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Life without a home charger?

I was watching a video last night and I was shocked to hear that there is only one rapid charger located in Cambridge !.
Apparently it is single 50 Kw Genie Point ( not the best ) and is located Morrisons car park.
I thought given the size of Cambridge, this was pretty poor.
Having home charging facilities is brilliant if you wish to take up EV ownership, but I don’t understand why local authorities are not doing more to encourage its take up ???.
All they need to do, is find a piece of land and offer it up to the likes of Instavolt etc and they will pay ALL of the installation costs if the site is suitable.
It’s a win win in my eyes !.
Ah, he's talking about Canterbury, not Cambridge 😏
 
Ah, he's talking about Canterbury, not Cambridge 😏
Oh ….. I am sorry 😢.
Completely wrong end of the country for us !.
I guess his point about the lack of EV charging and it’s effects of more EV adoption is the same for a big percentage of the country, with the exception of Milton Keynes ?.
 
Here is Andrews video highlighting the lack of rapid units in Cambridge.
He makes some very valid points on the lack of EV infrastructure I think.
Worth a view !.


It's Canterbury not Cambridge. :)

Edit, beaten to it, I sometimes wonder how that man gets from A to B, a very non-techy approach.
 
He has just completed a trip to Rome and back in an EV ( but not the Leaf ).
Indeed, he did this in the Ioniq, he also previously documented the trip in a previous e-Niro.
He changes cars more often than I change my underwear. (not really :ROFLMAO: )
 
Indeed, he did this in the Ioniq, he also previously documented the trip in a previous e-Niro.
He changes cars more often than I change my underwear. (not really :ROFLMAO: )
He does to be fair !.
He had a Fiat 500e for about six weeks and sold it.
He gets in an order early, buys the car and sells them on !.
The trip to Rome in the Leaf would take a life time !.
 
Ubitricity has adjusted their pricing yet again, so the 5kW lamppost chargers round our way are now more expensive than using a 50kW rapid in some instances:

"From October 1st 2022, charging prices across the ubitricity network will increase to reflect our higher energy supply costs.
Old price 32p/kWh + 35p connection fee per charging session
New price from 49p/kWh + 35p connection fee per charging session
We will review our prices again in November.

To check the price at your local charge point, please use either Direct Access or the Shell Recharge App.
What does this mean for you?

From October 1st, charging sessions at the majority of ubitricity charge points across the country will be charged at the new price. Before you start charging, the price will be displayed on your phone and you’ll receive a detailed invoice of every charging session explaining the costs."

 
Ubitricity has adjusted their pricing yet again, so the 5kW lamppost chargers round our way are now more expensive than using a 50kW rapid in some instances:

"From October 1st 2022, charging prices across the ubitricity network will increase to reflect our higher energy supply costs.
Old price 32p/kWh + 35p connection fee per charging session
New price from 49p/kWh + 35p connection fee per charging session
We will review our prices again in November.

To check the price at your local charge point, please use either Direct Access or the Shell Recharge App.
What does this mean for you?

From October 1st, charging sessions at the majority of ubitricity charge points across the country will be charged at the new price. Before you start charging, the price will be displayed on your phone and you’ll receive a detailed invoice of every charging session explaining the costs."

Yeah I sadly saw the jump. I am still keeping an eye on Connected Kerb as their current pricing is 19p/kwh if you use their "ECO" pricing.
 
I was reading about the 'Fair Charge' campaign today about the cost of charging for people without a home charge & have to rely on public chargersr. It's costs them an additional £227 per year extra to charge their EV.
 
I was reading about the 'Fair Charge' campaign today about the cost of charging for people without a home charge & have to rely on public chargersr. It's costs them an additional £227 per year extra to charge their EV.
It is definitely more to charges for us that cannot have gone chargers but was interesting readying about the tax difference. Let’s hope something changes.
 
Was just about to post this😜
:ROFLMAO: It must've popped up in our feeds at the same time.

I think there was some good basic info for those that are considering an EV, but have no parking. Most of it I'd come across, but ChargeLight is a provider I'd not heard of - at the moment they are cheaper than Ubitricity, although I'm not sure how long that'll last.

There's a section at the bottom to register interest, although if your area is in need of lamppost chargers then you should address this directly with your local council primarily: EV Owners - ChargeLight
 
I know this is posted elsewhere, but the 'it doesn't make a difference to me as I can charge at home for tuppence' responses I've seen in places, isn't really insightful. I'd be interested to know whether the loss of free top-ups at Tesco (and probably others) makes a difference or not to those of you who are, or will be, solely reliant on higher priced public charging:

There are changes taking place across the Tesco EV charging network. From 1 November there will be new prices for using charging points. Here’s everything you need to know about the new prices.

Tesco is introducing the following new tariffs for charging at its stores.
Power ratingPrice per kWh
7kW28p/kWh
22kW40p/kWh
50kW50p/kWh
Source: Price update at Tesco stores | FAQs | Pod Point

No cost charging wasn't something I factored in, and figured it'd come to an end at some point. Nevertheless it would've been helpful to me, especially with the likes of Ubitricity recently increasing to 49p/kWh + 35p per connection on a 5kW lamppost.

Are these Tesco changes any kind of loss to you? Or are these fees actually a positive step in that you might now be able to get on those chargers, since the free facility was being abused by some users leaving their vehicles hours on end?
 
I'm having to reassess our regular free topping up at Tesco which has been fine for our round town regular use, I have changed to Octopus Go (planning to use granny charger) and done some more research about getting battery storage fitted so that we can reuse our Solar PV.
 
Honestly I factored in 5p off-peak charging with octopus Go. But actually get free charging at work. Now my Go is 7.5p but still economically sound.

Should the free charging at work cease all of the other economic pressures will start to sting really hard. Currently more concerned about my mortgage going from 1.17% to 5% plus when my fix ends summer 23.

Thankfully work has solar and I don't plan on changing jobs, the person calling the shots is my boss and I'm lined up for his job I'm 2 years and certainly won't shoot myself in the foot.

I'm always mindful of the fact I'm in a good position, paying £1/kw for public charging would honestly be nauseating so I really sympathise.
 
I'm having to reassess our regular free topping up at Tesco which has been fine for our round town regular use, I have changed to Octopus Go (planning to use granny charger) and done some more research about getting battery storage fitted so that we can reuse our Solar PV.
Were you actually shopping or were you just availing yourself of the freebie electrons. An hour shopping would only generally get you about 20/25 miles range, so not really a large loss at say once a week shopping.
 
I know this is posted elsewhere, but the 'it doesn't make a difference to me as I can charge at home for tuppence' responses I've seen in places, isn't really insightful. I'd be interested to know whether the loss of free top-ups at Tesco (and probably others) makes a difference or not to those of you who are, or will be, solely reliant on higher priced public charging:



No cost charging wasn't something I factored in, and figured it'd come to an end at some point. Nevertheless it would've been helpful to me, especially with the likes of Ubitricity recently increasing to 49p/kWh + 35p per connection on a 5kW lamppost.

Are these Tesco changes any kind of loss to you? Or are these fees actually a positive step in that you might now be able to get on those chargers, since the free facility was being abused by some users leaving their vehicles hours on end?
Hey

I am still in the theory stage as still waiting for the car to turn up.
I had planned on using free charging but as others have said not counted on just figured I am there shopping so might as well. My Tesco is 3 miles away so if I get 20+ miles I’d charge while there makes sense. Grazing is the best way for me with no home charger.

As I cannot have a home charger I am always watching the public charger costings. Higher prices make the saving of an EV less but compared to my diesel people carrier still a saving. It’s not just the fuel it’s the parking fees, road tax etc that are a big saving in themselves.

Right not connected kerb is my best bet with a 19p/kWh rate.
 
Hey

I am still in the theory stage as still waiting for the car to turn up.
I had planned on using free charging but as others have said not counted on just figured I am there shopping so might as well. My Tesco is 3 miles away so if I get 20+ miles I’d charge while there makes sense. Grazing is the best way for me with no home charger.

As I cannot have a home charger I am always watching the public charger costings. Higher prices make the saving of an EV less but compared to my diesel people carrier still a saving. It’s not just the fuel it’s the parking fees, road tax etc that are a big saving in themselves.

Right not connected kerb is my best bet with a 19p/kWh rate.
Our local Tesco limits parking to 2 hours, so for me it's not really worth going there now. When it comes to Connected Kerb, there aren't many chargers within our reach and the ones there are cost 35p/kWh.

We are fast approaching a line where we will actually be better off monetarily to sell the ZS when it arrives and buy a petrol Q3, even with fuel prices as they are.
 
Ubitricity have changed their pricing structure yet again:

From the 30th November 2022 ubitricity will be rolling out a new pricing structure:

  • We will be reducing our standard pricing rate from 49p to 45p per kWh which will be available to all customers for 21 hours of the day
  • We will be introducing peak pricing between the hours of 4-7pm. The peak pricing will be 79p per kWh

1. We are lowering our standard price for the majority of the day

We are lowering our standard rates for 21 hours of the day. Outside of 4-7pm all charging will now cost 45p per kWh.

2. Introducing peak hours pricing

We are introducing a peak pricing rate between 4-7PM. The peak pricing will be 79p per kWh.
Electricity isn’t one price throughout the day. Between 4-7pm the price we pay to supply our charge points with electricity more than doubles due to peak demand on the national grid.
Rather than distribute this increased cost throughout our standard pricing. we’ve decided to limit this price increase to a peak window. This helps ensure we can offer the best value reduced rate to our customers for the majority of the day.
Our own customer data has shown that over 77% of charging typically happens outside of this window, so by having a short three-hour peak window we hope to give our customers the option to avoid these higher charges and access a lower standard rate for the remaining 21 hours of the day.
Peak-Hours.jpg

3. Skip the peak – helping customers to reduce charging costs

Alongside lowering our standard rate from 49p to 45p per kWh, we will also be rolling out our new Smart charging technology to allow customers to skip the peak pricing. Direct access customers who plug in from 12:00PM (midday) will be given the option automatically schedule their charge to start after the peak window has finished (from 7pm).

Source: ubitricity charge points: fair prices for easy charging
 
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