Electric cars

zeupater

DoaM wrote: »

The problem for this government (and perhaps also the UK Labour party) is that promoting RE is high on the Scottish government's (aka SNP) agenda ... and the main UK parties don't want to be seen as aligning with the SNP.

PS - I'm not an SNP supporter. I voted No / Remain in the respective referendums.

Hi

It's not really a case of aligning as all parties have tended to support renewable energy at one time or other, but (like most things to do with politicians!) the concept of delivering tends to stop at the end of the voting process as opposed to project completion ... it's this disconnect & failure of political oversight that leads to so many government sponsored project failures ...

Having mentioned that, there's plenty of occasions where policy decisions are made to 'park the tanks' on another party's lawn in order to remove perceived differentiation, so I can't see anything to do with climate change or renewable energy support being too much of an issue to worry about moving towards either the SNP or Green's position as it's effectively a 'win/win' scenario whichever way you look at it!

The real holder of the 'sack of clogs' would likely reside somewhere within the walls of HM Treasury ... bean-counters should do their job & simply count the beans that exist as opposed to having direct influence on where, when & how the beans are moved & exchanged ...

As Mart mentioned, things don't seem to be moving because of politicians & political parties ... most of what's happened (across the globe) on this front over the past few years has been despite them! .... :cool:;)

HTH
Z

[Deleted User]

The main thing they need to get on with is on-street charging for people without driveways.

There is some money available for it but idiots keep objecting. One around here complained when they put a post in, saying "but no one has an electric car in this street!" Yeah, I wonder why...

AdrianC

The problem with on-street charging is the additional street furniture and especially the cabling, both of which cause substantial problems for people with mobility issues.

Yes, it can be built into lamp-posts... at substantial cost to cash-strapped local authorities. Any third party that will install 'em is going to do it using dedicated kit, without a substantial contribution from the LA. Even then, the infrastructure cost to do anything more than utter tokenism is a show-stopper, too, before we get near the usual grid impact.

https://goo.gl/maps/n1qLBAH4UvZjTdsU8

...and then you've got to coil up a dog-pee covered cable and shove it in the boot...

DrEskimo

I've been in discussion with my local council member about EV charging points in my town. Currently there is only 1 post, and it's recently been downgraded from 2 x 7kW, to now 1 7kW and 1 3.6kW....

At the moment, I can make EV ownership work despite no charging at home as the 41kWh battery enables my OH to commute 14miles each day, and then I can charge on the weekend, either in the morning on the single post in town, or charge somewhere in town when we visit for shopping etc. Last resort is charging at my parents when I visit on a Sunday.

However, I was made aware that a new multi-storey car park being built had plans for 6 new EV chargers and was really happy as I knew the single post would really struggle if adoption of EVs increased in my town. Unfortunately I was told that all 6 posts would be 3.6kW....pretty useless for all but PHEV....

I have been discussing upgrading these posts to at least 7kW, and have put forward a business proposal about how even higher rated chargers could allow for income generation through the use of simple contactless payments, and increase footfall in the town for local businesses. I didn't have much luck with the previous Tory councillor, but he's just been replaced by a Lib Dem after the recent local elections, so will be interesting to see if they are more sympathetic to EV needs....
I fully appreciate that LA are cash-strapped, so am hopeful that they will at least be increased to single phase 32amp 7kW, if not three-phase.

He has already written to me to ask if he can use my correspondence in future agendas, so that's positive.

zeupater

AdrianC wrote: »

The problem with on-street charging ...


...and then you've got to coil up a dog-pee covered cable and shove it in the boot...

Hi

Didn't think that'd be an issue for yourself though!? ... effectively living in the middle of nowhere usually comes with the benefit of some form of off street parking, so is it the usual case of putting up an anti-EV argument as if it was a show-stopper that applied to the majority?

In reality, areas with little off street parking normally coincide with higher density population & well provisioned with public transport ... areas which before too long may even form the centres of shared autonomous EVs as this would simply be an extension of relatively cheap transport services in major urban areas. However, the further away from central conurbations you get, public transport tends to become a little scarce & the number of homes able to host their own charging facilities tends to increase ....

You don't have to go far from the large conurbations to see the effect either - it happens over a fairly short distance ... take for example London itself ... TFL - Figure 11 Household car access by borough, London residents (pdf) .... note that Fig.11 is key but the whole analysis is both interesting & key to the point in hand.

Urban areas currently having relatively low vehicle ownership aren't likely to see expansion much from that position just because 'less polluting' EVs have arrived, but there is a strong argument that autonomous EVs providing a relatively cheap on-demand 'taxi' service will lead to ownership becoming a costly alternative with little/no convenience advantage ... but haven't we been through this very discussion before ...

HTH
Z

AdrianC

zeupater wrote: »

Didn't think that'd be an issue for yourself though!? ... effectively living in the middle of nowhere usually comes with the benefit of some form of off street parking

Indeed I do.

But sometimes I drive to towns. Sometimes, those towns aren't very close. Sometimes, they'd be out of range for a return journey.

In reality, areas with little off street parking normally coincide with higher density population & well provisioned with public transport

Great. So we're agreed that discouraging urban private car ownership/use is a good thing.

Martyn1981

AdrianC wrote: »

The problem with on-street charging is the additional street furniture and especially the cabling, both of which cause substantial problems for people with mobility issues.

"cause substantial problems" stated as a fact, or did you mean as an opinion or suggestion?

As an experienced street walker* (pun intended), I'd challenge your claim, since the location, distribution, co-locating etc etc etc of official street furniture is (but I'll accept 'should') be carefully regulated with due consideration for mobility/disability/prams issues.

*When walking guide dog puppies, or guide dogs in training, or guide dogs for GDO's when on holiday, I can't recall a single occasion when I haven't been able to walk side by side with the dog due to official road furniture. But it's rare to complete any lengthy walk without having to cross the road due to poor parking or 'objects' reducing the path to too narrow a gap for side by side walking. We cross the road as squeezing through, human or dog first, would be counter productive to their official training.

I fully appreciate that you need to raise negatives at every single opportunity, and clear pavements are more important than many people may at first appreciate, but this constant false negativity is simply boring.

buglawton

Martyn1981 wrote: »

...No offence meant, I'm simply being pragmatic...

I think you're being numerical.
You have to include policy into the predictions of when EV will become more the norm.
Hence I'm being pragmatic.
And, it's only when people realise how much the govt local and national drags it's heels, saying one thing and doing the opposite, that activism will begin, to give the powers that be a nudge.

Are you saying isn't room on this thread for both the technical and the social aspects to be discussed?

silverwhistle

DrEskimo wrote: »

I can charge on the weekend, either in the morning on the single post in town,

Just out of interest, how much do they charge? In my village there is a double 50/43 kW post (Chad/CCS/T2) run by GeniePoint which charges 30p and a £1 connection fee, which means it's only useful for journey top ups.


If I do get a second hand EV I'd have to add in the cost of hard standing, so lower powered, lower cost alternatives in addition would be useful for people in my position. I doubt I'd be getting a 41kWh battery!

silverwhistle

AdrianC wrote: »

...and then you've got to coil up a dog-pee covered cable and shove it in the boot...

LOL, and you wonder why people think you are unremittingly negative about EVs! At least you occasionally give us an unintended laugh with your negativity.