‹ Back

Transport - EV Update #1

 

 

*Note. The following is an early piece of research and although I’ve tried to be as thorough as I can, the information is mostly taken from the internet and much of it is yet to be fully verified.  I ask people to treat the information given as guidance only and I take no responsibility for the accuracy of any data given.

Intro

Following the last meeting when the issue of On-street Residential Chargepoint provision for Electric Vehicles (EVs) was raised, I thought that it could be useful to share what I have been able to ascertain thus far:

EV Charging scenarios:

1. At Home, off-road charging

This is the ideal scenario for EV owners, as long as you have off-street parking on a drive or in a garage where you can easily get a mains electricity connection. By trickle charging your EV overnight you can charge your EV very economically. Further, overnight charging would give approximately 200 miles range, car dependant, more than ample for everyday residential car usage. Additionally  The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV)’s Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme provide grants of up to 75% towards the cost of installing a home chargepoint, up to a limit of £350.

2. On-street Residential Charging

If you do not have off-street parking and charging, you can ask your local council about provision of On-street Residential Chargepoints. The Energy Trust are currently working with Local Authorities on development of an EV chargepoint strategy as part of their Local Government Support Programme. The provision of chargepoints will depend upon the level of demand and the clustering of demand in proximity of suitable locations – e.g. council run car parks. I’m not sure that the demand is likely to be there for Waldringfield, nor do we have a council car park.

ON THE MOVE

3. Government initiatives

The government’s focus thus far has been on the provision of chargepoints required to meet future en route charging needs along motorways and major A roads. For longer journeys, en-route rapid charging is essential. Typically rapid charging is more expensive than trickle charging. As of 1 January 2020, a driver is never more than 25 miles away from a rapid chargepoint anywhere along England’s motorways and major A roads, with a total of 809 open-access rapid chargepoints. This needs to rapidly expand. For more widespread public charging, there are a number of council lead initiaves such as Suffolk County Council’s “Plug In Suffolk”. This is the UK’s first fully open fast charging network aimed at incentivising local enterprises to run public charging points. The scheme is installed and operated by EO Charging in conjunction with SC Council. There is a target to get 100 rural Chargepoints installed. However, to date the take up has been slow with only two Chargepoints in Ipswich and one in Stowmarket within our proximity.

I believe that it will be some time before the government start looking seriously at incentivising local enterprises and car parks to increase the provision of chargepoints in areas such as Waldringfield.

4. Commercial / Public Chargepoint Networks

All en-route chargepoints are privately funded and run. As well as chargepoints at service stations, many retail outlets have commercial chargepoints co-located. The nearest one to us (at the time of going to print) is Martlesham at Tesco Extra. Most of these providers have country-wide networks and offer subscription schemes. There is a growing number of these providers:

1. Tesla

2. Instavolt

3. ChargePlace Scotland

4. Shell Recharge

5. Pod Point

6. Polar

7. Engenie

8. GeniePoint

9. Charge Your Car

10. Ecotricity

The likelihood of a commercial venture establishing a public chargepoint in Waldringfield is low. One possibility would be for Adnams to partner with a network provider (Plug In Suffolk – potentially) for provision of a chargepoint in The Maybush car park. With Plu In Suffolk, the landowner / enterprise retain 90% of the charging revenue, so there is some financial incentive to adopt such a scheme.

Parish Council

I have approached the PC to seek clarification on their plans with regards to EV Charging as part of their Zero-carbon commitments. The Clerk to the Parish Council states that there is no councillor with direct responsibility for electric vehicle charging/strategy and points to the role of Climate & Biodiversity Co-ordinator. The Clerk has asked Waldringfield’s new County Councillor,  for further details on the PC’s response to the Plug In Suffolk initiative.