When are you going fully electric?

Journey · 4 May 2022 at 12:19

lordrobs said:
Best of luck to anyone who spots the opportunity to charge temptingly off the A47 as the route to it is convoluted to say the least and at present there are no road signs for it!

No road signs you say, disaster! My satnav seems to have it listed already, in the live updates for selected charging stations, and I can navigate to it or 'charge via' so hopefully most of the cars will find it this way. Does seem a big spaghettish to get to it, about 1/3 to 1/2 a mile from the exit.

lordrobs · 4 May 2022 at 13:02

Journey said:
No road signs you say, disaster! My satnav seems to have it listed already, in the live updates for selected charging stations, and I can navigate to it or 'charge via' so hopefully most of the cars will find it this way. Does seem a big spaghettish to get to it, about 1/3 to 1/2 a mile from the exit.

The problem is that it looks, from the road, that it should be just off the slip road so by the time you realise it isn't you are heading up the A1270 and you then have to do this...

That entire junction was a complete screw up from start to finish though!

Journey · 4 May 2022 at 13:17

lordrobs said:
That entire junction was a complete screw up from start to finish though!

Yeah I can see that. I suppose which ever way you go to get to it, its probably within a few hundred meters at most, mildly annoying but with such a great charging station I am sure people won't mind too much.

Jonnycoupe · 5 May 2022 at 10:57

Good news on the 'infrastructure catching up' :
Burton in Kendall Gridserve hub now working (6 chargers) and I see Thurrock services hub now open with 12 x 350kW chargers (9 O'clock on the M25).

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1521959852859437057

Hubs really gaining some momentum now.

Heston and Cornwall work underprogress now too. Cornwall will benefit from the canopys aswell.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1520712020345167872

chanjy · 5 May 2022 at 14:18

There’s going to be a huge amount of new investment over the next few years, really exciting. One of the big reasons that people use to not go electric will be gone as charging will be so easy to do. Of course the other one is price and unfortunately we aren’t getting that many cheap EVs at the moment, hopefully that will change over time

Greebo · 5 May 2022 at 16:32

chanjy said:
There’s going to be a huge amount of new investment over the next few years, really exciting. One of the big reasons that people use to not go electric will be gone as charging will be so easy to do. Of course the other one is price and unfortunately we aren’t getting that many cheap EVs at the moment, hopefully that will change over time

Although its great to see, the number of new charging stations isnt keeping up with the number of new EV cars and the ratio of cars to charging stations is getting worse in the UK. In order to reach the required number of 1.7m by 2030 and 2.8m by 2035 we need to be opening 507 new ones every day,

b0rn2sk8 · 5 May 2022 at 16:43

1.7m rapid chargers? That seems like a lot.

I’d have thought that number includes all public AC slow chargers as well?

Jonnycoupe · 5 May 2022 at 16:45

Public or home charging? 507 sounds somewhat excessive for public - if we include home points i imagine its probably around that?

This year and into mid 2023 should see some significant change to the ratio in the UK - that said the UK is a small island after all.

Journey · 5 May 2022 at 16:48

Greebo said:
Although its great to see, the number of new charging stations isnt keeping up with the number of new EV cars and the ratio of cars to charging stations is getting worse in the UK. In order to reach the required number of 1.7m by 2030 and 2.8m by 2035 we need to be opening 507 new ones every day,

When you read that, did in not look suspiciously high? Why would we need 2.8 million public chargers for what is expected to be 40m vehicles in 2035?

That would mean every vehicle would be charging at least once on a public charger every 14 days, as an average. I think at home, at work and some on street schemes will cover the majority of charging miles for the average user, so mainly non-public.

[TW]Fox · 5 May 2022 at 18:13

Plus what will the range of a typical EV be in 2035? Very good I'd imagine - further reducing the need for so many charging stations.

jpaul · 5 May 2022 at 18:24

His 2.8M public 3-22KW chargers for 40M cars is consistant with smmt document linked earlier, discussing charger levelling up
- London already has 1 for 9 vehicles, but,maybe, has a disproportionate number of folks with no home charging possibility, or ... it's overkill

Public charging infrastructure expansion has failed to keep pace with EV uptake. While the UK has the best ratio of rapid chargers to battery electric cars in the Western world, plug-in cars on the road have grown by a phenomenal 280.3% between 2019 and 2021, but standard (3-22kW) public chargepoints grew by just 69.8% in the same period. Public charger provision varies regionally, with one standard public charger for every 67 plug-in cars in the North West, compared with one for only nine in London. But EV uptake must be viable and attractive for everyone, regardless of where they live.

Simon · 5 May 2022 at 18:39

It’s not how many there are. It’s where they are

chanjy · 5 May 2022 at 18:41

Greebo said:
Although its great to see, the number of new charging stations isnt keeping up with the number of new EV cars and the ratio of cars to charging stations is getting worse in the UK. In order to reach the required number of 1.7m by 2030 and 2.8m by 2035 we need to be opening 507 new ones every day,

gov own estimate is about 6000 rapids to serve the motorway network by 2030

That target is going to be exceeded I would expect

At the moment the majority of buyers have at home charging as well, over time it’ll come down and you will need more public infrastructure like on street and workplace chargers.

Rapids are more for special occasions when you are heading in a trip away from home, not for your every day charging needs

chanjy · 5 May 2022 at 18:43

Also you lot are all dreaming if you think we can hit 40m EVs in 2035. Recent total car sales per year have struggled to go above 3m per annum they would have to sell only electrics for the next 13 years to make that.

Jonnycoupe · 5 May 2022 at 19:57

Careful with the “you lot”. We don’t all live in Utopia

sja360 · 7 May 2022 at 09:00

chanjy said:
Also you lot are all dreaming if you think we can hit 40m EVs in 2035. Recent total car sales per year have struggled to go above 3m per annum they would have to sell only electrics for the next 13 years to make that.

Likelihood is sales of ev's would increase year on year not remain at a set sales figure

chanjy · 7 May 2022 at 14:05

sja360 said:
Likelihood is sales of ev's would increase year on year not remain at a set sales figure

Yes of course it will increase year on year. But we are starting from a tiny base.

Can anyone who believes there will be 40m EVs by 2035 tell me why the overall new car purchase rate of 2.3-2.9m cars per year is suddenly going to be exceeded? Are UK incomes going to increase significantly? Are EVs going to come down in price below historical ICE vehicles so that loads more people can afford new cars?

There’s still a massive gap in the logic.

Jonnycoupe · 7 May 2022 at 14:08

It’s jpaul. There is no logic

sja360 · 7 May 2022 at 14:10

chanjy said:
Yes of course it will increase year on year. But we are starting from a tiny base.

Can anyone who believes there will be 40m EVs by 2035 tell me why the overall new car purchase rate of 2.3-2.9m cars per year is suddenly going to be exceeded? Are UK incomes going to increase significantly? Are EVs going to come down in price below historical ICE vehicles so that loads more people can afford new cars?

There’s still a massive gap in the logic.

I agree there are a lot of variables that won't make this obtainable. Mostly because of the uk government cutting ev grants tbh, if they want more they need to make it so cheap people will choose it over petrol/diesel equivalent

chanjy · 7 May 2022 at 14:14

sja360 said:
I agree there are a lot of variables that won't make this obtainable. Mostly because of the uk government cutting ev grants tbh, if they want more they need to make it so cheap people will choose it over petrol/diesel equivalent

Or the Norway strategy. Rather than giving money away, additional taxes on ICE at point of purchase makes ICE much less attractive.

Going to be a hard sell to politicians though