Electric cars

[Elpenor]

All this enthusiasm for electric cars

Ford calls for incentives to buy electric cars as backlash grows

The government faces pressure from the industry to make changes to electric vehicle sales quotas.

www.bbc.co.uk

Shame the spending and effort has not been targeted at public transport

 

[Chz]

All this enthusiasm for electric cars

Ford calls for incentives to buy electric cars as backlash grows

The government faces pressure from the industry to make changes to electric vehicle sales quotas.

www.bbc.co.uk

Shame the spending and effort has not been targeted at public transport.

'London-style' bus services planned for England with £1bn boost

The Department for Transport says funding will be allocated based on levels of deprivation and population.

www.bbc.co.uk

They're trying, at least. I can't judge if 1B is enough to make a difference or a drop in a very large bucket though.

 

[T & P]

Interesting claims in this article about the expected life expectancy of batteries in electric cars.

Electric Cars Could Last Much Longer Than You Think

Rather than having a shorter lifespan than internal combustion engines, EV batteries are lasting way longer than expected, surprising even the automakers themselves.

www.wired.com

If true, one might be able to find a bargain in the second hand EV market, at least until everyone gets wind of it.

 

[Chz]

Interesting claims in this article about the expected life expectancy of batteries in electric cars.

Electric Cars Could Last Much Longer Than You Think

Rather than having a shorter lifespan than internal combustion engines, EV batteries are lasting way longer than expected, surprising even the automakers themselves.

www.wired.com

If true, one might be able to find a bargain in the second hand EV market, at least until everyone gets wind of it.

If you're like us and do 3-4k miles a year, I imagine they last a very long time indeed. If I could home charge, we'd have probably got one but I'm invested into another 10 years of petrol for now.

 

[T & P]

I still have no plans to buy a car for the foreseeable future, though finally I’m starting to observe the price of some EV vehicles (at the utilitarian end of the market anyway) finally start to equalise with comparable ICE models. Such as the new electric Renault 5 and some model by Citroen, both of which priced in the low 20k range.

So things seem to be slowly moving in the right direction. But still so much room for improvement to tempt folk to get an EV. For instance, on my street there is just a single lamppost that has been upgraded and fitted with an EV charging port. Right outside my house, so I can see that it is in constant demand. So why haven’t the numerous other lampposts on the street also been converted? My OH, who doesn’t drive let alone own a car but who is well versed with local authority legislations, seems to think that in our borough it’s up to the local residents to gang up and submit joint applications to the local council to request additional lampposts to be fitted with EV charging points. Which if true would be the pinnacle of idiocy IMO.

 

[Elpenor]

Believe a pilot to charge off lampposts was a failure and the pilot was abandoned

 

[T & P]

Believe a pilot to charge off lampposts was a failure and the pilot was abandoned

I am sure any local authority would take a juicy slice of the revenue generated by such lamppost outlets, and however small that might be, it would surely pay for itself within a few short years.

And even if short term profit was not the overriding concern, the long term environmental benefits of switching as many ICE car users as possible to electric vehicles should win over any remaining sceptics in such boroughs as here in Lambeth.

From my daily walks with the dogs there is no doubt every single lamppost on my street would be used by the local EVs and plug in hybrids around if they were to be converted. I don’t know if my OH is right in her belief that at the present time it’s up to local residents to apply for lampposts to be converted, but if that was really the case it’d be a preposterous policy.

 

[hash tag]

I am sure any local authority would take a juicy slice of the revenue generated by such lamppost outlets, and however small that might be, it would surely pay for itself within a few short years.

And even if short term profit was not the overriding concern, the long term environmental benefits of switching as many ICE car users as possible to electric vehicles should win over any remaining sceptics in such boroughs as here in Lambeth.

From my daily walks with the dogs there is no doubt every single lamppost on my street would be used by the local EVs and plug in hybrids around if they were to be converted. I don’t know if my OH is right in her belief that at the present time it’s up to local residents to apply for lampposts to be converted, but if that was really the case it’d be a preposterous policy.

I just had a quick look at Wandsworth

"Request a charging point near you​

We plan new lamp column charging points based on requests received and current gaps in provision.

If you do not have your own off-street parking, you can request a charging point near your home and we will take this into consideration when planning new sites. We install new charging points in phases, with the next phase planned over 2024/5.

We welcome all requests but please note there are several hundred outstanding submissions and it is unlikely every request will be met."

 

[Elpenor]

I am sure any local authority would take a juicy slice of the revenue generated by such lamppost outlets, and however small that might be, it would surely pay for itself within a few short years.

And even if short term profit was not the overriding concern, the long term environmental benefits of switching as many ICE car users as possible to electric vehicles should win over any remaining sceptics in such boroughs as here in Lambeth.

From my daily walks with the dogs there is no doubt every single lamppost on my street would be used by the local EVs and plug in hybrids around if they were to be converted. I don’t know if my OH is right in her belief that at the present time it’s up to local residents to apply for lampposts to be converted, but if that was really the case it’d be a preposterous policy.

Think it may have been a third party provider. Local authorities are broke - literally - from providing adult social care and meeting education needs from children with EHCPs (think that is the term?) and are paring back services.

I’d be surprised if any have the funds to invest in this sort of thing when they are making redundancies and closing down libraries and leisure centres and even if they did this would be a subsidy to private transport which would likely go against their strategies to promote active travel and public transport

 

[Leafster]

I just had a quick look at Wandsworth

"Request a charging point near you​

We plan new lamp column charging points based on requests received and current gaps in provision.

If you do not have your own off-street parking, you can request a charging point near your home and we will take this into consideration when planning new sites. We install new charging points in phases, with the next phase planned over 2024/5.

We welcome all requests but please note there are several hundred outstanding submissions and it is unlikely every request will be met."

Here in Surrey, it's a similar scheme. They have a plan to roll out on-street chargers in the next few years.

Electric vehicles and our on-street chargepoint rollout

Surrey County Council's initiatives to promote the uptake of electric vehicles, including an overview of EVs, and the council's EV charge point projects

www.surreycc.gov.uk

But you have to search very carefully to find out that you can suggest locations.

https://surreyev.commonplace.is/

 

[Chz]

I just had a quick look at Wandsworth

"Request a charging point near you​

We plan new lamp column charging points based on requests received and current gaps in provision.

If you do not have your own off-street parking, you can request a charging point near your home and we will take this into consideration when planning new sites. We install new charging points in phases, with the next phase planned over 2024/5.

We welcome all requests but please note there are several hundred outstanding submissions and it is unlikely every request will be met."

The problem with that is, as someone without a driveway, I'm not going to buy an EV on the chance that the council might put a charger near me, RSN. Which means I don't make the request and it never happens for anyone else either. The economic side of it doesn't work out yet if you can't home charge, and that's going to be the biggest barrier in cities. Either slow charging from lampposts needs to be more common and especially cheaper, or some other solution needs to be found.

ETA: It's okay for now while it's still niche technology, but going forward it's going to become quite unpopular that people who can afford to have a drive outside their home effectively get a 50% discount on driving.