Have your say: The consumer experience at public chargepoints

[Yev000]

I think they are missing a trick looking at this as a single standard. There is "fast charging" and then there is "parking".

Heathrow could do with a few hundred 2KW spots that should be included in the parking chargers, for example.

My local Tesco has 4 pod point chargers which are excellent, when you are not blocked by random plonkers. There could be a whole bunch of spaces all around and they would park in the charge spot. There were zero questions about fines or enformenet.

Idle fees can only be collected if A: its plugged in and "connected" to an account and B it's full.

Even if I just unplug my car... no idle fees

Certainly no idle fees if I park there with an ICE

There needs to be fines issued - just like for disabled spaces.

 

[Billbrown1982]

I've just had a flick through and I can't shake this feeling of dread that its all a trap. Look how much money the government make from petrol & diesel currently. The more involvement they have in the electric charging network, is there not more opportunity for them to take their slice of the pie?

Look at Tax. We all know that electric cars will be getting taxed in some way sooner rather than later to make up for the shortfall of people switching away from ICE vehicles.

There is no way that the same thing won't happen with "fuel"

 

[pgkevet]

I've just had a flick through and I can't shake this feeling of dread that its all a trap. Look how much money the government make from petrol & diesel currently. The more involvement they have in the electric charging network, is there not more opportunity for them to take their slice of the pie?

Look at Tax. We all know that electric cars will be getting taxed in some way sooner rather than later to make up for the shortfall of people switching away from ICE vehicles.

There is no way that the same thing won't happen with "fuel"

You neededn't worry about car tax. Gov has borrowed so much during Covid that they're going to snaffle loads back from you in both stealth and overt taxation anyway that the car costs will seem minor

 

[phil4]

There's two conflicting things when it comes to charging - parking and charging.

Would it be good to charge while I park? Yes, but equally I don't want that if there are massive penalty charges if I've finished charging. As suggested above, popping in low speed, non-penalty chargers into carparks is a good idea. Standardising them, so you either need to move, or be penalised, not so much fun.

 

[Billbrown1982]

There's two conflicting things when it comes to charging - parking and charging.

Would it be good to charge while I park? Yes, but equally I don't want that if there are massive penalty charges if I've finished charging. As suggested above, popping in low speed, non-penalty chargers into carparks is a good idea. Standardising them, so you either need to move, or be penalised, not so much fun.

Agree ... but then when you turn up to charge your car and all the stalls are full with people that are fully charged already but off doing their monthly shopping or just going for a walk or sitting outside chatting with their mates while your sitting there like a Lemon? Not fun...

its a double edged sword for sure.

 

[Yev000]

Look at Tax. We all know that electric cars will be getting taxed in some way sooner rather than later to make up for the shortfall of people switching away from ICE vehicles.

You can't tax electricity - That whole market is due for a disruption big time. It's litteray being disrupted by Tesla as wespeak (no, not by EVs).

If they introduce a Tax people will just fork out for Solar and lots of off the grid charging will appear. You'd have to make it illegal to generate private electicity.

There will be a bunch of other taxes though. They will get their pound of flesh.

Which is why ICE is doomed, customers will have to pay the fuel tax AND whatever else the gov dreams up. And people will vote for that too... win win.

 

[Alex987854]

So do you think SuperChargers should have contactless payment?

superchargers are not public charge points

 

[btc1k]

You can't tax electricity - That whole market is due for a disruption big time. It's litteray being disrupted by Tesla as wespeak (no, not by EVs).

If they introduce a Tax people will just fork out for Solar and lots of off the grid charging will appear. You'd have to make it illegal to generate private electicity.

There will be a bunch of other taxes though. They will get their pound of flesh.

Which is why ICE is doomed, customers will have to pay the fuel tax AND whatever else the gov dreams up. And people will vote for that too... win win.

There is tax on electricity? VAT at 5%

Longer term there will be road charging to recoup fuel duty.

 

[ACarneiro]

You can't tax electricity - That whole market is due for a disruption big time. It's litteray being disrupted by Tesla as wespeak (no, not by EVs).

If they introduce a Tax people will just fork out for Solar and lots of off the grid charging will appear. You'd have to make it illegal to generate private electicity.

There will be a bunch of other taxes though. They will get their pound of flesh.

Which is why ICE is doomed, customers will have to pay the fuel tax AND whatever else the gov dreams up. And people will vote for that too... win win.

It’ll be trivial to tax per mile, with checks every year on your MOT.

 

[btc1k]

It’ll be trivial to tax per mile, with checks every year on your MOT.

I'd think more likely road pricing via GPS modules and verified by ANPR network.

 

[ACarneiro]

That seems like and expensive way to do something that can be done cheaply on your MOT

 

[btc1k]

Since when have government done the cheap and easy way of anything?

In all seriousness, road pricing is likely to come via those methods because it allows for variations (such as higher tariffs for peak times or busy roads).

That way it can be sold as "reducing congestion" etc as opposed to just another form of taxation.

 

[Traguar]

way way to easy to "clock" any car so mot mileage is void as a revenue collection

 

[Drew57]

Agree ... but then when you turn up to charge your car and all the stalls are full with people that are fully charged already but off doing their monthly shopping or just going for a walk....

Tesco the other day had 2PHEVs pugged in with post lights denoting the charge had completed and two ICE cars. All four bays used.

Most times there are several ICEs as the white paint markings around the bays & text 'Electric Vehicle Charging Only' are now faded, filthy & almost impossible to see after only 6 months (multi storey so no rain to wash away).

I spoke to the store Manager who said it's the responsibility of the car park Management company. When I emailed them, guess who they said had responsibility....

 

[Yev000]

It’ll be trivial to tax per mile, with checks every year on your MOT.

Dunno why you mention MOT, you can avoid it entirely. But yes it would be trivial to tax miles driven. About as trivial as it would be to find £30 billion somewhere else.

 

[ACarneiro]

How do you avoid your MOT?

 

[geek1975]

How do you avoid your MOT?

By not keeping a new car more than 3 years.

It’s been over a decade since I last had to MOT a car.

 

[ACarneiro]

Ah, good point.
Although that would be easily remedied by requiring mileages to be submitted to the DVLA at change of ownership or something like that.
It’s an easily closeable loophole

 

[MrBadger]

Time and use pricing via a simple transponder would be relatively easy. Technology already exists and rollout would be fairly quick. It doesn't need to monitor everywhere. Monitoring traffic 'anonymously' with bluetooth is already done..

 

[Irata]

My thought with super chargers was... Ultimately, when public charging is equally rapid, everywhere, competitive pricing and just as easy to use - which is the goal - then what's so special about them anymore. I'll side step the edge case of free super charging.

My view was to make all DC chargers as good as Tesla super chargers, just plug in and it works. But other payment options will be needed, such as for hire cars.

There will be many business drivers who need a solution that gives the same benefits of a fuel card. Also, there won't just be cars charging, so we need to think about motorbikes, vans, etc. I do like that thought is going into accessibility.

My hope was they also have a long term vision, especially when defining the data fields.