UK Politics
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Your council will probably have words with you if you have a permanent over the pavement solution. Have proper permanent gullys for charging cables goes someway to improving access to cheap charging for EV owners that don't have driveways. That is by far the cheapest way to charge. My overnight charging is about 7p per kWh (~4-5 miles of range).
The road tax discounts are nice but not sustainable in the long term. EVs are still road users and need to contribute to the cost of upkeep. The fairest solution would be a usage based approach but their are privacy issues implementing such a solution.
I hadn't noticed a massive difference in insurance. Is the premium you mention down to a government tax or just differences from the insurers?
Battery recycling is certainly worthwhile. Even if you don't break then down a lot of EV batteries can have a good second life as domestic supply batteries.
I have the same overnight tariff, with a cheap 2.4kw granny charger giving ~60 miles per night on the cheap tariff.
Regarding the council, we are talking about overnight on residential streets not exactly high levels of foot traffic, and if the council did receive complaints then that’s a good opportunity for some targeted funding solving a problem rather than a perceived problem.
I agree removal of road tax is not sustainable long term but it was reintroduced too quickly, and discourages 2nd hand EV buyers.
Electricity has 5% VAT at home and 20% on public chargers. If the off street parking solutions are classed as “public” charging then the price per KWh is going to be at a minimum 30p due to the marginal cost pricing.
Electric cars just cost more to insure than an equivalent ICE car, just because any question of battery integrity results in a total loss claim.
I'm pretty sure it's still private charging. I know there are some kerbside charging solutions that are a public/private mix so discounted for residents but I don't think we need a lot of public charging infrastructure on normal streets. The only time I use public chargers is when doing long journeys and I stop off at motorway services which benefit from the 50kw+ CCS charging while I have a pee and grab a coffee.
I would hope in time that private charging gullys would become a standard part of street furniture when streets are renovated and redone. It's going to take awhile before the majority of cars on the road have transitioned to electric.
Not sure what to do about the insurance premium issue. I would hope some of the ADAS improvements in new cars will eventually reduce the number of battery integrity threatening prangs.
I agree with the less need for public charging. We will probably end up public charging once or twice a year (while on staycation).
The way I see it is homes with driveways are sorted, homes with street parking within 20-30m can get by with a cable ramp, and digging a cable trench can be done in extreme cases.
What needs sorting are blocks of flats, maybe the incentive/legislation should be applied to the landlords and building owners to ensure their buildings are suitable for the electric age.
Allocated parking with charging linked to the flat, and unallocated parking with access to zero-profit charging.