Where is everyone going to charge their electric vehicle?

[TeapotCollection]

On the way to work I saw a car on charge, parked on the road with the cable trailing over the footpath. I’d be worried about someone tripping over it, or someone stealing the cable! But then I thought what are people meant to do?

Hadn’t thought about it before but this just isn’t going to work is it?

Not allowed to do that. We have an electric car but have a drive with a charger. Would be impossible to have one otherwise.

I’ll be honest I did wonder if it was allowed

Just can’t see how it’s going to work for anyone who has to park on the road, or people who live in flats, will there ever be enough charging points

Depends on your local authority guidance.

For example this guide for Hampshire

A lot of the lampposts where I live are also electric car charging points

when it becomes more wide spread, they will probably just be dug into the pavements in gullies as there’s already no trip solutions similar to that

Where there's a will, there's a way. People put heavy bumper mat things over them on pavements here. And there are parking bays in streets with charging points. Charging will probably also get faster and batteries more efficient.

When you think about it, the infrastructure needed to maintain petrol tankers and stations is huge. All the oil pipes across continents, transporting explosive liquids, risk of fire. Not to mention the geopolitical element and climate change.

I don't see why finding space for a few plugs is an insuperable challenge.

I've seen loads of people charging like this, they put a cover over the wire as above. There are also lots of charging points in lampposts so people use those.

I really don't think it's an insurmountable problem!

I live in an area which is part of a trial. We have quite a few kerb side charges around the village. So there are no trailing cables. They look a little like parking meters at the side of the road. If as a society, we wanted to, they could install many more of these down lots of roads.

Charging times are improving too. I if current progress continues, cars will charge in 15 mins at these chargers, and then have a good range of 400 miles.

If you think at the moment you don't have a petrol pump at home so in that way it's not very different.

Zap app has loads of info about where to charge.

I do think a lot of people have this attitude about change that it's going to be insurmountably difficult so there's no point even trying. This is the way my parents are about heat pumps and electric cars.

Fact is a lot of people will be able to charge on their driveways. Those in flats I assume the management will install chargers which can be booked for use. People in houses without off-street parking will either use cable covers as someone else posted, on street chargers or plan to use fast chargers once a week or however often. The fast chargers are really very fast. Plug your car in while you go to the shops and it'll be done when you are.

Also the cable is locked to the car so you won't get random people unplugging it. You need to unlock the car before it will come out.

My fil lives in a terraced house in a street where there isn't enough parking. He can rarely park outside his own house. It just isn't going to work.

I have an electric vehicle and when people ask me if I recommend it I always say only if you have a driveway. In many places its illegal to run a cable like that, it is round here and there was much drama on a local FB group when someone insisted on doing it, I think it got cut through a couple of times!

What about on street chargers that are becoming more and more common? And fast chargers at petrol stations, shopping centres etc. all of these options are going to become more widely available as EVs become more common. People like your FIL will obviously not be early adopters because of the difficulties with charging but the infrastructure will be there in the future....if we want it.

www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-local-ev-infrastructure-levi-funding

We live in a terraced house with free-for-all parking. There's no guarantee we'll be able to park on our street, never mind outside our house.

When we set off on a longish journey, the first stop, 10 minutes' drive from the house, is to fill up, which takes 5 minutes, giving us a range of well over 700 miles. We would stop for a loo break and a takeaway coffee en route if travelling for more than an hour and a half or so.

When the council gives us a free designated space outside our house with a proper covered gully, and when charging takes no longer than filling up, going to the loo and buying a takeaway drink, we'll get an electric car.

(And when there's an electric car that holds all our camping and hobby gear and doesn't cost more than an ICE car.)

In my area (not in the UK) there are fast charging points at service stations, car parks, shopping centres, bottle shops, community centres, clubs, hotels, and roadsides. The ones at the local service station take about 15 mins to charge from 20% to 80%, and more are being rolled out. It’s really not a problem.

“this just isn’t going to work is it?”

What do you mean by “this” - the whole concept of electric cars?

Or we could accept that it’s much easier for people with a driveway, electric cars are going to take a while to become mainstream and we’re going to need to have a range of charging solutions. There are a few different ways it can work without the death-trap pavement cable.

p.s. wait until you find out that there are people who live in flats and have electric cars 🤯

Dh had an EV for a while for work and while it was a lively car, we live in a place where there aren't loads of charging points and it took 45 minutes to an hour to charge on a fast charger. That's massively restrictive. So I think the tech has to get a lot better. He's currently driving a hybrid which is much easier in practical terms and we now have a charger at home. But without off road parking, I'd be very very reluctant to have a fully EV.

It’s pretty easy. If you have a driveway you will install a charger.
If you don’t you go to a communal area to charge, just like you do now with communal petrol station. Except it’s easier as you can charge at work, supermarkets, car parks, etc as well as official charging stations.
Many flats have communal parking areas also so those will add chargers for shared use of flats.

We are on year 3 of an electric car. Never had a problem. We do charge at home mostly as driveway, and it’s far far easier than driving 15km to the nearest petrol station ( which was always more expensive as rural) or 25km to next cheaper one in town. When we travel longer distance we have charged in various places, at accommodation, supermarket, multi story car park, motorway.

@Chersfrozenface you might be surprised how quick the fast chargers are! You could definitely get a decent charge in the time it takes to fill up a petrol car, go to the loo and get a takeaway coffee. Obviously not a full charge but still...

We did a four hour journey in our EV recently. We filled it up before we left then stopped for 20 minutes about 3 hours in - went to the loo, bought a snack, fed the baby and by the time we were ready to leave we'd gone from 15% charge to almost 50%.

And ( also not uk) but my sons nursery and the main school now have chargers in car park (5), so staff can easily charge. My local swimming pool has 2 chargers, supermarket 4 chargers, the local football pitch/ park even has 2. They are all closer to my house than the nearest petrol
station

There are several on street charging points in all the streets around me, they are usually installed on lamp posts and plenty of people have charging points on their drive if they have one.
Also almost every carpark now has charging points so you aren’t restricted to charging at home or at a petrol point.

Loads of lamp posts near us have chargers. Lots of supermarket car parks locally have free fast chargers so you can charge up while doing your weekly shop. We’re in London, one charge a week is probably enough for most people if they aren’t using their car for commuting. Outside of city centres I would guess a lot of people who own cars also have drives or garages.

And yep, people just trail cables out of their kitchen windows and across the pavement! Bad for wheelchairs and probably not great for the cable, the ones I see mostly aren’t in protectors.

Our city has many lamppost chargers so no trailing cables. I live in a terraced house with cramped residents parking. When I need to charge I just move my car to the designated charging space down the road. If that's busy I use one of the many ones on the surrounding streets. There are also lots in town.
It's really quite simple.
I often find people who don't have electric cars think it's way more hassle than it is!

Where I work is putting chargers in the carpark
There are chargers in supermarket car parks
Lampposts double up as chargers in some places
There will be charging stations just like there are petrol stations now
Chargers are installed in the streets in many places.

It'll be fine - there'll be loads of places to charge your car. Don't panic.