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?

The bottom line is that the rural poor will be shafted once again.

Yorkshire

I don't think people realise how much less energy we now use for things like lighting, televisions, laundry etc, compared to older technologies. For example, an 8W LED bulb does the same job as the old 60W incandescent bulbs. Given that there are an estimated 600 million light bulbs in the UK, that's a heck of a reduction, the equivalent of several of the largest power stations in the UK combined.

In Stoke on Trent they have been given some money to install 24 chargers in council owned car parks, 12 of which can only be used by taxis.

none in the streets & no plans to install any.

In my fil’s street if you park outside certain people’s houses your car is keyed. Certain people will hog the spaces, everyone else will be afraid to use them.

That would be my problem too. The person that arrives at a solution will be minted. I foresee wires being extended from overhead (lampposts) as an option.

The issue I'd have with an electric car is I very rarely can park outside my house due to other cars. So unless there was some sort of general charger you could pay to use on the street it would be tricky.

Two houses where I live have had their charging cables cut costing them a fair bit. I don't know how much copper is inside them but thieves obviously think it's worth it.

Most people in my area would have to charge their cars at a public charging station because in the south Wales valleys most houses are terraced and parking is like the hunger games.

The solution exists and is working in many areas already. No one has to invent anything.

At the moment an EV is simply not an option for me as there's not the available infrastructure. I live in a terraced house with on street parking & a lot of times it's a battle to park near my house never mind find a space to charge an EV.
My friends brother on the next street has an EV & offered to pay for a cable to be run under the pavement. The local authority declined his offer!
It's all very well & good the government wanting us all to swop but if local authorities are being so obstinate then those with driveways will be able to charge at home, which is considerably cheaper & others in eg terraced houses & flats will have to use public chargers which are as expensive as fuelling a car & in turn removing the incentive to switch to an EV.

Yes you are. Each local authority have their own guidelines, this is readily accepted but you accept liability etc

Well, running a cable across the pavement is banned in Rhondda Cynon Taf, in the South Wales Valleys, an area with a lot of terraced housing without private parking, as noted by a PP.

"Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council cannot, currently, support the installation of privately owned electric vehicle charge points on, adjacent to, or over, the public highway. In the interests of highway safety and in respect of future maintenance, the Council are not able to permit the trailing of cables, even with the use of an overlay or recessed grid across a public highway or footpath, or the channelling of cables under the footpath. This is due to public liability issues, including the risk of trip hazards and more complex electrical safety issues at the point of use."

Sorry, should have written I understand it’s not not every local authority. The guidance varies.

Ours, and all 4 surrounding counties do. There are various trials about supporting schemes and one would presume they will become more commonplace. I also live in an area predominantly terraced houses, no private driveways etc and there are many charge mats etc. No one bats an eyelid. It will be better if they permit gulleys dug in the pavement with a metal grid over the top but they seem to be slow in actioning the implementation of this and subsequent “permit of highway use by the LA” which is granted.

We’ve had an EV for 2 years, we love it. We charge on the public footpath outside our home, it’s a fairly busy area but we never have any problems.

The uk should just do government grants for chargers.
Where we live it’s €650 grant for charger if you own a Ev car. Seeing as our charger only cost €600, then about €200 for electrician to install it meant we were only €150 out of pocket.

Ev car leases are also a cheaper option than buying.

in terms of flats, most people we know with parking under flats just install a charger per every space that wants one. With the government grants it’s cheap, so it doesn’t matter if every flat spends €150 for convenience. Many flats with spare spaces work on communal system so they might just add 5 chargers between 20 flats and it’s like €600 decided by 20 households. Many council run flats do this also and just charge each flat a fixed rate of say €30 for installation.

The lease for our Ev is cheaper than our old petrol car. Charging cheaper. Insurance in lease so no extra costs. We often drive 1000+km across Europe and never had an issue. Our own car can usually do about a 5hr drive without charging. We have a young child so we are never going to race through without having to stop

In uk we have rented a Tesla several times as it was actually cheaper at airport hire than a vw polo last time! And it included free Charging on Tesla network, and you can return empty if you wanted without being charged. Far better than hiring petrol where you have to return full or be charged for them to fill.

Prices cannot come down significantly because companies have to make profit similar to what they were making with ICE cars.

Whats the carbon foot print of scrapping millions of perfectly good ICE cars and then buying cars made in China?

EVs are also very heavy, compared to a similar sized ICE, which damages roads...... a trad car can do, if maintained, carry on running for decades, 200,000miles +, battery tech just doesn't allow that, new battery packs are v v expensive!
As tech moves on, spares for these cars wont exist ...... eg try getting bits for a 15yo TV Phone, computer?

EVs will/are herald "throw away motoring" but just for the wealthy.

EVs are a Con, will not make a jot of difference to global climate change and the time and money would have been far better spent increasing fuel efficiency and emissions on ICE cars, the last Euro 6 engines were introduced in 2012, been no new standard since.

We should have also introduced maximum engine sizes, 1500cc is plenty enough for the vast majority of people.

@Caspianberg You ve made my point on EVs being for the wealthy very well.

Airport hires, regular drives across Europe, leases, Tesla's......

Not things millions of people in the UK can afford to do.

I’m not sure why hydrogen fuel never took off. It would have been much easier as the current petrol stations could just start supplying it and there wouldn’t be the problem of the EV charging points.
I understand the hydrogen fuel is more environmentally friendly too.

I think hybrid cars with small petrol engines and self charging batteries should be allowed as they address the charging and range issues.

@Alexandra2001 not at all. We have to hire cars when we return to uk to visit family as public transport is non existent where they live. We live in Europe, so driving in an electric is the cheapest way to holiday, we drive because flights would be too expensive. We sometimes drive all the way back to the uk in our electric car as it’s also far far cheaper than flying ( but takes longer due to distance). We aren’t wealthy. an electric car saves us lots

The Tesla we hired last summer was £250 for 10 days hire at Gatwick. They wanted £500+ for a vw polo or equivalent and anything larger even more. It was literally he cheapest car to hire ( and charging included). I don’t know why anyone would opt to pay more for ‘ electric being hrs to charge’ . We drove it from London, east Kent, all the way then to Cornwall’s nd back to London. No issues charging

Don't know where you get your numbers from but a Ford Focus ICE from Gatwick for 10 days is £173, a Tesla standard range is £617.... prices from Europcar, North Terminal.

In summer these costs would increase.

You can afford to travel fairly extensively & buy an EV in the first place.... most people cannot.

Nail on the head. None of that will apply to the typical home carer who can only afford a £2k car to do their job of driving round to care for their patients.

@Alexandra2001 this was May 2024. I can assume you that’s what we paid.
I have my electric on a lease to buy, it’s affordable and not a Tesla.

Our last holiday was a drive to Italy ( 4hrs from us) and off season in a small cheap cottage. That’s not expensive travel, it cost us about €30 in electric to top up. The May trip to uk was for a Funeral. Sorry if that’s excessive for you. Most of our long drives in Europe are for work. Either way, the topic is how terrible it is to charge a car, and I’m simply saying we haven’t found this an issue in any country.
The only people who seem to find charging a problem don’t actually own a Ev car.

@Alexandra2001 I dont think there are any plans to scrap perfectly good ice cars. The plan is new ones won't be sold. The ice cars will continue thier natural lifespan.

I do think that smaller engines and more efficient petrol engines coukd have been developed though.

I ve no idea what you paid, i just went on the Europcar website for Gatwick and 10 days hire.... £400 more for the Tesla, 500 extra if you want the long range.... obv it would be as the tesla is twice the price new of a base model focus.

My partner had one, an MG, as a company car, nice to drive, a mission to charge, it had to be returned as it just wasn't practical.

When we went to France on hols, we took my old Skoda diesel, just due to the range of the EV & the ease of refueling.

An VW ID4 is £3k up front and £300 per month with a max of just 5000 miles per year!!!
Its not an option for most people, i'd need at least 10,000 miles per year, so over £400 per month.

I'm talking about the UK, wages and charging infrastructure, not mainland europe where you are.

We have a drive and usually charge at home but we also spend a lot of time in another part of the country where we have to charge at the petrol station. It is more expensive but it isn't inconvenient.I have charged at the supermarket a few times which is also straightforward. There are increasingly loads of options .it is mainly a change of mindset.