EV's can be charged with AC chargers or DC chargers. What's the difference? And why is DC charging so much faster? We answer these questions in this video.
There are inverters for AC-to-DC conversion too. After all, that's what happens in our vehicles when regenerative braking happens: the motor becomes an AC generator, and the traction inverter converts the AC electricity to DC for charging the batteries. A simple rectifier in a DC Fast Charger wouldn't really work because it can't control the DC output voltage. A DC charger needs to be able to adjust the voltage to (a) suit the voltage specs of the vehicle it's charging, and (b) adjust correctly for the batteries' state of charge, so the voltage actually changes during a charging session. An inverter is a complex, CPU-controlled device which can do all of this; a rectifier wouldn't be able to. You're right, though, that the inverters that most people are familiar with convert DC to AC, such as when you've got solar panels on your roof.
