I watched a program recently about the problems of electric vehicles (privately owned) and the problems of charging them.  as we all know, parking in London is at a premium and getting worse everyday.  the program highlighted the parking problem, especially off road parking and that most properties don't have drives and that the residents have to drape extension leads from their homes across pavements, both at floor level and overhead to charge their vehicles.  Are the government or local borough councils going to install multiple charging points in most streets?

I can't speak for London, but I know the policy around here (where we also have areas with a large amounts of terraced housing with no off-street parking) is for rapid chargers in short-stay car parks (e.g. supermarkets) to serve such areas - so people can top up when they're out and about rather than overnight at home. Not ideal from a grid load point of view, but can serve a reasonable number of people with a small number of charge points. Plus of course, the on-going policy to shift commuters from cars to public transport (which one day hopefully central government will gets its act together on). Maybe too we'll see the European approach of renting spaces in residential area car parks rather than street parking - where you could have your own off-street charger.


   - Andy.

I watched a program recently about the problems of electric vehicles (privately owned) and the problems of charging them.  as we all know, parking in London is at a premium and getting worse everyday.  the program highlighted the parking problem, especially off road parking and that most properties don't have drives and that the residents have to drape extension leads from their homes across pavements, both at floor level and overhead to charge their vehicles.  Are the government or local borough councils going to install multiple charging points in most streets?

I can't speak for London, but I know the policy around here (where we also have areas with a large amounts of terraced housing with no off-street parking) is for rapid chargers in short-stay car parks (e.g. supermarkets) to serve such areas - so people can top up when they're out and about rather than overnight at home. Not ideal from a grid load point of view, but can serve a reasonable number of people with a small number of charge points. Plus of course, the on-going policy to shift commuters from cars to public transport (which one day hopefully central government will gets its act together on). Maybe too we'll see the European approach of renting spaces in residential area car parks rather than street parking - where you could have your own off-street charger.


   - Andy.