More and more businesses are adapting to the electrification of the automotive market and offering electric car charging stations for customers or employees. One example is Planet Fitness, so you can work on getting that dream physique while your car charges in the parking lot. So, how long does filling up your electric vehicle’s battery at a Planet Fitness charging station take?

The different charging levels and how long they take to fill up EVs

There are three different charging levels: level 1, level 2, and level 3.

Level 1 chargers are compatible with residential 120V alternating currents, so you’re likely to find them in people’s homes. However, they’re the slowest of the bunch and can take up to 50 hours to charge an electric vehicle from empty.

Level 2 chargers work with a 240V electrical service in the residential setup or a 208V alternative in commercial applications. This makes them significantly faster than level 1 chargers, and they typically take 4-10 hours to fill up a BEV battery. Despite the high installation costs, some users also choose level 2 chargers for their homes.

Level 3 chargers or direct current fast charging (DCFC) setups allow quick charging. They’re typically installed in areas with heavy traffic and high populations to ensure no long lines at the charging station. Also, they can charge EVs to 80% in as little as 20 minutes, depending on the car’s battery and fast charging capabilities.

Tesla superchargers are a great example of DCFC chargers in terms of charging speeds and location.

The types of chargers you find at Planet Fitness charging stations

Planet Fitness has seen growing membership numbers in the last few years. With growing EV ownership numbers, more and more of its customers have electric cars. The company has added several charging stations to its fitness centers which should help with customer retention.

Most charging stations at businesses are usually either level 2 or level 3, including at Planet Fitness. After all, you can’t be expected to wait over 40 hours for your EV to charge.

As for how long it takes to charge, you can check the charge rate and calculate it against the battery capacity of your EV. For example, it would take roughly nine hours for a 7.7 kW level 2 charger to fill the 64.8 kWh battery of the Kia Niro EV.

Using the same charger on the 95 kWh battery of the Audi e-Tron would take about 12.5 hours. However, if you’re working out, you’re likely just adding enough range to get you to your office or back home after your session. As such, you might not need to charge for that long.

With a 50 kW fast charger, a quick 40-minute workout would be enough to return to more than 126 miles of additional range if you own a Kia Niro EV.

Planet Fitness charging station availability

Although there are over 2,200 Planet Fitness locations in the U.S., very few have charging stations. You can check if one is present at your local Planet Fitness by using phone apps like PlugShare. That said, the company is bound to add others with time, spurred on by the entire auto industry moving from internal combustion engines to battery electric vehicles.

Other EV charging map apps to consider include ChargePoint, Chargemap, EVgo, etc.