Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

EricMears

Solarchaser said:

Yeah you do.
They are free, and there are designated ev charge points, when you are used to it its really no hassle.

Also if the chargers are 11kw and you are there for an hour and a half its more like 66 miles...

And quite often EV chargers are closer to store entrance than a random parking space (though alas, sometimes ICE'd !)

thevilla

Grumpy_chap said:

Martyn1981 said:

Just a simple little article scoring the supermarket chains on EV charging.

Tesco Takes Top Spot For UK Charging At Supermarkets

Tesco topped the list, with almost half (45 percent) of its UK superstores boasting charging facilities, while Morrisons came second with four in 10 (40 percent) of stores offering EV charging. At the opposite end of the scale, just seven percent of Sainsbury’s stores offer at least one EV charging point.

Other chains, including Aldi, Asda and Lidl, were only marginally better, with all three providing EV charging at less than 20 percent of their stores. Just one in 10 (10 percent) of Aldi stores have at least one EV charger, while 15 percent of Lidl stores have chargers. One in five (19.7 percent) of Asda stores have charging facilities.

This is encouraging, but I wonder how much demand there is for EV charging at the supermarket.  For most people most of the time, this is a local journey, so the value of the offering will be when away on holiday or such like.

I've not seen EV charger at local stores (though I've not looked but assume they'd be sufficiently prominent I'd notice) other than at Costco (where I understand 100% of stores have EV points?).  Costco have an ample number of EV points and away from the popular parking near the entrance - it still does not prevent selfish so-and-sos with ICE from parking in those spots (perhaps to make a point, though I am not sure what point they'd be making?)

I wonder whether the supermarkets will have the "bottle" to enforce EV spaces for EV only?  Given their performance in this regard on disabled spaces, I doubt the supermarkets will be interested in any action they perceive as potentially upsetting a customer.


On another matter, I've seen the comments about numbers of "EV" vehicles sold including "PHEV" - I am not sure that PHEV really counts - especially in UK where many are for BIK tax only and never get the lead even unwrapped.

Before EV, when going away for a weekend we would shop then drive. We now drive to the nearest Morrisons to our destination and rapid charge there.  We arrive with range to explore the area and carry less weight (beer and wine) on the journey.

JKenH

One way to avoid the petrol queues: Citroen says it has already taken more than 1,000 orders for its dinky £6,000 Ami electric car with a 46 mile range

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-10056649/Citroen-says-taken-1-000-orders-6-000-Ami-EV.html

orrery

shinytop said:

Solarchaser said:

Ev running is a different mind set, you arnt aiming to run full to empty, you are taking small top ups wherever there is a place to top up.
So if you are in tesco for an hour, you can get a wee top up of say 28 miles (7kw).

I've seen no chargers at either Edinburgh or Glasgow Costco so far

Would you do that if you have a charger at home?  Even if supermarket charging were free (is it?) I'm not sure I could be bothered for 28 miles.  I'm obviously not in the mindset; maybe I'll change when I get an EV!

The mindset of most new EV and PHEV owners is that charging spaces are there for free parking and you can put your car on charge then leave it connected blocking the charger for the next several hours until you can get back to it.

It takes a few times of arriving at a charger, needing to charge to continue your journey, then finding some goon plugged in and not charging, to realise that the most important function of a charger is to be available for people who are arriving with very little charge and who absolutely need to fill up to get home. I suspect that PHEV owners are the worst offenders, because they don't ever suffer from 'needing' to top up.

I'm afraid free charging is a real pain, as people who can easily charge at home will try to get as much free charging as possible. It would be much better to offer subsidised charging as supermarkets instead of free, to discourage freeloaders.

JKenH

Battery electric vehicles power on despite supply issues bedevilling new car market

Electric cars at 21.6% (BEVs 15.2 and PHEVs 6.4%) and Tesla M3 best selling car in September. 

http://www.smmt.co.uk/2021/10/battery-electric-vehicles-power-on-despite-supply-issues-bedevilling-new-car-market/

JKenH

EricMears said:

Solarchaser said:

Yeah you do.
They are free, and there are designated ev charge points, when you are used to it its really no hassle.

Also if the chargers are 11kw and you are there for an hour and a half its more like 66 miles...

And quite often EV chargers are closer to store entrance than a random parking space (though alas, sometimes ICE'd !)

I see this as a negative. The big spaces for EVs and proximity to the store entrance are too much of a temptation for drivers of large ICE cars. The less convenient the spaces are then the less likely they will be ICEd. 

JKenH

Yesterday we had a leisurely ride out to the Lincolnshire Wolds. Our walk took longer than expected and I drove home on single carriageway A and B roads more briskly than on the outward trip. Overall (out and back) used 71% of our nominal 40kWh (useable 37kWh) battery to cover 81 miles. Trip meter said 3.6miles/KWh (mpk) whereas it was closer to 3.1.  Dry day, dry roads 13-16C. Add in charging losses it’s about 2.6 mpk from the plug. That’s  real life usage.

Now I can tell you I have seen over 5 mpk (hypermiling) and over 1000miles of mixed local and dual carriageway driving I have averaged 4.2 mpk. I have though tended to drive frugally but yesterday on the way back I enjoyed the car. I do think 3 mpk is probably going to be closer to the average year round fuel efficiency than 4 mpk once EVs become mainstream and they are driven like ICE cars. 

Oh, and don’t go by what mpk the trip meter tells you, it’s about as accurate as in an ICE car. 

michaels

Went to Slough in the Leaf yesterday.  Battery went from 100% to 72% for a 32.8 mile journey - not bad for a 24kwh with about 90% battery SOH

JKenH

Used car prices up 16.6% on average in 2021

It is interesting that demand is so strong for used cars, driving up used car prices.

https://www.motortrader.com/motor-trader-news/automotive-news/used-car-prices-16-6-average-2021-20-09-2021

As most (probably 98%) of used car sales will be ICEVs there is obviously still strong demand for them, assisted, no doubt, by the current shortage of new cars generally. Manufacturers are focussing on EV production, possibly to avoid emissions penalties and this may be distorting the new car market, the most polluting, unelectrified ICEVs suffering the most.  

There is obviously strong and increasing demand for new EVs but how strong is demand for new ICEVs? Is it significantly supply constrained, hence the rise in used car prices?

https://www.motortrader.com/motor-trader-news/automotive-news/supply-constraints-hit-new-car-sales-september-05-10-2020

JKenH

Breakdown of September’s top ten EVs listed in the Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/05/uk-car-sales-electric-vehicles-petrol-crisis-chip-shortage?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other