EV general discussion
- Thread starter Ricochet J
- Start date
Ironically purpose built flats with their own car parks are often not that difficult to install charging points in.I think that is the key issue.. Whilst it is true an EV would currently be more of a pita or more expensive for a lot of people right now........ Equally there is a lot of low hanging fruit still to be picked, people who would save considerably with an EV and who one would work for but are currently put off by them due to scare stories, many of which are either seriously out of date , massively over exaggerated or just flat out untrue.
Its that low hanging fruit that i think that needs to be sorted.
someone living on the 15th story in a flat with their £1000 ICE car which is just parked where ever room can be found for it............. That is a different (but important) puzzle to solve but should be kept separate imo... The reality is there will be ICE cars on the road for the next 25 years or more so its not like there will be a shortage of them.
I doubt many of the people buying £100,000 range rovers are living in places that are unable to charge them were they fully EV instead
The issues are normally centered around who pays, when and how much. There are government grants available to do it. However the cost can still be high depending on the ownership model and how much ‘thought’ is put into it (e.g. tariffs).
The power supply to the building may also be an issue. Smaller blocks may be able to piggy back off the individual households supply which will likely be fine. Larger blocks that’s not possible and the buildings own supply which is mainly used for lighting communal areas will be insufficient for more than a token number of cars.
My colleagues lived in a block of flats and they have charging points in the car park already.
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Soldato
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- 25 May 2008
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Its an interesting topic, i have to say the environmental reasons were at least half the reason i went to an EV finally, the driving experience is next and finally cost is a nice bonus too.
I'll happily engage with people i meet about it and will challenge their out dated our untrue views on them if they bring them up with me directly but i don't want to start arguing in the facebook comments about it with randoms.
I do totally agree that there's just so much low hanging fruit with EV adoption, pretty much my entire family (apart from my uncle that tows a caravan regularly) could go EV tomorrow without any negative impact to their day to day lives. Same if i were to take a drive around my local area, a huge percentage of the houses have their own off street parking, its very much the minority that don't around here anyway.
I'll happily engage with people i meet about it and will challenge their out dated our untrue views on them if they bring them up with me directly but i don't want to start arguing in the facebook comments about it with randoms.
I do totally agree that there's just so much low hanging fruit with EV adoption, pretty much my entire family (apart from my uncle that tows a caravan regularly) could go EV tomorrow without any negative impact to their day to day lives. Same if i were to take a drive around my local area, a huge percentage of the houses have their own off street parking, its very much the minority that don't around here anyway.
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I tow a caravan with mine regularly, YMMV but so far I’ve not really found to to be a major issue. We only have an EV, no ICE cars as a backup.
Could I do with a bit more range, sure, but I don’t really need that much more.
The new iX3 looks like it will make for a much nicer tow vehicle than my current Tesla.
We keep getting new ev's appearing in the car park every other week..
I think offering free workplace charging is that little icing on the cake that seems to push people over the edge, despite:
1. It not really saving much for people with access to EV tarriffs and home charging
2. The Gov't may obviously revoke it at any point.. Rachel from accounts is probably eyeing it up right now..
I know most places wouldn't want to do it, but if they allowed a bit of offsetting to the business along sensible values, then it's more of an incentive than wasting money on fake grants for new cars..
I think offering free workplace charging is that little icing on the cake that seems to push people over the edge, despite:
1. It not really saving much for people with access to EV tarriffs and home charging
2. The Gov't may obviously revoke it at any point.. Rachel from accounts is probably eyeing it up right now..
I know most places wouldn't want to do it, but if they allowed a bit of offsetting to the business along sensible values, then it's more of an incentive than wasting money on fake grants for new cars..
I doubt it will ever go away, the amount of money is just too small and the administration burden is just too high for anyone to really worry about it.
I guess they could collect it via a PSA but the amount of tax it would generate is peanuts in the grand scheme of things.
Don’t forget, free workplace charging works fine now but once everyone has a EV, the costs will get well out of hand. I expect the long term will be it’s a perk some small employers can offer but everyone else will probably end up charging their employees for what they use. Once that happens, no one who can charge at home will use them
A example of this is the pod points at Tesco which used to be free and constantly in use but are now empty most of the time now you have to pay.
I guess they could collect it via a PSA but the amount of tax it would generate is peanuts in the grand scheme of things.
Don’t forget, free workplace charging works fine now but once everyone has a EV, the costs will get well out of hand. I expect the long term will be it’s a perk some small employers can offer but everyone else will probably end up charging their employees for what they use. Once that happens, no one who can charge at home will use them
A example of this is the pod points at Tesco which used to be free and constantly in use but are now empty most of the time now you have to pay.
Soldato
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Got a link for that? Considering the majority of homes in the uk are terraced, are you not getting mixed up the 75% of new build houses will have off street parking
You don't need a big deposit with a PCH lease, you can just opt for a different profile, so the example you have given would be a 12+35, meaning you pay the equivalent of 12 monthly payments upfront, you can opt for a 1+35, 3+35, 6+35 or 9+35, you need to compare the TCO as sometimes one or two profiles are much cheaper than the others. If the price was the same then the 1+35 would mean £456 upfront with 35 payments of the same amount.
One of my colleagues also has a charging point in his flats now, he not long ago got a Cupra Born, the charger had not been activated by the installer so that caused a minor delay, but now it is working and linked to his home and he is on IOG and enjoying the benefits, something he thought was impossible as he lived in a flat.
He just believed all the negativity though. It's amazing what you can get just by asking, now all 26 flats in his complex have charging points, retro fitted, because he sent a few emails and made a few phone calls. Meanwhile people will still complain and do nothing about it and leave it for someone else to fix.
What makes you think a terraced house couldn’t possibly have a charger?
My last house was terraced and I had a driveway which I could charge a car on.
A lot of houses have allocated off-street parking but that isn't necessarily useful for charging - example I've mentioned a lot in some of the other threads here there is a place on my way to work which is a pain with all the people parking on the street narrowing the road - every single one of those houses has an allocated spot in a nearby car park, some have garages at the rear, but either don't use it or "rent" it out to someone else and try to park outside their door instead. (A small number are multi car households).
They aren't saying they couldn't possible have a charger - but at least around where I live (or at least where I work - as where I live is relatively remote) there is a lot of terraced housing where driveway or pull off is very much the exception than the norm.
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The majority of homes are not terraced according to data.
Note I should clarify stated car owners and not just homes because a lot of homes have multiple cars. Also a lot of people have access to work chargers.
So a majority of car owners do have access to off street parking and as a consequence private charging. There’s nothing stopping the majority from access to cheaper EV motoring. The idea that EVs are not suitable for the majority use drivers is just not true.
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Almost half of accommodation though is flat, maisonette, apartment or whole house terraced* where parking is going to be a complication in this context. Especially where I live in the South West a massive percentage of car owners live on streets like this: https://maps.app.goo.gl/sB9iWto3kogC7kDt9
* For example see 4.2 here https://www.gov.uk/government/stati...ax-stock-of-properties-statistical-commentary
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I see you missed someone already charging an essential electric vehicle on that street without issue.
Both things can be true at the same time because one person is talking about car owners and you are talking about accomodation as a whole. Accomodation stats are not that relevent because not everyone owns a car.
Case in point, there are a lot more houses than cars in that link you provided and you go one street over and every house has a driveway with multiple cars (or space for multiple cars). e.g. https://maps.app.goo.gl/vNgfJNXFW8m1rAX2A
True but this can get really messy geographically despite what the stats might be for the country as a whole. The South West often things which might work for large parts of the country are a massive issue because we like to be difficult down here apparently.
Depends on time of day - I used to live the other side of the main road from there for a few years and at night every single space you could vaguely park a car on was crammed, during day time hours a good amount are parked at work, etc.
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Not sure why there are still debates about where has access rather than how many have access to off street parking.
It’s about how many people in the UK can and would be able to benefit from owning an EV.
It’s two different metrics.
It’s about how many people in the UK can and would be able to benefit from owning an EV.
It’s two different metrics.
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At least in my opinion because it gets a lot more complicated when you start zooming in on the details than the average stats for the country tend to suggest.
I have a terraced home, on street parking across a pavement. I have a charger. I don't currently have an ev but I did have an ev as a company vehicle for 6 months with my previous company. It worked fine, I got a 10m detachable cable and next time I get an ev I'll get a charging gulley cut in the pavement. To date I'd just used one of those big rubber cable ramps with agreement from my neighbours that nobody minded.
Literally one of the worst cases as the torygraph would have you believe, worked fine. Same with my heat pump.
Literally one of the worst cases as the torygraph would have you believe, worked fine. Same with my heat pump.
Which is utterly irrelevant to my point. No matter how you break it down, the majority of car owners in the UK have access to off street parking. So moving to an EV is not as big an inconvenience as many assume.