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Original poster

Electric Car No Driveway

100 replies

Squishybopbadobop · 06/08/2023 22:08

Ourselves and the house we are attached to are the only ones on the street with no driveway so if we asked for electric charging points to be put outside our house, would it give us any right to park in the spaces outside our house (on the road) as we don't have a driveway? Presumably the council would only install them outside our houses as everyone else could install them on their driveways but not sure how this would work?

OP posts:
User1755387908 · 07/08/2023 10:24

If you had a charger outside your house it would probably be a bad thing because every man and his dog would park there and then you wouldn't be able to

Wenfy · 07/08/2023 10:29

If you had a charger outside your house it would make it more likely for your neighbours to use them / buy electric cars - as it’d be cheaper for them. If you want to secure a spot would it be better just to ask your neighbours to leave them free?

Flopsythebunny · 07/08/2023 10:32

Why would you think that the parking space would belong to you? Even a blue badge user who actually pays for a bay to be marked out in front of their house has to accept that other blue badge holders can use it.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Cars & vehicles
Hoppinggreen · 07/08/2023 10:34

AuntieJune · 06/08/2023 22:28

I live in an area with terraces with miniscule gardens and plenty of people run a charging cable over the pavement with either a doormat or a thick plastic bumper type thing over it. People use that or there are a few charging bays around, or I guess you can charge at car parks.

People have got into trouble for doing that round here.
Plus in a couple of places the cables have been (deliberately?) damaged.
I wouldn’t consider an electric car with no off road parking

Flopsythebunny · 07/08/2023 10:35

fullbloom87 · 06/08/2023 22:32

I wouldn't bother with an electric car as they're unethical due to the child labour used for mass production of batteries and the lack of ability to recycle the batteries.

Do you believe everything you read on Google?

illiterato · 07/08/2023 10:38

JustFrustrated · 07/08/2023 10:04

Realistically do you drive 250 miles a day?

Realistically do you never pass anywhere with a charger?

No and no is the answer to both of those questions I'm guessing.

In which case, you really are worrying over nothing.

Public chargers are widely available and getting more so every month. It's All about planning. And I'll say it til I'm blue in the face, people shouldn't be driving 200 miles in one go without a break. Ever. And that break will now involve charging. If you get to an ionity charger you'd have charged a lot in the time it takes to get a coffee and have a wee.

I think we did 68% charge in 15 minutes at Ionity the other day.

I agree. Whenever people say they can’t get an electric car because don’t have a driveway, I ask “do you have a petrol pump at your house?”. Obviously the answer is no but with speed charging getting more and more common in car parks everywhere ( the Tesco near me just put in about 20), charging up will be more flexible than going for petrol at the moment and won’t take much longer. It’s something you’ll do while you’re in the supermarket/ going to the gym etc.

Heatherbell1978 · 07/08/2023 10:42

We have an EV and yes it's great being able to charge in the driveway. But could we manage without the charger? Absolutely. Every supermarket around us has a fast charger which is nearly always free. I could easily charge my car fully in less than an hour while doing some shopping. And the car lasts us about 2 weeks if we're just pottering around locally.

RoadSignFool · 07/08/2023 11:06

Flopsythebunny · 07/08/2023 10:32

Why would you think that the parking space would belong to you? Even a blue badge user who actually pays for a bay to be marked out in front of their house has to accept that other blue badge holders can use it.

Not in our local authority. The blue badge number is painted on the road and on a sign.

User1755387908 · 07/08/2023 11:11

The Mumsnet threads of the future will be that the council has stuck an EV charger outside my house and now I can't park my car as other people are constantly using it.

Hoppinggreen · 07/08/2023 11:14

Heatherbell1978 · 07/08/2023 10:42

We have an EV and yes it's great being able to charge in the driveway. But could we manage without the charger? Absolutely. Every supermarket around us has a fast charger which is nearly always free. I could easily charge my car fully in less than an hour while doing some shopping. And the car lasts us about 2 weeks if we're just pottering around locally.

That’s great where the infrastructure is there but if we couldn’t charge ours in the driveway it would be much more difficult

ProfessorSlocombe · 07/08/2023 11:18

RoadSignFool · 07/08/2023 11:06

Not in our local authority. The blue badge number is painted on the road and on a sign.

Show quote history

Doesn't make it enforceable though. It's still available for any car with a properly issued and used blue badge.

If the government was serious about promoting electric cars. this scenario would have been anticipated, discussed, various solutions examined, and the necessary changes made through the proper channels.

People can draw their own conclusions I am sure.

countrygirl99 · 07/08/2023 11:19

Nome of the supermarkets near me have a charging point. The nearest one is 8 miles away on a retail park I've been to 3 times since it opened in 2018.

RB68 · 07/08/2023 11:31

we managed without a charger at home for 2 months and it really wasn't a massive inconvenience with a super charger at a supermarket - and more and more now do this - plug car in, shop, 2 jobs done. More expensive but its swings and roundabouts.

More than one car - play car jenga - reality is you operate between 50 and 100% charge most of the time it really doesn't get that deperate.

Electric is an interim tech in my view

We also have seen massive leaps in batteries and mileage on these cars which changes the dynamic. There is also the possibility of charging at work places or near work places so that also changes dynamic

I wld agree with poster saying over footpaths on the ground makes the footpaths inaccessible for wheel chair or mobility scooter users as well as difficult for buggy and pushchairs so it really needs to not be a long term solution

Personally I think we need to see more standardisation of chargers, more on street charging, better control of the spaces for charging.

Seems to me OPs solution would be charging space on the street not that near to house so she can still park there if she gets the chance - especially if rest of st have drives

RB68 · 07/08/2023 11:34

just to say my nearest charge point when we first had the car 18 mths ago was around 8 miles away too and it was second nearest supermarket. There has been a proliferation of them since even though we too are rural. What I have found is hotels with charge points dont generally have an issue with you using them even if not resident/using facilities - I just go in and ask nicely if its OK. They usually are 50KW so don't actually need to be there that long hence them being OK

Legoroses · 07/08/2023 11:57

Big dichotomy here between people with electric cars who are telling the OP it's generally fine without a driveway charger and people with no direct experience who are sure it can't be done and are sure the council won't install a street charger. In fact every single London council have agreed to consider all requests for street chargers, and a quick Google shows lots of other authorities are doing exactly the same.

Yes, the infrastructure needs improvement, but it is much easier without a driveway already than it was 4 years ago. And a lot of the imagined difficulties are dependent on the false notion that cars need charging every night. If you do that, you'll destroy the most expensive component of your car.

RoadSignFool · 07/08/2023 11:57

ProfessorSlocombe · 07/08/2023 11:18

Doesn't make it enforceable though. It's still available for any car with a properly issued and used blue badge.

If the government was serious about promoting electric cars. this scenario would have been anticipated, discussed, various solutions examined, and the necessary changes made through the proper channels.

People can draw their own conclusions I am sure.

Show quote history

Really? My next door neighbour has one of these spaces and the Council are very hot on enforcement- more than once I’ve seen people being towed away for using it. Those were probably not blue badge holders though. Are you saying that there are disability regulations that would prevent a different blue badge holder from being ticketed or towed away?

RoadSignFool · 07/08/2023 11:59

RB68 · 07/08/2023 11:31

we managed without a charger at home for 2 months and it really wasn't a massive inconvenience with a super charger at a supermarket - and more and more now do this - plug car in, shop, 2 jobs done. More expensive but its swings and roundabouts.

More than one car - play car jenga - reality is you operate between 50 and 100% charge most of the time it really doesn't get that deperate.

Electric is an interim tech in my view

We also have seen massive leaps in batteries and mileage on these cars which changes the dynamic. There is also the possibility of charging at work places or near work places so that also changes dynamic

I wld agree with poster saying over footpaths on the ground makes the footpaths inaccessible for wheel chair or mobility scooter users as well as difficult for buggy and pushchairs so it really needs to not be a long term solution

Personally I think we need to see more standardisation of chargers, more on street charging, better control of the spaces for charging.

Seems to me OPs solution would be charging space on the street not that near to house so she can still park there if she gets the chance - especially if rest of st have drives

Surely it’s car Tetris not car Jenga? Unless you are literally piling them on top of one another until they all come crashing down!

RB68 · 07/08/2023 12:00

Lol OK

RB68 · 07/08/2023 12:02

Legoroses its like range anxiety before you buy the car....

fullbloom87 · 07/08/2023 12:04

@Flopsythebunny

RoadSignFool · 07/08/2023 12:05

RoadSignFool · 07/08/2023 11:57

Really? My next door neighbour has one of these spaces and the Council are very hot on enforcement- more than once I’ve seen people being towed away for using it. Those were probably not blue badge holders though. Are you saying that there are disability regulations that would prevent a different blue badge holder from being ticketed or towed away?

Show quote history

I think if you were correct the entitlement of other blue badge holders to use it would be mentioned here. It doesn’t make sense to term it a “Dedicated” bay if any blue badge holder can use it.

Electric Car No Driveway
fullbloom87 · 07/08/2023 12:07

@Flopsythebunny

ProfessorSlocombe · 07/08/2023 12:12

mumda · 07/08/2023 11:53

It would need a change in the law to allow a household to have exclusive access to the roadspace to use it..

Some more adventurous councils may try to use planning regulations. But they would fail if it came to court.

fullbloom87 · 07/08/2023 12:16

🤣🤣

Electric Car No Driveway