[Closed] electric cars and kerbside parking

https://www.zap-map.com/
I see loads on my travels, a few of the owners can probably fill you in better. Real question is how often do you need to charge? Do you have access at work?

yes, interested in this too....next car likely to be leccy

Do you have access at work?

at this time no, and I cycle most days anyway.

at this time no, and I cycle most days anyway.

So how often do you need to charge - that would be the real question, that will tell you what you need to find or supplement.

I've been running a Leaf for about a year now.

I can charge it from a 3-pin - takes about 12 hours for a full charge.

The public chargers vary hugely depending on where you are. Most of the public chargers here in Scotland are free - a rapid charge will take about an hour or so. In England I've had some that were almost free (something like £1 connection fee) or about £8 for a full charge - paid for by the kWh.

I'm looking forward to the day when the chargers aren't tied to specific networks and aren't largely hidden away in random car parks with no facilities. There will be money to me made at some point providing something for people to do while they wait for their car to charge.

There will be money to me made at some point providing something for people to do while they wait for their car to charge.

Actually, what we’re working on is making slow rate chargers so plentiful that you’ll just leave your car charging while you do something more useful - work, shop, eat, watch a film.

We’re a way off yet, but little, slow and often is probably best. Ask Nissan how often they recommend a fast charge (a techy not a salesperson) - the answer came back “never”.

Also the meter reds to go in the car not the charger, partly so you can plug into any charger and it just works (not need for credit cards, passes for a given charging network, mobile coverage, or even comma to the charger), but also for a sack load of other reasons.

The current view of charging networks is an interim solution even once it’s actually rolled out properly.

There will be money to me made at some point providing something for people to do while they wait for their car to charge.

Something you can do while staying in the car? There are carparks round here which offer a similar service. I understand you just pull up and flash your lights. Apparently...

Cables running over pavements. Trip hazards. Local kids vandalising them. People nicking your leccy. You have no guarantee or legal right to park outside your house. Official charge points provided but won't be enough for the two or three car families, their guests and anyone who just wants to park in your street because it's handy for somewhere.

And as for charging on travels, until there's a universal solution that means I can pull up, a minute later I'm full charged again and off, or have enough charge to cover 400 miles and guaranteed infrastructure to charge up for return journey, or I can do a trip to the alps still in about 10 hours, then it's still a non starter for me.

And unless I'm guaranteed the source of the electricity for charging actually comes from a non fossil fuel source, then there's really no point.

And unless I’m guaranteed the source of the electricity for charging actually comes from a non fossil fuel source, then there’s really no point.

Off we go again.....
What is the CO2 output for a power station vs your car? What are the emissions stats?

And as for charging on travels, until there’s a universal solution that means I can pull up, a minute later I’m full charged again and off, or have enough charge to cover 400 miles and guaranteed infrastructure to charge up for return journey, or I can do a trip to the alps still in about 10 hours, then it’s still a non starter for me.

400 miles = 5.7 hrs of montorway driving, how safe are you to continue after that? Who drives safely for 5hrs solid?

Next up is the point that you have confused the need to own a single vehicle for everything - stupid idea vs one for 90% of your life and source something different for the 10%, how much would that save you?

ICE = thinking inside the box

Next up is the point that you have confused the need to own a single vehicle for everything – stupid idea vs one for 90% of your life and source something different for the 10%, how much would that save you?

What, buy two massive lumps of metal (and the "destruction" that causes) rather than one? Great idea.

What, buy two massive lumps of metal (and the “destruction” that causes) rather that one? Great idea.

ICE = thinking inside the box

See what I mean

In the short term I expect it won't be an issue trailing a cable, assuming you prevent a trip hazard, but once everyone is doing it, then I expect it will be legislated against in some form. But, by that time, it won't be an issue anyway IMO, as EV cars will have 300+ mile range and public chargers will be extensive and super fast. For people without private drives it should all turn out very similar to how you would currently fill up with petrol.

My impression of the current public charging infrastructure is that it's all a bit shit right now, especially Ecotricity who have most or all of the motorway sites (is it them that run the underground chargers at Ikea in Leeds, which being underground, doesn't have mobile reception, but you need to use an app to activate the chargers?). However, I hope that it will come good eventually now that big players BP, Shell etc are getting in on the game and might bring some order to the current disjointed chaos that prevails amongst small players. BP, Shell etc have a current ICE estate to get more even coverage and installing simple EV chargers on site should be easy compared to handling highly contaminating explosive volatile liquids.
It's not just the chaos of every vendor doing their own thing, it's just stuff like virtually no chargers are undercover, so currently expect to get piss wet thru whilst you fiddle about with plug-in, pressing buttons and whatever charger activation method, whilst out in the open air under UK skies.
Other main issues are around people using 'charging' spaces for parking, not charging. It's not yet socially unacceptable, like it would be to park in a disabled bay or park at a petrol pump and walk off for 30mins.
Note that I don't say the infrastructure isn't there, it is there for people who have home charging, it's all just a bit lacking, disjointed and amateur at the moment and for people who don't have home charging, it isn't adequate unless you are lucky.

See what I mean

No, I don't. And you don't have the answer either, but I'm sure you'll reply rather quickly without thinking about what you're actually saying.

Their point was buying two vehicles to cover all your use cases is old thinking. You get one that covers 90% and rent/borrow/share one that covers the occasional requirements. Not difficult really.

No, I don’t. And you don’t have the answer either, but I’m sure you’ll reply rather quickly without thinking about what you’re actually saying.

Really, you still subscribe to the idea that you own what you drive, for the exceptions rather than the rule can you hire?Pick a vehicle more suitable and then own something more useful for every day? It's a model that is catching on and I'd say will soon take off.

for the exceptions rather than the rule can you hire?Pick a vehicle more suitable and then own something more useful for every day? It’s a model that is catching on and I’d say will soon take off.

I personally think it will be much harder to achieve mass car share, than just getting people to buy cars that run on a cleaner fuel that requires a slightly different refuelling mindset. Diesel/petrol can never be clean, at least an electric car can only get cleaner as we move more to wind, sun, hydro.

Short term, I'd just prefer not to give any more of my money to the likes of those murdering bstrds in the House of Saud.

In Portsmouth we have started using lamp posts

https://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/ext/travel/electric-charge-points

In case you cant be arsed to open the link it basically says the following

Portsmouth is the first city to introduce an 'ad hoc' solution utilising lamp column electricity. This is where electricity is provided by the street lamp column (either directly or via a bollard) and is charged on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Charging areas will be identifiable by a marked bay. To park in the bay, the vehicle must be plugged in and charging.

Not the ultimate solution but a start, can see eventually that outside each house next to the kerb will be a small charging point which will have contactless payment a bit like parking meters, you wont charge your car from your own electricity supply as in Portsmouth its rare to be able to park outside your own house

Actually, what we’re working on is making slow rate chargers so plentiful that you’ll just leave your car charging while you do something more useful – work, shop, eat, watch a film.

We’re a way off yet, but little, slow and often is probably best. Ask Nissan how often they recommend a fast charge (a techy not a salesperson) – the answer came back “never”.

In contrast, VW group (Porsche) are upping the game in fast charging infrastructure.

https://electrek.co/2018/12/13/porsche-electric-car-prototype-record-400-kw-charge-rate/

Improvements in wireless charging tech so that for example, cars can be charged by the barriers as you drive along the motorway, or as it’s parked above a built in charging pad, like they are trialling for some buses at bus stops has ultimately got to be the way it goes. Clean and convenient without the need to actively search for charging facilities.

https://link.medium.com/X9IWqUXQzV

Always going to be a huge infrastructure issue in a city like Edinburgh where many ( Most?) people live in flats. Can I trail a lead out of my windows 70" above the ground and round the corner from any possible parking? I rarely have a car parked but when I do it can be up to a couple of hundred yards away.

The model of car ownership does not really work with EVs and a city like mine. Shared ownership like car clubs would of course

I personally think it will be much harder to achieve mass car share,

It's a model I exploit a couple of times a month its called a hire car....

Presumably people in flats would either have a communal charger (pay per use) or would use council installed chargers (like the Portsmouth lamp posts) . Maybe not as convenient as having a dive way and your own charge point but also not a massive barrier to having an EV

"It’s a model I exploit a couple of times a month its called a hire car…"

Which is handy as you live in a densely populated area.

I tried that once....but moving from a non densely populated area to a densely populated area caused significant stress and insomnia and a lack of cycling.

But in not living in a densely populated area(health comes first) means that to hire a vehicle would take at least 2 hours to collect and return and require the use of a vehicle to go each way.

It works for you but I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking it's not quite the simple solution that you pitch it as every single time this comes up

TJ doesn't own a car. 🤔

I live within walking distance of a Budget Car Hire firm. I have hired from them in the past. I still can't make owning one car with one set of capabilities and a hiring a second car with another set of capabilities make financial sense or sense in terms of time. (In spite of desperately wanting to.)

I suspect a huge number of people are like me, they need the smallest cheapest car 5 days a week and a massive car at the weekend that's going to end up dirty inside and probably with a few marks (kids: camping, beach, biking, kayaking, sailing). If I can't make it work and end up needlessly driving a large car 5 days a week I can't see how anyone else is going to if the nearest hire car source is 30 mins away or whatever. In future the 'shared car industry' is going to have this problem. Everyone needs a small can all week and a big car weekends and holidays. I can see them having to discount large cars midweeks which is no different to someone owning a large car.

Same goes for trains, I hate driving, I'd love to travel to work by train. I live a short walk from a station and work a mile or so from a station. On the face of it the Train ought to work for me, but in spite of nightmare traffic the Train still makes no sense. Again if I can't make it work I can't see how people in more rural areas can.

The one thing I do to reduce my impact on traffic and the environment is I car share, which is a mighty ball ache but just about works. (And by works I mean I'm slightly worse off, but can tolerate it for the public good, and as soon as my car share buddy stops I will feel I've done my bit and go back to sole occupancy.)

So I'm in a better position than most to do the right thing. I am keen to do the right thing. In spite of that I can't make the right thing make sense for me. I think we need to stop pretending that doing the right thing is convenient and start accepting that we're all going to have to make big sacrifices for the people to come.

I'd very much like a EV for the next car, as most of our driving is city based, but with 2 small kids and all the stuff they come with there currently seems little choice.

I would love the idea of shared use, but with the mess, car seats and general faff of a family I can't see it taking off for a while yet. We only use our 2 cars at the same time for about an hour or so a day, but it is every day, so hire car options for a second car aren't an option.

GlennQuagmire, this is Nissans short term solution to what is being alluded to above. re changing current mindset over car ownership. So, for 90% of journeys your 200 mile range car will be more than adequate, but for that holiday in the alps:
USE OF PETROL OR DIESEL CAR
YOU want to make extra-long journeys in your car.

NISSAN PROMISE that your selling dealer will lend you a petrol or diesel car, free of charge, for up to 14 days during the first three years of ownership. All you pay is the insurance.

This is just Nissan's short term answer to people like DeadKenny who won't change their ways or thinking.

My personal view of the future of electric cars is that battery tech and charging tech will continue to move on at a pace, we'll come to a point very soon (within 5 years) where your new electric car will have range and refuelling speed similar to current ICE. My future is quite simple really, there won't be need for millions of lampost chargers or motorway barriers that are charging your car as you drive (WTF). My near future is that EV's will have 400+ range and people will realise it's much more than enough for 90% of journeys. Charging will be fast enough to be done in the time it takes you to take a piss and eat a sandwich between 300+ mile stints to the alps, or 10 journeys too and from work, petrol stations will gradually change use and accommodate slightly longer refuelling times. We are already there, what has been achieved in the last few years just takes time to roll out in vehicles and infrastructure now. What's out now is what was achieved in the lab or R&D 3-5-8 years ago.

DeadKenny's image makes the point many are missing.

I suffer from this now and have four powerstation recently built on doorstep (within 5 miles)

Thankfully the prevailing winds blow crap back over the city, where they think they are now clean. All poncing around in there fake green cars.

Basically a SEP. Somebodies Elses Problem.

and dont forget poor bastards mining the Lithium for the batteries etc.

USE OF PETROL OR DIESEL CAR
YOU want to make extra-long journeys in your car.

NISSAN PROMISE that your selling dealer will lend you a petrol or diesel car, free of charge, for up to 14 days during the first three years of ownership. All you pay is the insurance.

14 days per month would work fine, probably OTT. I suspect they mean 14 days per year or even 14 days over the entire 3 years. That's never going to fly.

And family holidays are hard on cars. Stuff on the roof rack, in and out covered in sand. I can drive my car to and from work 1000 times without putting a mark on it. I suspect every single family holiday my car picks up some kind of scratch/mark/ding. Do Nissan cover the excess or does the borrower?

Borrowing/hiring a car for holidays/dirty jobs is so obviously beneficial that there must be a very good reason why we don't all do it. ...and there is.

Certainly nobody is resistant to hiring cars for holidays quite the opposite. Who wouldn't want to keep their own car spotless and return a hire car full of sand with a scuff where a kayak got dropped and some sick on the back seats? The resistance to the model isn't from the consumer, it's from the hire firms.

I'd love to get an electric car as our second family car. It doesn't need to do super long journeys - we have the main car for that. It doesn't need a large loadspace. We have a drive and could charge at home.
Ignoring the fact the there's no way we could currently afford to buy a new car, I don't think I could justify the cost increase to go from ICE to electric.
Using the VW UP! as an example - top of the range (not GTI) most expensive one is £13,740 on the road. The e-UP! is £20,150 on the road after the £3.5k goverment discount.
A different of over £6k and nearly 50% more expensive than ICE. That would buy more than 40,000 miles worth of petrol! (before considering the cost of buying the equivalent electricity).

So, currently I can see no financial way of justifying buying an electic car.
I know that prices will come down as take up increases and technology improves. And that it's not all about money and it's about whizzing round feeling good about protecting baby robins and childs faces but, it is about money really and that's the big problem.

Correct Drac. I hire one when needed and get the appropriate one for what I am doing.

I mean maybe if people stop voting anti-clean energy parties in to power it would help...

The current lot have already canned the Swansea tidal powers station, forced through fracking, dragged there feet and new solar tariffs, put more barriers on wind and eight new nuclear plants that are either in trouble or have massively spiralling costs, while resisting any incentives like trying to get developers to put solar panels on new builds (or the very least social new builds).

it is about money really and that’s the big problem

which is why LEZ and other charges are important - pollution is not cost free it's just that the polluter often is not the one who ends up paying.

If the owner of a £15k UP! was forced to pay per for the CO2 Nox or whatever emitted as part of the purchase price (or pump petrol prices were taxed appropriately) then the purchase and lifetime cost of the EV version would begin to look similar?

redthunder

Member
DeadKenny’s image makes the point many are missing.

But, you are just assuming people's motivation for going EV is they give a toss about the environment?. I'd argue that for most the change will come when it becomes a financial no brainer, nowt to do with the environment (altho, everyone will cite that as one reason, to feel good about themselves). We're doomed as a species, but before the planet melts I'd quite like to drive a car with no noise, instant torq, 0-60 in 4 secs and to become the EV bore at Jerry and Margo's diner parties.

To answer that OP's question:

A guy two doors down runs a catering business - he started leaving a refrigerated transit outside plugged into the mains to run the chiller, for hours at a time.

the council visited and said he had to switch it off overnight but had no issue with the cable running across the pavement if it had one of those heavy rubber ramp/guide things across it.

Is it possible, and legal, to plug a car into a domestic socket and run a cable across the pavement?

No.

HTHs

We’re a way off yet, but little, slow and often is probably best.

I've read the opposite from one manufacturer (officially on their website), that they only recommend using the supplied 3-pin slow charger occasionally or in emergency.

Ask Nissan how often they recommend a fast charge (a techy not a salesperson) – the answer came back “never”.

Look up rapidgate, you are not going to promote something that your cars are not that capable of. Some software updates have improved things, but the fact remains that their 2018 Leaf doesn't have proper battery state management tech, ie some sort of fan system or liquid cooling system, to maintain heavily loaded batteries at ideal temp.

Same goes for trains, I hate driving, I’d love to travel to work by train. I live a short walk from a station and work a mile or so from a station. On the face of it the Train ought to work for me, but in spite of nightmare traffic the Train still makes no sense.

Why doesn't the train make sense? Those sound like my circumstances and I wouldn't dream of driving to work.

The current lot have already canned the Swansea tidal powers station

Did you see the subsidies and handouts that the guys planing the tidal scheme wanted? Not every cowboy runs a bike company, some of them think on a far bigger scale.

But, you are just assuming people’s motivation for going EV is they give a toss about the environment?.

Well people switched to Diesel cars in their droves despite them being more expensive to buy, diesel being more expensive than Petrol and it taking at least 40k miles of driving for the fuel economy benefits to financially compensate you for the additional costs of making the switch. So people are actually quite amenable to switching to other technologies even if they are not cost effective for other softer reasons like them being better for the environment (even though Diesels aren't).

wobbliscott, are you sure, in a window of time when Diesel was great, that it wasn't more to do with fleet car incentives?, either to the company or to the employee's Company car tax code, or both, pushing them all towards Diesel. Fleet is a massive chunk of car sales, Gov can change peoples habits with simple financial incentives.

Diesel was pushed by governments because CO2 emissions were deemed to be lower than petrol. Then people started looking at particulates and other gases in urban environments, dieselgate emerged and suddenly this is all that diesels are seen as good for;

Why doesn’t the train make sense? Those sound like my circumstances and I wouldn’t dream of driving to work.

It's 45 mins door to door by car and I drop my daughter at school which is on my way to work.

Train involves one change. By the time you add the slack time you have to build in (ie to catch the 715 you have to aim for 7am IYSWIM) it would take about 1hr30. ...and then I have find another way to get my daughter to School. You need a folding bike on Southern trains too. 🙁

Well yes, that was an element of course as it currently is with hybrids and EV's - all the people with company cars in the company I work for are switching to hybrids and EV's now due to incentives and lack of tax. But that doesn't explain why private car owners also switched...the scrappage scheme helped but it was hardly a huge chunk of cash, it was just a mere nudge...and of course people liked the way diesels felt to drive -more low down torque they felt faster, even though they weren't. But EV's have that same improvement in driving experience and governments can introduce similar scrappage schemes.

But the main push was on the environmental aspects of lower CO2 due to the Kyoto treaty so people also thought they were buying a more environmentally friendly product. The reality is very different of course - we're saving the polar bears but killing our neighbours kids. The environment is a complicated thing with no silver bullet solution to fixing environmental issues...who'd have guessed it?

Might I suggest that people bought diesels mainly because fuel economy was better? Even after taking into account fuel price differences this made them cheaper per mile. Diesel engines were also considered to be more robust and to last longer.

Combination really. Sales of diesel cars to private buyers was about lower VED, promised higher mpg, preferable power/torque delivery for many people (who wouldn't rev out a petrol car past 4000rpm), and higher residual values on finance that often made them cheaper to own for 3/4 years even if the list price was higher.

The "no brainer" economic effect is being felt in the cheaper end of the secondhand EV market, prices have been steady or rising for the last year or more. People are catching on that a cheap Zoe (even with the battery rental) or Leaf makes a lot of sense as a second car for commuting or running the kids about, they're really pleasant to drive, heat themselves up in the morning (no scraping ice off) and cost next to nothing to run.

A lot of the Diesel take up was down to availability. When my old man went to buy his Octavia a few years ago he wanted a petrol and was told it would be around 12 months wait and no, they didn't have one to test drive. Same with the Superb and the Yeti. Diesel? 2 months sir for your spec or you can take anyone of these 6 pre-reg cars off the forecourt now.

This was driven mainly by govt policy on tax which is why the car manufacturers got so pissed when the govt U turned so abruptly 2 years ago and started pushing petrol/electric hybrid for fleet use

The “no brainer” economic effect is being felt in the cheaper end of the secondhand EV market, prices have been steady or rising for the last year or more. People are catching on that a cheap Zoe (even with the battery rental) or Leaf makes a lot of sense as a second car for commuting or running the kids about, they’re really pleasant to drive, heat themselves up in the morning (no scraping ice off) and cost next to nothing to run.

^^This^^

I want to get a Zoe/i3/similar (possibly used) because I think it would be suit a good 85%+ of our family's motoring (short range journeys with 2-4 passengers) and the diesel lump we're currently running could be kept rather than scrapped to cover the other 15% where we do longer motorway journeys with luggage, we already own the thing and it would be worthless for trade in...

We're ideal candidates for a small leccy car. We've got a 2 garage/driveway with power so overnight charging would be easy, the missus has an Auto only licence anyway and dislikes driving the current big MPV because it's "too big"...

So who do you think is blocking the idea of getting a small EV? Yup er-indoors, someone told her they run out of leccy juice after ten yards and she claims it would cost too much (rather than running an aging diesel barge for short, DPF clogging, journeys)...

The main problem at present with smaller EVs is that if I want to get round her cost concerns I need to demonstrate it can be done cheaper but both PCP and Lease deals seem to work out silly expensive per month when compared with buying a "Traditional" ICE saloon or hatchback...

So buying a used EV? They're getting on for double the price of the ICE equivalent due to growing demand (from muppets like me) and relatively low supply. And thus her assertion that its going to be too costly is bourne out... Apart from the looming bill next time we MOT the current motor

I need to demonstrate it can be done cheaper but both PCP and Lease deals seem to work out silly expensive per month when compared with buying a “Traditional” ICE saloon or hatchback…

Which was part of the reason i asked, how does lease/repayments/etc + VED + fuel compare to Lease/repayments/etc + electricity. How does insurance compare?

If an e/v costs more but the running costs are lower it might be a goer.

So who do you think is blocking the idea of getting a small EV? Yup er-indoors, someone told her they run out of leccy juice after ten yards and she claims it would cost too much (rather than running an aging diesel barge for short, DPF clogging, journeys)…

My wife did the same - I bought one anyway. She now loves it an wouldn't dream of changing back.

The main problem at present with smaller EVs is that if I want to get round her cost concerns I need to demonstrate it can be done cheaper but both PCP and Lease deals seem to work out silly expensive per month when compared with buying a “Traditional” ICE saloon or hatchback…

Buy one that's 15m old on a long term PCP through a separate finance company. My rate was 4.8%.

When I factor in fuel, tax, servicing, depreciation, etc. I recon my electric car costs me about £70 per month on top of what I was paying for a 7 year old fiat Panda.

Don’t forget the i3 has inbuilt heating technology..

Cookeaa
She might be right, at the moment. This is worth watching at your leisure, he talks sense and is eloquent. What he doesn't mention is the current bottleneck in battery supply is compounding things, the expectation is that this will be solved as the big battery manufacturers ramp up now that everyone incl car manufacturers are accepting that EV is the future.

Thankfully the prevailing winds blow crap back over the city, where they think they are now clean. All poncing around in there fake green cars.

They're not green, but are certainly less brown. The national grid is already 30% renewable.

For those complaining about power coming from power stations - The thermal efficiency of a modern power station is ~50%. A diesel car is about 30-35%. Transmission losses are around 2%, so at worst it's 13% more efficient. In reality it's more like 20-25% A power station produces all of it's emissions in a controlled way and can benefit from carbon capture and gas re-circulation. Cars can't. A power station is kept in peak mechanical condition, cars aren't. Powerstations are kept operating (where possible) at maximum efficiency and temperature. Cars aren't. As we transition to more renewable sources of power, demand on the stations will drop, but the emissions from your car will remain constant.

As for lithium mining, well, for one, most of it isn't actually mined, it's desiccated. also 85-90% of a lithium battery pack can be recovered and re-used, it's just not widely done at the moment, but will be. Cobalt, Nickel and Neodinium are more problematic due to rarity or geopolitical location.

As for lithium mining, well, for one, most of it isn’t actually mined, it’s desiccated. also 85-90% of a lithium battery pack can be recovered and re-used, it’s just not widely done at the moment, but will be. Cobalt, Nickel and Neodinium are more problematic due to rarity or geopolitical location.

Thats ok, all the mining is being done in other parts of the world such as Australia and Argentina. They’ve got bucket loads of the stuff and small population so they can mine the heck out of the country(ies) It’s someone else’s problem.

#modernworldthinking

Try reading and perhaps even reading-up before commenting, bikebouy.

A diesel car is about 30-35%.

At its absolute peak, which it won't be the vast majority of the time...

A while back there were some headlines about "electric cars actually more polluting than petrol/diesel cars", but looking further the actual study said that running a massive Tesla in a location powered entirely by coal was slightly dirtier than running a tiny ICE runabout.

Running a normal sized EV in the UK with a much lower carbon grid releases far less CO2.

Try reading and perhaps even reading-up before commenting, bikebouy.

He's doing his normal toll act just ignore him.

If there was an electric Octavia at the sameish price as the diesel one I would have got the electric one.

As has been illustrated by this and countless other threads, not to mention past behavior there won't be any serious EV take up by either manufacturers or consumers until there is no other choice. Legislation dictates most peoples action apart from a few outliers. This is starting to happen and will gather speed over the next few years until even the nay sayers will be wizzing around in EV's whether they like it or not.

But clearly, as many have pointed out - this will not in itself be a solution to air pollution though it should reduce nox in urban areas (including those area's with power stations as there will be less diesel transport driving in and out).

It would be nice to think that a sustained move over to EV would be accompanied by a joined up policy on greener energy creation and creative thinking on car ownership v hire etc, unnecessary commuting (more working from home) and alternative transport infrastructure (like cycle lanes!!!!!) . Sadly, looking at the way those in power and leaders are behaving all over the world, i suspect we are far far away from this and will possibly never get there before we create Armageddon.

Shame really as we are so close.

Average mileage equates to roughly 10kWh per day. Most cars parked up for 20 hours or so per day and at least 3 days average mileage in the vast majority or EV’s “tanks”.
For general use fast chargers are simply unnecessary, and installing the infrastructure and storage/generation to facilitate fast charging is ridiculously expensive.
Most in the electricity industry are expecting 85-95% of charging (possibly more) to happen at home, office, car parks etc at slowish rates. 500W is probably a bit mean but 2-3kW should do it - cheap and achievable.
400kW is technically achievable and has its place at motorway services etc, but not sensible for widespread deployment.

PS - you’re welcome to come and see me speak at EV conferences and the like.

Try reading and perhaps even reading-up before commenting, bikebouy.

He’s doing his normal toll act just ignore him.

Oh, get you and your tight pants.

Average mileage in 2015 was 7900miles or 12640km or 34.6 km/day. My Zoé has averaged 12.8kWh/100km over the last two years so that's 4.4kWh/day.

I think your 10kWh per day is extremely pesimistic and suggest you change the content of your speeches, igm.

Any other regular STW EV owners with figures for igm?

I have "2-3kW" at home and it's about 20 hours if I get home battery nearly empty, too slow, so if I want to go out the next day I plug it in on the (very) local 15kW public charger. For home charging 5kW would get cars back on the road after an overnight charge and as far as I'm concerned 22kW should be the minimum for public chargers.

Really, you still subscribe to the idea that you own what you drive, for the exceptions rather than the rule can you hire?Pick a vehicle more suitable and then own something more useful for every day? It’s a model that is catching on and I’d say will soon take off.

There's people over on that other thread who would rather jack their job in , than share a PC with their bosses kids. Imagine if they had to use a car that someone else had access to 😉 😂😂

Had a leccy car for 2.5 yrs.

You can get grants to install a charging point but one of the conditions is that you have off road parking.

In the 2.5yrs I’ve had the car I’ve never once used a public charge point (I have used a National Trust one)

Leccy cars drive so much nicer than petrol or diesel.

Unfortunately the initial purchase cost is still high compared to ‘normal cars’

I got an email from Ford today announcing their new range of 'electric' vehicles & I checked out the Kuga (for caravan towing duties about 10-15 times a year mainly), on electric only Ford claim It'll do a staggering 31 miles (thirty one miles)
What is the point of that?
It wouldn't even get me to work & back on leccy only.

Here in Copenhagen most people live in tall blocks of flats and there's loads of electric vehicles and on street charging points. It's just normal and is what you get if you put effort into doing it rather than coming up with reasons not to do it. The UK is becoming a very backwards backwater.

I checked out the Kuga (for caravan towing duties about 10-15 times a year mainly), on electric only Ford claim It’ll do a staggering 31 miles (thirty one miles)
What is the point of that?

Tax avoidance? If they took out the engine and fuel tank it would probably go a lot further (assuming from your description it's electric and petrol)

rather than coming up with reasons not to do it. The UK is becoming a very backwards backwater.

We are working hard on Bad News engines instead.

Any other regular STW EV owners with figures for igm?

Well, when I get a home charger it'll be 7kwh, not the piddling 2-3kwh that igm suggests will be adequate for everyone. For starters the current Octopus Go tariff is 5ppkwh between 12.30am and 4.30am so just a 4hr window to juice the car. @ 3kwh charging, that's 12kwh of juice in the battery over 4 hrs. It's just enough, but what's the point of just enough when you can easily leave home with a fuller charge every day @7kwh. Also, quoting igm 'cheap and achievable', 7kwh home chargers are pretty much the same price as 3kwh chargers, so it's a no brainer IMO and the average electric shower pulls 9kwh, so a 7kwh charger is completely within household capacity and 'achievable' as igm puts it.

It’s just normal and is what you get if you put effort into doing it rather than coming up with reasons not to do it.

TESTIFY.

We get around 7.5km/kWh from our i3, less if it’s dark/cold.

We have a 7kw charger at home which takes about 4 hours to get the car to 80%.

On holiday in Cornwall, we used a standard 3 pin charger on a 40m extension which took about 12h to charger the car from 3%.

A 50kW CCS charger will get us from 10% to 90% in 30m.

esselgruntfuttock

Member
I got an email from Ford today announcing their new range of ‘electric’ vehicles & I checked out the Kuga (for caravan towing duties about 10-15 times a year mainly), on electric only Ford claim It’ll do a staggering 31 miles (thirty one miles)
What is the point of that?
It wouldn’t even get me to work & back on leccy only.

I'm going to assume that's Hybrid or PHEV, not electric. Ford don't have any electric cars in the UK and haven't announced any, to my knowledge.

he talks sense and is eloquent.

Sense yes, but eloquent? He took over a quarter of an hour of repetitive monologue to reach pretty much the same conclusions I already had in a couple of paragraphs...

And ultimately his main point, that all the better, faster, longer range (and pricier) options are over a year away, kinda misses the point for me a bit. I just want small and cheap, an ~80 mile range "old" model zoe would do the job nicely, trouble is they're holding their value a 2014 24kwh zoe is still ~£7k plus monthly battery leasing, its just the wrong side "cheap" to convince the boss even though the actual leccy will be a pittance...

He mentioned a new zoe coming out in 2020, does anyone know if the newer battery tech might be backwards compatible? I still can't decide if the whole battery leasing/replacement thing is actually a strength or weakness for the zoe...

Edukator - I’ll take pessimistic, but maybe not the extremely.
Last time I checked average mileage it was a little higher than your figure, and while I fully believe your 5m/kWh figure, across a basket of cars in UK conditions we’re working on 3 to 4 and really 3.

So in rough terms, 8500-9000 annual miles at 3m/kWh means around 3000kWh across 365 days or a slightly pessimistic 10kWh per day.

But you need to work on a pessimistic number when you’re looking at national infrastructure.

But if you are doing 4.4kWh/day then if you have the possibility of plugging in daily both at home and where you are going (and that needs to be the goal) a 500W charger would be overkill.

We need to not consider EVs are ICE cars that have motors and batteries instead of engines and tanks.
Yes, we could do that, but it would be expensive and wasteful in the fullness of time.

The new Zoé gets the same 41kWh battery as the current model AFAIK. A few owners in France have been given 41kWh batteries when their 23kWh batteries have dropped below limits so they are definitely compatible. There should be a buy outright option on the new Zoé which will be worth it if you expect to do a high milage in a short time. If you expect to do a low mileage in a long time the lease model makes financial sense, takes the worry out of ownership and helps resale prices.

Banana
Charger size and cost - it’s not just the charger it’s the infrastructure upstream needed to support it.

One of the senior guys at Nissan got a home charger last year and I was joking with him about how many tens of kilowatts it was (he used to sell V8 cars). Answer 3kW. Because he’d worked that was the optimal size.

As for octopus. Yes, I’ve spoken with them. Let’s say they have a great business model for a few years, but that model have limited longevity beyond that. They disagree with me of course.

Your comment on 9kW showers is misleading, by the way, as you need to consider ADMD and the effects of charging or showers upon it. (For info , the ADMD of a 7kW charger is circa 1.7kW, but an entire house including the shower, which peaks at say 15kW, is only 1 to 2kW) Your house supply will be circa 18kW depending on where you live, but if all your neighbours take 3kW simultaneously the mains will melt.

but if all your neighbours take 3kW simultaneously the mains will melt.

lol, they already do.The grid in many areas was sized for electric heating and what with better insulation, LEDs, heat pumps with COPs of better than 1... the grid had plenty of reserve capacity. Especially at night which is when people wil plug in their cars to benefit from night tarifs.

My house supply is limited to 6kW. Voluntarily because the standing charge is cheaper that way. If Madame can learn not to turn everything on at the smae time anybody can.

The stress on the grid is and always will be early morning and early evening as it's always been. I used to have to sample generation water and used to sit and watch the frequency counter in a hydro station so I know exactly when people turn the kettle, toaster and electric shower on.

Edukator - I’ve spent 15 years design the grid and managing the folk who designing the grid. Trust me, I’m not entirely dim in this area.

So quit making dumb comments which demonstrate a high level of ignorance, igm.
Are you going to continue to lie to your public with 10kW a day for electric cars when you have real world experience on this thread to demonstrate half that at 2015 UK average mileage. It's like claming the average ICE car does 18mpg in real use conditions when STW contribuotrs often claim better than double that. And do you still claim your neighbours drawing 3kW each will melt the grip.

If you want to be taken seriously get serious and stop posting anti-EV bollocks.

I’m pro-EV Edukator.

And I’m genuinely impressed with your mileage. You are getting far more than most. We have big old datasets an EV charging. Really.

I think far too many people are over emphasising the problems and going for solutions we don’t need that will be costly.

Let’s say my 10kWh is a huge over estimate (it’s not, it’s a small overestimate) - even then I can make it work without huge infrastructure investment.

Mass roll out of electric heating in the UK on the other hand...