Broadband Cabs Help Virgin Media Rollout 1,200 EV Car Chargers
At the start of this year broadband ISP Virgin Media UK conducted a trial (here) that utilised their existing cable ducts and street cabinets to help deploy charging points on residential streets for electric cars. Parent company Liberty Global has now decided to rollout a further 1,200 charging sockets over the next 18 months.
The exact details of how Virgin Media will harness their 40,000 powered street cabinets and 170,000km of ducts to support the new EV infrastructure – project name ‘Virgin Media Park & Charge‘ – remain unclear. Despite this we suspect that the arrangement is probably more about sharing space in existing cable ducts (i.e. new power cables), using the data connectivity from existing cables / cabinets and borrowing some of their civil engineering expertise.
The original trial was tested at around 6 sites during the spring of this year, with the first one going live in Southwark (pictured below). Clearly that trial must have gone well because they now intend to deploy a further 1,200 charging sockets across the United Kingdom over the next 18 months.
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“The rollout of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations using Virgin Media’s connectivity will build a fully scalable electric vehicle charging network,” said Liberty Global in a statement.
All of this is being done as part of a large consortium of 19 organisations, which includes delivery partners Vattenfall and SMS plc and specialist technology partners Cenex, Ginger Town, Fully Charged, Connected Kerb, DETA and Loughborough University. The original trial also received some public funding for the project (‘EV Charging for Public Spaces‘) from the Government’s Innovate UK (part of a plan to help reduce car emissions).
We don’t yet know what the exact rollout plan is, although several local authorities are also involved including the West Midlands Combined Authority as well as Councils in Oxfordshire, Liverpool, Southend on Sea, Worcestershire, Wandsworth, Croydon, Northamptonshire, Hammersmith & Fulham and Belfast.
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Jason Simpson, Liberty Global’s VP of Global Energy and Utilities, said:
“Leveraging street cabinets allows Liberty Global to look beyond traditional uses of telecom infrastructure and make a positive impact on the environment and in communities throughout the UK. By bringing more electric vehicle chargers and associated connectivity to Britain’s streets, we are making a significant contribution to Innovate UK’s ambition to encourage more people to buy electric cars.
We’re excited to be working with a wide array of partners who each bring their own areas of expertise to this exciting and innovative project.”
The idea of harnessing existing infrastructure to support new EV points is not a new one. For example, Deutsche Telekom has done something similar in Germany with 12,000 of their own cabinets and other UK broadband networks are also considering how they might be able to do something similar.
Certainly there are plenty of obstacles and you can’t do this everywhere. EVs tend to require significantly more power than broadband street cabinets, as well as much larger cables, although an operator that plans ahead for such things can often allow for additional space as part of future network upgrades or new builds.
The prize could be an additional revenue stream from existing infrastructure, albeit perhaps not a particularly big stream.. yet. Being able to create new business out of existing or future cost models and deployments is obviously something that would interest any telecoms operator. Clearly it makes enough sense for Liberty Global.
However we suspect that doing something like this might be more challenging for Openreach (BT), which has certain regulatory responsibilities to consider with respect to cable ducts and other aspects of their infrastructure.
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Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Good stuff. Every little helps.
And no, this isn’t tapping off the power supply going into the street cabinets, as I think I said in the original article. The mere proximity of the nodal / power insertion cabinets means there’s an LV cable close and I imagine a new joint is made before that cable goes into the meter in the VM cabinet.
That’s correct
Brilliant use of assets. Hope to see more of these in more places
Very very useful to me as an EV driver!
Great that VM are leveraging their assets to allow provision of another service.
My only argument with this is the cost of being connected of over £3.50 per hour. How good value this is will depend on kW that can be delivered. Even at 11kw/h the max AC charge rate of the Tesla3 that is expensive electricity – was 22kW/h on older models. So an effective cost of 32p/kWh assuming it can deliver 11kWh which is not stated or a rip off 64p/kWh if it is a 5.5kWh output.
Bear in mind that the lamppost charger outside my house changed 24p/kWh and even that is a 10p/kWh markup on metered electricity.
Sure the provider has got to make money out of this somehow but if you are charging overnight, which is the paradigm, then a 4 hr limit does not work and the real cost of off peak electricity is very very low bought at an industrial level.
On the Tesla you can control the charge times from the app and limit charge current from the dash.
IRL you have well over 200 miles usable on 100kW battery that is if you only run the charge down to 20% and don’t really use the top 20% of the battery as it is pretty slow to charge. So very usable and very pleasant to drive. Realistically my kids need to get out of the car every couple of hours so then stop at a fast charger and by the time we have herded them back into the car it is pretty charge up. It is now usable tech.
I’ll correct myself.
The cost is a flat 30p/kWh.
4 Hr limit seems strange as AC charging won’t complete in 4 hrs…..
Anyone know if they are AC or DC chargers? From the stated kWh they would appear to be DC chargers?
Worth bearing in mind that if you have a newish Tesla and use their superchargers the cost of a charge is £0 – yes really zero.
Does using the A/C or the heater limit the range much ?
And is there anything to stop some mischievous person unplugging the lead so you would have paid for but not had the charge ?
Are these things safe to plug and unplug in damp conditions, I presume they are not safe voltages at those power ratings ?
I thought the whole point of getting an EV was to pay more to virtue signal?
@A_Builder
Most of the charge points in London are either 50kW or 36kW. Both AC and DC exist and most are fast/rapid charge capable.
On a 50kW charge point a car with a 64kWh battery would take around 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach about 80% charge.
As to the £3.50 per hour charge, how much of that is for parking and how much of it is for the electric comes down to quite a bit. Like how much parking on its own costs in the area you are in per hour along with how little or much charge the car will need (A battery charges at different rates, depending on the amount of charge in the battery during the charge phase). Typically from empty a battery will quickly reach its max, continue charging at that rate or near it until a specific percent and then decline for the last few percent.
HOWEVER, depending on all that and battery kWh rating in the vehicle then yeah 20 to about 35p sounds about right.
@Granola
No using the heater and AC does not affect range much at all. You will use more energy from the battery in a journey if the journey has lots of hills than you would having the heat on. The same will go for driving style, if you are aggressive flooring the thing a few times from stand still you will use more energy, than using the heater. A battery in general likes it more if there is a consistent load on it be it large or small than it does having a mix of both. Example leave your phone alone and do very little with it but leave it switched on it will last a considerable time, lets say 72 hours. Use it as heavily as you can and constant and the time is reduced but the time it is reduced to A NEAR constant say around 7 hours. Use a mix of it light and heavy though and the time the battery will last is far more variable.
The cable can not be unplugged during charging it locks in place much like you lock your car.
Perfectly safe to use in the wet, the circuit is grounded with current sensing, until you plug it in there is basically no electricity flowing through the connectors. You could if you wanted stick your tongue in the charge points at a charger and nothing would happen. You would likely feel more putting a domestic 9v battery on your tongue. The socket on the car should only allow electricity flow one way much like a diode in a circuit, you can stick your fingers wet or not in one of those quite happily also. Fueling a car with petrol where the fumes are the flammable bit is arguably far more dangerous.
“I thought the whole point of getting an EV was to pay more to virtue signal?”
I must admit i am not that big a fan of Electric cars. I personally think unless the tech VASTLY improves (i mean battery charging in 5 mins and finding a way to reprocess all the knackered lithium batteries effectively and quickly in 10 years time and so much more which is still wrong with them) then within 20-30 years its going to be dead fad and onto the next thing. Hopefully some type of fuel cell you just fill with water and hydrogen is produced. NO im not talking about the hydrogen cars you can get now which require you to put hydrogen gas in them to start with. BUT real fuel cells which exist but currently cost the earth.
Electric battery cars are a step forward but they are in IMO no way ever going to be as good as or technologically wise develop as much as what the fossil fuel engine has in its years.
That said if i only drove the odd 20 miles or so for my daily commute and could charge it once for the week like many do then id consider one despite a prior horrid experience. As it is though i probably do nearer 150-200 miles a day and i just know based on a prior short experience id get sick of plugging it in.
@Beany
I’ve got a Tesla3 and I’d cheerfully do 200 miles IRL.
I often don’t charge it for days as the battery capacity is soooo big with the 100kW battery.
Charge times are brilliant on their 125kW super chargers and will get even faster with the Next Gen coming out later this year. IRL you get to 80% from 20% (with a warm bettery) in 25 mins ATM. It is claimed that this will drop to 15mins with the new tech.
I really enjoy the 3 and used to enjoy the S I had before. Brilliant performance, very quiet and nice to drive. Cheapo fuel is a massive bonus!!
Was spitting nails the other day seeing behind a TX5 taxi belching black smoke as he ‘accelerated’ down the A40.
“I’ve got a Tesla3 and I’d cheerfully do 200 miles IRL.
I often don’t charge it for days as the battery capacity is soooo big with the 100kW battery.”
Yeah i know Teslas and a few others now can do around 300 Miles give or take on a charge, the problem is if i do 200 Miles per day i would have to remember to plug it in overnight, every night to use it reliably and cheaply and i know that at some point i would forget.
“Charge times are brilliant on their 125kW super chargers and will get even faster with the Next Gen coming out later this year. IRL you get to 80% from 20% (with a warm bettery) in 25 mins ATM. It is claimed that this will drop to 15mins with the new tech.”
Yep the problem for me is the nearest super charge point is around 30 miles from my home, so while in theory i could go there if i forgot to charge it over night (assuming there is 30 miles juice left in the battery) the problem then is if my daily journey/commute should of been in the opposite direction then that is basically 60 Miles or a 1 hour drive before ive done anything (30 miles to the charge point, 30 miles back to where i started before i start my commute and also have minus 30 miles on range from the battery).
I do not live in a city but do live in a large town, the nearest 50kWh chargers are only a mile away but using them would mean about 2 hours for a full charge. The other issue is even if i could justify being 2 hours later for work the 50kWh chargers i refer to are in a supermarket and only 1 of the bunch has been working for a considerable time. Knowing my luck id also turn up and it would be in use by someone doing their shopping.
The other 11kWh charge point is literally at the bottom of the road from me, but considering that will take almost as long as charging at home its pointless.
Once you get going they are fine, the whole range anxiety thing would not bother me as much (a full charge is the same as a full tank of fuel you should know roughly how far you can go) The problem for me is getting the fuel (or rather electricity) into the thing quickly and conveniently.
“Was spitting nails the other day seeing behind a TX5 taxi belching black smoke as he ‘accelerated’ down the A40.”
This type of attitude im sorry to say i do not understand. It seems to be the that of the eco mob (no im not calling you that but you may have listened to them a bit much).
If we are talking about saving the planet then theres a few things that do not get looked at…
That dirty diesel you talk about will outlast your Tesla by a looong margin. The energy involved in building it and the pollution created in building it is probably similar to what happened for your Tesla (by that i mean both cars needed metals, plastics etc created/mined/produced). The diesel short term is worse for the planet, but if that diesel is around for 20 years and your Tesla due to its battery only manages 10 years, then just in production alone that Diesel has created less pollution. Over the long term and when you look at NOT just what comes out of the tail pipe, is it really dirty?
There are a load of other issues if you really look into it. I do not understand the full details but producing Lithium is not cheap or from what i understand very eco friendly.
Then there are other more practical things. I do not think there are enough EVs at the moment to prove they are as safe as our gas guzzlers. In a future where there is a multi car pile up and all the cars are electric i would not like to be around if 5 years down the road we have 200 kWh Lithium batteries going pop in the middle of one of those.
Sure you could that is unlikely or argue the same for a multi crash and a petrol tank going up in flames, only a petrol fire is far easier to put out than a Lithium fire. If im tangled in carnage and can not get out id take a fire engine and a petrol fire right behind my backside then i would a Lithium fire any day of the week.
Another very practical thing of the top of my head is electric cars are going to penalise the common person and those growing up that like to shout (or rather have been taught to shout) ‘save the planet’. I hope the young looking at the likes of a Tesla today and dreaming of their freedom once they pass their test are ready for the reality.
I dunno about others but when i passed my test many moons ago my first car was not something that cost several thousands and it certainly was not brand new or only a few years old. It was an 8 year old Ford Fiesta that cost me £900 (in todays money it would probably be around 2000).
Gone will those days be with electric cars, even if you can get your hands on one that is 8+ years old for dirt cheap money, the battery in it will likely be knackered, so you will not be going far. The same can not be said for a 8 year old petrol/diesel that will happily do the same (or as near as) miles on a full tank.
EVs they are a nice idea, and have their place (they absolutely should be adopted in cities where the drive does nothing but drive around their city and all buses and taxis in a city should IMO be electric) but the down sides and practicalities are still sooooo many.
@beany
“Was spitting nails the other day seeing behind a TX5 taxi belching black smoke as he ‘accelerated’ down the A40.”
All I mean t by that is that I don’t think that one class of vehicle, belonging to a powerful lobby group, should be exempted.
I don’t think anyone should be driving around belching soot out of their exhaust.
I’ve had to get rid of a whole bunch of perfectly good vans and 4×4’s from the business because of the effective pre Euro6 ban.
On your point about battery fade I was driving a 2015 S and the battery capacity hadn’t changed much. General concencus is that it is less and less of an issue with power/temp management software.
On your point about lithium my PhD is in metals chemistry. Lithium is pretty abundant the issue is more where the rare earth metals come from that make the motors as efficient.
The cost curve of EV’s is dropping rapidly as batteries get smaller and lighter.
Anyway I like my Tesla – it is fun and cheap for me to drive.
With BIK at 0% next year it is a no brainier financially.
“All I mean t by that is that I don’t think that one class of vehicle, belonging to a powerful lobby group, should be exempted.
I don’t think anyone should be driving around belching soot out of their exhaust.”
I personally do not think anyone that drives should be exempt from things like road tax, congestion charges etc. Be they driving a diesel, petrol or electric car or if you are going to make exemptions they should be to everyone. Petrol and diesel vehicles in cities makes the air quality poor the electric car harms the environment in other ways, mining the materials for the battery and motor being just one that we both mention. Whats better and what is worse can be debated but if they both (buzz phrase) ‘harm the planet’ in some form then none should be exempt. On the black smoke thing i kinda agree no vehicle should be doing that, but again big diesel black smoke trucks were probably used to get the materials for your Tesla to be built also. Again harm is harm IMO at least.
“On your point about battery fade I was driving a 2015 S and the battery capacity hadn’t changed much. General concencus is that it is less and less of an issue with power/temp management software.”
Im pretty sure i saw some recent motoring programme where they reckoned EV batteries declined roughly 25% over 5 years, assuming that rate TRUE and is constant, then a 10 year old vehicle would only be 50% as efficient as it once was. IF what i remember from the programme is right and true then my point about future drivers remains (IE about buying your first car). It will also IMO not be good for the planet if in the future we have a bunch of 10+ year old EV cars driving round only capable of 100-150 miles per charge. Id argue at that point unless all the energy is solar or other genuine clean methods (NO not wind farms before someone says that) then producing all that excess electricity in the future just to power knackered old cars has really only shifted the problem from dirty old NON-efficient petrol and diesel cars to NON-efficient electric cars.
“On your point about lithium my PhD is in metals chemistry. Lithium is pretty abundant the issue is more where the rare earth metals come from that make the motors as efficient.”
Yep i agree with you, material for the motors is another issue, also although Lithium may be abundant now, to me its just replacing the problem. Crude oil was abundant years ago also.
“The cost curve of EV’s is dropping rapidly as batteries get smaller and lighter.
Anyway I like my Tesla – it is fun and cheap for me to drive.
With BIK at 0% next year it is a no brainier financially.”
Oh do not get me wrong while i see and point out drawbacks, if i were a typical motorist that only did 50 miles or less a day going to work or the shops i would jump at getting an EV full time.
The couple i have driven (a prior company i worked for and a hire car) i liked. At the moment its just practicality as to why it would not suit me. If you just are a typical 50 miles a day user and have to charge it once a week or every few days at worse they are well worth it. Having to charge daily like i would and being screwed if you forget or another emergency comes up after your day at work and its not so convenient.
If the range was the same per charge as my current combustion car (almost 600 miles per tank) i would consider it, i would with my 200 miles a day effectively be similar to a 50 mile per day EV driver with regards to time/s i would have to charge it. I could then also live with the time length it takes to charge and do the overnight thing and not worry if one day i forget to plug in.
Personally i think 20 years down the line something better will come along, even Elon Musk seems to think the EV is a stop gap measure to the next thing.
“Im pretty sure i saw some recent motoring programme where they reckoned EV batteries declined roughly 25% over 5 years, assuming that rate TRUE and is constant, then a 10 year old vehicle would only be 50% as efficient as it once was. IF what i remember from the programme is right and true then my point about future drivers remains (IE about buying your first car). It will also IMO not be good for the planet if in the future we have a bunch of 10+ year old EV cars driving round only capable of 100-150 miles per charge. Id argue at that point unless all the energy is solar or other genuine clean methods (NO not wind farms before someone says that) then producing all that excess electricity in the future just to power knackered old cars has really only shifted the problem from dirty old NON-efficient petrol and diesel cars to NON-efficient electric cars.”
This was true with the early EV’s like the leaf.
This is because of the tendrils that form and damage the battery properties.
The Tesla battery is quite different as it uses cell rotation (the capacity of the battery is actually much bigger than the stated kWh and the cells are part used and used in rotation to exercise them optimally) and temperature control to minimise battery ageing. None of this is top secret and general principles are well understood. This why when a Tesla is charging you can hear the A/C running in hot weather to cool the battery and equally why the battery is heated in cold conditions so it is always at optimal temperature.
To be fair most of the modern EV’s do this now but not with quite the sophistication of the Tesla.
I agree with Elon that EV is a stepping stone but Elon has changed the conversation from EV = milk float to EV is now faster than a very expensive sports car.
Honestly I didn’t take EV’s very seriously until I drove the TeslaS. It is a drive it and reset-your-view-of-reality experience.
When the 125kW battery packs appear in about a year then 450 miles on a charge is real and that is the real range of most IC fuelled cars.
You got me curious so i did a little more reading up on Tesla battery life, testing done varies a little test to test but it seems at around 90,000 Miles the battery loses about 10% of its efficiency and about 15% at 150,000 Miles.
For most people that change their car before either of those figures that is remarkably good, FAR better than i thought it would be.
It still would not tempt me to make the move just yet as doing 200 Miles a day means in 2 years (as good as 150,000 miles) of ownership i would lose about 15% efficiency on the battery and in the 3rd year i would guess based on those miles vs segregation levels id lose about 20-25%.
I admit though im not the most typical driver and probably do more miles per day than the typically daily driver. Also with those figures for most people even if they bought a high mileage Tesla then for MOST the battery degradation is going to be a non-issue.
On the flip side those figures are still IMO not good enough for the likes of every commercial vehicle on the road to go electric. Its going to be interesting how delivery firms and similar deal with things when the government ban commercial diesel vehicles. I suspect many of those can rack up double of close to double what i do a day. Are we now doomed to a future where cabbies and fleet vehicles have to be replaced every 2-3 years rather than 5-6 or even less if the tech does not quickly get up to Tesla or better standards?
@beany
One last comment before we bore everyone to death on EV batteries.
“You got me curious so i did a little more reading up on Tesla battery life, testing done varies a little test to test but it seems at around 90,000 Miles the battery loses about 10% of its efficiency and about 15% at 150,000 Miles.
That is probably less efficiency fade than you get on a modern IC car.
“For most people that change their car before either of those figures that is remarkably good, FAR better than i thought it would be.”
And the figures are getting better with each generation. I would be interested to see how the new Tesla3 batteries stack up against the old TeslaS batteries
“On the flip side those figures are still IMO not good enough for the likes of every commercial vehicle on the road to go electric. Its going to be interesting how delivery firms and similar deal with things when the government ban commercial diesel vehicles. I suspect many of those can rack up double of close to double what i do a day. Are we now doomed to a future where cabbies and fleet vehicles have to be replaced every 2-3 years rather than 5-6 or even less if the tech does not quickly get up to Tesla or better standards?”
Battery capacity per kg weight is improving at between 5-8% per annum.
EV battery anti ageing is an area of furious and well funded research. The mechanisms are now very well understood and the mitigations (temp control / charge cycling / capacity limitation) are well understood).
Whilst Tesla (with Panasonic their battery partner) does have the edge on battery tech it is a fast moving tech and I do expect the German EV’s to launch with battery tech not far off what the Tesla S launched with.
I suspect one of the reasons that Mercedes claimed that they could get 450 miles on one charge on their new concept car was that it really used all of the battery capacity. As far as I can figure out the Tesla only actually lets you use 60-70% of the theoretical capacity of the battery to reduce the ageing effect. The more times you go over 70% of battery capacity the faster the battery capacity fades.
Anyway we could depot this for ever. Try driving one – I recommend it – it is (all of the models S, X 3) stupidy and fun to drive fast even if you don’t go for the Ludicrous models……..
“Battery capacity per kg weight is improving at between 5-8% per annum.
EV battery anti ageing is an area of furious and well funded research. The mechanisms are now very well understood and the mitigations (temp control / charge cycling / capacity limitation) are well understood).”
I do not doubt it is getting better and will continue, but i just can not see the tech every reaching the range capability or last ability (if that is even a term) of a big tank petrol/diesel. Real world in the best cars like the Tesla and the Jaguar I-Pace (one of the 2 EVs i have drove) you get around 250 Miles per charge. My fossil fuel muncher will as said give me close to 600 Miles, so they need to get around 2.5 times better to get up to the mark for me personally.
If it is possible i still would guess (based on how battery tech in cars has gone over the past 5 years or so) that the range i would like to see is about 7 years off. (Range from EV cars seems to about doubled every 5 years on average across the various vehicles).
“Anyway we could depot this for ever. Try driving one – I recommend it – it is (all of the models S, X 3) stupidy and fun to drive fast even if you don’t go for the Ludicrous models”
I would not mind driving one but i doubt i would be that much more wowed by it then the ipace. I have for a short journey been a passenger in a Tesla and yes like the ipace you can tell just sitting in it why they cost what the do. In terms of fun factor, yep everyone likes that, but practicality/range/real world living with it is more important for me. That said maybe i could be swayed, but it would take a hell of a lot from any car knowing for my use id have to charge it daily.
To round up though a quick comment on VM charge point idea which i kinda dragged this away from. It is a superb idea, so good id actually go as far as to any future government funded broadband rollouts that use cabinets, then no matter who the company is (BT, VM or altnets) one of the requirements to get the funds should be that each cabinet has to have an EV charge point in some manner. Maybe with Boris in charge (if he stays) and his environment bike riding side we may see something.
– Using the A/C and heater does limit the range but a lot less than you’d expect.
– The plugs are locked in place during a charge cycle. Mischief alone can be averted by this, but I suppose vandalism (as in breaking the charger or cutting the cable cannot).
– Perfect safe to plug an unplug in the damp or even in the wet, as only low voltage control signals are live until the plug is firmly in its socket.
I’d agree with that.
The heater in a Tesla is 4kW max.
Normally you would preheat the car (and battery) while it was plugged in.
Then the maintenance heating is probably 800W in normal conditions. With a 100kWh battery it is not a big concern.
I used to see a City Councils electric vans on the roads a good few years back, totally misted up windshield and windows when it was cold or raining, I wondered at the time if they even had heaters in them.
If it was a Nissan Leaf then that is debatable. The battery capacity on the early models was dreadful and gave EV’s a bad rep.
TBH people turning off AC in most modern vehicles causes far more issues than just leaving it on.
If it was 2010 or before then i think you will find battery tech has came quite a way since then. Electric vehicles back then could only do around 50-100 miles tops.
If some of the people at the local Zoe press event I attended yesterday are to go by. Many many EV’s will end up IN the cab and not at the charger – one woman almost ripped a Zoe off it’s display stand!
I drive a Ioniq BEV and I love the experience but I wouldn’t use one of these – I think these are needed in London much much more than anywhere else.
Just a shame TFL are talking about EV”s paying congestion charge etc. Not exactly going to help with growth it is.
The unjoined up thinking is going to make the BEV revolution slow and stuttering.
Think the way domestic solar was killed by reducing FiT to rapidly.
That was largely at the behest of the generating industry who said “the grid will become uncontrollable” the Tesla (and others) brought out the PowerWall and now the grid uses batteries all over the place…..how times change.
I do notice the bollocks about PMs and brake wear / tyres stepping up a gear. Of course the reason it is bollocks is that EV’s don’t really use their brakes except in emergencies. The tyre PM thing is bollocks because most of the rubber that is actually being accreted is the shred rubber crumb coming from the road surface, where it is used to pad out tarmac and make low noise tarmac Take a second or two two to thing about rubber that is exposed to abrasion, get very hot and get a lot of UV on it – it will get very degraded very quickly and then ended up getting abraded…….trouble is that then you analyse the PM’s you see tyre rubber as it is tyre rubber but not from the tyres on the cars!!!
Sadly this is going to be the stick used to beat EV’s…….
@David
Not sure what you mean, if you mean they drove the car while it was plugged in then from my limited experience (not with a ZOE mind you) that should not of happened. I am not sure about all models, but the couple i have driven do not allow you to move the vehicle while its plugged in.
@A_Builder I totally agree with all of that. I am still on my original brake pads and I have done nearly 75K due to the regen of the car – that said I tend to use it on motorways mostly and early mornings so I can use the keep lane assist which always helps the tyres. Using the free polar rapids nearby means that I do lose about 35mins per charge – but it’s free – a real benefit of an EV as you will sure know yourself . I love how you can run the Ioniq when charging to keep it cool or warm – I will be upgrading to a new one when they come out with the upgraded battery
@beany – No bud, the car was on a revolving stand and charged the lay fired it up but then decided to slam it in reverse and then drive as fast as she could whilst having her foot on the pedal (or so that’s what it looked like) she ended up half on and half off the stand. I love the Zoe I had 2 22’s and 1 40 and this new one looks nice.and is excellent inside finally. I might well hire one for a month and take it for a spin when released
@David
I hadn’t cottoned onto the Polar Rapid network.
Good tip.
We are lucky enough to have 7.5kW (32A 240V) on six spaces at work so that is where I mainly charge.
@David
Ah right sounds like it was a problem with the daft moo Renault let into the car rather than the car itself. I thought wrongly you were saying the car was unsafe. LOL
What about electric bikes? Electric cargo bikes? Electric cars still consume so many resources to manufacture. They still take up the same space in the traffic queues. We have to look at transport in a completely new way if we are not going to be drowned or frizzled-up! Greta is doing her best, but big business doesn’t want to listen.
One of my other businesses is using electric bikes for distribution – as a trial.
Around town you don’t need a 5 person car very often and smaller EV’s could well play a valuable role.
For motorway use you still need the longer body style for crash protection.