I'm aware things will change, but they will be more relevant if we aim for a more realistic target.
The message was not how many 7kw and 3kw chargers there were, but the balance of 22kw and above chargers.
My take is that 50kw will become the base level for on Street parking.
My stake in the ground..
I’ve been driving a BMW i3 around the UK for over three years and know my way around the charging networks on the major motorways plus the local situation in Manchester, Bristol and North London.
I have a realistic limit of 125 miles on a full charge so I do often need to make a stop to recharge when travelling. This shouldn’t be too challenging as, given the state of our motorways right now, 125 miles represents over two hours of driving and a stop and a short break isn’t a bad idea.
So what have I learned?
On motorways and trunk roads there’s no point in using 7kW ‘fast’ charger unless you’re desperate. They’re fine at pubs, restaurants, supermarkets and long stay car parks where you intend to spend some time but irrelevant if you’re going from A to B.
The complexity created by the CCS and CHAdeMO systems is a pain.
There’s just one thing that’s more annoying than the plethora of local/regional charging points that require a specific RFID card you don’t have and that’s a broken charger that you can use.
The state of the Ecotricity charging points that monopolise UK motorway service stations is appalling. If Dale Vince spent more time looking after his business and less on his Forest Green Rovers football team things might improve. I drove from Worcester back home to Cheshire last Saturday (100 miles) and there wasn’t a single CCS charger that was operational.
It’s really irritating to sit waiting for a Nissan Leaf driver to finish his coffee whilst staring at an empty row of Tesla chargers.
Milton Keynes is electric car charging central.
My i3 works brilliantly for the majority of the local journeys I make. I had solar panels installed over a decade ago. When my smart meter tells me I’m exporting to the grid I plug into a domestic socket using the slow charge setting to capture the exported energy. This means that my local mileage is, much of the time, carbon free and what’s even better is that the government pays me a feed in tariff for generating it so it’s essentially cost free as well.
Do I regret my decision to go electric? Not at all, but I am glad that I made the decision to buy the only car on the market with a “range extender” - a 600cc petrol engine that will charge the battery to hold the state of charge if you need to. I’ve used it in anger maybe five times but it was worth the extra cost and slight range reduction caused by the additional weight as it totally removes range anxiety.
There are good cost-based reasons why it’s 7kW chargers that dominate the UK network as this is the maximum possible for standard residential or small commercial buildings. A group of 50kW plus chargers requires the appropriate local grid infrastructure which is expensive. I suspect it will be a while before we have the infrastructure that will be needed to support the electrification of the UK’s roads that seems to be envisaged.
Final lesson learnt - slipstreaming a big truck at 60 mph works wonders for your range but I really wouldn’t recommend it!
