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?

Car sharing would be perfect for me. No commute so my car only gets used a couple of times a week then several weekends in the summer when I go away camping. Maybe the idea will eventually become more popular and private car ownership will become less of a thing. In my block of flats there must be a good 10+ cars that are only used very occasionally. The one currently parked next to mine hasn’t moved in 3 months. I expect that relinquishing the convenience of your own car will be the biggest hurdle.

We don’t have an EV or a hybrid yet. We have no driveway, just front gardens beside a pathway, garages that had no electricity, are in a central block. Dh spent literally months of major time and hassle arranging for sufficient electricity to be laid to garages, for those who wanted it and were prepared to share the cost.
We now have not only EV charging points, but also light! - and power points for tools. One neighbour had an electric garage door installed literally the day after the work was completed.

Even if we never use ours for EV charging, it should certainly be a plus point when we eventually sell the house.

Bougie was factual?

Again no one is forcing people to buy EVs or use car clubs or part with their ICE cars.

Car sharing scheme are already quite common in cities. When there are a lot of ppl living in a dense area, it tends to be a lot easier than trying to cram hundreds of vehicles into each neighborhood.

And yes Zipcar is London based but there are lots of other options nationwide

No there aren't, not nationwide. There are lots of people who live rurally / remotely and are many many miles away from any of these "options ". What you mean is there are options in most cities.

You do not use car clubs for commuting. They are used by ppl who do not commute by car and generally live in dense areas where there is not space to pack in loads of parking and chargers. They are for people who don’t use a car daily.

?

The whole reason we started talking about car sharing schemes in the first place, is because we were trying to talk about what to do about situations where people live densely in cities and there is never going to be enough off street parking spaces and chargers for everyone to charge an EV.

People who live further out in suburbs and rural areas usually have plenty of spaces to park cars (and install chargers). Nobody is remotely suggesting that people in rural areas should join car-sharing schemes.

Would 'affluent' be more acceptable to you?

No-one mentioned "forcing". My points, and those made by other posters, illustrate why take-up of electric vehicles is not growing, and indeed is slowing, in the UK. Which is creating problems for UK manufacturers and tensions with government over mandates and penalties

Sigh

Best you keep your ICE car which no one is forcing you to give up!!!!!!

@GreenTeaLikesMe My point is you said there are lots of options for car sharing etc nationwide. There aren't. Our nation includes more than just the main cities.

Car sharing would be perfect for me.

Some of us might be old enough to remember when Uber was a "lift sharing" service.

Just checked my phone, and I can have an Uber here within 2 minutes. It takes me 3 to put my coat on FFS.

Last one I used (has anyone used the "Wait and Save" option ?) was less than 5 minutes and this was on a day when it would have taken me 10 to scrape the ice off the car. Granted I do live in a city. But that's just how it is.

Car ownership generally is falling and fewer people are learning to drive. There’s a cost of living crisis and interest rates are high. Neither encourages car buying.

However sales of EVs are growing and ICE are declining.

In my last job, quite a few of the younger staff simply hadn't learned to drive. Why would you if you can call an Uber within 5 minutes or use a bus at a stretch ?

If this is a surprise to anyone, then you're not reading the room. It's the vehicular equivalent of Generation Rent. And not good news for the mechanisms of society that need a steady flow of new users (like drug dealers). I believe part of the demonisation of the younger generations is because they are slowly morphing into a entity which will be much harder to corral than pervious ones - certainly using the tried and tested levers of control.

But that, dear reader, is for another chapter in the future we have built for ourselves.

I did not say that; you are confusing me with another poster.

Ok, my mistake. But my point stands. My response was to whoever said there are lots of options for car sharing nationwide.

That was in response to someone saying ‘oh that’s in London’.

Yes car clubs will tend to be urban but there are options across the country - not just London.

But no there are unlikely to be many in the countryside.

And?

Car clubs in the UK

Co-Wheels total of around 800 vehicles in 70 towns and cities.
Enterprise Car Club total of around 1,300 vehicles in 220 towns and cities

So far that's all I can find apart from Zipcar and Hiyacar which are limited to London.

And nothing. I was simply correcting someone who said there options for car sharing etc "nationwide". There aren't.

Yes it was me. 220 towns and cities isn’t bad is it.

Well, it claims 220 but I've checked some towns I'm familiar with and which are listed as Enterprise Car Club locations on its website, and there are actually no cars there.

It has a total of 18 cars in the whole of Wales, 15 of them in Cardiff.

Yeah not bad, but not nationwide.

Really, who cares if there are car clubs in the countryside or not? It's not relevant to the issue of EVs, as there is plenty of space in rural areas to build charging spaces for EVs, and "space for charging facilities" is literally the only reason why the car club issue was raised in the first place.

The only reason one or two posters here KEEP banging on about this, is because they are desperate to turn this issue into a "Look, we poor rural downtrodden folk are being misunderstood and oppressed by snooty city people."

(Meanwhile, the UK is pretty much the only country in the world where (excluding London) rural areas consistently have higher average incomes than the cities that they surround. Yes, I'm aware that rural poverty exists in the UK, but it's not typical; rural life disproportionately attracts wealth in the UK, because "pretty villages" are considered attractive places to park families or retire if you have enough money).

Bet they wouldnt turn a blind eye if there was a mobility scooter being charged.
In fact i have proof that they dont!!!!!

I think you must be hard of understanding or something. The reason I keep "banging on about it" is because people like you don't seem to be able to grasp what I was saying. I didn't offer an opinion about the merits of EVs. Nor do I claim to be downtrodden or oppressed. I simply corrected the poster that said there are plenty of car sharing options etc nationwide. THAT IS ALL I SAID.