Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by mickthemaverick »

Followed your info Neil and put Hertfordshire in Zap-map. It appears the lady was right, there is only 1 listed in Harpenden, which is a fairly small commercial place with loads of residential estates, and only 3 in Hertford, the county town. The nearest to me is about a 15 minute walk uphill back to my house so I think a home charger will be a necessity if I proceed with the plan!! :)
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Poor old Harpenden, she needs to go a couple of miles to the Harvester Flamstead and have her tea while she is charging up at one of the few rapids in that area. Bit of an eye opener I would have thought down South near "that London" charging points would be all over the place.

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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by Mandrake »

Nope, London is one of the worst places in the UK for public charging, certainly per capita. Wales is worse though...

Until recently it wasn't possible to drive between North and South Wales in a short range EV like the 24kWh Leaf due to lack of rapid chargers in the middle... I think there are one or two now but it's still very patchy!
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by Gibbo2286 »

Mandrake wrote: 07 Feb 2020, 15:02 Nope, London is one of the worst places in the UK for public charging, certainly per capita. Wales is worse though...

Until recently it wasn't possible to drive between North and South Wales in a short range EV like the 24kWh Leaf due to lack of rapid chargers in the middle... I think there are one or two now but it's still very patchy!
I remember taking a holiday in Wales in the early sixties, stopped at a village filling station up in the hills and served petrol from a hand pump, electricity hadn't arrived there yet. :)
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Gibbo2286 wrote: 07 Feb 2020, 15:08 ...served petrol from a hand pump, electricity hadn't arrived there yet. :)
CAMRA were very successful bringing back hand-pulls in pubs, as was their offshoot CAMRU

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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by white exec »

Heaven forbid that there should be any useful UK public information about EVs, to reach further than those already interested in the idea. BBC not helping here either, and surely easy stuff for Breakfast, OneShow, a drama or two, and even to be slipped into Casualty. Good motoring shows are (were) pretty popular, too.
I could get political here, but won't. I'm not surprised by that Question Time response.
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by Mandrake »

https://www.nationalgrid.com/5-myths-ab ... les-busted
New petrol and diesel cars will no longer be sold in the UK from 2035, so before long, far more of us are going to be behind the wheel of electric vehicles (EVs). Here Graeme Cooper, National Grid’s Project Director - Electric Vehicles, addresses some of the myths about them.
They're a bit premature about the "will no longer be sold" since the revised 2035 deadline is still in very early consultation, but the data about how the grid can cope with it is worth reading.
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

white exec wrote: 07 Feb 2020, 16:53 Heaven forbid that there should be any useful UK public information about EVs, to reach further than those already interested in the idea. BBC not helping here either, and surely easy stuff for Breakfast,
Covered on BBC Breakfast this morning but it was awful.........a total whingefest of electric car myths and cliches, and to make it worse they had been "talking" to a bloke from Ford.

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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

NewcastleFalcon wrote: 13 Feb 2020, 09:05
white exec wrote: 07 Feb 2020, 16:53 Heaven forbid that there should be any useful UK public information about EVs, to reach further than those already interested in the idea. BBC not helping here either, and surely easy stuff for Breakfast,
Covered on BBC Breakfast this morning but it was awful.........a total whingefest of electric car myths and cliches, and to make it worse they had been "talking" to a bloke from Ford.

REgards Neil
Not exactly a transcript but a flavour

"One recent figure suggested we need 25 Million Charging Points across the country to cope with demand"
"Means 4000 a day being installed just to meet targets"

"I live on a normal terraced street how does the government propose to address charging situations like that its just impractical."

"Growth in electric car registrations its just a tiny tiny part of the market."

"Lots of the big firms saying we are getting on board but its a very slow adoption."

So he spoke to the boss of Ford in Europe....(would he have got a more positive response if he had spoken to the boss of TESLA I wonder!)

Nice comment from Naga "We are in the modern age Get on with it!"

The public chipped in, and to be fair the points the pubic make are valid.....the usual "electric cars are too expensive".........they are and they are purposely so. Manufacturers right now could make electric vehicles and sell them at a price which would overnight decimate their sales of ICE stocks. That's why its not in their interests to do it, and that's why a small city electric vehicle has a base price of £20,000 give or take.

I regularly walk past a Skoda garage to a charging station and on the forecourt are a whole collection of ICE cars, virtually all under £20,000 which look far better VFM and more for your money, than a little e-Citigo.

Regards Neil
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by white exec »

You're right, Neil - that was an appalling piece on EVs on this morning's BBC Breakfast.

Ford are hardly the folk to talk to. And wasn't that a hybrid with an electric range of 40km (it sounds better in km) which they're intending to bring into the UK? You could see the panic in the guy's eyes when he was reminded that hybrids would be lumped in with ICE when it came to restrictions.

Naga got it bang on: Just get on with it!
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by bobins »

We received a letter in the post today from Scottish And Southern Electricity Networks regarding an upgrade of the power supply in our area.

Quote: "We're investing £8.4 million over a 19-month long project in 2020 to future-proof a significant section of our South East network.

Work gets under way during February 2020 to upgrade nearly 15 kilometres of electricity infrastructure serving the homes and businesses of Petersfield and Fernhurst, and all of the areas between the Hampshire town and West Sussex village.

The project, which will build resilience to the area’s power supply through the undergrounding of sections of cable and the refurbishment of the primary substation on Bedford Road in Petersfield, will also allow for future commercial and residential connections. The substation element of the project alone will provide power to 10,000 customers, with the overall programme of works keeping the infrastructure resilient and secure for decades to come, while the undergrounding of almost 15km of cable will provide increased security of supply by removing the reliance on the area’s overhead lines.

While the project is looking ahead to ensure a power supply that is fit for the future......

.........Following a series of discussions, we took the decision to make the investment to further improve network resilience, and future-proof our infrastructure for our customer’s changing demands."
https://www.ssen.co.uk/petersfield-fernhurst/

It'd be interesting to know just how many 'futureproofing' schemes have been completed, are currently underway, and are planned in the near future. Whilst the above scheme is being driven - in part - by the need to build in resilience as there have been many occasions of power cuts due to fallen trees and other rural 'incidents', a large part of the sceme must be due to the impending surge in demand due to BEVs.
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by Mandrake »

Ok this is amusing:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51525673
Tesla has been ordered to temporarily halt preparations for a car factory in Germany after environmentalists won a court injunction on Sunday.

The electric carmaker had been clearing forest land near the capital, Berlin, ahead of building its first European car and battery plant.

The court emphasised the injunction was temporary and subject to further hearings, probably this week.

Protesters say the factory is a threat to local wildlife and water supplies.
Maybe protesters think the continued dominance of ICE vehicles is better for wildlife as a whole ? :)

Interesting in light of the fact that Tesla ruled the UK out of consideration for the location of this European gigafactory due to Brexit...(and yes, Elon Musk specificially stated in an interview after the location in Germany was picked that post-Brexit uncertaintainy while not the only factor was a major factor in not chosing the UK)

He also stated in an interview just a month ago that he thought the location near Berlin was "ideal", I wonder if he still thinks so now that "environmentalists" are going to drag the process through the mud ? :lol:
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by bobins »

Maybe the protesters think climate change and the growing pollution problem isn't going to be solved by building more Teslas ?
Maybe less vehicles is better, not more.
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

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This has involved clearing about 91 hectares (225 acres) of forest and the felling of thousands of trees - something that outraged an alliance of environmentalists called the Green League.
Well I'm no global industrialist trying to find a location to build a factory, but in all of Germany, could they not have found 91 hectares without a forest on it.

Bet 91 hectares suitable land without trees could be found in the UK and we are tiny! Shove it next to Nissan in Washington/Sunderland/South Tyneside and wake them up!

Then again, is Germany getting cold feet....after all TESLA paddle in the BMW/Mercedes/Porsche/Audi pond, and next move maybe the VW market.......Hello Tesla Goodbye BMW et cetera.....

REgards Neil
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Re: Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

Post by bobins »

There are an awful lot of forests in Germany - especially around Berlin. It does surprise me that they didn't go for one of the old, disused, Soviet era airfileds or military bases, as there's loads of them around and most are nothing but crumbling relics now - although quite a few have been utilised for solar farms. I suppose it all comes down to cost - virgin forest is easier to flatten and build what you want on rather than having to rip up concrete, and cars are so much more important than trees :roll:
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