BEVs deals and information

silverwhistle

EricMears wrote: »

I'm sure I once used an Ecotricity 'pump' @ Warwick services. Just checked on ZapMap and there are indeed Tesla & Ecotricity shown on both sides. Possibly you've looked at ZapMap and not realised that there are two 'flags' on each side of the motorway but unless you increase the zoom (a lot !) you only see one.

Ahem, thank you...

Martyn1981

JKenH wrote: »

He’s probably an EV enthusiast. No problem with that. As we were discussing with batteries, if it makes you happy just do it. If its your hobby, practical and financial considerations don’t really come into it. I am sure he will enjoy his new Tesla.

One size doesn’t fit all.

That's why there are a growing number of sizes and solutions. Including free 7kW charging at his local Sainsbury's, where it was charging next to a TMS, i3 and E-tron ...... finding solutions to problems, always better than imagineering problems with solutions.

Martyn1981

silverwhistle wrote: »

I think the issue is two fold: firstly those people who don't have home charging and secondly the absence of fast chargers for visitors and through traffic.



In the latter instance, say I want to go for a bit of a holiday in Wales for a bit of sewin fishing or mountain walking I'd probably be able to granny-charge at many B&Bs or hotels overnight. But getting there might be an issue..

You'd be welcome for a free charge anytime at the Cardiff 'entrance' to Wales!

JKenH

Martyn1981 wrote: »

That's why there are a growing number of sizes and solutions. Including free 7kW charging at his local Sainsbury's, where it was charging next to a TMS, i3 and E-tron ...... finding solutions to problems, always better than imagineering problems with solutions.

So I’m saying there aren’t enough chargers and you are saying there is no problem, we can manage ok with the ones we have already.

Martyn1981

JKenH wrote: »

So I’m saying there aren’t enough chargers and you are saying there is no problem, we can manage ok with the ones we have already.

Nope, not what I said, once again you seem more interested in making up what I said.

As more BEV's roll out, there will be a problem of not enough chargers, but the solution to that problem is that more chargers will be rolled out, rinse and repeat.

Solutions to problems.

Your statement that there aren't enough chargers can be used over and over, year after year, simply by looking to the problem, not the solution. Seems like a waste of time to me when both BEV's and chargers are already rolling out?

[Edit - And just for clarity, we don't need enough chargers and charging points for every car in the UK to be replaced by a BEV, we only need enough, at any point in time, to cope with the number (growing number) of BEV's in the UK. M.]


"Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'"

JKenH

JKenH wrote: »

It is indeed a largely rural area so out in the villages off street parking is not too much of a problem but there is one large town of 23k people. In 1911 the population of the town was 20.5k who worked primarily in two large engineering works and were accommodated in two distinct areas of terrace housing which still survive.There is one charging point within 0.5 miles of one of the areas but the nearest to the other area is about a mile away (on average) so it is not practical for the terraced hose residents to charge an EV overnight. There is a third charging point on a business park on the outskirts of town. (The 22kW charging point in the town centre charges 30p/kWh). Out of interest at the end of 2018 there 187 electric vehicles (electric or plug-in hybrid cars, vans and micro-cars called quadricycles) in the local authority area out of 66788 vehicles in total.

For a large proportion of working age people BEVs are not currently a practical option. Things will no doubt improve over time but the business case for installing charging points in the areas where the terraced housing is situated doesn’t look strong so take up of EVs is likely to be slow.

I need to update this after downloading the Zap Map app. There are in fact 5 charging locations. One on a business park, one in a village on the outskirts of town at a convenience store, one in a garage and two in the town centre. That doesn’t, though, improve the charging situation for those living in the two main areas of terraced housing.

I then went onto look at the situation in S!!!!horpe which has a population of 80k. Zap Map shows 5 charging locations, 3 of which are out of use. That leaves one charger at a petrol station (43kw type2, 50kw CHAdeMO and 50kw CCS) and 2 x 7kw type 2 chargers at the local VW dealer. Neither of these locations are places you would want to spend an hour or 10 waiting for your EV to charge if you have no access to a home charger.

While some might make out I am imagineering a problem of shortage of chargers in my locality others might consider it is inadequate and it needs to be improved before those without home charging facilities will embrace EVs as a practical proposition.

I imagine that the S!!!!horpe situation is about as bad as it gets and other areas may be adequately catered for but having 60% of the charging locations in a town out of service won’t inspire confidence.

PS !!!! Inserted automatically. It is a town in north Lincolnshire famous for steel making, postcode DN15.

JKenH

I was curious about the availability of chargers in my neck of the woods and downloaded the Zap map app. I was very surprised to find that 3 out of the 5 charging locations in S!!!!horpe were out of service. Not great if you live in the town and don’t have a home charger or you are visiting and hoping to top up before setting off home.

The 3 that weren’t working were at a Nissan dealer, a council car park and at M&S on a retail park. I suspect that the chargers at these locations were installed more as an obligation than as revenue generators and there is no incentive to rush to get them fixed. I would imagine the Tesla chargers and those operated by the likes of BP get fixed pretty quick.

I remember watching the BBC programme a month or so ago on chargers and there were some complaints on there about chargers not working.

I was just wondering what the real life experience of public chargers was like.

JKenH

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Nope, not what I said, once again you seem more interested in making up what I said.

Not your exact words but you were implying that there wasn’t a problem and I was “imagineering” one.

joefizz

JKenH wrote: »

I suspect that the chargers at these locations were installed more as an obligation than as revenue generators and there is no incentive to rush to get them fixed. I would imagine the Tesla chargers and those operated by the likes of BP get fixed pretty quick.

This. Pretty much.
Tesla will install/maintain/remove chargers as their software can tell where they are needed. Look at their recent SEC filings to see where they really do make money, the charging network. Its intelligent and integrated.

With that comes its own issues, where they will decide where you go and where you stop between your origin and destination.



A lot of the chargers you see are as a result of policy, in the wrong places, they should be in places where people naturally stop for an hour or two and there should be a lot of them.


Ive seen the utilisation figures (briefly) for some of the charging points near me. Out of 5 two have never been used, one has been out of order for 6 months and no-one has noticed and the other two are in what would be considered fairly good use. The two that are used are in areas people go shopping, eating, cinema and where workers can use them overnight on night shift.


Its not rocket science, or maybe it is. More chargers where there are more cars and where people will actually use them.
We are moving away from the turn up, fill up, 10 mins later go to the charging at at home/work and places where we would naturally spend enough time to get us to the next charger.

Fast chargers should be on motorways/service stations/main roads/petrol stations, the rest, well small cap and lots of them.


It will be purely economic though, just like petrol stations, only put them where they will survive (although many petrol stations survive because of the shops/coffee/sandwiches).


If there are no stations near where you live, theres a reason for that. If they dont work and havent been working for a while, theres a reason for it. Answer to both is no demand.

1961Nick

It won't be long before businesses at 'destinations' are demanding chargers are installed for their customer base.

For example; BEV owners are the perfect demographic for an out of town shopping centre to entice. Covering the roof with solar panels & installing a very visible WT would make it a very marketable destination to the environmentally conscious.