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There are 170,000 cars in Manchester for 551,000 people. And one day soon, the vast majority will be electric.
Last year, a fifth of all new cars sold were all-electric. On average, electric models are still more expensive than petrol or diesel cars, but some EVs are now cheaper than their fossil fuel counterparts.
Is Manchester ready for an EV revolution?
The electric revolution promises quieter streets and cleaner air. But it also presents problems.
EVs are usually much heavier than traditional combustion engine cars, making them more dangerous if they hit a pedestrian or cyclist.
They’re so heavy that they can break kerbstones down faster, due to the weight of the batteries pressing down for extended periods of time when parked.
Where are all of Manchester’s EV chargers?
Is Manchester ready for an Electric Car revolution?
But the big issue Manchester Town Hall is now grappling with is how residents will be able to charge thousands of battery-powered cars.
While some have driveways where they can install a home-charger, ‘very few’ Mancunian homes have off-street parking.
In London, this is sometimes solved by installing chargers inside lamp-posts. But that’s not considered viable in Manchester as only 3pc of the city’s lamp-posts sit on the ‘kerb’ side of the road to house EV chargers.
It means owners need to charge their car at a public charger nearby, or drape a cable across the pavement.
That’s a problem on Nicolas Road in Chorlton, according to local councillor Tina Kirwin-McGinley.
Dangerous car charging techniques
“People are hanging leads over trees,” she told a council environment scrutiny meeting last week (7th October). “The lead is not on the pavement, so it’s not a trip hazard, but I am sure it cannot be very safe.”
Leafy and lined with classic redbrick terraces and semis, Nicolas Road’s proximity to well-rated Oswald Road Primary School and parks means it’s easy to see why well-off Mancs want to raise a family here.
Semis regularly sell for more than half a million pounds, and plenty of its inhabitants work in professional fields.
Many EV owners here joined the electric revolution with a company car. Mum Lauren Beebe is one.
She seems to like her hybrid Mercedes, but hasn’t forked out the £800 for a home charger, because she hasn’t got a driveway.
“Until I know how much charge I need versus how much it is for petrol, I will not shell out for an £800 charger at home,” explained Lauren, a national sales manager for a paint company.
“I cover the whole UK, so if I go fully electric to get a free charger [at home], I would still mean I am out on the road charging.”
Does car charging take too long at the moment?
She’s worried that being fully-electric will mean taking meetings from service stations while she re-charges, which she says takes too long at the moment. And when you have to regularly drive from Dorset for work, like Lauren does, that’s ‘a barrier to going fully electric’.
Sarah Phillips, a 39-year-old actuary, has had an electric car for years. Before she moved to her home with a driveway and home charger, she had to drag a cable over the pavement for her hybrid.
“It wasn’t ideal, but you could get a cover over it,” she explained. Another option was going to the then-free-to-use public charger on Oswald Road, a two-minute walk away.
“That was great,” she added, but admitted that since it now costs to charge, her family wouldn’t have gone electric unless they could charge on a driveway at home.
She’s happy they waited: “It’s great. I’ve had no issues. It works really well.”
Husband-and-wife Steve and Jenny Lee have an all-electric Hyundai through his work in the chemical industry. He has to work in the office five days a week, giving him an ideal opportunity to charge the car.
That explains why the duo didn’t fork out the £1,000-plus quoted for a home charger.
But despite the relative plain sailing, Jenny said she wouldn’t make the switch.
“If I were buying a new car now, I would not buy electric,” she explained. “We went to London [last weekend] and got to a service, and all the chargers were full.
“Charging availability has got better, but the ones at the services are expensive.
“Factoring in more time [for journeys] means you have to take a break. That’s a positive, but not if you’re commuting.”
Lauren, Sarah, Jenny, and Steve are at the forefront of the electric revolution, solving charging problems as they come up. But councillors are ‘really concerned’ about how authorities will solve those issues on a city-wide scale.
The challenge of finding EV chargers
“I do think we need a proper systemic way of meeting all of these safety things,” said Coun Mandie Shilton-Godwin.
“The question of enabling people to walk on the pavement is so important. [We have] 170,000 cars, and very few people have their own off-street parking.
“Finding off-street charging is really challenging. Are we going to talk about people being unable to drive their cars because they cannot charge them?”
Looking for a car charger in Manchester? See a full map here
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