Charge your EV from home

Cornucopia

All the public car parks in my area are council owned and have a number of charging points - enough for everyone who currently wants to use one. You also get free parking.

For many people without home charging, it'll be more than enough to charge at the supermarket once per week at (say) 100KW for 30 mins. The only choice will be Sainsburys or Morrisons. (Tesco and Asda don't have current plans for rapid charging hubs).

subjecttocontract

That wouldn't work for us, we shop at our local Tesco & Asda stores. That idea just introduces even more restrictions/ reasons to not go for an EV.

sheramber

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81866808#Comment_81866808

two local cgarging stations are not near the supermarkets. Nobody is going to lug a week's shopping to them.

Using one would mean sittung in your car waiting for it to charge or waste yout time browsing shops you have no intention of buying from.

But Sainsbury's have a fuel station where you can fill up in minutes and go on your way.

Petsat Home have one but not everybody wants to shop in there.

That leaves the local library/leisure centre where they have a limit of 15 minutes.

sheramber

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81866710#Comment_81866710

Waiting to charge will take lomger than popping to the fuel station attached to the supermarket to fill up after shopping there, especially if there is someone there already.

The point is not that it is impossible but it is not as convenient as popping in to the fuel station and the filling up in minutes.

Drivers need to be convinced it is a benefit to them and , at the moment, that isn't the case.

More convenient charging stations to encourage folks to buy, but the council won't instal them until there is demand.

There won't be demand until more people have cars.

It is catch 22 situation.

Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81866857#Comment_81866857

Sainsburys are installing charge points at many stores. Our local one has 12. Others are already in the planning stages for theirs. Makes a nice little captive market for them.

Park & charge while shopping. Something we do on holiday.

Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81866808#Comment_81866808

Nearly all the large Tesco stores I have visited recently have charge points in their car parks - in fact, I can't recall the last time I visited a large Tesco store without EV charging.

What type of stores are you referencing with no charging and no plans?

oldernonethewiser

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81867151#Comment_81867151

The issue was rapid chargers not that some stores don't have any.

As it happens there is a Tesco Extra that I sometimes visit which has no EV charging at all. The much smaller Tesco Superstore a couple of miles away has chargers.

Herzlos

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81866749#Comment_81866749

What doesn't, the abiliity to charge somewhere you're already going and not needing to make a special trip? It sounds good to me.

But then up in the socialist hellhole of Scotland, there's an abundance of charging points. In my nowhere town there are 2 supermarkets, one has 4 largely unused space and one has 6. The library has 6 charging points, the train station has 6 charging points, one of the town centre car parks has 4 charging points.
The park & ride I use to get to work must have about 30 charging points.

I'm struggling to think of a large car park or supermarket that doesn't have some spaces, but I'll concede that there seem to be a lot more charging points up here than in England, and as I understand it they were completely free until recently.

Honestly it feels like a lot of people are justing trying to find a reason to dislike EV's without actually considering it. Yes there's a bit of a chicken and egg thing about infrastructure, and if you're in a group that's not currently able to charge conveniently then you don't need to get one. As ranges increase and infrastructure improves then it'll be harder to pretend you can't charge it.

I'd get the argument if you needed to charge daily, but once a week should mean it's not that inconvenient for most people. I could easily do the bulk of my charging at Tesco whilst doing the shopping.

oldernonethewiser

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81867165#Comment_81867165

I don't spend long enough in a supermarket to be able to charge an EV.

I'd quite like one but I haven't actually seen a model that I like, yet.

subjecttocontract

We rarely enter any supermarket these days. We do the same as many others and shop online so we just go down to collect our order or have it delivered......actual shopping is so last year. So a supermarket with chargers is about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Im ok, I have lots of off road parking and a charge point but it's not about me it's about people in flats. I don't see how a development of 100 flats and car parking containing less than 20 lampposts is going to provide enough charge capacity for everyone.

Im sure a solution will be found, eventually, but nobody has identified a suitable one for the masses so far.