EVs - are we going to be forced into this before time?

peter_the_piper

Love to get an electric car as my usage over a year is no more than 5k or 100m per week. however the initial charge of about £30,000 is beyond my and many peoples reach. With a picanto doing 50mpg (even with E10), £200 insurance and free tax its a no brainer.

Herzlos

peter_the_piper said:

Love to get an electric car as my usage over a year is no more than 5k or 100m per week. however the initial charge of about £30,000 is beyond my and many peoples reach. With a picanto doing 50mpg (even with E10), £200 insurance and free tax its a no brainer.

You can get an electric car for £5k now, albeit not new.

Captainkirk54

Captainkirk54 said:

Domestic charger can only be used on private property  you cannot trail 230 power leads over public pavements and roads.

I've seen a few trailing leads across pavements - with a rubber protection strip.

Yes its not just the trip hazard aspect its the electrical earthing system. But that is the Electricity Supply regulations and should be policed by the local authority

Captainkirk54 said:

It is unlikely that 230v charging systems will be allowed on the pavement or roadside and all charging will have to be done on private property parking, private car parks or montitored public car parks.

So what's the system for all the roadside charging posts that we already have in London?   I get that I can't just install a post on the pavement and park next to it but at least three different types exist where I live or work(ed)

As I said - local authorities and utilities can install electrical street furniture in accordance with the regulations. A private party cannot install on a public pavements supplied from their own electrical installation, but as London has its own rules things may be different there.   

born_again

Captainkirk54 said:

Some basic points

Domestic chargers range from 230V 13A (12 hour charge) or 230V 32A (6 hour charge) - these are single phase units

NOTE...
That box on the wall is NOT A CHARGER. It is nothing but a socket.

AC power supplies are converted to DC by the charger in the car... Which is why some cars can charge @ 7kW, others 11kW & some maybe more.

Flight3287462

Herzlos said:

peter_the_piper said:

Love to get an electric car as my usage over a year is no more than 5k or 100m per week. however the initial charge of about £30,000 is beyond my and many peoples reach. With a picanto doing 50mpg (even with E10), £200 insurance and free tax its a no brainer.

You can get an electric car for £5k now, albeit not new.

Lithium degradation will be high in a car of that price.

Jenni_D

born_again said:

Captainkirk54 said:

Some basic points

Domestic chargers range from 230V 13A (12 hour charge) or 230V 32A (6 hour charge) - these are single phase units

NOTE...
That box on the wall is NOT A CHARGER. It is nothing but a socket.

AC power supplies are converted to DC by the charger in the car... Which is why some cars can charge @ 7kW, others 11kW & some maybe more.

True (to a large extent), but it still has a maximum rating regardless of what the car can accept.  

(e.g. I'm going for a 7KW home "charge" point but my new Volvo PHEV on order will only charge at 3.7KW. When at some point in the future I change my car, if that car can charge at a higher rate then I won't need to change my home infrastructure).

Penelopa.Pitstop

Grumpy_chap said:

Penelopa.Pitstop said:

I checked some random map of charging points: Zap-map and according to it, there's no charging point in our town. Closest one is 2 miles away and it's another town. Next one is 2.7 miles away, another town, and then 3.3 miles away, again another town. I checked another website and it showed exactly the same. So there are towns within M25 without charging points.

Where do you live that has all these small towns?  A town is bigger than 2 miles.  Two miles is from the church at the end of my road to the next church, it takes a reasonably unfit person 30 minutes to walk between them or a fit person 20 minutes.  "Couch to 5k" would take you well past 2 miles.  Perhaps you live in some really rural and remote part of the country where there are very small hamlets of barely more than a dozen inhabitants or so, though if that is within the M25, you'd need a car fitted with a flux capacitor also.  Either that, or your estimation of distances is rather out.

I don't want to publish my location, but according to Wiki: "The town is administratively divided into two: Town1, and Town2" There's no charging point in "Town1", even though we have small high street and two mid sized supermarkets. None of the supermarkets installed chargers at their car parks and there's no public one on the street. The closest charging point is in "Town2" in different supermarket. It's at least 10-15 minutes drive depending on traffic or 30 minute on foot (doesn't matter for car charging), because it's on a hill. 4 charging points for 21K people (according to 2011 census).

Second closest charging point is in different village (checked administrative form), adjacent to our town. It's on Shell petrol station (probably 40 minutes walk). And third charging point is another village according to Wiki, again probably 40 minutes walk. Anyway, none of them is the same town/village and none of them is walkable (doesn't matter). And as I said, I live within M25. So not rural or remote. Distances taken from charging points map.

Jenni_D

So you live in the place where custom motor vehicles are built? (Or at least the town's name is given to them).

Marvel1

Petriix said:

Let's dispel a few myths:

1. EVs can't do long journeys... Well there is such a thing as a rapid charger (of which there are thousands throughout the UK). It can take a bit of planning but the necessity of a 40 minute stop every 150 miles is not exactly a hardship. And, guess what, you don't have to drain your battery by driving everywhere at 70+.
2. People who can't charge at home can't have an EV... Except most people don't drive 200 miles per day, every day. With average mileage of 10k per year, that's less than 30 miles per day so one full charge per week to 10 days. In practice we charge a small amount whenever we can. 40% of my charging is free from supermarkets. People can often charge at work, otherwise it's a case of finding a public charger to use, and there are many to choose from.
3. EVs are expensive to charge... Only if you solely rely on rapid chargers or have an extortionate home electricity tariff. Octopus are still accepting people onto their Go tariff for EVs. It's 7.5p off peak now. That's about 2p per mile in an EV.

Using an Audi Etron as an example of EV efficiency is a bit like using a Landrover as an example for MPG. I'm averaging around 3.8 miles per kWh in total over 10k miles. It's cost under £120 in charging, although I do put quite a lot of effort into minimising the cost where others wouldn't bother.

The fact is that EVs would be impractical for a small proportion of drivers and they are currently financially out of reach for many. As longer range EVs hit the market (range seems to be doubling every 3-4 years), there will be more options for everyone and far less need to really think about charging.

1. Doesn't sound rapid if it takes 40 mins, what am I suppose to in  that time, I get bored taking a 30 min break from work after 10 mins.

2. It's finding onw not in use is the issue, in a full car park, once went to McDonalds, parked in last space (not EV charger, but the 2 cars next to were - and not charging.

Penelopa.Pitstop

Jenni_D said:

So you live in the place where custom motor vehicles are built? (Or at least the town's name is given to them).

Yes, the town that gave the name to the cars. Civilised place within M25, but not EV friendly.