In this review, the aim is to present a complete outlook for innovative charging infrastructures. In a real smart grid scenario, these infrastructures are candidates to support the integration of electric and hybrid mobility with distributed energy sources. In this paper, at the outset, an analysis of the scientific and technical literature about main international standards and classifications has been provided. Also taken into consideration in this analysis are the expected challenges related to charging technologies for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, giving specific details on current and possible future trends for both stationary and dynamic inductive charging systems. In particular, for each charging level, traditional and more innovative power electronic architectures--equipped with the new technologies that support both slow and fast conductive charging operations for the new-generation road vehicle-have been reported, described and analysed in detail. The analysis has been conducted through a comparison of power architectures, in terms of efficiency, scalability and charging power/time of the vehicle battery packs. Specific attention has also been devoted to off-board DC fast-charging architectures, which play a fundamental role in the integration of stationary energy storage systems and renewable energy sources with the main grid. Finally, in this review, a wide range of the most interesting applications, technical experiences and international pilot projects have been summarized and discussed, with specific references to the new technologies mentioned above. The overview reported in this paper highlights the importance of a proper charging infrastructure, in combination with next generation energy storage technologies, to support the large-scale diffusion of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.