Electric cars for people with no driveways

welshboy

welshboy

welshboy

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Joined
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North Wales
Recent debate with mates, but surely the law is going to change where electric charging cables can go across pavements outside people’s house or people going to be expected to visit a charging pod away from home.

Seen few articles where councils have said no after neighbour complaints but as electric cars increase...surely it’s only time. Not everyone has a driveway.
Also seen where councils install chargers in lamp posts but surely this is similar if i go walk into the cable.

thoughts ?
 
I think it's @Russinating on here that has a pretty neat setup for charging his EV while it's parked on the road.

But I think as long as you do it safely with proper cable management, then you should be OK. Of course, in an ideal world, you would hope that it would be in the council's best interests to make it as easy as possible for EV owners to be able to charge their vehicles if they don't have a driveway, but we all know what local authorities are like when it comes to common sense.
 
Hello! Yeah I do. And agree with the first sentiment; it just has to change and become the norm at some point. A handful of society will moan, even less will actually injure themselves (or at least claim so), but no more than moan about normal things generally.

It's far cheaper for councils to proactively enable homeowners to safely charge at home rather than installing enough public infrastructure to support charging away from home, be it lamp posts or communal charging spots.
 
Russinating said:
Hello! Yeah I do. And agree with the first sentiment; it just has to change and become the norm at some point. A handful of society will moan, even less will actually injure themselves (or at least claim so), but no more than moan about normal things generally.

It's far cheaper for councils to proactively enable homeowners to safely charge at home rather than installing enough public infrastructure to support charging away from home, be it lamp posts or communal charging spots.
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The real problem isn’t the cables over the pavement that will surely change legally it is the parking outside you own home I probably park outside my own house twice a month the rest of the time my car can be anything from a few meters to a few hundred meters away! We need smart infrastructure that installs a charging point outside every home but knows who’s car is connected to it so who should be getting the bill!

then of course there is the minor problem of generating enough electricity to meet demand overnight!
 
Dragging cables over pavements is surely not acceptable and what about the fact you don't own the space on the road outside your house?
 
a1ex2001 said:
The real problem isn’t the cables over the pavement that will surely change legally it is the parking outside you own home I probably park outside my own house twice a month the rest of the time my car can be anything from a few meters to a few hundred meters away! We need smart infrastructure that installs a charging point outside every home but knows who’s car is connected to it so who should be getting the bill!

then of course there is the minor problem of generating enough electricity to meet demand overnight!
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Smart charging means not everyone will be charging at the same time or overnight.

I use my car 2 times a day for like 20 mins. The other 23 hours it can be hooked up to a charger if available.
 
Charging overnight is not a problem- the grid is scaled to cope with peak demand between 4pm-7pm, outside these hours there is masses of excess capacity.

Also remember you are not charging all night. On a standard home 7kw charger you replenish about 30 miles of range per hour so you might only charge for 1-2hrs.

As has been mentioned the main problem is being unable to park outside your own house. This is a really tricky problem to solve but there are ideas appearing.

Lamp-post charging sounds good, although one of the big benefits of EVs is charging via your domestic tariff (e.g I pay 5p/kWh overnight). Lamp post chargers linked to dedicated charging companies would probably be more expensive.

The other option is to use regular public charging in car parks etc., or rapid chargers where you can add 250 miles range in 15 mins.

I do think charging at home though is one of the best things about EVs and it is a challenge for people without driveways.
 
blun said:
I do think charging at home though is one of the best things about EVs and it is a challenge for people without driveways.
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And as EV get more and more popular i can see many people who doesn't have there own driveway doing stupid things too tried charge them on there own cheap electric :D
 
Perhaps as infrastructure and charging technology improves then there won't be a need to charge at home.

Say you can charge at a charging station for 200 miles in 10 minutes then there's no need to recharge at home. Much like you don't have a petrol pump on your driveway.
 
Isn’t that the point though? It’s only cheaper to charge at home because they haven’t taxed it yet? You only get the government grant if you install a smart meter, capable of charging you extra for charging your car.

As far as I’m aware, very few people currently refuel their ICE cars at home. As charging gets faster you’ll just get used to plugging your car in once or twice a week at the supermarket or train station.

One of the last Conservative party leadership candidates had a policy that while they were digging up the roads for installing fibre for broadband they should install 3-phase electricity for houses too. It makes a lot of sense, but obviously it didn’t take in anyone’s imagination.

And yes, you will want 3-phase electricity when you can’t get a gas boiler anymore and it has to be electric. And that’s coming too. About the same time as electric will be the only engine option. Expect to see designated parking spaces with charging being the ‘thing’ on new-build estates very soon.
 
NeilMick said:
Perhaps as infrastructure and charging technology improves then there won't be a need to charge at home.

Say you can charge at a charging station for 200 miles in 10 minutes then there's no need to recharge at home. Much like you don't have a petrol pump on your driveway.
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You can do this now :)

[TW]Fox said:
Because there is simply no need. If you could fully charge an EV in a couple of minutes people wouldn't be bothered about charging at home either.
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Charging at home is one of the best EV features. Even if I lived next door to an ultra-rapid charger I would still want to charge at home.
 
[TW]Fox said:
Because there is simply no need. If you could fully charge an EV in a couple of minutes people wouldn't be bothered about charging at home either.
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My average recharge time is less than 25 minutes. Yes, I drive a Tesla and I use Superchargers but once the non-Tesla infrastructure catches up it’ll be just like fossil fuel is now. If the average mileage in the UK is still 12K per year then that means 250 miles per week. So either one 2 hour charge in a Kia or a couple of 4-hour charges in an MG or a Mini.
 
Lopéz said:
I think the oft - quoted 2025 date is highly unlikely (re: gas)
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I dint think a firm date has actually been announced. I just know that when I was building a house recently I was advised to put 3-phase in because at some point in the near future they would outlaw gas boilers and at that point I’d need to replace my gas boiler with electric and realistically I’d need more than 32A so I’d need more than one phase.
 
Lamposts. Almost every street has them on the curbside, at regular intervals, with sufficient power running to them. Councils need to start putting in charge points on them which allow for a few cars to plug in each.
 
Toothy1911 said:
Lamposts. Almost every street has them on the curbside, at regular intervals, with sufficient power running to them. Councils need to start putting in charge points on them which allow for a few cars to plug in each.
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Why would a little light pole have enough electricity supply to charge several cars?
 
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