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Why bother charging to charge?
1) the infrastructure costs money (if you’ve money you’re throwing away tell Paul you’ll pay for my forks, cheers!).
2) parking is an amenity that takes up space/infrastructure that all costs money.
3) it is a source of income (from those that don’t pay to use the facilities that are ‘free’).
Everybody wants something for nothing 🤪
Why bother charging to charge? The electricity is pennies
But the electricity isn't 'pennies'. I charge my EV off peak at home, which is 5p/kWh. A business (such as a trail centre cafe) won't be getting such rates, especially as not many people ride at off peak times (2am ride anyone?). I'd imagine they are paying 12 to 15p/kWh (plus VAT at 20% for commercial car chargers, as they will use over the 1000kWh per month limit for the reduced 5% VAT rate on electricity.
So one car plugged in at 7kWh for 6 hours = 42kWh x 12pence= £5.04, plus VAT @20% = £6.05.
That is £6.05 for one lone car, for one day, not taking into account installation costs.
Definitely not pennies.
Up until recently, all of our local chargers were free. Charging for the electricity is the best thing they did - no longer do people (including me) hog the chargers just because they were free. Now they are available more often as it is cheaper to charge at home. This means the public chargers are available more often to people who can't charge at home, or need to charge during a longer journey, as opposed to being constantly in use by freeloaders (like me!)
"CwmCarn still has parking meters that only take cash !"
Cwmcarn has been free parking for nearly a year.
They should make installation of charging points a condition of planning permission for wind turbines & solar farms.
I think the pandemic had all the forestry parking charges dropped so suspect they'll be charging soon enough.
the infrastructure costs money
It does. And we all will need it in place relatively soon. So we should all be paying to get it rolled out ASAP (via the government), not trying to fund it by charging the early adopters. Arguably those of us still using diesel (well I am, no idea if you are) should be paying more towards it, not less.
And we all will need it in place relatively soon. So we should all be paying to get it rolled out ASAP (via the government), not trying to fund it by charging the early adopters. Arguably those of us still using diesel (well I am, no idea if you are) should be paying more towards it, not less.
We will indeed. And we will all need to pay for it (some way or another). However, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but EV cars tend to be bought by people who have a bob or two and could probably afford a couple of quid for refuelling as they park for free. And they are already being subsided (no VED or tax on fuel, I’m nearer £60 to fill up than £6). We should be encouraging less private vehicle use, not more. Notice how it’s back to shit on the roads again? You want poorer people who can’t afford to change their car subsidise richer people. It’s not always a real choice for some.
Plus, anybody got the circular economy stats for an EV? What’s the embodied carbon like, esp for battery materials? Outsourcing that isn’t solving the problem, just shifting it out of sight.
And let’s roll that out across the board. You still heating your house with oil or gas? Fine maybe you want to pay my electric heating bill as well, cheers!
Taking a flight soon, pay some ****ing aviation fuel tax FFS.
How much waste do you produce? How much single use plastic?
These things cannot be done in isolation.
PS, yes, diesel for longer journeys 😗
It's here...
Why bother charging to charge? The electricity is pennies, and the infrastructure will be in use by all of us at some point in the future. Put the chargers in place, make ‘em free to use, charge for parking in just the same way as for us dirty diesel users.
I've just carried out the research for 22kW charging point for our office move. It requires a 32A three phase supply, lord alone knows how big a cable and fuses one requires for a Tesla 350kW fast charger. Commercial properties are about to move to 30 minute metering and dynamic pricing. Many smaller commercial properties (like trail centres) are on a 100A supply to avoid too swingeing a charge when the peak times hit.
Much of our fast addition (that required when half time happens in an international football match and all the kettles go on) power is from gas and due to the unpleasantness currently happening in Ukraine that's getting quite expensive. So no electricity is not cheap and has ongoing problems
So slightly wider, but not as tall or as long as the T6 in standard form...unsure that is a win for VW van fans on this site. They do a longer version but not mention if it uses a larger battery (not watched the whole video yet), but I'd hope it did so the range wasn't reduced. The base model being launched has a range of 400Km or about 250 miles, battery is 77Kw.
I'm going to stop posting and just watch the video, but there will be options of a larger and smaller pack, but they aren't available yet and will take some time before being offered...so it does sound as though the range will increase with a larger pack which seems to be more appealing.
yeah, its the length I'm eyeing up - will a full sized adult be able to sleep in one?
250 miles should be enough for me. Plenty for a 100mile each way day trip with a bit of reserve, don't think I've ever done more than that. 250 miles is Cheshire - Brighton, and I'd not drive that without a reasonable pit-stop when I could top-up the batteries.
Perfect, will I be able to trade in my Connect and bung a couple of grand in to make up the shortfall? 🤣
So slightly wider, but not as tall or as long as the T6 in standard form…
Why TF did it need to be wider? A T6 isn't exactly narrow as it is.
Will make it easier to get a bike in across rather than length ways
I watched the TG video of that lunchtime, it looks great. Of course the 'cheapest' one is £50k, it's got a 250 mile range, which will be what, half that on a Welsh motorway - I know the bulk of this thread is 8 months old but yes there are chargers in Cwmcarn, and I think I saw some being constructed at Afan, if not there are a bank of Tesla Superchargers at Sarn Services and didn't Elon promise to open them up to non-Teslas soon?
Really most people will want a long-range which must be £60k and there's a California coming too for all you day-van fans with very, very deep pockets, the T6 based one is £70k+ isn't it? Shitfire if I'm spending that kind of money, I expect whatever I'm buying to have a postcode.
250 mile range
Deffo take this with a big pinch of salt. We have a Zoe which is 239 mile WLTP range. Starting off with 100% charge with 2 people in winter and no luggage (or bikes) real world range is around 150 miles arriving with 15-12% left.
Did East Sussex to Cheltenham in early Feb and got there with 3% left 😀
I've got a T6 on order but despite the looks, the option of having a PHEV may push me to go for a T7 given our GHG reduction targets at work, or even one of these. If it means a days round trip from Huddersfield to CyB or Inners is off the list then so be it.
I could be wrong but I wonder whether reality/WLTP for something this shape will be worse than reality/WLTP for a reasonably aero lower car, in the scenario where the journey is more motorway. If that hunch is true then it could be a worse range hit. Although you might also drive this a bit more slowly. Will it have van or car speed limits?
Either way, it probably only kills a day trip vs ICE if you can't find a way to fit the stop in on the way home. After a big day's ride I might value a 45 min snooze.
CwmCarn still has parking meters that only take cash !
Will these charging points be coin operated as well ?
Cwmcarn already has charging points and the carpark is currently free. But don't let that get in the way of an argument.