Given we will only be allowed to buy electric cars in 8 years time. Being unhappy with the current provision is going to bode well for the complete carnage in the future.
If you don’t own a driveway, do your research extremely well to avoid discontentment.
Prices are higher than residential electricity. What will you do if the charger is broken, being used, too expensive?
Who do I sue when I trip over a charging cable coming from a terrace house?
This I can relate too. Charging stations can be a pain to find and are either filled or vandalised.
Makes planning a trip more an adventure
Because they are comparing it to the decades old petrol fuelling situation.
I’ve driven nearly 40k miles in an EV over the last two years and yes, the charging network could be way better, but I am old enough to remember how poor the petrol station situation was nearly 50 years ago.
It will happen, it just needs time, planning and money, and people to appreciate that public charging is not going to be as convenient as refueling a fuel car for a while, but if you can charge at home, it’s already way more convenient.
What’s it like in other countries? I hear in Norway nearly every driver has an EV now, have they rolled out public charging considerably?
I’m seeing a lot of EVs on the road here in greater Manchester but very little charging places in supermarket car parks and the like. Where there is charging available it’s always like 2 slots. A token gesture basically. I’m assuming the EVs drivers are just wealthy, have driveways, and charge at home.
Well yeah. They are too few, too unreliable, and you have to install about twenty apps on your phone for all the different networks. It completely sucks.
In my experience it’s mostly fine, just avoid BP chargers.
I’ve not really had any problems, places are getting more chargers quite quickly.
Perhaps they should have thought a bit more about this before buying an EV.
EV’s good for the planet, I think not.
Perhaps they should have also read the report from Volvo as well, that shows because of the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere during the production of an EV compared to an ICE car, any new EV will have to be driven over 50’000 miles before it draws level with an ICE in terms of damage to the environment. Only after this 50’000 miles will your EV be better for the planet, and that’s if you have solar panels and your own charger.
One out of four drive a Tesla, I guess. Because that is the only decent charging system and has been for nearly a decade. Even now, no other system comes close to what Tesla delivered from day one.
Currently EVs are mostly owned by people who get them tax-free from salary sacrifice or personal companies, pay zero road tax and pay reduced or zero other taxes (eg 5% VAT on home electricity vs fuel duty and 20% VAT on petrol and Diesel). They are, in effect, toys for the wealthy subsidised by less wealthy taxpayers. The increasing losses to the Treasury mean that as they rise in numbers such cars will have their tax breaks reduced, making them more expensive than petrol and diesel cars. Many ordinary people will be priced out. We don’t have enough electricity as it is.
Theft of charging cables is on the rise. I sat next to an EV driver who was stranded at a motorway service station as all the chargers were unserviceable.
Welcome to the brave new world of Net Zero transport, where the rich motor and the poor walk.
In my town to don’t nearly have enough charging points if we’re only allowed to buy EVs in 2035.
Usually see 2 or 4 charging spaces in out of town supermarkets, maybe a couple in the car parks dotted about (usually occupied and probably not nearly enough to satisfy demand) and zero off street charging.
Even at work with their “oh yes we’re environmentally friendly” bullshit we’ve only got two charging points and they’re not even in the main car park and always used by the maintenance crews EVs.
I’m keen to buy an EV once my ICE cars are due for retirement (probably closer to 2030s lol) so hopefully the charging point situation improves.
It’s almost as if leaving a massive infrastructure need to private sector or pushing it solely onto local councils while cutting their funding is kinda sorta maybe not the way to go.
V8 owner here. Why would I want to buy an electric car?
Its going to be the same everywhere. We have about 20 chargers at work and they are about to launch an electric car scheme. On any one day there’s approx 200 cars in the carpark.
i tend to go to Handsworth in birmingham to see the inlaws sometimes and you’d think being the city of birmingham thats pushing the clean air there’s a huge void in that whole area where there isnt a charge point. Central birmingham.
Along the main routes i think they’re served quite well but drift off the track and you’ll be struggling. I drove from lancashire to folkstone and used ones in milton keynes and cambridge which got me home. sticking to the main routes is fair enough but it cant always be.
i dont have a charger at home so i leave it at a lidl to charge. i contacted my local council and apparently there’s scheme’s being tested but not heard anything else from them. these schemes need to be pushed out quicker. the whole trip issue needs to be addressed by law too
Of course they are; the charging infrastructure is nigh on non-existent right now.
What I don’t understand is why are these chargers so unreliable/seemingly difficult to maintain? Please, can somebody more knowledgeable in the ways of heavy duty electronics enlighten me as to why so many are faulty at all times? On a foundational level it seems like a relatively simple device…which makes me think it must be the backend computer systems that are the issue?
I took my electric car on its first long distance trip last month, 250 miles when the car’s range is 200 so I knew I’d need to charge up on the way.
First motorway services I tried – I found out that the chargers have 2 cables yet can only charge 1 car at a time! There was a queue and a 2 hour parking limit so I tried the next services. Couldn’t find the chargers so onto a third where I got a charger parking space but had to wait 45 mins for the person already charging to finish before I could start. So that was nearly 2 hours spent there.
At my destination I was unable to charge overnight so needed another fast charging station. Local supermarket had one – out of service. So had to drive to another town.
It was the most stressful experience, which I never want to repeat. The public charging infrastructure just isn’t there. If you don’t have a Tesla, the motorway services offer a max of 2 machines, which just isn’t sufficient for the volume of electric cars on the road now.
I shall stick with my hybrid thank you very much 🙂
Went on holiday to Cornwall, saw very very few car chargers, wouldn’t have been able to charge at my camp site either. Just very inconvenient having to specifically go out of my way on holiday to find somewhere to charge.
20 comments
Given we will only be allowed to buy electric cars in 8 years time. Being unhappy with the current provision is going to bode well for the complete carnage in the future.
If you don’t own a driveway, do your research extremely well to avoid discontentment.
Prices are higher than residential electricity. What will you do if the charger is broken, being used, too expensive?
Who do I sue when I trip over a charging cable coming from a terrace house?
This I can relate too. Charging stations can be a pain to find and are either filled or vandalised.
Makes planning a trip more an adventure
Because they are comparing it to the decades old petrol fuelling situation.
I’ve driven nearly 40k miles in an EV over the last two years and yes, the charging network could be way better, but I am old enough to remember how poor the petrol station situation was nearly 50 years ago.
It will happen, it just needs time, planning and money, and people to appreciate that public charging is not going to be as convenient as refueling a fuel car for a while, but if you can charge at home, it’s already way more convenient.
What’s it like in other countries? I hear in Norway nearly every driver has an EV now, have they rolled out public charging considerably?
I’m seeing a lot of EVs on the road here in greater Manchester but very little charging places in supermarket car parks and the like. Where there is charging available it’s always like 2 slots. A token gesture basically. I’m assuming the EVs drivers are just wealthy, have driveways, and charge at home.
Well yeah. They are too few, too unreliable, and you have to install about twenty apps on your phone for all the different networks. It completely sucks.
In my experience it’s mostly fine, just avoid BP chargers.
I’ve not really had any problems, places are getting more chargers quite quickly.
Perhaps they should have thought a bit more about this before buying an EV.
EV’s good for the planet, I think not.
Perhaps they should have also read the report from Volvo as well, that shows because of the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere during the production of an EV compared to an ICE car, any new EV will have to be driven over 50’000 miles before it draws level with an ICE in terms of damage to the environment. Only after this 50’000 miles will your EV be better for the planet, and that’s if you have solar panels and your own charger.
One out of four drive a Tesla, I guess. Because that is the only decent charging system and has been for nearly a decade. Even now, no other system comes close to what Tesla delivered from day one.
Currently EVs are mostly owned by people who get them tax-free from salary sacrifice or personal companies, pay zero road tax and pay reduced or zero other taxes (eg 5% VAT on home electricity vs fuel duty and 20% VAT on petrol and Diesel). They are, in effect, toys for the wealthy subsidised by less wealthy taxpayers. The increasing losses to the Treasury mean that as they rise in numbers such cars will have their tax breaks reduced, making them more expensive than petrol and diesel cars. Many ordinary people will be priced out. We don’t have enough electricity as it is.
Theft of charging cables is on the rise. I sat next to an EV driver who was stranded at a motorway service station as all the chargers were unserviceable.
Welcome to the brave new world of Net Zero transport, where the rich motor and the poor walk.
In my town to don’t nearly have enough charging points if we’re only allowed to buy EVs in 2035.
Usually see 2 or 4 charging spaces in out of town supermarkets, maybe a couple in the car parks dotted about (usually occupied and probably not nearly enough to satisfy demand) and zero off street charging.
Even at work with their “oh yes we’re environmentally friendly” bullshit we’ve only got two charging points and they’re not even in the main car park and always used by the maintenance crews EVs.
I’m keen to buy an EV once my ICE cars are due for retirement (probably closer to 2030s lol) so hopefully the charging point situation improves.
It’s almost as if leaving a massive infrastructure need to private sector or pushing it solely onto local councils while cutting their funding is kinda sorta maybe not the way to go.
V8 owner here. Why would I want to buy an electric car?
Its going to be the same everywhere. We have about 20 chargers at work and they are about to launch an electric car scheme. On any one day there’s approx 200 cars in the carpark.
i tend to go to Handsworth in birmingham to see the inlaws sometimes and you’d think being the city of birmingham thats pushing the clean air there’s a huge void in that whole area where there isnt a charge point. Central birmingham.
Along the main routes i think they’re served quite well but drift off the track and you’ll be struggling. I drove from lancashire to folkstone and used ones in milton keynes and cambridge which got me home. sticking to the main routes is fair enough but it cant always be.
i dont have a charger at home so i leave it at a lidl to charge. i contacted my local council and apparently there’s scheme’s being tested but not heard anything else from them. these schemes need to be pushed out quicker. the whole trip issue needs to be addressed by law too
Of course they are; the charging infrastructure is nigh on non-existent right now.
What I don’t understand is why are these chargers so unreliable/seemingly difficult to maintain? Please, can somebody more knowledgeable in the ways of heavy duty electronics enlighten me as to why so many are faulty at all times? On a foundational level it seems like a relatively simple device…which makes me think it must be the backend computer systems that are the issue?
I took my electric car on its first long distance trip last month, 250 miles when the car’s range is 200 so I knew I’d need to charge up on the way.
First motorway services I tried – I found out that the chargers have 2 cables yet can only charge 1 car at a time! There was a queue and a 2 hour parking limit so I tried the next services. Couldn’t find the chargers so onto a third where I got a charger parking space but had to wait 45 mins for the person already charging to finish before I could start. So that was nearly 2 hours spent there.
At my destination I was unable to charge overnight so needed another fast charging station. Local supermarket had one – out of service. So had to drive to another town.
It was the most stressful experience, which I never want to repeat. The public charging infrastructure just isn’t there. If you don’t have a Tesla, the motorway services offer a max of 2 machines, which just isn’t sufficient for the volume of electric cars on the road now.
I shall stick with my hybrid thank you very much 🙂
Went on holiday to Cornwall, saw very very few car chargers, wouldn’t have been able to charge at my camp site either. Just very inconvenient having to specifically go out of my way on holiday to find somewhere to charge.