A charger, a soft-start method, an electric vehicle, and a charging system. The charger includes a control module, a DC-DC conversion circuit, and a first capacitor. When the electric vehicle is charged, the control module in the charger may first control the DC-DC conversion circuit to charge the first capacitor by using battery electric energy output by a battery system, and after determining that a capacitance voltage of the first capacitor reaches a first threshold voltage, indicate a charging pile to output charging electric energy. A soft-start circuit does not need to be disposed in a soft-start process of the charger, which helps simplify a circuit of the charger and implement a miniaturization design of the charger.