How Will People Charge Electric Cars If They Dont Have A Driveway

[master jedi 15]

 I would like to ask the good people of Sheffield the following question.

I would like to buy an electric car but sadly i do not have a driveway on my council bought house so i cannot charge it on my property. 

I dont think i will be allowed to trail a cable over a public walkway because that would be a trip hazzard.

I  rent a council garage though and i was wondering if the council will be fitting them in the garages  that they rent to people or grant permission for one to be fitted.

Also will the council be providing charge points in council estate parking areas or again grant permission for them to be put there.

I ask these questions as it is not going to be long now before we say goodbuy to petrol and diesel vehicles and im sure there are a lot of people in Sheffield who prefer driving a vehicle instead of walking , cycling and catching a bus.  And without creating a two tier society with the people who have driveways and the ones who dont.

I know there will be some people who will say it will keep you fit to walk cycle ect , but i keep fit by running weight lifting and boxing. I just do not want the choice being taken away from me not to be able to drive a electric car just because i dont have my own driveway to charge it on.  

 

Thanks for reading :)    

 

[Mr Bloke 1,445]

Hmmm...

... why not get a portable diesel generator and charge it from that?

[Jeffrey Shaw 90]

Even those who do have driveways don't necessarily have any accessible electrical sockets.

[AndrewC 306]

To answer the short-term context of your question; with great difficulty. I don't know the exact rules in the UK/Sheffield right now, but you are right that trailing a cable over the pavement is at best a hazard that pedestrians - not least those with mobility issues - could do without, and at worst is illegal. Hopefully some people on this forum can give you some advice from their own experience but I would encourage you to speak directly with the Council. It would be a good exercise in getting the council to clarify their position on this if more people ask the question...

 

 

To answer the long-term context of your question; I don't see why people think the refueling of electric cars en mass will be much different to the refueling of petrol & diesel cars?

 

Very, very few people fill their cars up with petrol & diesel at home. As more electric cars hit our streets over the coming decades, you will see electric fueling stations pop up, just as we have petrol stations. In fact, it's likely that existing petrol stations will themselves adapt in to providing drivers with the fuels they need for their cars. You charge your electric car up at the station, drive around, and before you run out of juice you make sure you visit the station again. Just as you do now with petrol.

 

There are already electric charging points appearing in both Sheffield and other cities. By 2030, trailing a cable from your house to your car every night will probably not be necessary, driveway or not.

[ECCOnoob 1,020]

The OP raises a very good question and one which I often think myself whenever I see MPs, do-gooders and celebrities spouting their grandeous statements about some electric car revolution which we all must adhere to immediately.

 

It's the very question I ask myself every time I read some story about proposed government regulations, taxes or other penalties they intend bringing against anyone who dares to drive a petrol or diesel powered vehicle.

 

I see lots of blue sky thinking and fantasyland announcements about this mass infrastructure which is going to suddenly appear out of nothing so everyone can drive an electric car. I see artist impressions of fantastical technology where people can "nip" into a "rapid" fuel station with the "convenience"of being on their way again in ohhh at least less than an hour 🙄  

 

What I do not see is much in the way of a reality check.  The reality that most average joes who are commuting, travelling for work or travelling to a specific place for a specific purpose don't have a convenient 30 minutes or so to sit in a fuelling station or the reality that your average Joe doesn't have a nice underground garage or purposely equipped driveway with a modern charging point readily available.  We then have the question of where is all this extra electricity going to be generated from. If everyone suddenly switches to electric vehicles there are going to be huge surges in consumption particularly overnight when everyone at home is desperately trying to top up their cars.   That electricity has to be generated from something and it's certainly not fairydust.  Are we going to start opening up the coal mines again to make up for it or maybe we going to go nuclear.... perhaps we could litter the Peak District with miles and miles of huge wind farms.... I'm sure that would please the environmental lobby.

 

Add on final and most telling fact that in this country we can't even get a bloody railway line built in less than 30 years - do they seriously think all this infrastructure is going to pop up out of thin air tomorrow.

 

Don't get me wrong, I am not against electric vehicles.  I will welcome then when the time is right. However, I don't expect to be bullied and penalised into getting one until I can buy one at a reasonable cost, use it, fuel it and keep it running with a realistic comparator to another ordinary car.  

 

Despite what a handful of eco mentalists living in Hampstead think..  in the real world that circumstance ain't gonna happen for a long time. 

Edited April 22, 2021 by ECCOnoob

[butlers 259]

I can imagine work places will be required to have charging points.

 

[ECCOnoob 1,020]

27 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

 

Very, very few people fill their cars up with petrol & diesel at home. As more electric cars hit our streets over the coming decades, you will see electric fueling stations pop up, just as we have petrol stations. In fact, it's likely that existing petrol stations will themselves adapt in to providing drivers with the fuels they need for their cars. You charge your electric car up at the station, drive around, and before you run out of juice you make sure you visit the station again. Just as you do now with petrol.

 

That is true. But let's not forget that filling up with petrol or diesel literally takes minutes. For those using self service they can be in, filled up and out in less than 3 minutes.

 

Nothing in the electric vehicle refilling can compete with that right now. Even the best, top of the range and most expensive refill stations for the Premier of electric cars still is at best 15-minutes. For others it can be anything up to at least an hour before your fuel can be reasonably topped up.

 

We have all seen the queues that happen in a normal petrol station on a Saturday afternoon, how on Earth do we think people are going to cope when there are 15 to 30-minute turnaround per vehicle.

 

I'm sure like everything it will evolve but we are talking long-term here.   In my opinion there is currently a clear inbalance with the pace of EV infrastructure being way behind the pace of the rhetoric, bullying and penalizing of people into buying and driving EV.

 

That imbalance is simply unjust.

[butlers 259]

A quick look and approx 30 % charge at work  and 10%. at public chargers.

 

There's also a push to convert streetside lamps to charging points

[ECCOnoob 1,020]

9 minutes ago, butlers said:

I can imagine work places will be required to have charging points.

 

Only if they have their own car park.  Take a look at an average city centre and see how many have.

 

So that is going to put the cost of charging points either back on the council who will need to guarantee that every single parking space in their car parks is an EV one or it will be for the private car park operators to do the same.

 

That's thousands and thousands of parking spaces up and down the country which will need conversion. I wonder what will happen with the parking charges?

[butlers 259]

Hopefully the conversion is subsidized by the power companies.

If not it can come out of general council taxes which are there to provide services afterall.

Stop being such a stick in the mud.

I dare say when petrol cars came in you would have been " but think of the farriers'

[ECCOnoob 1,020]

9 minutes ago, butlers said:

Hopefully the conversion is subsidized by the power companies.

If not it can come out of general council taxes which are there to provide services afterall.

Stop being such a stick in the mud.

I dare say when petrol cars came in you would have been " but think of the farriers'

Don't get me wrong, I am not being a stick in the mud I already drive a hybrid and I don't have any objection to electric vehicles when the time is right.

 

What I do object to at the moment is that the infrastructure is clearly nowhere near ready. It is well documented how long it takes for any sort of mass infrastructure to be built and yet to listen to the rhetoric and the speeches from the MPs it's as if it's ready and waiting just to be switched on tomorrow. It clearly isn't.

 

What is clearly happening, as highlighted by the original post  is a very real risk of a two-tier society.  Drivers of fossil fuel cars literally been forced off the road because they don't have have either access to or cant afford to access the infrastructure.

 

That is totally unfair and acceptable.

Edited April 22, 2021 by ECCOnoob

[butlers 259]

Think electric cars are now 20 percent of new car sales, so obviously the push will be on for more charging points .

4 of my pals gave already swapped over.