4 ms·

The fuel crisis in the UK has been great at being EV advocates out of the woodwork, but our infrastructure for charging cars is appalling and as I cycled I rath

by buro9 5y ago

The fuel crisis in the UK has been great at being EV advocates out of the woodwork, but our infrastructure for charging cars is appalling and as I cycled I rather smugly saw queues at the ev chargers too. But something like this for EVs that also shows the cost of charging would be great. Yes I know about zap map, etc... But in my area the choices are poor, the availability difficult to discover (rate limited and polling for status of chargers?), but mostly the payment is a nightmare with opaque pricing across wild and sometimes exorbitant ranges that seems difficult to discover. Would love to see this tool for EV chargers but with prices, public access, filterable, and centred on my location.

intricatedetail 5y ago
Without a network of nuclear power plants I fear the EV revolution will not come to fruition. The government seem to have jumped on the bandwagon without thinking it through.
- mavhc 5y ago
  Average USA electricity usage per capita: 12 MWh Average distance driven: 14300 miles Assume 4 miles/kwh, that's 3.5 MWh extra (although only 70% of people in USA are drivers)
- onethought 5y ago
  Standard outlet can add about 2kw/h so Rooftop solar cam more then cover most use cases if charging.
asim 5y ago
Probably not exactly what you're looking for but we do have an API for that https://m3o.com/evchargers/api#Search https://m3o.com/evchargers/api#Search
- buro9 5y ago
  Not far from what I'm looking for! Just needs: * Is it publicly accessible, and if restrictions exist based on time what times is it accessible (i.e. chargers in car parks that aren't open 24/7) * Can members of the public PAYG with no membership required? If so at what rate? And is this via contactless or requires a specific app? * Is it free right now and known to be in working order? Some of this you've covered... but there is no single view of this I can find, and things like Zap Map are partial and have some incorrect data (it's not unusual to be caught out by opening hours of a car park for example).
alias_neo 5y ago
The national grid is barely keeping up with current demand for electricity, I will be astounded if we manage to pull off anything nearing a reasonable solution to electrifying private vehicles. With the government imposing a ban on the manufacture of ICE vehicles this decade, we have an upper limit of what, 20 years before ICE vehicles are being run into the ground? Great for ICE mechanics in the UK I suppose. My dad recently retired from a team building substations all over the UK, using equipment from a well-respected European vendor, he noted that the contract has now gone to someone else making inferior equipment which he and other retired/semi-retired members of his team have been called back in to help rectify, in part because the skills and experience required exist with a very select few old-guard who've been doing the job for decades. Aside from that potentially not going well in the log run, I don't see how we can be ready, or even close to ready for electrification of private vehicles unless every parking space in the country becomes a charging point and huge additional power supplies are created. The Shell garage near my home, in a London borough is so far from anything useful, that if you manage to get one of the 3 electric charging stations there, you're either grabbing an Uber to head somewhere, or waiting in your car until it's charged, how are we going to work around the productivity decline of having to wait hours to charge up? Don't get me wrong, I would absolutely love to own and drive an EV but it's so impractical that I can't even consider it. It's an interesting problem that will be entertaining to watch play out, one way or another.
- onethought 5y ago
  To combat your anecdata: I have an ev, and a pile of solar, I charge at home on a standard plug that goes into a wall socket. I don’t use any grid power and my car stays charged. I don’t put any strain on the grid. Pretty obvious how ev ownership will play out. More chargers, more pv.
  - alias_neo 5y ago
    I'm not sure what "more pv" means here, apologies. I see your point, in your situation that's great, but I live in an Nth floor apartment in a London borough, I don't have an option for solar, nor for a wall socket to power an EV, nor do any of my neighbours. We're entirely at the mercy of Freeholders to consider putting EV charging in and _only_ charging us the price of a small motor vehicle for the privilege, if they'll do it at all. I suspect a significant percentage of the population, who like myself live in large cities or suburbs are in a similar position. Someone told me recently that a mandate is now in place for new-build to at least build infrastructure to support EV chargers in bays, even if they're not built ahead of time. Of course given the racket that is property development, they'll not put them in and charge you a pretty penny to add it after the fact.
leoedin 5y ago
We're talking about only selling EVs from 2030, but the state of EV chargers, especially in urban areas, is absolutely dire. And there doesn't seem to be enough recognition of that. Take for example the London borough of Haringey. There's 81 publicly accessible EV charging points, and they're making a song and dance about installing a further 37. https://www.haringey.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-travel/travel/electric-vehicles/electric-vehicles-charging-points/new-ev-charging-point-proposals https://www.haringey.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-travel/travel/... How many people live in Haringey? 270,000. Housing is predominantly flats and terraced housing. Even if there's only a car for every 4 people, that still means 67,500 EVs. There needs to be a couple of orders of magnitude more EV chargers to be anywhere close to "ready" for the EV transition.
- illwrks 5y ago
  I honestly think it will never be about EVs but about creating opportunities to increase tax.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- ashtonkem 5y ago
  EV chargers are easier to install than gas stations though; you can add them to an underground car park in a year or less, no problem. We created gas stations in less time, and they’re bigger and more logistically intense.

by buro9 5y ago

intricatedetail 5y ago

Without a network of nuclear power plants I fear the EV revolution will not come to fruition. The government seem to have jumped on the bandwagon without thinking it through.

mavhc 5y ago
Average USA electricity usage per capita: 12 MWh Average distance driven: 14300 miles Assume 4 miles/kwh, that's 3.5 MWh extra (although only 70% of people in USA are drivers)
onethought 5y ago
Standard outlet can add about 2kw/h so Rooftop solar cam more then cover most use cases if charging.

asim 5y ago

Probably not exactly what you're looking for but we do have an API for that https://m3o.com/evchargers/api#Search https://m3o.com/evchargers/api#Search

buro9 5y ago
Not far from what I'm looking for! Just needs: * Is it publicly accessible, and if restrictions exist based on time what times is it accessible (i.e. chargers in car parks that aren't open 24/7) * Can members of the public PAYG with no membership required? If so at what rate? And is this via contactless or requires a specific app? * Is it free right now and known to be in working order? Some of this you've covered... but there is no single view of this I can find, and things like Zap Map are partial and have some incorrect data (it's not unusual to be caught out by opening hours of a car park for example).

alias_neo 5y ago

The national grid is barely keeping up with current demand for electricity, I will be astounded if we manage to pull off anything nearing a reasonable solution to electrifying private vehicles. With the government imposing a ban on the manufacture of ICE vehicles this decade, we have an upper limit of what, 20 years before ICE vehicles are being run into the ground? Great for ICE mechanics in the UK I suppose. My dad recently retired from a team building substations all over the UK, using equipment from a well-respected European vendor, he noted that the contract has now gone to someone else making inferior equipment which he and other retired/semi-retired members of his team have been called back in to help rectify, in part because the skills and experience required exist with a very select few old-guard who've been doing the job for decades. Aside from that potentially not going well in the log run, I don't see how we can be ready, or even close to ready for electrification of private vehicles unless every parking space in the country becomes a charging point and huge additional power supplies are created. The Shell garage near my home, in a London borough is so far from anything useful, that if you manage to get one of the 3 electric charging stations there, you're either grabbing an Uber to head somewhere, or waiting in your car until it's charged, how are we going to work around the productivity decline of having to wait hours to charge up? Don't get me wrong, I would absolutely love to own and drive an EV but it's so impractical that I can't even consider it. It's an interesting problem that will be entertaining to watch play out, one way or another.

onethought 5y ago
To combat your anecdata: I have an ev, and a pile of solar, I charge at home on a standard plug that goes into a wall socket. I don’t use any grid power and my car stays charged. I don’t put any strain on the grid. Pretty obvious how ev ownership will play out. More chargers, more pv.
- alias_neo 5y ago
  I'm not sure what "more pv" means here, apologies. I see your point, in your situation that's great, but I live in an Nth floor apartment in a London borough, I don't have an option for solar, nor for a wall socket to power an EV, nor do any of my neighbours. We're entirely at the mercy of Freeholders to consider putting EV charging in and _only_ charging us the price of a small motor vehicle for the privilege, if they'll do it at all. I suspect a significant percentage of the population, who like myself live in large cities or suburbs are in a similar position. Someone told me recently that a mandate is now in place for new-build to at least build infrastructure to support EV chargers in bays, even if they're not built ahead of time. Of course given the racket that is property development, they'll not put them in and charge you a pretty penny to add it after the fact.

leoedin 5y ago

We're talking about only selling EVs from 2030, but the state of EV chargers, especially in urban areas, is absolutely dire. And there doesn't seem to be enough recognition of that. Take for example the London borough of Haringey. There's 81 publicly accessible EV charging points, and they're making a song and dance about installing a further 37. https://www.haringey.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-travel/travel/electric-vehicles/electric-vehicles-charging-points/new-ev-charging-point-proposals https://www.haringey.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-travel/travel/... How many people live in Haringey? 270,000. Housing is predominantly flats and terraced housing. Even if there's only a car for every 4 people, that still means 67,500 EVs. There needs to be a couple of orders of magnitude more EV chargers to be anywhere close to "ready" for the EV transition.

illwrks 5y ago
I honestly think it will never be about EVs but about creating opportunities to increase tax.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
ashtonkem 5y ago
EV chargers are easier to install than gas stations though; you can add them to an underground car park in a year or less, no problem. We created gas stations in less time, and they’re bigger and more logistically intense.