Gov Open consultation: Future of transport regulatory review: zero emission vehicles

[NewbieT]

Gov consultation: Future of transport regulatory review: zero emission vehicles

DfT proposals:​

• introducing a statutory duty for Local Authorities to plan for EV infrastructure
• mandated charge points in new & existing non-residential car parks
• Rapid Charging Fund (for England only) DfT potentially act as the owner of the new/upgraded connection, leasing capacity to applicants. Tender chargepoint service contracts openly. Have a minimum of 2 – and at some sites more than 2 – different chargepoint operators at any particular site.
• ensure adequate consumer protections when encountering issues using the public charging infrastructure
• set accessibility (inclusive design) and safety standards at public chargepoints
• mandate aspects of chargepoint design such as familiarity, look and feel, and which will include accessibility and safety features

 

[Durzel]

One important thing that I don't think is covered there is new legislation that covers people that park illegitimately in EV charging spaces, either ICE cars or people just parked and not charging (deliberately). It would need to have teeth to stop people doing it.

I also think one of the most important things is to ensure consistency of signage, tarmac colours, symbols, etc so it's intuitive for everyone (including ICE drivers) about where these points are.

 

[Jason71]

Does it cover metering and billing?
The issue that I think will have to be addressed is the charge point providers ( except Tesla) preference for billing for the AC consumed by DC chargers with no minimum efficiency rules so the more inefficient the charger the more the customer pays. There needs to be a standard and someone to check it the way petrol pumps are checked.

edit
not that I can see

 

[Jason71]

I wonder who this is aimed at...

"We are considering requiring existing providers of chargepoint services at motorway service areas to make their chargepoints open access rather than only open to an exclusive network or group of networks or manufacturers. This would also extend to existing agreements for such services, which would be rendered void and unenforceable if the network were not to be opened."

 

[Durzel]

On the one hand I'm anti Tesla opening up the supercharger network, selfishly because of potential depreciation of the brand (and my car specifically).

On the other hand, it's hard to argue in favour of ongoing private manufacturer-specific charging infrastructure that consumes a finite resource of power and space available for chargers generally. It basically just means more land has to be made into charging space than would otherwise be needed. Writ large if Porsche had their own network, and Tesla had theirs, VW had theirs, etc - and that was allowed moving forwards - then people with less prestigious EVs might get left out in the cold, which is obviously not a good thing from an EV takeup and practicality point of view.

That bit also does just say "motorway service areas", which is reasonable I think.

The flip side as well is that if Tesla have to provide charging for non-Teslas, what incentive do they have to continue building new sites? They would either have to charge non-Teslas a kings ransom to charge (which I presume would also be legislated against) or subsidise it some other way. I don't particularly like the idea of price rises on cars to finance a network that Taycans etc can use.

 

[NewbieT]

I wonder who this is aimed at...

"We are considering requiring existing providers of chargepoint services at motorway service areas to make their chargepoints open access rather than only open to an exclusive network or group of networks or manufacturers. This would also extend to existing agreements for such services, which would be rendered void and unenforceable if the network were not to be opened."

 

[NewbieT]

One important thing that I don't think is covered there is new legislation that covers people that park illegitimately in EV charging spaces, either ICE cars or people just parked and not charging (deliberately). It would need to have teeth to stop people doing it.

I also think one of the most important things is to ensure consistency of signage, tarmac colours, symbols, etc so it's intuitive for everyone (including ICE drivers) about where these points are.

Having challenged a council parking fine I learned that each local authority writes its oven regulations for its off-street parking (public). We need someone to lobby the councils - it’d be a start. Something activists like XR & Insulate Britain could do to help the cause.

 

[pgkevet]

The flip side as well is that if Tesla have to provide charging for non-Teslas, what incentive do they have to continue building new sites? They would either have to charge non-Teslas a kings ransom to charge (which I presume would also be legislated against) or subsidise it some other way. I don't particularly like the idea of price rises on cars to finance a network that Taycans etc can use.

Match Ionity's prices for non-tesla vehicles?
Tesla are moving into the leccy business with their storage systems anyway. They'd just need a deal for rights to double their charger numbers and some way to mod their chargers to recognize new users (the difficult bit)

 

[NewbieT]

Just don’t provide electricity to anyone that isn’t authenticated. The first time you plug in you identify the stall you’re on in the app and associate your car (ID3/Polestar/etc) to your account. Voila. If you don’t have the app you can always phone up to pay haha.

We’ve been conditioned into thinking slow charging is cheaper. Tesla should turn that on its head. Cars that can’t get the most out of a stall I.e charger < 50kW should pay a premium for bay blocking. In reality I think this is a point in time. Can’t see many new EVs being made that can’t charge at a least 100kW.

 

[GRiLLA]

Given the amount of vehicle regulation we have governing autonomy, should we just have a standard around charging that auto manufacturers have to meet to sell their cars in the UK.

• Chargeport location and CCS plug, ban these stupid side charging cars.
• Peak over 100KW charging
• Support Autocharge EV-ID

Then require the charge network to provide the same so everything just works together. Each network should support at least 2 payment mechanisms for autocharge. This should include an overstay fee.

The point is that we know that the SuperCharger model works, it's convenient for the customer and operator, and being able to just plug in means charges start more quickly, and the faster charge speed means they end more quickly.

 

[HenryT]

Then require the charge network to provide the same so everything just works together. Each network should support at least 2 payment mechanisms for autocharge. This should include an overstay fee.

It would be good if the overstay fee could be morphed into some sort of penalty charge as well for ICE blocking (to Durzal's point). I'm sure there are plenty of camera bandits happy to provide the service if asked.