Electric Vehicles-Infrastructure

[NewcastleFalcon]

Good Idea/Bad Idea who knows, but yet another example of of the Companies European manufacturers have to compete with doing things on a scale and a speed which is likely to leave them trailing in their wake.

Geely Aims to have 5,000 Battery Swapping Stations by 2025

How long will a battery swap take

59 seconds.

Wonder how much Nissan/Jaguar/BMW/VW would charge at their Dealer Workshops to swop out a battery on their vehicles, and what the book time would be for the job.

Battery as a service can make a lot of sense, and manufacturers as they should, remain responsible for the batteries and their recycling.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Another secret EV charger, doesn't appear on Zap Map, another rural village hall charger. Looks like it needs an RFID card to make it work, but some of them are just plug in and charge. Didn't test it out. The experience the other week of potentially having the cable locked into the charger or the car or both, made me a bit cautious about just plugging it in and giving it a try. Need to find out what the arrangements are.

A 21 Reg Tesla Model 3 pulled up while we were charging at one of the NCC rapids, a with a chip and crack in the passenger side of the windscreen. Yes probably covered by insurance, but shudder to think how much a replacement windscreen costs on one of those, and what the hike in next years premium is likely to be.

Regards Neil

[myglaren]

Nissan Sunderland electric expansion plans.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-58929250

Plans have been unveiled to expand the solar farm at Nissan in Sunderland with the aim of making the plant run entirely on green energy.

The proposed 37,000-solar panels extension would be a further step in Nissan's ambition to become carbon neutrality, the firm said.

Sunderland City Council is now considering the application.

If approved it would result in 20% of the plant's energy coming from onsite renewables.

This would mean enough to build every single zero-emission Nissan Leaf sold in Europe, the company said.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Today, the EV charging infrastructure let me down. Hexham is a charging point desert if you dont have a smart phone.

Even resorted to visiting the local Nissan Dealer who has 6 chargepoints, but only one of them works, and a staff member was using that one.

Knew the more out in the sticks one at Humshaugh Village Hall was free and had a couple of 7kW posts, only to find that with 2 cars plugged in it only delivers half the power. So a painfully slow charge up at 3.5 ish kW ensued. Good job it had a playground with a zip-wire, and a collection of micro cars at the local pub

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Whats a Billion?

It certainly used to be 1million million, 12 zeros 1,000,000,000,000.

Looks like I have been dealing in "old money" in 1974 the UK Government officially switched to the short-scale billion as one thousand million 1,000,000,000 nine zeros.

Makes the price per charging post around the £10,000 mark, for the 190,000 proposed AC (7-22kW) charging points to be installed by Connected Kerb in the UK by 2030 as part of the The UK government’s Office for Zero-Emission On-Street Residential Charging Scheme (ORCS). UK taxpayer pays 75% Connected Kerb 25%.

Are future revenues for the sceme installed units going to be shared in the same proportion

https://www.electrive.com/2021/11/08/co ... ge-points/


Shell are into it too with their ubertricity subsidiary installing 50,000 on-street chargers by 2025 also part of the On-street Residential Charging Scheme (ORCS)

Have to question whether Shell need any kind of subsidy at all for expanding their future business plan into off street residential charging.

Even in our current times the average journeys by the uk driver for which 2018 is probably the most relevant full year was 6,530 miles 125 miles per week. The majority of current vehicles in 2021 will cope with that sort of mileage on a single charge a week. Go back 5 years and a couple of charges a week would be necessary, go forward 5 years and most EV's will be in the 200 miles + range category.

The odd visit once a week to your local charging hub should more than cope with fuelling your vehicle, whether you live in a block of flats, have no off-street parking, or a pavement running between your flat or house and the place you park your car.

Not entirely sure whether the flooding of a small number residential streets with charging points, and a "fuel pump" in your on-street parking space, with "slow chargers" is value for money at £10,000 a post.

Regards Neil

[myglaren]

Whats a Billion?

It certainly used to be 1million million, 12 zeros 1,000,000,000,000.

It's those 'murikans, first the chuck the u's and i's out, then the 0's.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Daves back from COP and no doubt will be commenting shortly, but his latest video deals with Electric Vehicles Infrastructure, specifically wireless charging. Useful and informative update on a plate without having to dig around yourself.

Link here for the curious
Wireless FULL EV charging has arrived! Exciting new tech breakthrough.

REgards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Couple of Gridserve Chargers Chademo and CCS connectors 30p per kWh as of today and simple operation with a contactless payment with a bank card, at Rheged 300 metres off the M6 at the Penrith turnoff. Can't complain at that very good price for on the road charging. Many are over 40p as standard now.

Today, couldn't face the prospect of Jeremy Vine "chairing" a discussion about electric car charging on the back of the EV chargepoint in every new home proposals coming soon.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-t ... revolution

One key element consistently missing from such items, is the miracle that for 100 plus years, car drivers have managed by and large to fuel their vehicles without having a fuel pump at home.

The second miracle is that it is perfectly possible with electrification for most car drivers to refuel their vehicles at home, and for those doing average annual mileages of around 6,000... its only a once a week thing with most electric cars currently available.

For others who do not have the facility to charge at home, a once a week visit to an on road charging station should suffice. More strategic hubs , with many charging stalls, (yes electric fuel stations like gridserve , fastned etc) to my mind are more effective than trying to have every residential street or block of flats provided with on street slow fuel pumps and a sea of trailing cables.

Regards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

I see channel four are going to do one of their exposes on Friday, they always tend to be aimed to prove a predetermined agenda.

Channel 4 Fri 26 Nov
The Truth About Electric Cars: Dispatches

[NewcastleFalcon]

I see channel four are going to do one of their exposes on Friday, they always tend to be aimed to prove a predetermined agenda.

Channel 4 Fri 26 Nov
The Truth About Electric Cars: Dispatches

Here's a bit of a spoiler,

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/cars/news/pro ... NewsSearch

Not so much the "only as green as the grid is", or lithium/cobalt mining, or battery scrapping or tyre and brake dust, or exported emissions from making them in China or indeed Germany or the USA with their dependence on Coal but...


...A nice swipe at "hybrids" with a bit of tailpipe emissions probing, revealing their "shock" findings.

and then,

...they go on and discover the patently obvious out-of-order charge points story, and some that have been out-of-order for years. I could easily rack up half a dozen without trying round here, mainly the old charging posts, installed years ago, and run by management companies which have been taken over and superceded. Charge your Car (CYC) are a case in point, absorbed into the "Polar Plus" network, and that turning into BP Pulse, and to be honest BP Pulse don't even realise some of the old charge posts still exist.

I don't see it as too much of a problem, the infrastructure is expanding it will get better than it is in 2021, and there will be more large hubs more effectively maintained.

REgards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Having read the report Neil cited I have to agree with Gibbo that it does look like an intended exposé of a predetermined hypothesis. I tend to pigeon hole this sort of "documentary" with other politically biased journalism into my 'not worth watching' category. Better off to have a drive around and count the charging points yourself in a given area!! It also irritates me that they make a thing of the hybrid emissions in cold start comparisons but no mention of the normal temperature running emissions, which, lets face it, is a far more important measure!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Having read the report Neil cited I have to agree with Gibbo that it does look like an intended exposé of a predetermined hypothesis.

It was on TV last night, will appear on C4 catchup for those who want to watch. University challenge got the nod from me 8.30pm on a Monday.

I've given it a go on the firestick did the 30 minutes, but not for me. Negative, negative, negative and a series of "tests" which rank alongside those on Top Gear as contributions to the scientific method. VOC's are a downside of hydrocarbon fuel, whether its at the filling station, or unburnt off before the cat warms up. Really not a problem for a BEV "the Electric Car". The Hybrids under test guess what, have petrol or diesel engines burning hydrocarbon fuel for some/most/all of the time. I may be wrong but I guess that's the part where the VOC's come from. I'm guessing that stop start tech for the vehicles which use it churn out more VOC than ones that don't have it. So are we to believe the "results" of the scientific tests on the programme. Easy enough to skew the selection of vehicles to get the results you want. Surely a plug-in hybrid doing its 28 miles in all electric mode, has something wrong with its engineering, or the petrol cap has been left off if it performs worse than a petrol engine car on VOC emissions.

The infrastructure bit features a rapid charger at the Gateshead Metro Centre which hasn't worked for 6 years, and some nonsense from a TESLA driver who with a Supercharger network to use, whinges that 30% of the time he finds Service Station chargers out of order. Fine example of stick a microphone in front of a member of the public and they will overexaggerate. That Tesla driver must purposely seek them out, never charge at home, or just talk nonsense when he's on the TV.

REgards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

I popped into Tesco and charged the Zoe again today, the petrol forecourt is closed for what looks like a full refurb, pumps are all out and holes dug all around, good job I didn't go for diesel

[NewcastleFalcon]

China is still the hotbed of battery swapping, and battery as a service. News today of BP expanding its portfolio of investments with a joint venture.

Story at electrive here

https://www.electrive.com/2021/11/23/bp ... th-aulton/

BP has acquired a stake in Chinese battery swapping specialist Aulton. The resulting joint venture is to offer battery swapping services for taxis, ride-hailing vehicles and other passenger cars, initially in the Chinese city of Guangzhou.

As noted earlier in the thread...

How long will a battery swap take 59 seconds.

Wonder how much Nissan/Jaguar/BMW/VW would charge at their Dealer Workshops to swop out a battery on their vehicles, and what the book time would be for the job.

Battery as a service can make a lot of sense, and manufacturers as they should, remain responsible for the batteries and their recycling.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Energy storage systems to support EV drivers rapidly charging on England's Motorways

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ener ... -motorways


In the desire to be seen to be doing something or enabling something the allocation of taxpayer support to various different projects can fall into the "is it really necessary" category to achieve the desired outcome.

The big players in the electrical infrastructure business, are the transitioning former oil and gas companies, the existing energy companies (often fully or partially state owned by overseas governments), a smattering of start ups and growing start-ups all likely to be bought out by the big players, car companies and partnerships of car companies and TESLA worth a mention on their own, as they built their own infrastructure to sell their cars and look after their own customers.

So will the infrastructure in the UK just develop in accordance with the actions of those big players, without subsidy from the taxpayer? I suspect it would, and the "necessity" for high power rapid charging to save those precious minutes for the impatient, is overblown.

Still the UK starts from a pretty non-existent battery storage capacity, for EV chargers and the grid so every little helps.

REgards Neil