An electric vehicle charging station, also called EV charging station, electric recharging point, charging point and EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment), is an element in an infrastructure that supplies electric energy for the recharging of electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric-gasoline vehicles or semi-static and mobile electrical units such as exhibition stands. As of May 2012, the United States has almost 10,000 public charging stations, and Norway has more than 3,200 charging points. As of December 2011, Japan had 800 public quick-charge stations.

As plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicle ownership is expanding, there is a growing need for widely distributed publicly accessible charging stations, some of which support faster charging at higher voltages and currents than are available from domestic supplies. Major installation designs include Park & Charge in Europe and the West Coast Electric Highway in America. PARVE is an standardized design being developed in Madrid, Spain. Many charging stations are on-street facilities provided by electric utility companies. Some of these special charging stations provide one or a range of heavy duty or special connectors and/or charging without a physical connection using parking places equipped with inductive charging mats.