Living in a normal urban street

[babelfish]

If you live in a normal street with semi and terraced houses in a urban area that has no off road parking for example here W7 2PN (and this is really an example but an area I know) how do you charge your EV?

The local council has this page: https://www.ealing.gov.uk/info/201173/transport_an...

Use the search on that page to find a charging point: "Sorry, no entries matched your criteria."

So, if you live in an urban area how do you charge your EV?

[Jimbo.]

Public charging stations, be they on-street ones, motorway services or dedicated charging hubs as have appeared at Braintree, Oxford etc.

[TheDeuce]

To be blunt... You don't, at least not at home unless you get creative and have a tolerant local council.

If you Google it there are various products available to safely(ish) pass a charging cable across a pavement.

But longer term the government has just put out a paper detailing various improvements that need to be made to help people who can't install their own charger at home.

Being discussed here: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

For right now, patience or ingenuity will be required. Or a lot of expensive public charging which might not bother you at all if it's a company car and you do limited miles.

[babelfish]

Jimbo. said:

Public charging stations, be they on-street ones, motorway services or dedicated charging hubs as have appeared at Braintree, Oxford etc.

But not in locations like this.

[TheDeuce]

babelfish said:

Jimbo. said:

Public charging stations, be they on-street ones, motorway services or dedicated charging hubs as have appeared at Braintree, Oxford etc.

But not in locations like this.

Well what is your rough location?

Do you actually have or expect to soon get an EV? Or is this just a hypothetical question?

[babelfish]

TheDeuce said:

To be blunt... You don't, at least not at home unless you get creative and have a tolerant local council.

If you Google it there are various products available to safely(ish) pass a charging cable across a pavement.

But longer term the government has just put out a paper detailing various improvements that need to be made to help people who can't install their own charger at home.

Being discussed here: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

For right now, patience or ingenuity will be required. Or a lot of expensive public charging which might not bother you at all if it's a company car and you do limited miles.

But in locations like this you are unlikely to be able to park near your home.

The link above doesn't address the issue.

Edited by babelfish on Thursday 19th January 22:39

[babelfish]

TheDeuce said:

babelfish said:

Jimbo. said:

Public charging stations, be they on-street ones, motorway services or dedicated charging hubs as have appeared at Braintree, Oxford etc.

But not in locations like this.

Well what is your rough location?

Do you actually have or expect to soon get an EV? Or is this just a hypothetical question?

hypothetical, but genuine interest as how the majority of potential urban users would deal with this.

[TheDeuce]

babelfish said:

TheDeuce said:

To be blunt... You don't, at least not at home unless you get creative and have a tolerant local council.

If you Google it there are various products available to safely(ish) pass a charging cable across a pavement.

But longer term the government has just put out a paper detailing various improvements that need to be made to help people who can't install their own charger at home.

Being discussed here: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

For right now, patience or ingenuity will be required. Or a lot of expensive public charging which might not bother you at all if it's a company car and you do limited miles.

But in locations like this you are unlikely to be able to park near your home.

I think little point looking to EV right now in the type of home you describe. Solutions will come, wait.

ETA although I see from your profile you already have several cars and bikes.. must be a bugger with none of them parked near to your house..

Edited by TheDeuce on Thursday 19th January 22:44

[TheDeuce]

babelfish said:

TheDeuce said:

babelfish said:

Jimbo. said:

Public charging stations, be they on-street ones, motorway services or dedicated charging hubs as have appeared at Braintree, Oxford etc.

But not in locations like this.

Well what is your rough location?

Do you actually have or expect to soon get an EV? Or is this just a hypothetical question?

hypothetical, but genuine interest as how the majority of potential urban users would deal with this.

Read the government paper and imagine the world in 10-15 years time, not today. No one is under any pressure to move to EV any sooner so the question of how to deal with it today is not really worth asking.

They will deal with as they did before EV's started to gain popularity, by not buying one.

[babelfish]

TheDeuce said:

I think little point looking to EV right now in the type of home you describe. Solutions will come, wait.

ETA although I see from your profile you already have several cars and bikes.. must be a bugger with none of them parked near to your house..

Edited by TheDeuce on Thursday 19th January 22:44

FFS It was a hypothetical question to understand how people in general are meant to implement the governments desire to convert to EV.

I used to live on that street and had one of the few properties that had off road parking. I'm sure you'd love to know I had electric gates and didn't have to fight to park in the street like the commoners.

[Dingu]

I think in general the answer is that those in a position to do so today, or in the next few years will start to. Then as volumes increase the public charging infrastructure will become more and more prevalent- based at shopping centres and car parks etc as we are starting to see. Add in the possibility of charging points at lamp posts, not a quick thing but over time and things may look very different in a decade for people with road parking only.

[TheDeuce]

babelfish said:

TheDeuce said:

I think little point looking to EV right now in the type of home you describe. Solutions will come, wait.

ETA although I see from your profile you already have several cars and bikes.. must be a bugger with none of them parked near to your house..

Edited by TheDeuce on Thursday 19th January 22:44

FFS It was a hypothetical question to understand how people in general are meant to implement the governments desire to convert to EV.

I used to live on that street and had one of the few properties that had off road parking. I'm sure you'd love to know I had electric gates and didn't have to fight to park in the street like the commoners.

We'll say in your opening post it's hypothetical FFS

I apologise for bothering to respond in a helpful way and further apologise for taking the time to try and work out if it was real advice you were actually looking for.

People in general are not supposed to do anything at all, people have until 2035 + 10 years until there's any actual need to move to an EV. The most basic of googling would have revealed plans are already being tabled to make it workable between now and over twenty years in the future.

You might as well have hypothetically asked how a family that live in a flat without a garden are supposed to provide their kids with a treehouse and a 12' trampoline. Obviously certain houses come with certain limitations.

The more specific answer is that you can have an EV today if you live in a terraced house, but you will have to pay public charging rates. Or you can move house and pay more for a house with a drive. If a person cannot afford either, then just wait for solutions to come. Not everyone needs to be or can be an early adopter of whatever new thing comes along

[off_again]

Apartments in the US are a big thing - lots of people like them and they are a popular option for somewhere to live.

Most apartments DONT have charging and there is no option to provide charging - you get a parking space, but no option to drag a cable out to your car! Its a challenge. Some cities and states are looking into providing schemes to support this, but a lot of the apartments are owned by big corporations, so profit margins are important.

But I know of a few people here who do have EV's and live in apartments. Yes, its a bit of a pain because one of the biggest advantages for having an EV is being able to top-up at home isnt there. However, it really depends on so many other factors. Can you get charging at work? What about the station when you take public transport? What about a decent fast charge at the shopping mall, supermarket or other location? Maybe you can charge while you are grabbing something to eat on an evening? Or maybe you like to go to the gym and they have a couple of chargers on site?

Its not an unsurmountable issue and I know a few people who make it work. Yes, they need to plan a little, but its far from impossible to manage. Is this the way forward? Maybe, dont know. But having convenient locations to just top-up your charge every week is the way to go.

And a final comment - we are used to filling up an ICE car. You run low, you fill-up. That really isnt what you can do all of the time with an EV. If you can, great, but most cant (speed, availability, time etc). So you charge for what you need. Do you need to have 300 miles range available at all times? Maybe you do, but most dont. Running errands and driving say 25 miles? Just top-up when you can and if you only manage a 15 minute charge, thats probably enough to give you that 25 miles back. Its just a different way to approach it. You dont need a fast charger all of the time.

[babelfish]

TheDeuce said:

We'll say in your opening post it's hypothetical FFS

I apologise for bothering to respond in a helpful way and further apologise for taking the time to try and work out if it was real advice you were actually looking for.

People in general are not supposed to do anything at all, people have until 2035 + 10 years until there's any actual need to move to an EV. The most basic of googling would have revealed plans are already being tabled to make it workable between now and over twenty years in the future.

You might as well have hypothetically asked how a family that live in a flat without a garden are supposed to provide their kids with a treehouse and a 12' trampoline. Obviously certain houses come with certain limitations.

The more specific answer is that you can have an EV today if you live in a terraced house, but you will have to pay public charging rates. Or you can move house and pay more for a house with a drive. If a person cannot afford either, then just wait for solutions to come. Not everyone needs to be or can be an early adopter of whatever new thing comes along

I used "If" and "for example", you decided that I lived there.

"treehouse"? where did you get that from?

[TheDeuce]

babelfish said:

TheDeuce said:

We'll say in your opening post it's hypothetical FFS

I apologise for bothering to respond in a helpful way and further apologise for taking the time to try and work out if it was real advice you were actually looking for.

People in general are not supposed to do anything at all, people have until 2035 + 10 years until there's any actual need to move to an EV. The most basic of googling would have revealed plans are already being tabled to make it workable between now and over twenty years in the future.

You might as well have hypothetically asked how a family that live in a flat without a garden are supposed to provide their kids with a treehouse and a 12' trampoline. Obviously certain houses come with certain limitations.

The more specific answer is that you can have an EV today if you live in a terraced house, but you will have to pay public charging rates. Or you can move house and pay more for a house with a drive. If a person cannot afford either, then just wait for solutions to come. Not everyone needs to be or can be an early adopter of whatever new thing comes along

I used "If" and "for example", you decided that I lived there.

"treehouse"? where did you get that from?

Just an example of any of a thousand things you can't realistically have if you live in a certain type of house. Right now in some houses an EV is not practical.

Why are you asking a question about how people can deal with something they don't need 'today' and are under zero pressure to have? Surely all that matters is what is happening for the future when eventually those people will need to move to EV?

[SlimJim16v]

Simple, a swinging arm on/at the edge of the property, about 3m high and as long as the width of the pavement. The cable goes across and down.

[babelfish]

TheDeuce said:

babelfish said:

TheDeuce said:

We'll say in your opening post it's hypothetical FFS

I apologise for bothering to respond in a helpful way and further apologise for taking the time to try and work out if it was real advice you were actually looking for.

People in general are not supposed to do anything at all, people have until 2035 + 10 years until there's any actual need to move to an EV. The most basic of googling would have revealed plans are already being tabled to make it workable between now and over twenty years in the future.

You might as well have hypothetically asked how a family that live in a flat without a garden are supposed to provide their kids with a treehouse and a 12' trampoline. Obviously certain houses come with certain limitations.

The more specific answer is that you can have an EV today if you live in a terraced house, but you will have to pay public charging rates. Or you can move house and pay more for a house with a drive. If a person cannot afford either, then just wait for solutions to come. Not everyone needs to be or can be an early adopter of whatever new thing comes along

I used "If" and "for example", you decided that I lived there.

"treehouse"? where did you get that from?

Just an example of any of a thousand things you can't realistically have if you live in a certain type of house. Right now in some houses an EV is not practical.

Why are you asking a question about how people can deal with something they don't need 'today' and are under zero pressure to have? Surely all that matters is what is happening for the future when eventually those people will need to move to EV?

But people in this EXAMPLE postcode will be moved into the London ULEZ in August this year forcing them to change cars.

I know they have options but EV doesn't seem to be a practical one.

[chris116]

I just charge once a week on the way home from work, I go past a small shopping centre that has a couple of instavolt chargers in the car park.

[TheDeuce]

babelfish said:

TheDeuce said:

babelfish said:

TheDeuce said:

We'll say in your opening post it's hypothetical FFS

I apologise for bothering to respond in a helpful way and further apologise for taking the time to try and work out if it was real advice you were actually looking for.

People in general are not supposed to do anything at all, people have until 2035 + 10 years until there's any actual need to move to an EV. The most basic of googling would have revealed plans are already being tabled to make it workable between now and over twenty years in the future.

You might as well have hypothetically asked how a family that live in a flat without a garden are supposed to provide their kids with a treehouse and a 12' trampoline. Obviously certain houses come with certain limitations.

The more specific answer is that you can have an EV today if you live in a terraced house, but you will have to pay public charging rates. Or you can move house and pay more for a house with a drive. If a person cannot afford either, then just wait for solutions to come. Not everyone needs to be or can be an early adopter of whatever new thing comes along

I used "If" and "for example", you decided that I lived there.

"treehouse"? where did you get that from?

Just an example of any of a thousand things you can't realistically have if you live in a certain type of house. Right now in some houses an EV is not practical.

Why are you asking a question about how people can deal with something they don't need 'today' and are under zero pressure to have? Surely all that matters is what is happening for the future when eventually those people will need to move to EV?

But people in this EXAMPLE postcode will be moved into the London ULEZ in August this year forcing them to change cars.

I know they have options but EV doesn't seem to be a practical one.

We agree then, today for most people in such homes EV is not a practical solution.

As you say, there are other options.

It's always been the case that the desirability of certain places to live shifts as the world at large changes. The expansion of the ULEZ zone is an example of that. It doesn't mean that some power above needs to instantly make EV ownership viable for all residents.

I really don't think your question can be answered any better. No one needs to or is forced to adopt EV, so don't. Entirely separate to that fact, the ULEZ zone is expanding which I'm sure is annoying... But congestion charging and the ULEZ came about way before EV was a serious option for anyone.

[Granadier]

I have a stretch of public grass/trees and two separate pedestrian walkways between house and parking. I don't see a realistic way of trailing a cable across that lot, so I'll have to rely on public charging.