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?

Well, it comes across as nitpicking about something that doesn't matter (because rural people do not need car clubs) purely for the sake of being argumentative.

And we see this pattern, again and again and again, every time we try to make any progress on environmental issues in this country.

I've seen discussions on social media where the topic has been "We should have restrictions on wood-burning stoves in urban areas; high concentrations of these stoves in areas where population densities are high are causing health and environmental issues, and everyone in my neighborhood is on the gas network," and it's instantly followed by a string of whiny comments along the lines of "But we're rural! We live in a village! We can't cope without our woodburning stove! I'm so sick of clueless townies who don't understand our lives" (etc. etc., continued p.94), and I'm like, this is literally a discussion about cities, people.

Deliberate derailment - an attempt to try and paint any sort of environmental progress or development as "mean townies who 'don't understand' the countryside."

I think it's perfectly possible but the infrastructure in some areas needs a lot of improvement. Some places such as big cities are great. I charge mainly at home (on a driveway) or at work but public chargers near me (Wales) I find very hit and miss. A lot of the time they are out of service or some in rural areas with no mobile signal you can't use unless you can get online 🤔

The motorway services we use a lot has only 2 charges that have been out of service for months now.

Currently a lot of thought I'd being put into how people without drives, in terraced streets, etc can charge so I think we'll get there but it will be a lot of work.

That's why they will never be properly integrated in the UK

There isn't enough room for the chargers.

Not everyone has a drive

People live in terraced houses
Street are packed. Where will the chargers go???

Well, Woodburner's aren't a necessity for anyone who has access to the gas network, they are expensive to install, wood if expensive and you need somewhere to store it, so i agree with you on that point.

A however, town or rural, a car is a necessity for most people, atm people can run an older car quite cheaply.

If there are genuine environmental benefits to EVs, then people need to be able to afford them and be able to charge them easily, 1 in 6 people in the UK have no savings at all, 25% less than £100, vast vast majority have less than £1000 in savings, rents are sky rocketing...

Where are people going to have the money to buy EVs as their older ICE cars come to the end of their lives?
Spares are going to be a real issue as manufacturers lose money and stop making ICE cars... there is also a huge number of OEM manufacturers who are, eventually, going to go out of business.

In your opinion, is it a good idea to be so reliant on Chinese manufacturers? what would happen to these cars if China attacked or blockaded Taiwan? the EU and US are already planning on quite high tariffs.

It kicked off on our local FB group this weekend. An electric car was parked in an electric charging space in the main car park, but not charging, and other drivers needed it.
Responses split between saying the car should not park there if not charging and the local assholes laughing laughing about it. All those assholes will be the ones who block street charging points in years to come.

Petrol stations?

Most people are used to going elsewhere to fuel their cars. Why should it be any different if the fuel is electricity rather than petrol or diesel.

Plus you can install chargers in many other places as well where you couldn’t put a supply of petrol.

Easily dealt with by charging for time as well as kWh. Some chargers do this already.

How do you know they don’t last as long? They’ve only been around for about 10 years and in that time both technology & choice have improved massively as well as costs coming down.

Or a fire at an oil refinery???

We had an EV charger put in when we had some work done on the front of our house 4 years ago, and got an electric car this year. We have a drive, so it's easy. There is a house very close to us with exactly the same car and I've never seen it charging! They have their own parking space outside their garden fence, so I expect they just trail a lead over their fence.

There aren't many charging points in the small city where we live. Most fast chargers don't fit our car, (Nissan) and we certainly don't have them built into our lamposts. The nearest chargers to us are a mile away and we couldnt fast charge there, so it's definitely an issue. The infrastructure needs to be there before most people will be able to have an EV. And roads of Victorian terraces where there is very little parking anyway make it twice as difficult.

We’ve got an electric car and I think the infrastructure does need work. It’s brilliant and cheap for journeys where we can charge at home - but we have a drive way.

Charging points are often just as expensive as petrol where’s its pennies for home charging. We have also found some are not very reliable. We’ll travel now for a specific company as we’ve found them more reliable. As an example, we struggled with the on site charging points at center parcs when we were there and had to find an alternative. We’ve travelled to charging point stations and found them all used by dhl vans.

Home charging is really what makes it work and quite clearly there will be plenty of people in set-ups that will struggle.

Which doesn't really help if you can't make it to the next one and need some charge though.

eh? It helps because the charger isn’t likely to be blocked because people will only park there when they need to charge their car.

This is a really good point. People should be aware that the cost of electricity outside of home is high.

You really have a touching faith in the ability of humans not to be assholes. Especially on forum where every other thread is about parking problems 😀

(Vaguely wonders if there is money to be made from selling fake charging cables ....)

My point is people are less likely to be assholes if they have to pay for it or there’s a risk of being hit with a fine if they don’t.

Unless I missed something, owning an EV doesn't sudden cure all assholes. Or is the implication that assholes don't buy EVs ? I might challenge the latter.

Maybe it's my age or bad luck or hairstyle, but I have known plenty of people who would happily pay for being an asshole.

In fact, surely one definition of an asshole is someone who would spend money to inconvenience others ?

This is really a niche debate in the whole exciting world of EVs there is to explore. However, as Einstein noted, there are only two things in nature that are infinite. The universe and human stupidity. If your plan to buy an EV has to rely on the kindness of strangers, then you, my friend may want to check out decent walking gear.

I’m really not sure you have understood my point. Which was that you can stop assholes in ICE cars ( or in EVs for that matter) from blocking EV chargers by making them pay to park as well as charge the car. With the right tariff - e.g. increasing the costs massively if they stay longer than a certain time, and a fine if they do, they will stop doing it pretty quick.
Councils do this all over the country in normal car parks, it can work just as well for EV chargers.

And I can assure you plenty of EV drivers can be assholes too, that was NOT the point I was making.

As for the ‘kindness of strangers’ where does that come into it? Just need a few sensible rules to solve the problem which was the point I was originally making.

The fact you took 3 posts to respond to one suggests you are impulsive and often need to revisit your previous decisions.

By the way, I do like your username 😀

Yes exactly, so why would i buy one now? wait for tech to improve, prices to drop.... though they wont!

Petrol stations haven't got the room for dozens of cars to be parked there for ages, whilst they recharge and where would ICE drivers go for fuel? or is that the plan to get them to go EV ? close down fuel stations!!!

The simple fact is that vast majority cannot afford them or to run them.... a battery pack that a garage near to me quoted on a battery pack for a older Nissan EV was more than the car was worth, a lot more, the car currently has a range of less than 100 miles, its scrapped now, 8 years old.

A Nissan Micra ICE on a 66 plate would be worth around 6 or 7k, even if the engine went on it, a reconditioned one can be sourced and swapped out for around £1500 to £2000 at an independent garage.

Anyway, Environment crisis? what Environment crisis? Countries cannot even agree to reduce plastic manufacturing, which uses huge amounts of fossil fuels....

No one is making you buy one now . There are years to go before when you can buy whatever type of car you like new and if ICE cars are banned you’ll be able to buy secondhand ones.

As ICE vehicles become less common there will naturally be fewer petrol stations. It won't be economical to keep them open so the situation will reverse and it'll be ICE drivers having to plan their refueling more carefully. That's a long way in the future though.

And on your 8 year old Nissan leaf...was that a first gen leaf that had an initial range of about 100 miles? If so then for it to be doing "less than 100 miles" 8 years later isn't really that bad. I don't see why you'd scrap it personally. For plenty of people that would be enough range and I'm sure someone would buy it.

To the pp saying flats can install chargers in visitors spaces I can see about a million reasons why that wouldn’t work. I mean who is going to police which residents use the chargers and for how long? Who is going to stop visitors parking there even if they’re not charging their vehicle and leave it there for days? Who’s going to stop randomers coming in to charge (trust me one resident will give codes / keys to friends and relatives to use). And thats quite apart from the fact that many flats have no visitors spaces at all.