Cerebus: I'm not handwaving. I just know that this is not such an insurmountable problem. It only requires a bit of innovative thinking rather than not looking past the roadblock.
Ok, that is what I have said several times. Many, but not all people from the UK, who discuss this seem to think it is an intractable problem. I'm willing to bet that in 10 years, solutions abound.
If it just requires "a bit of innovative thinking" then you should be able to provide that if it's so simple. Reducing it to "a bit of innovative thinking" without proposing even the faintest hint of a concrete solution is exactly handwaving.
Happy to. What's the problem to be solved? If it's charging BEVs, the obvious solution is to install charging.
Next!
Of course, it doesn't just require "a bit of innovative thinking" it requires 100s of billions of pounds spent on infrastructure for the UK alone before BEVs for the masses is a practical thing the way ICE vehicles currently are.
UK has 33 million cars * £1,500 per EVSE = £46 billion. Let's say half of those are installed at home by the owners. Another 25% are installed in apartment and condo parking facilities at the owners' expense. That leaves us with 25% that need to be installed, so about £10 billion, give or take.
1) Add a car tax at time of sale of £330 and you will have the money needed to install charging everywhere cars are parked. This tax can be designated as an infrastructure tax and specifically stated to exist for just 15 years.
2) Grant a monopoly to a public utility (including a new one) for the purpose of installing charging at appropriate locations. The utility will provide the capital outlay and have regulated profits just like the electric and water companies.
3) Provide incentives for commercial investment in appropriate charging facilities. Allow competition to provide charging where charging is needed.
Are these enough options? I suppose there is going to be much nitpicking.
These are hard costs, not costs that benefit much from economies of scale. Someone has to dig the roads, install a vast number of public charging points where they are convenient for all people to use at a reasonable price* and wire the whole lot to the electricity distribution system. Someone has to make that investment and until they do BEVs will remain not a mass market thing but the playthings of dilettantes with upwards of £30k to spend and a relatively large property with off street parking that they can fit their own charger in.[\quote]
I am so tired of people with limited imagination whining about how massive the task is to install a charge point. Yes, it has to be done 33 million times in the UK. You have 15 years to git 'er done. Better if you stop whining and start now.
London currently has around 6000 EV public charge points, mostly 7kW slow AC chargers
Which are fast for level 2 charging and EXACTLY what you want!!! BEVs are not gas fueled smoke belchers. You don't stand around waiting for them to charge. You charge when they are parked, which is 95% of the time. Parked at home, be charging. Parked at work, be charging. Parked which shopping or at a movie, be charging.
I remember years ago, Ed Begley Jr told people that EVs were very practical if you just remember, ABC, Always Be Charging. You don't need to take that literally, but the point is you should forget the mindset of the ICE overlord telling you to "feed me"! Just give it a binky whenever it is parked.
a population of 9.5 million people, and currently 2.6 million cars registered to London addresses. One charge point, of the type that needs a whole night to charge a typical BEV, per 433 cars. Say for arguments sake that's one charge per car per week. That cuts the factor to around 62. So we are short 370,000 charge points just for London. If we take your mythical 10 years when all will be solved, that requires the equivalent of 102 off 7kW chargers to be installed in London every day. Or to put it differently, the number of public chargers currently available would have to double in the next two months.
Yes, 100 level 2 chargers per day is very doable. Thank you for showing this.
The whole UK has less than 35,000 public charging points in total, only ~5000 are rapid or ultra rapid. If we are going to ban the sale of new ICE cars in 2030 as mooted, a shit load of infrastructure needs building in the next 8 years to support the 2-3 million new cars purchased a year in the UK plus the BEV and PHEVs sold in the interim before BEVs become the only game in town..
To help with clarity, the fast chargers are needed for charging while you wait, such as on trips. They are typically located along highways. Level 2 charging is used for the daily, routine, overnight charging.
Did the UK ban the sale of ICE by 2030? That's very progressive. Clearly not everyone in the UK is defeatist.
* A lot of the current public charge points charge double what you'd pay for home charging without even offering fast charging.
Yes, it is cheaper to charge at home. You probably don't want to use fast charging. You have to wait around for that needing to move your car when done or pay a fee for occupying the spot. Level 2 charging is intended to happen while you do other things, so they typically don't charge idle fees.