The invention relates to a charging system for electric vehicles. The charging system comprises a grid power stage (12) comprising an AC/DC inverter can be connected on an input side via a connection point to an alternating current grid (10), a control device (38) for monitoring a charging process, and at least one charging connection (24) on an output side, the latter being able to be temporarily connected to a vehicle battery (26). A characteristic of the invention is that a buffer battery (16) having a significantly higher charge capacity than the vehicle battery (26) is connected to the grid charging stage (12). A rapid charging stage (22) comprising the control device (38) and a DC/DC inverter (44) that can be temporarily connected to a vehicle battery (26) on the output side by means of the charging connection (24) is connected to the buffer battery (16). The buffer battery (16) can further be connected to a charging location (52) on the alternating current grid (10) on the output side by means of a backcharging stage (46) comprising a switching unit (48) and a DC/AC inverter (50).