So what does accepting smart phones with alacrity but dragging my heels on EVs make me?
My hurdle is not having a place to "safely" plug in and charge, I cannot trail a cable out of my living room window, across the pavement to my car without causing a tripping hazard (although I wonder if some have tried). If I had a house with a driveway, believe me, it would be a serious consideration to have at least a Plug In Hybrid and if my mileage went down a Pure electric would be the next.
even half an hour in a motorway service station is my idea of hell (especially on a Saturday morning) and not really a rest.
The next charger on a motorway could be a fair distance away, and your fancy gizmo will tell you if they are being used now, not when you get there behind the other people who have had to skip the busy ones. I don’t think I have ever queued for petrol on the motorway.
OK on smartphones but behind the curve on EVs.So what does accepting smart phones with alacrity but dragging my heels on EVs make me?
The nearest one might not be on a motorway, just like plenty of drivers now object to higher fuel prices at service areas and have favourite nearby garages to go to. Plus, as been said before, EV drivers don't drive until the charge is nearly zero and then panic any more than sensible IC drivers wait until the empty lamp has been on for 50 miles.
I made sure I researched it, my house is on a street similar to Coronation Street, row of houses with small alley behind onto another row of houses, front door opens onto the pavement, no residents bays which means trying as hard as possible to get a space outside my door, no mean feat when the primary school across the road lets their staff park wherever. The local council are good at being green and have already started doing the work for renewable energy for all council owned buildings and one thing they were looking at was charging points in the streetlights, only issue is our streetlights in our street are attached to the houses and not at the edge of the pavement.
Everybody will (eventually) be catered for as it is in everybody's interest that IC engines are removed from regular use. I envisage that in situations such as yours where there are no pavement mounted street light that some form of kerbside trapdoor outlet can be fitted, i.e similar to water stopcock/meter pockets or the plethora of utility access chambers. Given that some areas will need the power distribution network to be reinforced to enable electric heating to replace gas & other fossil fuel burning, there will be opportunities to install such access for street charging.
Someone in Belgium is selling charger poles that swing out from the wall at first floor level but I cannot find the manufacturers name. I think the swing was app controlled so you did not have to use your own pole but could use any compatible one and the app handled payment.
My first smart phone was an HTC Desire in 2010 or 11. (My first mobile was a Nokia 5110 in 1999)
I do use the services, but don’t stop for long - I find little gain for staying longer than a brisk 5-10 minutes walk to the loos and back. Obviously if doing a Scotland run I will need a food stop but still prob only 20 mins.
And so it will be for chargers.
Why is that? If an ICE card suits my situation now and that situation doesn't change why would the fact that other people are buying EVs change my needs.
Im not convinced that ultimately BEVs will be more than a temporary or partial solution. I reckon in another 10 years the future could well be FCEVs, unless there's an affordable and practical alternative to the current Lithium Ion batteries whose green credentials are to say the least dubious.
In my humble view, it's both cost of said EV vehicle and availability of said charger infrastructure both public and private including costs of providing electricity to charge up said vehicle.
The infrastructure may be developing quickly but until we get to a state that you can charge at any service station, it will still be hit and miss where charging points are for example, there is nowhere on my street that offers it nor is there any such points at work unless I drive to a council car park and walk 20 mins to work which defeats the object if I'm buying a car to commute to work, also leases can be expensive eg leases are more geared to business use then personal use eg one company offers a personal lease over 48 months at a rate of £257.00 a month for personal use however a business lease is only £214.00 so until the personal leases see lower costs, I have no interest in driving a EV.Interesting diagram, perhaps a little out of date. And... 1000 tonne airliners?
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
Cost is, of course more than just the upfront purchase price. When you look at typical total costs on a monthly basis, EVs look very attractive. There’s a whole host of EVs you can lease for under £300/month, and a few in the £200/month bracket. Add in ‘fuel’ costs of 5p/mile or less if you have the right tariff, and minimal servicing requirements, and anyone buying a new car should serious consider it.
Charger infrastructure - as explained upthread it’s largely perception rather than reality. It’s not perfect and there are issues for some people - specifically those who routinely drive 300 mile so plus in one go and / or live where their parking space is not near their domestic power supply. However the charger situation is developing quickly. And as I said earlier, of all the people I know with EVs, none have ever had any charging ‘anxiety’ issues, and none would revert to ICE cars.
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/64MCSCSSBRKS3N5P3QAYJZGUCQ.jpg)
www.reuters.com
The battery manufacturer CATL recently announced they had developed a sodium ion battery, free from lithium, nickel and cobalt, which is expected to go into production in the next couple of years. At the moment the energy density isn't quite as good as lithium ion, but if the lack of expensive and rare metals means it's lower cost to produce, it might be a potential game changer.
If this makes it possible to produce large volumes of batteries at low cost, from readily available materials, the impact could be huge.
CATL's new sodium ion battery to help ease lithium shortages
The development of a new sodium-ion battery by Chinese battery giant CATL is expected in the coming years to relieve pressure on lithium supplies, which are forecast to see shortages as early as 2022.
Will that apply to small rural communities or caravan sites? I doubt it
