CCS vs Type 2: one socket, two speeds

CCS Combo 2 is not a competing plug to Type 2. It is a Type 2 with two pins added underneath. Your car has one charge flap and one connector. The upper half takes alternating current, the lower part takes direct current, and nothing ever connects to both at once.

One socket on the car, two halves

Open the charge flap of an EV sold new in Belgium. You see a flattened circle on top, and under that circle a zone closed by a black cover. The circle is the Type 2. The cover hides two thick pins, and those two pins are exactly all that CCS Combo 2 adds.

One connector, two halves.

The Type 2, standardised as IEC 62196-2, carries seven contacts: three for three-phase power, a neutral, an earth, and two small contacts used for the conversation between car and charge point. It carries alternating current only. The European Commission picked it as the charging standard back in January 2013, which is why you now find it on absolutely everything, from a private garage to a Colruyt car park.

CCS Combo 2 is standardised as IEC 62196-3. It keeps the seven Type 2 contacts, neutralises four of them during fast charging, and adds two heavy-gauge pins for direct current. Nine contacts in total. When a fast charge point hands you its gun, that gun covers the whole flap, cover included, because it needs both levels.

The rule that settles the question fits in one sentence: CCS Combo 2 contains Type 2, and the reverse is false. A Type 2 cable plugs into a CCS-equipped car without any trouble, and that is the move you will make every evening. A CCS gun, on the other hand, will not fit a socket limited to Type 2 alone. A few of those still drive around Belgium, mostly Renault Zoe cars delivered without the direct-current fast-charging option.

Type 2 or CCS Combo 2: what does my car's spec sheet say?

Both, on every new EV sold here. The sheet gives two figures, and they do not measure the same thing.

The first is alternating-current power: 7.4 kW, 11 kW, sometimes 22 kW. It comes from the onboard charger, an internal component that converts the grid's alternating current into direct current for the battery. Bulky, heavy and expensive, that component is sized as tightly as manufacturers dare, which explains gaps that the price tag never hints at: a Citroën ë-C3 tops out at 7.4 kW single-phase, a BYD Dolphin reaches 11 kW three-phase on the Design trim only, a Tesla Model 3 also stops at 11 kW.

The second figure is direct-current power: 80, 100, 130, 250 kW. Here the onboard charger is bypassed, the charge point sends its direct current straight into the battery, and the ceiling depends only on cell chemistry and cooling. A Renault 5 E-Tech 40 kWh stops at 80 kW, a BMW iX1 at 130 kW, a Model 3 at 250 kW.

Two figures, two halves of the same socket. The first decides your nights, the second your weekends. If the difference between power and energy still escapes you, it is unpacked in our guide to kW and kWh.

Type 2 against CCS Combo 2, criterion by criterion

One line deserves a stop, the cable line. On direct current the gun is always tethered to the charge point: a cable able to take 350 kW is liquid-cooled and far too heavy to carry around. On alternating current, a large share of Belgian points are bare sockets, meaning a female outlet and nothing else. The mode 3 Type 2 cable in the boot is therefore not a comfort accessory here. It is the condition for plugging in at all.

Which connector do you actually find on Belgian charge points?

At the end of June 2026 Belgium counted 126,045 public charging points, nearly 20,000 more than on 1 January, according to the sector federation EV Belgium. The overwhelming majority deliver alternating current. Wallonia, long behind, alone shows 2,353 fast and ultra-fast points after multiplying its network by ten in four years.

Here is what you actually run into, surveyed on 2 September 2026.

The European AFIR regulation has locked that split in place: its technical specifications require Type 2 on alternating-current points and CCS Combo 2 on direct-current fast-charging points, and since April 2024 it obliges fast chargers to accept bank card payment. A charge point installed or refurbished today cannot surprise you any more. A charge point from 2018 still can.

What does the same charge cost depending on the plug, in Belgium?

Brussels to the Ardennes and back, 260 km: budget 40 kWh in a compact EV in real use. The table below shows what those 40 kWh cost depending on which half of the socket you use, crossing the domestic ceilings published by the CREG (the Belgian energy regulator) for the third quarter of 2026 with the tariff range surveyed by Moniteur Automobile across Belgian fast-charging networks in July 2026.

Twenty-two euros and seventy-one cents separate the best line from the worst. Same trip, same car, same amount of energy transferred, and the only variable is which half of the connector was used. For comparison, the gap between the Flemish domestic tariff and the Walloon one comes to just 2.24 € on that charge. Picking the connector therefore weighs ten times more than picking the region you live in, even though the second question generates far more ink than the first.

The Type 2 half is the one that lets you sleep cheaply. The CCS half is the one that keeps you moving fast. Charging every day on the second amounts to paying emergency rates for routine service, and the detail of the gaps between operators sits in our motorway fast-charging comparison.

Four lines to check on a spec sheet before you sign:

• Alternating-current power. 7.4 kW on a 60 kWh battery means more than eight hours on the cable. At 11 kW three-phase, five and a half hours.
• Single-phase or three-phase. A single-phase onboard charger makes a three-phase wallbox pointless, and in Brussels the 3×230 V network without neutral adds another layer to the sum.
• Direct-current power. Between 80 kW and 250 kW, the stop on the E411 motorway is not the same length.
• The presence of a second charge flap. On a used Japanese car, it signals CHAdeMO.

Should you still worry about CHAdeMO when buying used?

Yes, though not for the reason people assume.

CHAdeMO is the Japanese fast-charging standard, also covered by IEC 62196-3, and it has nothing in common with Type 2: it is a second socket, physically separate, often behind a second flap. Nissan Leaf up to the 2022 generation, e-NV200, Mitsubishi i-MiEV and its twins the Peugeot iOn and Citroën C-Zero, first-generation Kia Soul EV. All of those still circulate on the Belgian used market, and they sell well because they have become affordable.

Their alternating-current side poses no problem at all. They carry a Type 2 like any 2026 EV, plug into the same wallbox, charge overnight at the same rate. The fast side is the one fading away: according to the interoperability operator GIREVE, CHAdeMO now accounts for less than 30% of connectors installed in Europe and less than 15% of newly installed fast chargers. In Belgium it survives on old 50 kW multi-standard units and vanishes every time a site is refurbished.

A used Leaf remains an excellent commuter car. On a Brussels to Namur run on a Sunday evening, with the Vedrin charge point out of order as it too often is, it turns into an exercise in patience.

Tesla's NACS does not apply in Belgium

The question comes up every time somebody reads the American motoring press. Nothing to plan for here.

NACS is Tesla's North American connector, adopted across the Atlantic by nearly every manufacturer. In Europe Tesla did the opposite and dropped its in-house connector: the Model 3 and Model Y sold here have carried a CCS Combo 2 socket since 2019, the Model S and Model X since 2022. The V3 Superchargers at 250 kW and V4 at 350 kW installed in Belgium deliver CCS Combo 2 and are open to every brand.

No adapter, no announced switch.

Frequently asked questions