Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

michaels

NigeWick said:

QrizB said:

I don't think I've ever seen so many EVs charging at once before.

You should see Exeter in the summer. Took us over 15 minutes just to get round the roundabouts then queues for the chargers. Luckily we only go to Teignmouth so managed without stopping.

Yeah, no queuing system (a few ineffective marshalls) and no way for leaf owners to get a Chademo space plus the charging slows to a crawl when they are all in use. Last time I was there the Tesla's were Tesla only but still busy.

Netexporter

Top tip. Go to Darts Farm to charge up. Takes no longer to do the couple of miles than it does to negotiate all the roundabouts and traffic lights to get into Exeter Services. Much nicer food at the restaurants and farm shop. You could have also bought an Aga, before the Fired Earth showroom went bust.

Martyn1981

NedS said:

QrizB said:

^ I can't comment on the rate of charge point installations, but we went to visit relatives in the far southwest over Christmas.

On the way down, we stopped for a comfort break at Exeter M5 services. I was impressed by the number of chargers installed in the carpark there; not only a plaza of 32 Tesla superchargers, but 42 Gridserve CCS chargers (& 12 ChaDeMo) too.

On the way back, we stopped again. The CCS Gridserve chargers were full and the Tesla ones close-to-capacity, with the occasional car circling to find a spot.

I don't think I've ever seen so many EVs charging at once before. But I guess it won't be the last time!

Such installations must draw some serious power. Do they have dedicated substations feeding them? I'm guessing modern commercial fast chargers are three phase so there's no phase imbalance to worry about.

Hi Ned, not what you asked, but some of the larger charging sites around the world are deploying large battery storage to buffer the power supply and smooth it out, both for station demand, and BEV charging rates.

Taken to the extreme, with enough battery storage, you can go 'off-grid' with a large enough PV farm attached, such as this Tesla site in the US, with ~39MWh of battery storage. [To be clear, I think it has a large grid power supply, but that it currently isn't needed till they complete the build out from 84 to 168 chargers.] Just thinking out loud, maybe a roll out of battery buffers at charging sites in Scotland, to make use of excess wind generation at times?

The World's Largest Tesla Supercharger Station Is Entirely Off-Grid

QrizB

Netexporter said:

Top tip. Go to Darts Farm to charge up.

The opposite end of the scale, but the couple of times we've taken the e-UP! that way we've stopped at the Pinhoe Lidl. Only a single CCS charger (plus a ChaDeMo) but relatively cheap and Lidl has a loo

Martyn1981

Year end figures for the UK by SMMT are out.

BEV's spiked at 32% in Dec (as companies try to hit targets), and closed the year at 23.43%, a bit short of the 28% mandate, but probably scrapes through with the PHEV allowance.

SMMT sales figures

JKenH

The SMMT suggests BEVs, despite the increase in market share, are still proving to sell, requiring a discount of £11,000 per vehicle. Manufacturers, of course, do also offer discounts on ICE vehicles but SMMT do not mention these so presumably they are not nearly so unsustainable. It is much cheaper for manufacturers to discount an EV by £11,000 than pay penalties totalling £53k £38.5k to sell the  3.5 2.5 ICE cars that customers actually want to buy. Manufacturers will continue to discount EVs even more to avoid penalties in future years so we can expect significant discounts on EVs for a while yet.

Massive manufacturer investment now provides a choice of more than 160 BEV models – up from just over 130 at the start of 2025 – with at least 60 more due in 2026. However, EV uptake has risen by only 23.9%. The long-awaited return of a grant for EV purchase has helped, although only around a quarter of models are currently eligible for the incentive at any level. It is manufacturers, therefore, that continue to shoulder the burden of driving up demand, subsidising their sale by more than £5 billion in 2025, equivalent to a massive £11,000 per BEV registered. Such subsidies are clearly unsustainable.

https://www.smmt.co.uk/uk-new-car-market-breaches-two-million-as-almost-one-in-four-buyers-go-electric/

edit:correction to my maths

michaels

Depends on how the list prices are set as to whether it is a real discount, we know from China prices how little it actually costs to manufacture an EV.

However one side effect of unrealistic list prices is apparently massive depreciation which of course only discourages private buyers.