Going electric (car)

[Stu]

In some of the isles I understand they are encouraging residents to buy electric motors as the county produces 105% of all electricity needs through renewables and have no way of storing the excess currently. huge storage batteries are being produced for this very purpose now though. They have improved capacity, lack of degradation and production costs of these batteries to a viable level. 

[simon13]

Makes perfect sense on islands. On Lewis they have a good network for charging, same on Orkney.

In the highlands we have a ring of brand new rapid chargers right around the coast, mabye 30 miles apart each. I'm not sure if the last few are operational yet as they are not on some of the compilation maps but I saw a local complaining about one in Scourie in my local paper as electric cars can "only travel 30 miles and take 12 hours to charge"... Or travel up to 350 miles and charge in 30 minutes (if you have the money)

The charge points are a bit like caravan chargers. You can still plug in with a 3 pin but you need a proper charger installed if you want faster (included with some cars and free in scotland if you have an electro car)

[ChrisSilver]

Waitrose have a lot of electric charging car park spaces, if you live locally to a waitress with a plug then you could effectively run your car from free electricity 

[simon13]

Hah, a waitress with a plug

[ChrisSilver]

Hah, a waitress with a plug

Opps, Autocorrect.

But soon restaurants will probably have plugs for your electric cars

[SoulUK]

I'm seeing them a lot at motorway service stations.  Are they free to charge. .?

[MickB]

Chiltern Railways have free to use chargers at most car parks. 

Wish they offered the same level of service with a free can full of petrol for my car;-)

[simon13]

Charges for charging vary all over the country. In Scotland most are pretty much free. Ecotricity Electric highway is free in England.

I'm of the opinion that free is too cheap. As adoption increases charges will be needed to make the use of the infrastructure more efficient.

[Stu]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35003829

 

i could be a convert to electric if gifted one of these.

[simon13]

Nice but not available until the end of the decade. Range and acceleration aren't even as good a top of the range tesla saloon you can buy today.

The 800v 15 minute charge sounds good but I suspect other companies will be doing much better than that by 2020.

Both my parents cars are coming to the end of their leases and he is actually considering an electric for his commuting workhorse.