When are you going fully electric?

Associate
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9 Apr 2004
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Nottingham - UK
When? My first electric car was in 2010, it was one of the early production (not for sale) Smart 451 Electric Drive vehicles. Was certainly in the first 1000 fully electric vehicles in the UK :) Ironically I currently own several vehicles and the only one I have that is even vaguely electric is a hybrid Auris :( I will move back to electric again at some point, however for my current daily a hybrid makes far more sense due to the mileage I do.


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Soldato
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Gloucestershire
12.5p kWh for home electricity and a 75kWh battery so just over £9 to fill up. If you can add solar in to the mix you could be getting free fuel.

EV Chargers just installed my charge point. Rolec 32A charger with tethered 5m type 2 connector = £199.00
Also needed an additional 32A circuit as my domestic board was full = £65.00

So not bad for an electrician to come and install all that in my house. Very neat install with cabling running up and over my front door under the porch in hard ducting not simply clipped to the wall.

~£2.5 per 80 miles for charging whcih takes around 3 hours (the last 10% can take 40 mins due to battery protection reducing the amps) so yeah 3p/mile there abouts.
 
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Soldato
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When they bring in law that you have to move your car from the charging point as soon as it's charged. Heard many stories of folk leaving their car attached all day while at work blocking anyone else from using the charge point.
 
Soldato
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When they bring in law that you have to move your car from the charging point as soon as it's charged. Heard many stories of folk leaving their car attached all day while at work blocking anyone else from using the charge point.

Took me a couple of minutes to realise why people were posting on Zap Map that the charger was ICE'd then it clicked. That's a fossil fuel car parked in a charging spot.

At work we have 25 spaces for ~100 people so I don't think I'll be charging at work any time soon.
 
Caporegime
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When they bring in law that you have to move your car from the charging point as soon as it's charged. Heard many stories of folk leaving their car attached all day while at work blocking anyone else from using the charge point.

doubt you could enforce that tbh or it would ever come into play.

they just need to upgrade car parks so every space has a charger. make it pay as you go. as in you chuck 2 quid in to charge your car.
 
Soldato
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doubt you could enforce that tbh or it would ever come into play.

they just need to upgrade car parks so every space has a charger. make it pay as you go. as in you chuck 2 quid in to charge your car.

I doubt every space having a charger will ever happen especially in public car parks, its just not necessary. Most people will charge at home for less than the cost of a public charger.

You could enforce the rules with parking tickets, they have to patrol public pay and display car parks as it is it wouldn't be any harder to check the EV's are actually charging. Could be a good money spinner for a local council or private car park owner.

I would think the council would be able to pass suitable by-laws to cover it without needing any proper legislation. That being said a 'savvy' (inconsiderate) EV owner will just turn the charge rate down on the car so the charge takes as long as they plan on staying there.
 
Soldato
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Took me a couple of minutes to realise why people were posting on Zap Map that the charger was ICE'd then it clicked. That's a fossil fuel car parked in a charging spot.

At work we have 25 spaces for ~100 people so I don't think I'll be charging at work any time soon.

These are public car parks with public charge points in which a lot of office workers park in though. Not a private office car park.
 
Caporegime
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Canada
That’s where charging based on time rather than kW may actually comes in handy. Leave your car there for 8 hours, end up paying 8 hours worth of charging even if you’re only charging for an hour.

That said having to move your car during a workday would be a pain if it was a regular occurance.
 
Soldato
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That’s where charging based on time rather than kW may actually comes in handy. Leave your car there for 8 hours, end up paying 8 hours worth of charging even if you’re only charging for an hour.

That said having to move your car during a workday would be a pain if it was a regular occurance.

Those lucky few at work with a space don't move for love nor money!

I've seen both tariffs enforced for either just the kwh at a lot of service stations or one close to me in a hotel car park with a 1hr fast charge limit which increases significantly after that.

It's very much early stages but I've seen one demo of a charging bot in Korea I think it was. Which can service cars in a multi-story car park. To get round the various car charger locations you hang a standard charge receptor on the license plate which the bot can connect to. App driven of course.

Maybe some enterprising people can develop that into a mobile charging service as demand rises.
 
Soldato
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The charger should msg the owner when the car is charged, and if not unplugged within an hour or two they get a £10 penalty.

Several charge services use an App to start the charge session and so that's already in place. I would assume most recent EVs can connect via an App interface for status updates so yeah that's definitely doable.
 
Soldato
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Bristol
I won't be going electric. I'm 42 and have been driving 25 years, I predict petrol cars will still be around in 30 when it'll be time for me to hang up my keys.

Imo the amount of resources going into electric cars is ridiculous and not nearly as environmentally friendly as it seems. Stopped at a motorway services yesterday evening and an electric car was on charge, the fans on the charger unit were going full blast and capacitors were whining away. Just to give someone 100 miles! The number of generations of production electric cars we've already had to get where we are now is mind boggling.

I kept my last petrol car for.13 years before I had to change it and intend to keep my existing car for at least another 8 years if possible, so I estimate I'll have another 2 petrol cars in my driving career then I'm done.
 
Soldato
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That’s where charging based on time rather than kW may actually comes in handy. Leave your car there for 8 hours, end up paying 8 hours worth of charging even if you’re only charging for an hour.

That said having to move your car during a workday would be a pain if it was a regular occurance.
What's needed is a mix of fast and slow chargers.

If you work - you don't want to be spending half your day moving the car around. What you want is a slow charger that you can leave the car at all day charging - whilst not blocking EVs that are only there for a short while.
 
Soldato
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Oh and the fine will have to be more than £10. How many folk on here think £10 is spare change - lots!

I was thinking more of a standard parking ticket aka £50/£60. Perhaps even more because you are literally effecting the profits of the charge point owner.

I am surprised local councils are more engaged with getting charge points installed in suitable locations. Not only for the air quality benefits, they will be a big money spinner long term if they own and operate them or lease/license the spots to 3rd parties to use.
 
Soldato
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maybe they need a smaller more modular battery that can be easily slid in and out, petrol stations can precharge them then swap them out for a refuel fee.
 
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