Electric Vehicles

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by daktulos

They are apparently, looking at on-street charging for "residents who don't have their own off-street parking and aren't within reasonable walking distance of a current or planned public chargepoint", but that will probably mean they'll put one charge point in for 100 homes and be done with it. I think they're hoping everyone will take up cycling instead.

You are right. Councils or a licensed operator need to install many hundreds of slow speed (cheap to install) chargers for residents unable to charge at home. these also need to have a competitive price for leccy. The problem is councils have competing needs and so charging provision is not a priority. There is funding available from central government but they need to access it.

You are right about cycling, in Wales at least there is a drive to reduce car use alongside the EV cut-over.

Originally Posted by daktulos

For me, it's not a problem with the cars, it's a problem with the infrastructure and the councils which need to provide it.

Infrastructure roll out has accelerated hugely this year, albeit mainly high speed on route chargers. Yesterday Fastned announced their new St. Albans charging station is now opened - so local to you. I would say Fastned is expensive and not the solution for everyday charging but is an example of how things are improving.

EDIT: Article on increase in charging points last year that just came up via Twitter

https://transportandenergy.com/2023/...-70-in-a-year/

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by admin

We often go away for weekends and stay at hotels. I've noticed that there's never a charging point at the places we stay, usually Premium Inn or Holiday Inn. So I'd have to drop my wife at the hotel then drive to the nearest charger and then walk back to the hotel.

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A very valid point John. When we go away, we book a hotel with a charger but it is surprising that large chains have not cottoned on to this yet. It is a case of filtering the hotel search for EV charge points rather than it being a default that hotels have chargers. It is mainly private hotels that are taking up the baton here.

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by Seeker

It's great that you're pleased with it. As someone who drives a 13 year old Yaris about 2000 miles a year an electric car would make sense. However, if I was to replace the Yaris I would be looking at an Aygo size car and therein lies the problem. A new Aygo is about £15k, a Nissan Leaf is £28k.

If you buy new then I agree, EVs are still expensive versus an ICE equivalent. However, there is a lot of pressure on price from both Tesla and the Chinese manufacturers. As a result second hand values have reduced. As an example, a 2/3 year old VW e-Up/Seat Mii electric/Skoda Citigo-e with around 15k miles can be had for £12k now. More expensive than a similar aged petrol for sure, but getting affordable.

[Bibio]

Originally Posted by Luckypants

You are right. Councils or a licensed operator need to install many hundreds of slow speed (cheap to install) chargers for residents unable to charge at home. these also need to have a competitive price for leccy. The problem is councils have competing needs and so charging provision is not a priority. There is funding available from central government but they need to access it.

You are right about cycling, in Wales at least there is a drive to reduce car use alongside the EV cut-over.


Infrastructure roll out has accelerated hugely this year, albeit mainly high speed on route chargers. Yesterday Fastned announced their new St. Albans charging station is now opened - so local to you. I would say Fastned is expensive and not the solution for everyday charging but is an example of how things are improving.

EDIT: Article on increase in charging points last year that just came up via Twitter

https://transportandenergy.com/2023/...-70-in-a-year/

Scotland has had a massive boost to charging places but i have still to see any onstreet residential charging points.

[Sir Trev]

Originally Posted by Bibio

Scotland has had a massive boost to charging places but i have still to see any onstreet residential charging points.

Same here in South Bucks, and bizarrely the two chargers installed at my local Morrisons were ripped out after just a few months... I've not noticed any chargers in our public carparks either, so lots to do around here too.

[daktulos]

Originally Posted by Luckypants

Yesterday Fastned announced their new St. Albans charging station is now opened - so local to you. I would say Fastned is expensive and not the solution for everyday charging but is an example of how things are improving.

Funnily enough, I walked past that on Sunday, it's in the Aldi car park. I guess if you can top up when you do your weekly shopping, it makes sense. It looks very well designed, unlike some of the chargers I've seen at service stations.

Perhaps the real question is (and I'm assuming you have a charger at home) if you didn't, and didn't commute to a workplace with a charger, would you be happy to only top up when you are out and find a free charger?

Perhaps it would work, but I feel like I'd always be nervous if the car wasn't charged. Maybe there are cultural changes needed as well.

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by daktulos

Funnily enough, I walked past that on Sunday, it's in the Aldi car park. I guess if you can top up when you do your weekly shopping, it makes sense. It looks very well designed, unlike some of the chargers I've seen at service stations.

Perhaps the real question is (and I'm assuming you have a charger at home) if you didn't, and didn't commute to a workplace with a charger, would you be happy to only top up when you are out and find a free charger?

Perhaps it would work, but I feel like I'd always be nervous if the car wasn't charged. Maybe there are cultural changes needed as well.

Fastned are well regarded for being well designed, fast and reliable. You are right, charging at the shops makes a lot of sense and supermarkets are cottoning on that the 7kW destination chargers do not cut it and are starting to install rapid chargers in their car parks. My car can charge 10%-->80% (210 miles approx) in 30 minutes, so enough to last most people a week.

Would I have an EV without home charging? Hard to say as I live in a poorly served rural area, no rapid chargers within 15 miles so I'd have to rely on slower AC chargers. My best option would be the local Aldi chargers which charge my car at 50mph (11kW AC charger) as they are the fastest and cheapest. This would be quite inconvenient as an Aldi shop generally takes 20 minutes, so not much gained. As I say to everyone, the car should be charging while I get on with something else - so perhaps I'd have to start using Morrisons 12 miles away that has a very unreliable rapid charger. I'd like to say I'd have the EV without a way to charge at home but practicalities might outweigh my desire to reduce my emissions. Cost wise, I'd be paying slightly more to run and own the EV than a diesel equivalent if relying on public charging but it would be close so its a cost I'd be willing to pay.

There are solutions to not having a drive, my personal favourite is the cable channel in the pavement to allow the resident to safely run a cable across the pavement. Someone in our village has this solution as he has no drive. His charger is on the wall of his shed in the front yard and he passes his cable through the fence and lays it in the cable channel - hey presto, charge-o!

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by Bibio

Scotland has had a massive boost to charging places but i have still to see any onstreet residential charging points.

Originally Posted by Sir Trev

Same here in South Bucks, and bizarrely the two chargers installed at my local Morrisons were ripped out after just a few months... I've not noticed any chargers in our public carparks either, so lots to do around here too.

Councils seem to go for chargers in their car parks in response to the need for chargers for those without a drive. I think they see that as a good thing as it puts cars off the street and into car parks, improving road space. My council has installed chargers in 10 car parks now, with some being specifically for residents, others a more mixed use. Part of one large car park in the middle of an area of terraced houses has become a 'charging hub' with 16 chargers (32 plugs) for slow (e.g overnight) charging and two rapid chargers for a quick top-up) All within 5 minutes walk of 200+ houses. Its a start and no doubt lessons will be learned about how effective this model is.

[Seeker]

I know (now) that you can drive an electric car on the accelerator pedal alone - the regenerative braking is set to engage when you take your foot off and... ok, it can be adjusted in many ways which isn't the issue.
This youtuber (Technology Connections) points out a flaw on his new Hyundai Ionic 5 - when one pedal driving mode is used the brake lights don't come on until the car comes to a complete stop which is perfectly legal under US regulations (he cites the regs).

He's in North America so I don't know whether this affects all electric cars or just the NA market. He points out in his video that GM solved the problem a while back by using an accelerometer but he considers that too complicated.
Here's a link (30 mins long vid):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0YW7x9U5TQ


Do EU cars do the same?

[Grant66]

Saw that video.

It's no different from engine braking albeit a bit more severe.

If you're the correct distance behind and paying attention. It isn't an issue.
Green number plate, expect vehicle to slow quickly without brake lights showing.

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