Who would use town charging points?

[Sailordoc]

I am on my way to Portsmouth from the Midlands for a few meetings. Am going to use the Ecotricity charging ooints where I can. I looked as zap map and there are charging ooints around Portsmouth as well, but on different networks who each want you to register at £20 a pop and then charge up to £7 for a charge! I guess only pure EV vehicles would be blackmailed inyo using these or am I missing something?

 

[maby]

I'm not sure that "blackmailed" is a fair description. The economics of charging a genuine EV are very different to an Outlander with its small battery. £7 equates to about one and a half gallons of petrol - in a genuine EV, the charge could give you more than a hundred miles range - pretty good in terms of virtual MPG. For an Outlander, the sums come out very differently - a full charge (and, remember, an Ecotricity rapid charger will only give you 80%) is worth half a gallon or less - a couple of pounds worth of petrol.

We would need them to charge (in the financial sense) for the electricity consumed rather than the time spent on the point - but then they would probably find that it was not profitable to run the network. Each rapid charger costs upwards of £50,000 to install - that's a lot to recoup before they break even!

 

[rgilyead]

Our District Council worked with one of these companies to install 2 chargers at the local leisure centre. There is a flat-rate price of £5 for each charge. It was recently reported that these chargers have hardly been used. A flat-rate price represents poor value for anyone except a pure EV driver with a fully depleted battery so maybe this is not a surprise. However, it calls into question whether there is a viable economic model for public charging points at all. Will we see such companies start to go bust?

 

[maby]

Our District Council worked with one of these companies to install 2 chargers at the local leisure centre. There is a flat-rate price of £5 for each charge. It was recently reported that these chargers have hardly been used. A flat-rate price represents poor value for anyone except a pure EV driver with a fully depleted battery so maybe this is not a surprise. However, it calls into question whether there is a viable economic model for public charging points at all. Will we see such companies start to go bust?

I think we will. I do mathematical modelling for bids - my employer could have been a candidate to take up the Source London contract. I ran a few speculative figures through Excel and it was impossible to come up with any financial structure that would have made it worth bidding for it.

 

[duplo]

They are still free throughout Northern Ireland and the Republic, plus one card works for all.

Apart from Ikea belfast.

 

[jkh112]

I read that the reason there is a flat fee for use of the chargers is that if it were to be charged for the actual electricity used then the supplier would fall into all sorts of regulations aimed at electricity suppliers, so the easiest thing is for the electricity to be free but there is a charge for the use of the equipment. (UK only)

 

[maby]

I read that the reason there is a flat fee for use of the chargers is that if it were to be charged for the actual electricity used then the supplier would fall into all sorts of regulations aimed at electricity suppliers, so the easiest thing is for the electricity to be free but there is a charge for the use of the equipment. (UK only)

That could well be the case - there are certainly restrictions on how much profit someone like a landlord can make on reselling electricity

 

[Sailordoc]

That could well be the case - there are certainly restrictions on how much profit someone like a landlord can make on reselling electricity

Yes, that is certainly true. A shame really. Apart from an Ecotricity charge when you stop for a cuppa it doesn't seem viable to charge other than at home (and work if you are lucky enough). I achieved 74mpg on the journey from Midlands to Portsmouth today, but that involved 3 x 23 min stops at Service Stations for charges, adding over an hour to the journey. I did it as an experiment, since I had time to do so, but doubt it would be worth it in the future. And if, as is certain, Ecotricity charge in the future, it will never be worth it.

 

[Neverfuel]

And the amount you paid for each cup of coffee / tea would have more than paid for petrol miles!

 

[Sailordoc]

And the amount you paid for each cup of coffee / tea would have more than paid for petrol miles!

Indeed! Today was an experiment, but as each charge (other than my home charge) gave me less than 20 EV miles at motorway speeds I'll only bother again if I'm stopping anyway.

 

[greendwarf]

Some misinformation here.

Whether to charge for electricity is a matter for the charge point owner not the supplier, who provides the control and billing, if necessary. Many apparent "local" brands are in fact Chargemaster e.g. Source East, so the Polar card might card might be useable in Portsmouth.

There are times when "town charging" is worthwhile - in London NCP car parks the "free" electricity is a useful discount against the parking charge and I have got a similar discount in Southend when shopping in the High Street and of course, you can park for free in Westminster on top of the charge!

 

[hdasmith]

I am on my way to Portsmouth from the Midlands for a few meetings. Am going to use the Ecotricity charging ooints where I can. I looked as zap map and there are charging ooints around Portsmouth as well, but on different networks who each want you to register at £20 a pop and then charge up to £7 for a charge! I guess only pure EV vehicles would be blackmailed inyo using these or am I missing something?

One useful time to pay for charging is in York. As long as you're plugged into one of their chargers, parking is free up to 12 hours. You pay 15p/kWh, so if you only plug in using the 13A charger, which charges at 10A, you pay 30p/h parked rather than the normal parking fee of over £2!

I haven't found other places where it is worth while. I currently live 20 minutes from Leeds and York, I now shop mainly in York rather than Leeds which is where I used to.

 

[maby]

Some misinformation here.

Whether to charge for electricity is a matter for the charge point owner not the supplier, who provides the control and billing, if necessary. Many apparent "local" brands are in fact Chargemaster e.g. Source East, so the Polar card might card might be useable in Portsmouth.

There are times when "town charging" is worthwhile - in London NCP car parks the "free" electricity is a useful discount against the parking charge and I have got a similar discount in Southend when shopping in the High Street and of course, you can park for free in Westminster on top of the charge!

I think the discussion really was more focussing on the long term viability of the current charging network rather than the current situation. With the majority of them currently free, they represent excellent value - provided, of course, that a rogue rapid charger does not disable your car. But the current situation cannot continue for long and it then becomes extremely difficult to design a commercially viable scheme that will be attractive to Outlander owners.