrade that would otherwise have been unnecessary.
The opposite error is rarer but just as damaging: AC charging at a location where people will not wait. Those chargers sit unused, and the conclusion drawn is usually that charging does not work there — when the real problem was the specification.