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Charging Site Review

I suspect it's never that busy but still pays its way.

I think there's an unusual element at play when it comes to motorists' willingness to put up with silly prices. I've felt it in myself, and I heard another EV driver express it openly at a charger he couldn't get to work.

"I hardly ever use these things, I don't care what it costs I just want to get the car charged."

Most people are charging at home most of the time, often on very low variable tariffs. When they charge on a rapid charger the total cost isn't actually that much anyway - they're not starting from zero and they're not charging to 100%, and most EV batteries have a much lower range than a car's petrol tank. The bills of £70 and £80 to fill up don't happen, and when the most you're likely to be charged for an occasional visit to a rapid charger is maybe £25 there's much less incentive to cruise around looking for the cheapest. Most of your motoring is done at a much lower cost than that, so 65p a unit (or more) at a rapid charger doesn't really seem like a lot once in a while. Even though it's twice the price of the average domestic electricity supply.

It will be interesting to see how this develops as more and more people who don't have home charging get EVs, and people start to get selective about which chargers they use based on the price. I mean, a range from 30p to 79p per unit for rapid charging (which I've seen) is a bit hard to justify.
My first journey to Heathrow and back last year was an experiment in seeing how easy it would be to travel using the cheapest chargers.

What a disaster that was!

It was 8.00am on a Sunday morning near Hounslow and there was a queue at the first one I tried (Pod-Point 50kW). The next Pod-Point was offline, and the third one was also in use, but fortunately they were just doing a 10 minute "splash and dash".

A taxi driver who was waiting for me to finish explained that the chargers were so busy because of the new clean air zone. Everyone was buying EV's to avoid the fee, but had to park on street so needed to use the cheap chargers.
 
Something is going to have to be done about that. They can't go on pressurising people to buy EVs then making it hugely difficult to charge them. Or massively expensive.

My friend in Glasgow has a 10 year old Polo which is still legal in Glasgow (the low emissions zone was activated yesterday I think) but hankers after an EV. She only has on-street parking. Having looked at the situation around her house, I think it's hopeless at the moment. She'd pretty much have to live off rapid chargers, which aren't that close and aren't that cheap. Since you have to charge most EVs more often than you'd fill a Polo up with petrol, and it takes longer, the idea of sitting for half an hour or an hour on a rapid charger maybe twice as often as she'd visit a petrol station doesn't appeal. And as for balance charging, how? There are no type 2 chargers within walking distance of her house either.

Maybe for a two-car family, when the driver can be picked up by his or her partner in the other car, this might not be too onerous. But for a single person, or indeed a family with only one car, the logistics get insane. You go from a quick visit to a petrol station once in a while, five to ten minutes and you're done and dusted and good to go for maybe 400 miles more, to constantly hanging around rapid chargers and scratching your head about how you manage balance charging.

I've told my friend to keep her Polo (which is low mileage, one careful lady owner) for another few years and keep an eye on what happens as regards new charger installations. If they put decent chargers into her local supermarket the equation might change. But then, what is the pent-up potential for EV ownership likely to be? There are a lot of people in mid-terrace houses and flats in Gasgow, and a decent increase in charging opportunities might just lead to such a flood of new EV drivers that they'd be immediately overwhelmed.
 
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