Queues stretching for hours show what it's really like owning a Tesla at Christmas

There isnt enough public charging points for this to be viable.

Does the country have enough power at the moment to charge all the EV's?
 
mid_gen said:
I'm surprised there aren't more occasions like this to be honest, considering the lack of infrastructure investment by this government. Leaving it to private companies won't cut it.
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Be interesting what happens after the people that can't charge at home are forced to buy EV's

This will be when the problems really start if the infrastructure is not in place by then
 
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This only happens with petrol/diesel when there is disruption to the supply chain and/or everyone panic buys. In my 25+ years of motoring it's happened that infrequently it's a pretty much a non issue.
 
I was always mainly thinking about what going to happen with people like myself who rent and only have on street parking

But after reading things like this am guessing there also millions of people that own there own place and also can't charge a car at home

Almost half of all UK homes unsuitable for electric car chargers - 'isn't a viable option'​


New research from Lloyds Bank shows that only 56 percent of British homes can currently support electric car charging points.
From 2030 no new petrol or diesel cars will be sold in the UK but more than two-fifths (44 percent) of UK homes are unsuitable for electric vehicle ownership.

For those without garages, driveways or dedicated parking may see themselves excluded from making the transition to sustainability and electric vehicles.

Lloyds Bank mortgage data shows that around 30 percent of people applying for a mortgage do not have a garage or space for a car.
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I wouldn't recommend anyone gets an EV if they can't charge at home (3 pin plug is workable for most).

When I got my Tesla I realised that peak holiday travel of over 300 miles would be best avoided. Still only used public chargers twice in the past year.

Everytime I go to Costco the queue for petrol/diesel is long. Ofc a lot quicker than an EV. Worth noting that the Tesla would default to a splash and dash at congested chargers, so around 20mins and route via alternatives if possible.
 
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chaparral said:
I was always mainly thinking about what going to happen with people like myself who rent and only have on street parking

But after reading things like this am guessing there also millions of people that own there own place and also can't charge a car at home


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You can get on street chargers which means no cables trailing across the footpath.

Although this doesn't completely solve the problem:
- If they're council owned then will require council budget to install
- If they are publicly owned then you don't have a "right" to use one - can see this causing all sorts of issues with neighbours
 
Lots of public chargers have been installed across Oxfordshire so I could feasibly get an EV now - leave it to charge when I go to work, then walk 5 minutes back at lunchtime to collect it once or twice a week. Only problem is the cost - they've recently upped their prices to 47p/kWh during the day and 42p/kWh overnight.

At those rates it'd take 243,091 miles to payback the initial extra cost (after trade in) of even a used Renault Zoe over the current falling cost of petrol, nevermind a new vehicle. So trading in a working petrol car for an EV is madness at the moment unless you can charge cheaply overnight at home.

Untangling the cost of electricity from the wholesale price of gas would be such an easy win for this country, especially with how frequently we're getting most of our energy from renewable sources now which is only going to increase.
 
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I would happily queue 'for hours' once a year to charge an EV, if it meant I didn't need to visit a petrol station every couple of weeks and daily drive a diesel/petrol car.

How many people owning ICE cars which have 400+ miles of range actually need that many miles in a single journey in a year?
 
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MichaelAwkward said:
Lots of public chargers have been installed across Oxfordshire so I could feasibly get an EV now - leave it to charge when I go to work, then walk 5 minutes back at lunchtime to collect it once or twice a week. Only problem is the cost - they've recently upped their prices to 47p/kWh during the day and 42p/kWh overnight.

At those rates it'd take 243,091 miles to payback the initial extra cost (after trade in) of even a used Renault Zoe over the current falling cost of petrol, nevermind a new vehicle. So trading in a working petrol car for an EV is madness at the moment unless you can charge cheaply overnight at home.

Untangling the cost of electricity from the wholesale price of gas would be such an easy win for this country, especially with how frequently we're getting most of our energy from renewable sources now which is only going to increase.
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Yeah I said the other day that Petrol must be the fuel that is getting more and more cost effective in recent months (relative to Electric/Diesel), due to the rising price of electricity and fact that petrol prices are dropping a lot more than Diesel, combined with the fact that Petrol cars are cheaper to begin with. Will definitely be considering Petrol for our next car, although if we had the option of home charging I might think differently.
 
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Mate was a Tebay 30 minutes ago - only person there. 1 of 8 chargers in use.

Just a massively busy day on the roads caused the problems.... Been 3 times there myself and never needed to wait.
 
As others have pointed out, this really is just an M6 issue, there isn’t any substantial settlements between Manchester and Glasgow (no offence to anyone from Kendal). There are few viable alternatives that are also not really busy. Because the legs are so long, you end up being committed to a particular charger and pushing on to a non-tesla site or the next Tesla site isn’t an option.

If you are going up to Scotland, the chances are you’ll need to stop at either Tebay or Gretna Green.

Gretna Green alongside South Mimms is on my very short lift of ‘only if I’m going to run out’ places to stop and charge. Always busy (at Tesla and non-Tesla chargers) and regularly at capacity.

What wasn’t reported is that the Ionity site at Gretna Green was also overwhelmed EVs and also had hours of queues at the same time. They weren’t Tesla’s so wouldn’t get the clicks.

On the plus side, it shouldn’t be an issue next year, either all the tesla drivers didn’t take their tesla or the 24 new super chargers due to go in at Tebay will have been deployed to make it 16 north and south. Due in the first qtr this year. That said once you apply Elon time, it will probably be December :p

I regularly drive up and down the A1 and never have and problems, likewise never had any issues on the M6 either.
 
Also Applegreen hub going in at Welcome break Abington will help, they are awaiting switch on and then some of those units planned for Gretna services too.
 
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Jonnycoupe said:
Also Applegreen hub going in at Welcome break Abington will help, they are awaiting switch on and then some of those units planned for Gretna services too.
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Yup those will help a lot (assuming they work) but there isn't really enough of them going in at Welcome Break sites (e.g. South Mimms). Moto seem to have their act together when it comes to building out their capacity. If Rugby is anything to go by, as soon as you whack in a big charging hub, it becomes the defacto location to charge and is descended upon by the masses.

I use plenty of non-tesla sites and these tritium chargers going in everywhere (regardless of the network operating them) seem to need a lot of 'maintenance', its not uncommon to see at least one charger down at a location. The comments on Zap Map seem to reflect my experience also.
 
BowdonUK said:
There isnt enough public charging points for this to be viable.

Does the country have enough power at the moment to charge all the EV's?
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EVs only ‘work’ because they are still the minority.
It’s utter folly if we all had one.
I’m just watching with amusement as all my predictions come true.
 
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SkodaMart said:
EVs only ‘work’ because they are still the minority.
It’s utter folly if we all had one.
I’m just watching with amusement as all my predictions come true.
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That’s a bit of an odd take. Why would there be the infrastructure for 26 million EVs when there are only 100k on the roads?

As long as the infrastructure keeps pace with sales, that’s all that’s needed. For the most part that is the case at the moment. There are pinch points but likewise there are areas that are massively over provisioned.
 
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