Electric vehicles

[ShavedSpoke]

Maybe that's because people have stopped buying EV's

Maybe.

Although I just bought a second one.

We've had a Zoe for nearly 6 years. Wife uses it daily for driving to work. Luckily we have a large drive, and it get's charged on cheap overnight rate. Costs pittance to run. We've maybe charged once a year on a public charger when the kids have been taken to grandparents in the summer holiday.

My EV gets delivered Monday. Sold the diesel Q5.

 

[paulrbarnard]

I live on the edge of a mill town in Lancashire. There are rows and rows of terraced properties and parking is a premium. Whoever gets home from work first gets the parking place sort of arrangement as there is not even sufficient space to have an agreement that the space in front of each house is 'reserved' for the home owner/ renter. How these people would manage to charge vehicles I have no idea. Multiply this by millions and you have the extent of the challenge.

Aren’t they supposed to walk to the mill?

 

[Blackswanwood]

True...there are reports but unless you dig down into how they went about the study, it's impossible to say just how accurate they might be. Also journalists are lazy and will copy stuff verbatim rather than question. I've already shown how one of the reports quoted as gospel by johnm80 is based on dodgy figures although he seems to be struggling to accept this.

But it’s a moot point unless you are just picking an argument for the sake of it. No one is saying that the number of homes that need access to a solution for charging is insignificant.

 

[John Brown]

Majority does just mean more than 50%, and I'd venture to suggest that most people understand that.
"Vast majority", on the other hand, is probably open to interpretation.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

How would that be enforceable ?

App could

• monitor when the parking space was free, or perhaps
• double charge any EV which overstayed its allotted time, or perhaps
• double charge + £25 (??) fine paid as a credit to the inconvenienced EV owner, or perhaps
• towed away/clamped by parking enforcement.

 

[AJB Temple]

Re enforceable: Based on the Tesla system (and I think dedicated chargers at Mercedes dealers are similar) the system already: identifies in real time how many chargers are free and conditions the battery ready to optimise charge; identifies the car on arrival; notifies the app in real time on car and phone how charge is progressing and warns when close to set charge limits; imposes a monetary penalty for overstaying (which I think is fair and necessary) and locks out the supercharger account for those who don't pay the "fine" (you have an account with card details on file, if you fail to maintain that they can lock out the chargers for your car). I am sure that it is not beyond the tech that it can allocate a charger bay to a vehicle that pre-books en route so that only that vehicle can charge as it will know how far away the vehicle is. The cars have inbuilt tracking and factory link anyway. Not difficult to enforce I suspect if they wanted to. Has not been necessary so far.

 

[Terrytpot]

At least it wasn't houses

Field Farm Homes estate in Stapleford…built on a flood plain. One of just many similar sites in the area which my brother in law was attracted to until I let him know the site’s history.

 

[Dabop]

Chargers at work, shops, gyms, theatres, hotels, car parks etc etc etc.

Even a few dedicated chargers in streets of terraced properties priced by time in charger space - with a reasonable charge rate an EV may only need (say) 2 hours charging once/twice a week. Could even have a smartphone booking app attached so that a charging slot can be booked.

That there is work required to improve the infrastructure is not doubted - but it is all entirely feasible.

There are privately owned chargers springing up in many public carparks (shopping centers etc) plus there is already an app that lets people use their privately owned driveway charger (7kw or more) be 'hired out' to others to use and they get paid for the usage (and make a small profit on each use as well lol)- just have the app on your phone and you can see any free available chargers located near you to be able to plug in and charge... (some enterprising souls have already had a charger fitted in their driveway, even though they don't even have an EV themselves!!!)
eg
https://co-charger.com/
ETA- check out their users map!!! (click on 'charge my EV' and then 'Users map')

Zoomed in on the London area, (note the distance scale bottom right!!!) and the number of available for rent open chargers (orange)- AND they have numerous options for prebooking, unattended charging, and 'scheduled repeat charges' ie you can book a 'repeat charge' for up to a year ahead on a scheduled date and time!!!!

 

[Dabop]

There are privately owned chargers springing up in many public carparks (shopping centers etc) plus there is already an app that lets people use their privately owned driveway charger (7kw or more) be 'hired out' to others to use and they get paid for the usage (and make a small profit on each use as well lol)- just have the app on your phone and you can see any free available chargers located near you to be able to plug in and charge... (some enterprising souls have already had a charger fitted in their driveway, even though they don't even have an EV themselves!!!)
eg
https://co-charger.com/
ETA- check out their users map!!! (click on 'charge my EV' and then 'Users map')
View attachment 189014
Zoomed in on the London area, (note the distance scale bottom right!!!) and the number of available for rent open chargers (orange)- AND they have numerous options for prebooking, unattended charging, and 'scheduled repeat charges' ie you can book a 'repeat charge' for up to a year ahead on a scheduled date and time!!!!

Here's the missing map (it wouldn't load for some reason)

Considering the 'public' charger network, and privately owned ones available to rent out on apps like this- if you 'really' can't find a way to charge an EV- you probably shouldn't be driving ANY vehicle at all...
(possibly a person to help you dress in the morning might be needed as well lol)

Considering that not every person who owns a charger is willing to rent it out, and that the majority of those shown are an EV owner- the sheer number of chargers available just on that one app shows just how many EVs are out there already...

Click on the link in the previous post and have a wander around- they are EVERYWHERE... click on any orange one, that will show the chargers charge rate, and how much it costs (most are considerably cheaper than the public chargers, although slower)- someone who simply has no possibility of having a charger on their own property could still readily take advantage of an EV anyway...

So charging as an 'issue' is simply a 'non issue'- even now...

 

[johnb80]

Sort of. At least I am more open to the idea. I would really like to eliminate fuel stations from my life. However I would only buy an EV if the price were affordable for us and we could do all of our common journeys only charging at home. That is not yet possible but I assume it will be one day.

What distance are your common journeys from home?

 

[johnb80]

I agree - recharging at commercial rates eliminates any running cost savings which are available through home charging. Environmental benefits are a different issue.

Unless you can use Tesla chargers at 43p or thereabouts.

 

[johnb80]

You still don't get it , do you ? Simply sticking words in bold does not provide any extra validation for a false assumption.

Oh sorry, I was following your example

OK...let's move on. Can you tell me...what size is that parking space supposed to be ? Does anyone else want to hazard a guess without Googling ?

Nah, cant be bothered, just the fact that the majority of homes in the UK have enough space for off street charging is good enough. I can park 10 cars on my drive and can charge 2 at the same time so the stats would be even more favourable if this was counted.

 

[RonnieI]

I'd be more concerned about where I got grandchildren and a dog from....

You'd also struggle to get an entire football team into a BMW X5, but that is why there are different vehicles for different situations.

In your example though, it would make a lot more sense for grandparents to have a small car and if and when they have to transport their grandchildren they swap cars with their child (who presumably has a larger car to accomodate them). Rather than everyone having huge cars for the off chance that they might possibly need it at some point but probably not for 95% of the time.

Possibly. I drive a skoda superb estate because it's got a huge load space. It's often full of stuff; tools, timber, building gear, furniture, etc. I often commute between north Lincolnshire and Newcastle with a full boot. I don't think there's an EV on the market that could compete.

 

[Blackswanwood]

Nah, cant be bothered, just the fact that the majority of homes in the UK have enough space for off street charging is good enough. I can park 10 cars on my drive and can charge 2 at the same time so the stats would be even more favourable if this was counted.

I don’t see you having a big drive and two chargers helping overcome the problem of the significant number of homes that don’t have off street parking so it’s perhaps a moot point.

 

[MikeJhn]

Aren’t they supposed to walk to the mill?

Aren't they supposed ta walk ta mill up a steep hill to the sound of the Hovis addvert.

 

[johnb80]

I don’t see you having a big drive and two chargers helping overcome the problem of the significant number of homes that don’t have off street parking so it’s perhaps a moot point.

I never said it would. The point I made is that the majority of homes in the UK do have access to off street parking as per all the reports I have seen. Woodieallen doubted what I said and has gone on to show that the numbers involved as in total number of houses isnt accurate in one of the surveys detailed. I have suggested that even if that is the case, the proportions is highly likely to be the same unless of course the survey deliberately missed out homes in one category only which i doubt would be the case. My comment about my circumstances was purely made to illustrate that there are other options too i.e. I can park and charge two cars at the same time which isnt taken into account by any surveys with regards to cars that can be charged at home 'v' total number of EV's.

I totally accept there's a significant number of people who cant charge at home, its just that in balance there's a greater number who can.

 

[Ozi]

Here's the missing map (it wouldn't load for some reason)
View attachment 189015
Considering the 'public' charger network, and privately owned ones available to rent out on apps like this- if you 'really' can't find a way to charge an EV- you probably shouldn't be driving ANY vehicle at all...
(possibly a person to help you dress in the morning might be needed as well lol)

Considering that not every person who owns a charger is willing to rent it out, and that the majority of those shown are an EV owner- the sheer number of chargers available just on that one app shows just how many EVs are out there already...

Click on the link in the previous post and have a wander around- they are EVERYWHERE... click on any orange one, that will show the chargers charge rate, and how much it costs (most are considerably cheaper than the public chargers, although slower)- someone who simply has no possibility of having a charger on their own property could still readily take advantage of an EV anyway...

So charging as an 'issue' is simply a 'non issue'- even now...

What an excellent idea. I don't imagine it solves the problem if you have a high density of people living in tower blocks etc. but another step in the right direction.

 

[Ozi]

What an excellent idea. I don't imagine it solves the problem if you have a high density of people living in tower blocks etc. but another step in the right direction.

So the intention is not that you just rock up on someones driveway and plug in but share your charger with a neighbor, I assume that for a lot of households it would be possible to position the charger so that both park on their own drive and you just need to agree who charges when and share the installation cost. Also great if you have friends visit who want to charge, no embarrassing "can I pay for the electricity or have a free fill up".

I imagine if you found yourself in trouble many people would allow a stranger to charge anyway if the charger was not in use, I haven't checked the site to see if payment is upfront yet which would obviously matter in that situation.

Thanks for posting this @Dabop really interesting.

 

[Dabop]

What an excellent idea. I don't imagine it solves the problem if you have a high density of people living in tower blocks etc. but another step in the right direction.

Most tower blocks here have their own onsite (allocated) parking spaces underneath- so that isn't an issue here... (with many already having EV overnight 'slow chargers' fitted- its a good 'selling point' in the cities where EV's here are very popular)- along with 'in the burbs'- and with rural buyers- at this point the only market that hasn't taken to them 'bigtime' is in the outback lol

Well.... sorta...

https://www.plugshare.com/
Just for fun- go to Australia on there, and start zooming in, and in, and in- and more and more chargers just keep appearing on the map...
(remembering that there's only under 28 million Aussies in total, in a land mass thats the size of the 'lower 48' in the US, and that the UK is dwarfed by...- yet we can still manage a decent charging network here...)

And in 2024, the 'new car' market was basically half and half for EV's and ICErs in the sedan/hatchback/stationwagon sized market (and the makers of the popular utes like the Hilux and the Ranger might start looking worried, with multiple companies releasing both hybrids and full EV utes here starting from later this year to 2026, and nearly half a dozen different utes coming onto the market...)

The BYD hybrid, coming the end of this year, with their full electric model next year seen driving around Melbourne at the end of last year (in LHD form) during test driving here...

(Why do they do that stupid 'camo' cover stuff??? - if they had just started driving it around as a 'white ute' nobody would have even noticed it- it is like the other millions of basically identical white utes out there already.... instead everyone is looking at the 'camo ute')

 

[Blackswanwood]

Here's the missing map (it wouldn't load for some reason)
View attachment 189015
Considering the 'public' charger network, and privately owned ones available to rent out on apps like this- if you 'really' can't find a way to charge an EV- you probably shouldn't be driving ANY vehicle at all...
(possibly a person to help you dress in the morning might be needed as well lol)

Considering that not every person who owns a charger is willing to rent it out, and that the majority of those shown are an EV owner- the sheer number of chargers available just on that one app shows just how many EVs are out there already...

Click on the link in the previous post and have a wander around- they are EVERYWHERE... click on any orange one, that will show the chargers charge rate, and how much it costs (most are considerably cheaper than the public chargers, although slower)- someone who simply has no possibility of having a charger on their own property could still readily take advantage of an EV anyway...

So charging as an 'issue' is simply a 'non issue'- even now...

In theory you are right but real life isn’t that straightforward.

I know your opening comment is said tongue in cheek and for some who don’t have their own charger using one away from home may not be an issue, but for anyone with a busy life it’s more likely to be a hassle you could do without.