mapj1:

The hiccup is one of rate of transfer of energy - the speed to refuel a petrol car means the service station borders on the burn rate equivalent to a modest power station . . .

 

Thanks, Mike. A very relevant point! Hence it will become popular for motorists to charge their vehicles at home overnight.

Now an electric car needs less KVA, being more efficient, perhaps more like 30kVA

 

Even if they have no more than a 13 A socket to plug into, that should provide 30 kWh overnight. A proper charging point will provide much more. (Think how that will affect off-peak demand and "cheap rate" tariffs - we could start a whole new topic on this.)


This is OK, at any rate, for those fortunate enough to have drives or garages to park their cars off-road. For someone living in a 3rd storey flat and having to park on-street, it will be less easy. Hence there will need to be plenty of fast charging points in shopping centre car parks and such like, where cars can charge while owners shop. This is already starting to happen where I live.


There still seems to be a lot of focus and worry about long range capabilities of electric cars. Many cars however are used mainly as short-journey runabouts and only occasionally take long motorway journeys. For those long journeys, advantage will need to be taken of charging points at service areas. This will require half an hour or so, but one should take breaks every 2 hours or so on a motorway journey anyway.

At the motorway services, perhaps 5-10 cars may be filling at once when busy

I seldom see more than about five cars filling up at a motorway service area, even when all three lanes are thick with traffic and the refreshment area are heaving. It seems most motorists prefer to tank up at a local supermarket before a long journey - can't think why! With electric cars it may not be possible to fully charge in advance for a long journey, and we will need to provide much more than five charge points at each service area, and again this is already happening.

mapj1:

The hiccup is one of rate of transfer of energy - the speed to refuel a petrol car means the service station borders on the burn rate equivalent to a modest power station . . .

 

Thanks, Mike. A very relevant point! Hence it will become popular for motorists to charge their vehicles at home overnight.

Now an electric car needs less KVA, being more efficient, perhaps more like 30kVA

 

Even if they have no more than a 13 A socket to plug into, that should provide 30 kWh overnight. A proper charging point will provide much more. (Think how that will affect off-peak demand and "cheap rate" tariffs - we could start a whole new topic on this.)


This is OK, at any rate, for those fortunate enough to have drives or garages to park their cars off-road. For someone living in a 3rd storey flat and having to park on-street, it will be less easy. Hence there will need to be plenty of fast charging points in shopping centre car parks and such like, where cars can charge while owners shop. This is already starting to happen where I live.


There still seems to be a lot of focus and worry about long range capabilities of electric cars. Many cars however are used mainly as short-journey runabouts and only occasionally take long motorway journeys. For those long journeys, advantage will need to be taken of charging points at service areas. This will require half an hour or so, but one should take breaks every 2 hours or so on a motorway journey anyway.

At the motorway services, perhaps 5-10 cars may be filling at once when busy

I seldom see more than about five cars filling up at a motorway service area, even when all three lanes are thick with traffic and the refreshment area are heaving. It seems most motorists prefer to tank up at a local supermarket before a long journey - can't think why! With electric cars it may not be possible to fully charge in advance for a long journey, and we will need to provide much more than five charge points at each service area, and again this is already happening.