Pay per Mile

[brandwooddixon]

Yet another political decision not based on joined up thinking. Flag waving politics without thought.

The National Grid and local distribution doesn't have the generation or distribution capacity required to support this planned increase in EVs, let alone the other green initiatives such as banning fossil fuel powered heating systems.

A two car family with two 7KW chargers charging your cars would draw nearly 60Amps, a standard house supply is 100Amps. Factor in standard home consumption both drivers get in from work, put the oven on to cook dinner, the kettle for a cup of tea, TV, lights, heating (if not fossil fuel powered), put the kids clothes in the wash and pop! Sorry too much.

We're mothballing or have decommissioned many of our coal and gas powered, power stations. That leaves nuclear as the only reliable alternative to supply the constant base capacity required. Its hated by the green lobby, and a new station takes takes nearly 10 years to get built.

I guess we'll also ignore the environmental and human cost (admittedly its not in our backyard) of mining and processing the metals used in the manufacture of the batteries and motor magnets needed by EVs. A lot of raw materials come from countries with a decidedly lacklustre view of human life and the environment.

Oh doesn't China produce 70% of the worlds Neodymium magnets, in fact isn't it the largest producer of magnets worldwide?

I could go on with my rant, but wont.

 

[M80]

I'm certainly not saying that 'they' are good at planning this, but it isn't difficult to regulate charger output to charge at a slower rate and prevent the grid being hit by all chargers at 7Kw each.
Tbh it is far more attractive for bods to install chargers that can run from the 13A outlets anyway and charge over the night time, I haven't done the calc's to see if a car could recharge from that over the off peak 7 hours though.

The politicians come up with the initiatives, the real world has the problem of delivering, and worse paying for them.

 

[davemercedes]

So given the two posts above (thanks brandwooddixon and M80) is it any wonder that Test and Trace STILL isn't working in UK (although it works well in just about every foreign country) ?

...and we pay... (and if we survive (!)) we will go on paying for years) for this shambles!

Meanwhile those in the know are hoods etc are still queueing up for their knighthoods etc! What a shambolloc mess!

 

[Craiglxviii]

According to the National Grid, we now have enough installed generating and switching capacity to support widespread EV adoption based on the typical car being charged 2.5x per week. Don’t ask me for the source please, I saw it in a news article a few months back.

Where things fall down is in getting that leccy from the grid to the home. Domestic substations have components with lead times ranging into the years, and the ones installed typically have less than 30% spare capacity already on average.

Then, there’s the issue of home wall chargers. The gubmint has made enough money available for 5% of homes to have these installed under their plans, but the scheme has many holes in it (like, how many older houses/ areas have local grids substantial enough to cope with the increased demand? The planning takes into account people being within a couple of miles of a rapid charger...)

Still a long way to go, and that doesn’t take into account the problems of people actually affording to buy an EV in the first place.

 

[Blobcat]

According to the National Grid, we now have enough installed generating and switching capacity to support widespread EV adoption based on the typical car being charged 2.5x per week. Don’t ask me for the source please, I saw it in a news article a few months back.

Where things fall down is in getting that leccy from the grid to the home. Domestic substations have components with lead times ranging into the years, and the ones installed typically have less than 30% spare capacity already on average.

Then, there’s the issue of home wall chargers. The gubmint has made enough money available for 5% of homes to have these installed under their plans, but the scheme has many holes in it (like, how many older houses/ areas have local grids substantial enough to cope with the increased demand? The planning takes into account people being within a couple of miles of a rapid charger...)

Still a long way to go, and that doesn’t take into account the problems of people actually affording to buy an EV in the first place.

And don’t forget all those with on street only parking... some serious infrastructure would have to be installed for them...

 

[davemercedes]

Ah well... Boris and his chums will have to start walking on water soon then (it'll be ok so long as they keep their feet dry)!

What a sh-- and a shambles it's going to be!

 

[M80]

In our cul de sac most houses have 2 cars and can easily park them on the drive, ah the luxury of rarely having parking issues.
There are 3 families that have to park at least 1 car on the street, and one of those more often has 2 cars on the street. That ignores over night visitors that use the communal turning area.

I can imagine the future with extension leads running from garages to road, and the associated tripping hazard and borrowing of the lead during the dark hours.

We have it easy but some places will need supervising.
'Spose we could always carry a generator and a few cans of fuel to overcome this.

 

[Craiglxviii]

If you pop the genny in the boot you could take it with you too

 

[Frontstep]

If you pop the genny in the boot you could take it with you too

Don't they call that a BMW ?

 

[M80]

If you pop the genny in the boot you could take it with you too

We keep ours under the bonnet.

 

[Craiglxviii]

Don't they call that a BMW ?

No that’s a Porsche

 

[Craiglxviii]

We keep ours under the bonnet.

You bluff old traditionalist you!

 

[ajlsl600]

I keep thinking I will win the lottery, but I never bought a ticket... My names Boris !!!

 

[Frontstep]

No that’s a Porsche

That's true BMW don't have a generator its a "Range Extender" which is totally different of course.

 

[M80]

Leccy cars wont be so bad if they come with a tow hitch on the front,
so real cars can get 'em where they're going.

 

[davidsl500]

Copper / Aluminium thieves paradise! Miles of cars parked on the street all with a lovely 10 feet of cable each to snip....

 

[Frontstep]

Copper / Aluminium thieves paradise! Miles of cars parked on the street all with a lovely 10 feet of cable each to snip....

Very high risk for not that much copper.

 

[M80]

Very high risk for not that much copper.

Not really, sever the cable and the RCB will trip.
The tripping hazard (as in oops splat, not RCB) is greater.

 

[Frontstep]

Not really, sever the cable and the RCB will trip.
The tripping hazard (as in oops splat, not RCB) is greater.

I was more referring to the cutting lots of cables in open view for not a lot of money.


Household Cable
£900 - £1400
Household cables, armoured cable, single core cable.

If you clean it or a big smelly bonfire won't do,


Copper Wire (Dry Bright)
£3,000 - £4,500
Cable taken from PVC wire with no plastic

 

[brandwooddixon]

Personally, I think that they should skip rechargeable cars and instead invest in hydrogen.
At least with hydrogen the fuel companies can use an adapted fleet to transport it (after all they can transport LPG without issue), tax can be charged as it is now, doing away with a big brother watching you pay per mile monitoring scheme and the peoples car use need not change.
Yes generating hydrogen is seen as a costly process, but it can be performed with any overcapacity of the national grid and as a country surrounded by water it shouldn't be too difficult for the UK to be self sufficient.