Tritium to deliver 10,000 EV DC fast chargers to the UK by 2030

[WannabeOwner]

"UK charging network evyve has placed an order with DC fast charger maker Tritium for a whopping 10,000 EV DC fast chargers by 2030."

Sorry, no idea who Evyve is and whether this is significant, whether the DNO and Planners can get sites in place in time etc. but the headline number caught my eye

electrek.co article

 

[NewbieT]

Peel Group = they’ve got the money to do it if they want to.

 

[davidmc]

"UK charging network evyve has placed an order with DC fast charger maker Tritium for a whopping 10,000 EV DC fast chargers by 2030."

Sorry, no idea who Evyve is and whether this is significant, whether the DNO and Planners can get sites in place in time etc. but the headline number caught my eye

electrek.co article

That works out between now and the end of 2029 at roughly 4 installed a day (24/7/365).

28 a week.

They better get cracking then!

 

[doats1]

They could just invest in making our current infrastructure reliable. Otherwise we're going to have a few thousand more unreliable chargers.

 

[GRiLLA]

They seem to currently put single 75KW chargers in pub car parks

Evyve - Find Our EV Charge Stations

Our electric car charging stations are always located in safe, well-lit places with nearby amenities. Our network extends across the whole of the UK Contactless payment is standard on every EV charger we install.

evyve.co.uk

I'm not convinced this is a model that drivers really need, surely we want larger and faster charging hubs. I wonder if their business model is more about selling the service to the pub/retailer rather than making money from the drivers.

 

[phil4]

We need so many different ways to suit all sorts of requirements. People who charge from home want large charging hubs enroute to their destinations. People who can't charge at home want slower chargers in every carpark they ever use, supermarket, pub, gym, work, shops etc.
And there'll be many more use cases, street charging for those who park on the street for example.

Ideally we want chargers everywhere, and speed picked to match the dwell time of those parked there. But as stated above, they also need to sort out reliability.

 

[GRiLLA]

We need so many different ways to suit all sorts of requirements. People who charge from home want large charging hubs enroute to their destinations. People who can't charge at home want slower chargers in every carpark they ever use, supermarket, pub, gym, work, shops etc.
And there'll be many more use cases, street charging for those who park on the street for example.

Ideally we want chargers everywhere, and speed picked to match the dwell time of those parked there. But as stated above, they also need to sort out reliability.

I'm not sure I agree, for people that can't charge at home surely something like a petrol station with the fastest charging possible is the tried and tested formula. We already have all these petrol stations, better to reuse those sites rather than have a country full of abandoned infrastructure. Well maintained, safe and convenient, all things that a single charger in the back of a Green King pub won't ever be.

 

[Tony Hoyle]

They seem to currently put single 75KW chargers in pub car parks

Single chargers, so when it breaks the whole site is out of commission - and the pub landlord probably won't GAF just like hotels don't these days. IMO there's no future for the single charger model as it's a lot harder for them to reach any level of reliability.

 

[Smileysam]

Let me guess. Get a load of government cash and grants send it all to offshore accounts then mothball the plan.

Seems to be the English way at the minute.

 

[Type2]

I'm not sure I agree, for people that can't charge at home surely something like a petrol station with the fastest charging possible is the tried and tested formula.

But is it not the case that always charging on ultra fast chargers is not good for battery health and will lead to faster battery degradation? People who can’t charge at home will want to have access to slower chargers in order to minimise battery degradation.

 

[Adopado]

I wonder if their business model is more about selling the service to the pub/retailer rather than making money from the drivers.

In the current economic climate it would be hard to see pubs and retailers risking adding another cost to their business, even if in the hope of increasing future turnover.

 

[qwickshot]

They could just invest in making our current infrastructure reliable. Otherwise we're going to have a few thousand more unreliable chargers.

I was just about to mention that. The number of out of action tritium chargers I see out there is just staggering.

Sure they are getting fixed but they are breaking down at a staggering rate of knots.

 

[ACarneiro]

I was just about to mention that. The number of out of action tritium chargers I see out there is just staggering.

Sure they are getting fixed but they are breaking down at a staggering rate of knots.

I just don’t get it.
They’re mostly solid state devices with few, if any, moving parts (fans notwithstanding).
How can they break down so much?

 

[Tony Hoyle]

Rats, water ingress..

I suspect they don't break down any more than say a supercharger but the repairs take so long (if they happen at all) the impact on the network is magnified.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I'm not sure I agree, for people that can't charge at home surely something like a petrol station with the fastest charging possible is the tried and tested formula. We already have all these petrol stations, better to reuse those sites rather than have a country full of abandoned infrastructure. Well maintained, safe and convenient, all things that a single charger in the back of a Green King pub won't ever be.

I can see 40 minutes at a pub lunch being more enjoyable than 20 minutes at a petril station.

The charging hub is being done, so I don't see a problem with a company trying to do something else at scale. But 1 charger per location is asking for trouble.
At the very least, include a separate AC destination charger.

 

[WannabeOwner]

for people that can't charge at home surely something like a petrol station with the fastest charging possible is the tried and tested formula

But ... I would have to sit-and-wait for 20 minute at a petrol-station type location, whereas at a (slower) charging site I can go do something else for an hour or more.

Number of petrol stations in UK has fallen 36% since 2000 ... I agree that abandoning the sites seems nuts, and replacing pumps piecemeal with electric chargers will maintain income for such sites (as ownership of ICE declines), as has become the case in Norway (where planning where to fuel on an ICE trip is becoming a thing ) ... but I'm not sure that an individual ICE forecourt is likely to have sufficient power, whereas a Supermarket on / adjacent to an industrial estate most probably will.

the pub landlord probably won't GAF just like hotels don't these days

I don't think that would be the case for the likes of Greene King - their site managers have all sorts of initiatives to "fulfil", so I think they could be incentivised for "Charger uptime" (but "could" is the operative word of course)

pubs and retailers risking adding another cost to their business

I don't know how these things work, but might it be like outsourcing your car park to the likes of We Are Thieving Gits DOT COM to convert it to a source of car parking fee revenue? i.e. Evyve bear the cost of installing the chargers and Greene King get a percentage (higher or lower depending on if they pay for the juice presumably)

But 1 charger per location is asking for trouble.

If I was going somewhere and wanted to charge I'd want the charger to be available ... so pre-booking it would be fine, but I can't see that being the MO ! so fall back would be "a bank of chargers" to be reasonably sure of getting one - which doesn't look like its happening either ...

 

[GRiLLA]

But ... I would have to sit-and-wait for 20 minute at a petrol-station type location, whereas at a (slower) charging site I can go do something else for an hour or more.

20 mins at a staffed, secured and well maintained petrol station charger vs take your chances with the vandalised charger round the back of Hungry Horse ?

This already exists with BPs 50KW chargers, is that something you use a lot?

 

[imstitch]

I've seen a couple of chargers in Scotland that used to be 22kw (two AC connectors) converted into 25kw single CCS DC "fast chargers". IMO even 50KW shouldn't be called a fast charger, the cut off should be 100KW.

 

[Jason71]

Rats, water ingress..

I suspect they don't break down any more than say a supercharger but the repairs take so long (if they happen at all) the impact on the network is magnified.

I actually suspect they probably are worse than superchargers if only because they are more complicated.
Superchargers don't have a screen or any form of payment mechanism attached. In the main they also only have to work with one type of car so no incompatibility issues.
I am not even sure any form of network connectivity is required to initiate a charge on a supercharger just coms between the car and charger which, if correct, would eliminate another failure path given our shoddy mobile phone networks, but I may be wrong.
I would also be shocked if Tesla had not iterated the heck out of any unreliable components to make the SuC as reliable as possible and minimise service and down time. That would be a very Tesla thing to do.

The other thing that makes life easier for Tesla is that their chargers are grouped in large groups so less sites to maintain, that must help. Tesla has over 900 chargers in the UK but only about 90 sites. Instavolt I think has a similar number of chargers but they have over 400 sites to visit and maintain. That has to make it harder.

 

[WannabeOwner]

take your chances with the vandalised charger round the back of Hungry Horse ?

I'm going to be safely inside the pub ... having one-for-the-road

I am not even sure any form of network connectivity is required to initiate a charge on a supercharger just coms between the car and charger

I read somewhere (Forbes maybe ?) that 3rd party charging experience could be improved by:

Start the charge the moment you plug in, and allow say 60 seconds to complete identification / payment card / etc. etc.

If none of that happens (because of software integration, rather than fraud) then the user has gained a couple of miles to enable them to get to another, working!, charger.

If you complete the ID stuff then you have already saved some minutes (i.e. similar to Tesla experience)

They reckoned money-lost would be inconsequential compared to brand brownie-points.